So when are you going to buy that 737-200 ?

Congrats! I heard SWA is looking for a couple of 737 pilots that know which airport is which.

that's what the iPad is for...

that wrong-airport landing was the evening before we started the 3 week course.

Well done!

Way to go guys. That's really cool.
Typed in a 737. Now what? We're all curious.

Ok, Ted, you are officially having too much fun. First you get an Eclipse. Then you get an L-39. Then you get a 737 type rating. That's just not fair. You need to, like, go do some work or something.

Very cool!

Congrats!

Mike

It would sure be nice to get a write up on you guy's experience with the 737 Type. What were your impressions? Instructors, simulator? Would love to hear it.

I will give you my side of the story, and then Marcus can share his!

We chose the 'home study option,' which saved us a lot of money but required us to do 40 hours of computer based training (a counter kept track of how much time you spent on each module) and basically know everything when you showed up. I was unable to complete this due to business constraints and I was really sweating it when I showed up. We were expected to take an entrance exam when we arrived, which required an 80% score to continue the training. Marcus and I rolled in at 7AM the first morning and met our third sim partner, a guy they had paired us with the last minute. He had flash cards out (which he had made himself) and was quizzing himself. All the sudden, I felt extremely unprepared.

Well, we went into the exam (multiple choice) and all three scored in the high 90s. I finished the computer training by leaving the modules running in the background while I answered emails. The program was really annoying because it was possible to get through it in 6 hours, but you had to let it count 40. We spent a couple days reviewing systems, then got into the sim. First it was not on motion. Marcus and I were the class clowns "Stripper Clipper 1 cleared for takeoff!" as we were trying to make this fun, while our third sim partner (retired Air Force A-10 pilot) was taking notes, shaking and sweating while he was in the left seat. He was a great guy, but had never flown a civilian aircraft at all, so there was a learning curve with procedures. Marcus and I had a learning curve as well, because we are both so used to flying single pilot that we both wanted to do EVERYTHING. One of the FAA's big hot buttons at the moment is CRM, so we tried to put extra emphasis on that.

I found the sim very easy to fly. I had a great relationship with both instructors and enjoyed working with them. On the other hand, Marcus and our other sim partner seemed to have a way of really pissing off our instructors and they were screamed at for some pretty ridiculous things. I spent a lot of time laughing about this from the right seat. Especially once when Marcus was completely correct about something, but he instructor screamed at and scolded him for a solid 15 minutes before saying 'oh, okay you were right. my mistake.' HAHA! It was so entertaining that I actually FaceTimed a couple friends so they could hear and watch.

Checkride day came with one problem. Our examiner was not current, and had to have one of the check rides he was conducting be supervised by the FAA. I was voted as the lucky guy to go through this. These places have a reputation of being a type rating factory so this examiner was extremely difficult on me both in the oral and the sim. I sat in on the other guys' oral and it was night and day difference. Theirs was enjoyable whereas mine was definitely not. The sim portion was the same. I had a sadistic examiner who pushed me about 3 times as hard as we had been told to expect. He kept trying to get me to fail, instead of dressing the ride for success. He eventually caught me on a technicality, but I passed. For instance, when we debriefed the ride with the FAA inspectors still present, he went on for 30 minutes about my steep turns. They were rock solid at 250 knots, 360 degrees each direction. The altimeter did not move until I rolled out of the last one and I ballooned up 25 feet. ATP standards are 100 feet. "You were well within standards, but remember to ease the back pressure, blah blah blah." My response, "Well if it was well within standards, why the hell are we talking about it?" It was like he 'had' to find something to critique me on. Super nice guys outside of the checkride, though.

Overall, it was a great experience. The operation could have been a bit more professional, but I believe we got everything we paid for plus some! Marcus and I also could have taken it a lot more seriously, but we were there to have fun which meant screwing off a bit. I wish we would have done it in Miami as the city of Vegas was pretty rough on me. Otherwise, I highly recommend it for anyone looking to add a rating, get their ATP, or just learn something new.

(I will apologize for any errors as I don't have time to proofread this!)

Interesting, I figured you guys would have some horror stories with the sim. Glad you didn't though. As far as the FAA observations, those are a dog and pony show at best. Sounds like you are pretty laid back and confident in your abilities, so that makes you the perfect candidate for an observation. I'm sure they saw that in you or they just didn't care, which wouldn't be good, but possible. The examiner always has to critique you on something and if the roll out on the steep turn was all they had to say, then you must've done a hell of a job, congrats.

It was pretty much as Ted outlined, with one caveat: Ted got to leave each day at the end of hour 4, and we went back in for 2 more hours. It was too long for anyone to be in the sim, instructor included.

The airplane is not that complex if you already have experience in a Duke/Eclipse/KingAir or other aircraft of similar or larger size. The Computer Based training is useless, but you have to 'check the box'.

Sure, there were many crashes of the simulator motion system, we lost visuals a few times. these are 35 year old computers, in their original form!

The SP-77 A/P is a POS. Miami has the better A/P on their sim.. Other than that it's just another airplane with different speeds and a little more thrust.

We got a lot of grief from the instructor for standard calls. including calling up the correct checklist on the QRH.. Or getting ahead on checklists.

The whole class is very doable if you fly often, and can adapt to different aircraft systems.

On the exams, Ted got the short straw. The other 2 of us were also applying for the ATP and didn't want a flurry of 'written' questions from 2-3 months ago to come up on the oral. Oral started with the examiner walking in on us studying and drawing out the system diagrams, about 20-30 minutes of that got us cleared from the limitations/buttonology part and proceeded to a 3 hour conversation about the systems, advanced troubleshooting, etc. It was painless.

Same applied to the Checkride, we flew the airplane thru the required maneuvers quickly, then did a lot of very challenging airwork with the extra sim-time we had left and walked away with more knowledge/skills than before the ride started.

Developing good cockpit chemistry is so much more than CRM as the flight school teaches. Your F/O should know what you want him to do, and be ready for it instead of a drone waiting to receive orders. After >60 hours together, we were a team, every last move was well rehearsed.

Ted almost got screwed by a last minute switch.. our instructor got scheduled in my place to serve as his checkride F/O and he was more than a bit rusty!

If anyone is considering this rating, I would recommend taking it in Miami, I'll run down there and help you with any challenges you run into.

Fell free to PM me for a call to address any specific question you may have.

Very cool guys!

A few quick questions: how many days were you actually in Vegas? Did you have weekends off or was is straight through?

If this was your first jet type ratings do you have "soe required" on your ticket, or does that only apply to single pilot ratings? I'd imagine it's pretty hard to get 25 or so hours of 737 time!

I'd love to do this... But I don't think being away from the family for that many days is in the cards at the moment. I am going to try and get my ATP before the deadline this summer though.

Robert

Robert,

you only need to get the written in by the summer. you'll still be able to take the checkride later. (this is my reading of the new rules creating a prerequisite course for endorsement to take the written exam)

The course was originally scheduled to take 14 days exactly, including the checkride. But with the addition of a 3rd training partner, and scheduling issues to get the FAA over there to oversee the examiner with expired credentials, it turned into a 19 day trip.

The B737 TC requires 2 crew members, but this is a PIC Type. In part 121 flying, you're required to accumulate 1,000 hours of Part 121 right seat experience before upgrading the the left.