Hello, and welcome to the inaugural article “Top Five Tips for Transitioning to an Airline,” under the new Lessons From the Line column. As a way of quick introduction, we, the authors of this column (Richard, Andrew, and Jolanda) have flown at the regionals and majors, domestically and internationally, in the right and left seats, Airbus and Boeing, civilian and military, and have flight instructed, served as line check pilots, worked in pilot recruiting and interviewing, as well as racking up extensive volunteer experience as pilot union representatives.

We are also the authors of The Airline Transition Manual (www.airlinetransition.org)  – a complete guide to managing your airline career. Collectively we have a century’s worth of experience, and we have been graciously invited by the AirlineGeeks to share our thoughts and life lessons from the line with you.

In this first installment, we offer five tips, or recommendations if you will, to help smooth your transition into the airline industry and your new airline piloting career. So, without further ado: You have just received the phone call (or email perhaps) from an airline you recently interviewed with confirming your official status as a new hire pilot with them, and are being scheduled for new-hire pilot indoctrination and training.

Tip #1: Follow instructions.

Sounds intuitive, right? You would be surprised how many new-hire pilots merely glace at or skim over letters and email, and tune out the information given to them by various airline personnel and instructors. Read every communication thoroughly, strictly follow the instructions and guidance provided, and listen closely – especially to tasks and deadlines for completion, paperwork and document requests, and the many actions required by federal regulators as well as your new airline in order to get your new career literally off the ground.

Also, once you get to systems and aircraft training, do what your instructors tell you to do in order to be successful in the firehose-style of airline training. There are always one or two pilots in every class who make up their own program, quote online sources of information, recite downloaded gouges and seem to go out of their way not to comply with what is being not only asked of them, but actually supplied to them by the training department in order to ensure their success. It’s great to get advice and insight from friends, but it’s best to stick with official company handouts and manuals when it comes to training and testing.

Tip #2: Chair fly.

If this is a new term for you, learn it and assimilate it as a fundamental part of your airline training regimen as quickly as possible. Simply stated, chair flying is flight rehearsal. And you should do this as a matter of routine – in your bedroom, hotel room, study lounge, wherever you can sit as if in the flight deck, and methodically go through the entire flight, from engine start, to taxi-out, take-off, climb, cruise, landing, taxi-in and shut down.

Visualize the flight, talk through the procedures, and move your feet, fingers, and hands as you do so. This is not only an essential training technique of every professional pilot from NASA to the Blue Angels, but nearly every airline pilot you will encounter throughout your career. Further, you should endeavor to chair fly with your training partner. For every lesson and check event run though each checklist, practice the flows, make the callouts, simulate the profiles, and work through immediate action and emergency checklist items. Make this static version of a flight as detailed and authentic as you can. Chair fly, chair fly, chair fly. Every simulator session and early flight on the line will go infinitely more smoothly for you.

Tip #3: Stay focused.

Once the excitement of airline hiring and new pilot training starts to abate, and the weariness of training starts to creep in, you will have to remind yourself to stay engaged and remain dedicated to working through training. Moreover, when simulator sessions come to an end and the final checkride is complete is not the time to lose focus and start thinking about travel benefits – it’s actually time to double down on studying because initial operating experience (IOE) with a line check pilot (LCP) is coming up next with real passengers and cargo on board.

Keep up the chair flying, reviewing limitations, systems, the checklists, and now add airline, airport, and airspace procedures to it. Everything in the airline training pipeline happens fast – it happens even faster out on the line.

Tip #4: Plan early.

Being an airline pilot is unlike any other profession out there. As such, it takes a while to figure out and develop strategies and routines to deal with the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly chaos. However, planning (early and often) goes a long way to not only helping you internalize the job but also achieve work-life balance.

Everything from figuring out how you are going to commute to work (by car, air, or train?); where to park at the airport or which flights or lines to catch – especially if inclement weather is rolling in. How and when to bid a monthly flight schedule, what to do about carrying or finding food while you are out flying a four-day trip, bidding a monthly schedule, and keeping up with recurrent training (no, training never ends).

Renewing your first class medical certificate, setting up your first set of uniforms (and having items like shoes, socks, belt, etc. to go with them); then making sure everything is washed/dry-cleaned each week and ready to go again for the next trip. Also, do not forget to routinely verify that your flight kit has everything you need including crew ID, passport, certificates, company tablet, chargers, etc., and that your roller board is packed appropriately for the weather and environment you will be facing for each week’s round of trips. Also, always have a backup plan – for everything.

Tip #5: Know the contract.

Nearly every U.S. and North American airline pilot is a union member. This will likely be new to you unless you happen to come from an airline family or other unionized industry background. The document that governs your life on the line is the pilot contract. It is an agreement between the company and the pilot’s union on everything from pay and benefits to time-on and time-off. Once all initial training is over and you have caught your breath a bit, start looking at the contract on each trip and read the communications that come from your pilot group’s union representatives, which will help explain it.

Look for and review union documents on how reserve works, general work rules, monthly scheduling and vacation bidding, along with pay protections and provisions. Become familiar with the union structure and services, and get your local representatives’ contact information as soon as possible – and remember, if you have a personal or professional issue, we highly recommend that your first call or email be to your pilot group’s union; not your airline’s human resource department, not crew scheduling, and not your chief pilot’s office.

If you are going to be working for a non-union airline, you should still have access to peer support through your pilot group, and the same recommendation holds. Seek out these channels of information from pilot peers and use them as your first line of personal and professional support.

There, five tips to help your new career get off to a solid start.

If you would like more recommendations and a complete explanation on how the airline pilot profession works and how you can best manage it, pick up your physical or e-book copy of The Airline Transition Manual at www.airlinetransition.org. 

Also, be sure to look for our next articles “What to Expect on Day One at an Airline” and “How to Stand Out as a New Hire Pilot” in the coming months.

See you on the line,

Richard, Andrew & Jolanda