Ugh. It looks too much like my job to be interesting.
But interesting mug anyway! 
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Ok… Was hoping for better, but I’ll take ‘interesting’ 
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You’re simply not my type. I prefer longer hair. Maybe on the blond-ish side…
But we can be friends!
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You’d like me if my face wasn’t squashed by the 02 mask…
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Buy me a drink and let’s see… 
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This guy landed on the pole as I was driving home from work, nobody else on the road so I could stop to take the pic -
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Oh, I have the checkride. I actually wish it was a bit less of a box checking exercise though. We are so focused on getting all the required boxes checked that the training and checkride become rather formulaic. I think at times the Part 91 guys get more from their training as a result.
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I agree! This time in the sim was my first since our airline got ATQP (Alternative Training and Qualification Programme) approval. Now our training department can decide for themselves what our pilots need to know, and how to train them. No more single engine fixed card NDB with circling, just because some ancient proficiency check syllabus from the 50ies say so. Not that it’s not fun and all, but who does that, today?
We actually started with a 1:45 Line Oriented Evaluation where the instructor just played the ATC, Cabin and ground handling parts. We knew nothing of what lay ahead. Just the WX/NOTAM brief, departure and destination. Off you go!
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That’s an interesting problem with a AOC/MOE that you see these days, there’s not a singular standard to work up against, as long as you have your papers at the authorities you ought to be good to go. There’s a value in that but one wonders if certain things aren’t missed.
Ya’ don’t say. You know how many times I’ve flown the VOR or GPS to JFK 4L, circle to 31R because that was the only approach certified by the FAA for our sim? Let’s see…20 years x 1 training day x 1 checkride day + people showing me “their” way of doing it. Probably 60 times or more. Then double that because I have to see it from the right seat too.
135 training and checkrides are a horrible missed opportunity for some additional learning and focusing on things that matter. It has frustrated me to no end that we are trained to a template each year.
And we all know that It is unlikely for us to fly the VOR 4L with circle to 31R ant JFK as Part135/91 pilots. Meanwhile, we just lost two of our brethren flying the far more demanding ILS Rwy 6 with a circle to 1 at Teterboro. I don’t think I have ever flown a Teterboro approach in the sim. I have at home in VR though, which is probably just as valuable to be honest.
Exactly. It was explained to me that (at least in the case of the Ultra sim), that the FAA had to sign off on the specific procedures and visual representations of the checkride airports. Thus, for our sim, I think there are only a few airports in the database that qualify, and even fewer that qualify for certain approaches (circle to lands). I think our sim has JFK, White Plains, and some airport in Virginia that are “certified”. That is why the training days are so much more fun…we get to go to Aspen, Elko, etc…that are much more educational and fun. I’d rather train on stuff that will kill me rather than stuff that I’ll never see. I haven’t been to JFK in probably five years. But the circle to land at PDK at minimums, or a jammed control leaving BKL over the lake at night has real potential to harm you.
But we gotta check those boxes. Hand flown ILS breakout. TAWS demonstration. TCAS demonstration. Hand-flown ILS. Raw data approach. Holding. RNAV departure. Low vis taxi. Ugh. Same thing each year (twice a year of course).
They could just never wipe off this board and it would be nearly as pertinent today as it was 11 years ago when I took the pic…LOL…
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What could possibly go wrong…?
My wife and I are currently house hunting and I thought I would share our preferred option. We viewed it today and both fell in love instantly with it. It even has a 11th century ruined castle in the back garden 
Its in Northumberland National Park and has fantastic dark skies and is in the next valley to the Otterburn ranges
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That looks beautiful @Cib - one of the things I sometimes really miss about the UK is that gorgeous green farmland. The Pacific West Coast is nice is a different way, but there is something about those rolling hills…
Check out the village in the Doomsday book as well 
http://opendomesday.org/ Plus hasn’t that area got some of Hadrian’s Wall as well?
Never too late to leave work early. Except, I got home and the power is out!
@Cib that’s a nice looking place.
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