Training Together

There isn’t a lot of difference between the professional airline pilot’s attitude toward training and that of a general aviation pilot who is making the most of his skills for business or pleasure. This has been verified by the results of surveys on various topics done by aviation publications, and by the attendance at safety seminars. In short, general aviation as a whole takes its training seriously.

At the airlines, it is no different. Once a year we spend two days in a classroom reviewing the "static basics," as I call them, which include aircraft systems, our operations manual, and various operational problems that we don’t see a whole lot of but that we need to be familiar with. We also cover changes in procedures, practice handling the emergency exits, review airport security procedures—the list goes on and on. Most pilots put a fair amount of time into prepping for the recurrent exam. Not only are we quizzed in ground school and given an oral exam, we also get two days of simulator time, and in order to benefit from the time in the box, we need to be as thoroughly prepared as possible.

It used to be that we only received a single visit to the sim, but that is no longer the case. Under the FAA’s advanced qualification program (AQP), we now have two sim visits. The first one is pretty much a two-hour fun session, meaning that we spend time getting used to flying in a sim again, practicing some unusual attitudes, doing various emergency procedures, and reviewing only a couple of "first look" items that are considered pass/fail events. It is logged as a training session, not as a checkride.

Because of that, I decided to really make the most of it this year—I brought my wife along. I figured that it was going to be a great opportunity for her to see just what it is that I do for a living. Like most people, she does not really know what goes on behind the closed cockpit door, and she does not really know the amount of training and work that goes into making a flight and flight crew safe. I wanted to give her a chance to see how a flight crew can act as a team with the instructor, with the flight attendant (played by the instructor), and with the resources on the ground. In short, I wanted her to see me put together all the "stuff" that she has seen me read, memorize, review, and practice in the weeks leading up to my ride. She would have an opportunity to see just how safe aviation really is.

In a two-hour time block, she got to see hand-flown and coupled ILS ap-proaches down to minimums, missed approaches, V1 cuts, engine-out procedures, fires, no-flap landings, dual engine flameouts, etc. In a sim with full day and night visual capabilities, she was able to see things as they would actually look from an airplane. She got to see a crew do more than just tell stories and drink sodas. And, as the lesson went on, our instructor did a great job of letting her know what was coming up and what to look for. While the instructor did allow a little bit of joking around and storytelling, he also made sure that my wife saw just how seriously we take our job.

As if that were not enough, she got to log almost an hour of jet time. The crew prior to us finished 30 minutes early, so my instructor offered to boot up the sim and let my wife fly before we did. At the end, we finished with enough time to let her fly the sim for almost another 30 minutes. What better way to introduce someone to the controls of an airplane for the first time than in a simulator, where there are no consequences for making a mistake? After all, she got the look and feel of how the airplane flies, including such little details as the bumps on the runway as it takes off and lands. Because of the marvels of sim technology, she was able to try her hand at the four fundamentals and do several takeoffs and landings.

Normally, all of this might not be so significant. But my wife, for all the airline flying that she has done, does not find herself a fan of small airplanes. Prior to this, I had yet to be able to convince her that it is OK for her to assume control of the airplane, and I had never tried to push it. But in this environment, where she got to see how flying is done by professionals, and where she did not have to worry about other traffic or the fear of flying for real, she was able to absorb a tremendous amount of information just by watching, and she was able to have an opportunity to fly at the controls, and really, truly enjoy it. As a result, the next time we flew a Cessna 172, she was much less hesitant to take control, and wound up doing several unassisted takeoffs and landings.

Looking back, I am not sure who really got more out of this. It meant a lot for me to have her get a true look at what my hobby entails, that it isn’t all straight and level, and that surprises can and will occur—but she learned that they will be dealt with in a safe manner. It meant even more to me that she was able to gain a new respect and comfort level with aviation, particularly general aviation. And it was a real kick in the pants for me to watch her fly and enjoy it.

I have since decided that as a result of this, I am going to try to take someone along into the sim whenever I can. My dad is a private pilot who would love to see something like this, and someday I would like to take my kids along, so that they can understand what happens when their father is away 14 days a month. And I encourage you to do the same. Take along your significant other when you do any type of training. Let them sit in on the oral portion of your flight reviews, then give them a quality headset to use when sitting in the back seat during the flight, and encourage them to watch and ask questions. If you have a spouse or a child or a friend who is not completely comfortable flying, this controlled environment just may be the way to start opening the door for them.

Of course, you take the chance that they will come away from it all with the same comment that my wife made: "You have way too much fun. You should try my job for a day…and when can I do it again?"

Charles E. Wright, AOPA 1086994, of Arnold, Maryland, is a commercial airline pilot and freelance writer.