How to succeed in your first type rating

Seven tips to help you smash your first type rating in Australia

First of all, congratulations! If you’re about to commence your first type rating it’s likely that you have come a long way with your pilot licenses, instrument rating, and most likely also ATPL exams.

You are undoubtedly proud of your past achievements as well as having been offered this job. You are anticipating the new adventure, but at the same time you are aware that if a company is ready to invest upwards of $30k into your training (not only the training itself, but also travel, accommodation and training salary) you know they will be expecting a lot in return. This means that if you show up to day 1 empty handed and without some prior preparation, you’ve already made the first mistake. Remember the 6 P’s you learned in PPL training?

If you think about it, ATPL exams are an essential cog in the machine. Although many people are taken aback by having to learn outdated 767 systems and 727 performance charts, they are a right of passage that proves to your prospective employer that the $30k won’t be wasted on you, because you have the ability to study, understand and memorise concepts and numbers, and do basic math.

And from a selfish point of view, you’ve just quit your previous job and are fully invested in this type rating, so you want to walk into this training confident that you can pull it off. Your ATPL exams to a certain extent prove that – to yourself and to your employer.

What can I expect from the type rating training?

Including company induction and emergency procedures (2-3 weeks), technical ground school (2 weeks), and simulators (1-2 weeks), you can expect up to eight weeks of full time training.

You’ll normally be put up in a hotel or other type of company provided accommodation. Either breakfast or all meals will be provided. Your bedroom will have a study desk, and laundry facilities will also be available.

Assuming you are working for a P121 airline, after the type rating, you’ll be jump-seating a few sectors (aka. observation flights) before starting line training. Once you commence line training, you’ll be conducting normal RPT operations with passengers but you’ll be flying with a line training Captain instead of a regular Captain until you’re assessed fully competent.

The six P’s

Firstly, your IFR procedures need to be solid well before you show up to day one of groundschool. You will be expected to have 1) a solid instrument scan and instrument flying accuracy, and 2) a solid knowledge of IFR procedures. Your instructors will be investing all of their time and energy into teaching you how to operate the particular type, and don’t have the time to fix your basic ILS technique, teach you how to fly a DME arc, or address your somewhat agricultural IFR radio calls. These are things that you can’t prepare for in the 7 days before groundschool starts, but rather you’d have consolidated those skills by having a positive approach in your everyday flying.

If your GA employer allowed you to use the synthetic trainer for 1h per month, like many companies do, and you didn’t take advantage of it then that’s too bad.

The type rating test is basically an IFR flight test on steroids, mixed with all sorts of emergency procedures, so the last thing you want to be is caught out desperately searching for information on your approach chart.

1. Prior Study

It’s essential that you do a certain amount of prior study. Fortunately nowadays it’s easy enough to get your hands on a PDF. Find someone who can send you at least the limitations section of the AOM/FCOM and write them onto study cards. Memorising those now will allow you to spend more time revising the aeroplane systems later on. After class you’ll have to revise the material taught on the day, do homework, and prepare for the progress exams – without any extra time accounted for to memorise airspeeds and weights.

As an added bonus of writing out the cards, you’ll have memorised half the items by the time you’ve finished making them!

I don’t recommend reading up on any systems before groundschool. That’s what the teachers are there for. Study limitations and if you can do even more, study the emergency memory items (aka Phase 1 actions) and read SOP’s.

2. Logistics

Taking a moment to plan out a few things, such as comforts (coffee, etc) and personal grooming (toiletries, laundry, ironing) before the course starts will give you more time to focus on study once things ramp up.

Packing list:

· Study cards for your memory items (white for limitations and pink for emergencies).
· Two A4 notebooks. Page tabs. Highlighters.
· 3M Command velcro picture hanging strips (for your cockpit posters).
· Electrical power strip. HDMI cable.
· Laptop and iPad.
· Travel mug, water bottle.
· Fridge thermometer (Bar fridges are terrible and without a thermometer your coffee milk will end up either frozen or off).
· Swimming and gym gear.

Supermarket trip on arrival:

· Laundry powder. Toiletries.
· Coffee & Tea supplies. Snacks.
· Dishmatic. Dish detergent. Disposable surface wipes.

Set up your hotel address (including room number) in your Amazon Prime account, you will probably be ordering a few things if you’re far from home, and nothing beats the convenience and time saving of Amazon next day delivery.

3. The paper tiger

Set up a “Paper Tiger” in your room to practice your flows and emergency actions. Purchase the posters online or print them yourself at Officeworks (size A0 and laminated). Either way they will cost around $100. Use 3M Command velcro stickers, this ensures you don’t damage the wall or the poster. The poster-side of the velcro can stay attached indefinitely even after relocation.

As your sim date approaches, spending an increasing amount of time every day practicing flows will make your sims oh-so much easier, since you’ll be able to focus all your time and efforts into the exercise at hand as opposed to having long pauses trying to figure out the basics.

You can purchase good quality cockpit posters from www.avsoft.com.

Beware if the training provider says they’ll provide you a poster for free, as it will probably be much smaller and not as useful.

4. Understand the QRH

After the systems course, reading the entire QRH and understanding why the procedures tell you to do things, will deepen your understanding of the aircraft and its systems. Another way of looking at the problem and deepening your understanding is going through each warning light and analysing “if this light is illuminated, what’s actually happening?” – “Does this light indicate that the switch is on, that the system is on, that the switch is off, that the system is off, or that the system has failed?”

To be able to follow the QRH in a simulated or actual emergency you can’t be looking at the QRH page for the first time ever, because you’ll waste too much time interpreting. Knowing where to find the tables and other data that corresponds to a particular QRH procedure will be beneficial also.

5. Be fluent in failure management

Standard failure management

Whether your company has a standard failure management system or not, you should have a system to go beyond the memory items and QRH. Example of a sound failure management system:

· Identify failure
· Memory items
· Check performance
· Check circuit breakers
· Emergency checklist (red)
· Abnormal checklist (yellow)
· Talk to the ground (ATS, company)
· Talk to the back (FA, PAX)
· Divert or continue
· Normal checklist (white)

Before any failure management can begin, the flight path of the aeroplane must be assessed, understood and maintained. This must be continued throughout the process.

The PF maintains a safe and appropriate flight path, and only calls for the appropriate failure management when he/she is ready and able to be slightly distracted from the primary task of flying the aeroplane.

“It is of the utmost importance that the aeroplane is being actively flown by one pilot whilst the other pilot conducts the failure management actions.”

Once the process is finished, it is important that the PF bring the PM back into the loop as to the flight path and position of the aeroplane in time and space. Some failure management will have the PM completely distracted for a period of time, and when they “come back”, it is helpful to give a good explanation as to where you now are etc. so they can rebuild their mental model and improve their situational awareness.

Decision making models

Beyond the basic failure management system above, which deals with “standard” emergencies that are practiced in the sim, there are aviation decision making models to help you deal with more complex situations. There are a range of possible mnemonics, but they boil down to the following:

· Diagnose what the problem is
· Generate options
· Decide on the best course of action
· Delegate duties, communicate with stakeholders
· Review and re-assess

6. Minimise distractions

Don’t start planning weekend trips as soon as the groundschool teacher says you’ll be finishing at midday on Friday. Don’t commute home to see your family. Make it clear to everyone that you will not be taking on any admin work during your type rating. Commit everything to the course. As you progress through the different stages of groundschool and sims, you’ll need that time off to prepare and rest… Don’t forget to rest!

In any case, any social interactions and pub visits will be with your class, who will be your best friends for the duration – see below.

7. Be a team player

The people in your course will be your family for 6-8 weeks. Get along with everyone and make an effort to help out anyone who is struggling with any particular phase. Lift each other up at every opportunity, and freely share all information between each other. If you think you’re really good at taking notes or summarising chapters, share your work! If you have access to the study materials for next week’s content, share it with your mates.

Especially when the time comes to have a buddy assigned for sim training, their success will be your success. You’ll be studying together and practicing the sequences on the paper tiger before every sim session, and quizzing each other on the memory items. In the sim, you will support each other and learn from each other’s mistakes.

Enjoy

Everyone around you including the examiner wants you to succeed in the course. Airlines don’t hire 12 guys planning that only 10 will pass. That would be a waste of resources. They want everyone to succeed, or they wouldn’t have given you the seat.

Prior to each exam, groundschool teachers always revise the essential material with the class, ensuring everyone is confident. Before each sim, you will know exactly what you’ll be practicing on the day, and will be able to spend time preparing with your sim buddy. Before the rating test, you’ll know almost exactly what is going to be tested and in what order. The examiner is not there to trick you or catch you out, he’s just there to confirm that you can put it all together.

Good luck!

This article was written by David Roses in February 2022. The content is not sponsored by any interested parties.