An Overview of FO to CPT

During the course I made some notes and decided to write them up here, along with some
practical info on hotels/logistics, to give you a better idea of what lies ahead. It goes without
saying that all the information contained below is possibly inaccurate, out of date or
just outright crap. Your mileage may vary.

Admin
You’ll receive a few emails from the company prior to command course.
- Current Base Captain/Command Administration - confirmation you’ve been signed off by the
CRB after review of your training file and COAS.
- Command Administration - confirmation of your course date and command base allocation.
- Crew Training or Command Administration - provisional date commencing as captain on new
contract and roster group (subject to passing the line check after line training.
- Command Administration - summary of the process. Details on pre-course study, mostly OMA
study points such as responsibilities, FTLs, security procedures etc. Gives dress code; smart
casual, no uniform needed, inluding final LOE. Stipulates requirement to take training file to all
events and drop it off in a crew room at the end of line training.
- HR Service Centre - captain contract to be signed and returned by deadline. Also requirement
to confirm bank details on intranet.

Roster
You’ll be rostered with your sim partner (should be the same throughout the training) and the
names of your instructors/examiners for the simulator events. Here’s what ours looked like,
though it might not be exactly the same structure for you. Note: the sim in green was a training
contactable at publication, and was subsequently changed to sim to allow extra items to be
completed.

Ground Phase
Day 1 is a Command Leadership Day at Luton Academy:
- Group introductions
- Issued with sim cards and captains’ phones.
- Presentation on the command course and its purpose; focus on non-techs and failure
management.
- Facilitated discussion on cooperation, leadership & workload management, S.A. and decision
making.
- Discussed examples of good/bad qualities and leadership, human factors, ego states, various
accidents and how non-techs played a major part. Very easy going and open floor for ideas and
talking points.
- Told in no uncertain terms that we're should start thinking like a captain from TODAY!
Talks/discussions from:
- James Goring (head of Flight Ops and Command Training), welcome and general advice, open
door policy with regards to questions and concerns.
- Emma Staines (head cabin crew training/standards), open floor for asking about procedures,
what is expected on both sides of the cockpit door etc.
- Andy Hall (finance team), on the business model and how the company functions.
Finally a tour of OCC in Luton for the last few hours of the day, then taxi from Luton with the
group to the Crown Plaza.

Days 2 and 3 are Command Ground School. These 2 days were focussed more on skills that will
be needed as a captain. Here’s rough/incomplete list of items I remember being covered:
- How the new role affects your capacity and it's link to TEM
- How your leadership and decision making will be much bigger parts of your day
- Communication skills, PAs, passenger management.
- Lots of specific scenarios (accidents/events) for discussion.
- Some technical knowledge coming in to play, but focus on decision making models, non-techs
and management.
- ASRs and the Safety Management System, and its importance in the role of identifying risk.
Read the SMS doc beforehand if you get chance, it's in DocuNet, chapter 7 is a good place to
start.
- Also the documents shown below will be useful to read beforehand.

Simulator Phase
I wont go over the specific sequence of events as they can be found in Part DF - Appendix G -
Section G.3. Needless to say, as with all the sims it is quite full on, with little time between
exercises to re-adjust and recompose so be prepared for that. For example right after a stressful
complex failure you may be immediately repositioned for crosswind landings or an autoland; be
prepared to take a deep breath and move on pretty quick. There seems to be a focus on ensuring
the 'How' and the 'Threats' are considered carefully and briefed correctly, especially in time
critical situations where the rest of the brief may be abbreviated.

FFS 1
In the brief you’ll have to talk through a VOR approach, familiarity with OMB 2.3.18.3.2/3 for
managed/selected non-precision approaches. A relaxed training atmosphere was established by
instructor in our case, as with all these events subject to your instructor and their style! Lots of
practise at landings (no idea how our sim was still serviceable after mine), narrow runways and
TOGA 10s. RTOs, EFATOs and SE landings.

FFS 2
Introduction to LVPs, departure only today. Perhaps good to be comfortable with locating
relevant info:
- QRH overview of Low Vis procedures (Supp Proc SI-20)
- Airport RVR/lighting required for takeoff (LIDO AOI)
- OMA All weather operations (OMA 8.4)
- OMB LVO Considerations (OMB 2.3.18.3.1.1)

Also engine failure work. In this sim you'll have a time pressured event requiring careful but
efficient application of ECAM/QRH/DODAR etc.

FFS 3
Complex failure. Will be one of the events detailed in the Part DF per person. Run through the
scenarios beforehand with sim partner + ECAM trainer + QRH, and consider who will be PF/PM
(e.g. how the Emergency Electrical config makes it difficult for CM2 to be PF) and how you will
prioritise tasks.

More LVPS, this time bringing in RTOs, evacuation and more EFATOs. Familiarity with LVO ops
(OMB 2.3.18.3.1.1), particulars of the Alert Height and Autoland Red Light (FCOM DSC 22-30-
80-30-10) and FCTM (NO-160 Precision approach) and FCOM (PRO NOR SRP 01 FMS
Approach).

RNAV Visual approaches into Mykonos and La Palma. Charts are available on the intranet if you
don't have the LIDO/mPilot app.

FFS 4+5
LPC/OPC plus training items. See the brief on the intranet for more general info (Connected
Portal - Notices - View All - View all again - Pilot training - Recurrent).
My LOFT items: lower SD display failure (consider ECAM transfer to PM ND), loss AC Bus 1+2
and APU inop (emergency elec).

FFS 6
LOE. You and sim partner will arrive at the sim centre to meet your instructor and your normal
line FO rostered from Gatwick. Pot luck who you get of course, though if you’re fortunate it will
be a 'sandbag volunteer' who does sims regularly. Your sim is rostered as 4 hours, though you’ll
only be doing your LOE for 2 of those. Whether you observe your partner's LOE is up to the
instructor, but I found it useful to watch my partner’s after mine was complete.

Our LOE events: CDL for Nacelle strake (don't forget that Vapp increment when the workload
shoots up on the approach!), cockpit window inner ply crack (QRH isn't very clear on delta PSI,
read carefully), slats fault on selection of flap 1, burst tire on takeoff, engine vibration at or above
6 units. Other events we heard of were sidestick faults, combinations of slats/flaps WTB, and
engine failures just below acceleration altitude, but check the command development page for
other peoples' recent sim experiences.

After finishing the LOE event you have to wait for the debrief whereupon you’re told yes or no. If
yes, you’re positioned back home before line training, if no your training file and progress is
reviewed to establish what is required before retaking the LOE.
Misc, Hints and Tips for the Command Course

Having a QRH (ABN/PER/OPS/SI sections area all you really need) printed and spiral
bound is well worth the cost. You’ll use a QRH so often during your ground phase that
having a physical copy not only quicker to use but (for me at least!) helps familiarise with
the contents better. You can find the QRH for TL/TA on the intranet: Documents/Pilot
Training Documents/Training Standards/Sim Training Resource/Sim Training.

Most have a tablet, if you don't, get one! Having all the documents, guidance material,
charts and an ECAM trainer is invaluable. I did have an android one and eventually sold it
as the LIDO charts/Enroute and SafetyNet are only available on the iPad. I'm not an Apple
fanboy but the iPad Pro 10.5 with the keyboard cover is the sweet spot for screen size,
useability and compact design. I can't recommend it enough.

Become very familiar with navigating the manuals on DocuNet by chapter. When
studying, try to use the search function sparingly. It helps enormously to have a rough
working knowledge of where to find key information and I found the best way was
practise, albeit frustrating sometimes!

It's impossibly to know exactly where every piece of information and manual reference is
located, especially since a lot of the documents reside on the intranet in the ‘documents’
and ’training’ section. I bought an A5 size address book for noting easily forgettable
manual/chapter references, numbers and technical bits-and-bobs. For example: reminders
and references for GPWS terrain colours/meaning, wake turbulence separation, height
limit on windshear operation, contamination check, statistical contingency info, loading
policy, equipment for RNAV, max instrument discrepancies etc etc. It’s not for everyone of
course, but it helped me.
 If you're the sporty type, they have a half decent gym downstairs with treadmills, free
weights etc. There's air con too.

Next door to the gym is the "crew room" where you can bring your own food and drink.
Microwave available. Get a bottle of gin and tonic water from the supermarket, ice from
the bar, glasses from the room and you've got yourself a party ;)

Be aware that the bar staff will apply a 20% service charge to bar orders (drinks and food),
effectively negating your 20% Easyjet discount. I asked for it to be removed and left a
couple of quid on the table when I ate, they didn't seem too unhappy about this! Who
tips the bar staff 20% every time they order a pint?!

Crawley restaurants/pubs I would recommend. Blue India: the Shatkari curry is really
excellent if you like something with a kick. Turtle Bay: Jamaican food, the jerk
chicken+cold draft beer is the perfect antidote to sim stress. Nandos: they do take-away
for when you want something that isn't fried/fatty/carb heavy. The half
chicken+corn+spicy rice is a real treat! The Bolney Stage: a picturesque "free-house" pub
located between Burgess Hill and the Crown Plaza. Beer garden if it's sunny out, but
requires a car to get to.

Laundry: very expensive at the hotel. "Western Launderettes" is 10 minutes walk away.
The machines only accept 20 pence and the old style pound coins though and don't give
change. Shop next door sells detergent.

Hotel breakfast: there's an actual breakfast menu with omelettes/poached

haddock/kippers/eggs made to order which is quite good... the full English gets sickly after
a week or two! Equally they don't mind if you take the pot of coffee back to youor room
for later on for when you're struggling through the first hour of post-breakfast study!

Make notes on the last few years of training reports, and/or personal experiences and
observations, to highlight areas you should to focus on. Don't be making the same
mistakes twice, there isn't the time!

Claim manually for your nightstops on which there was no training duty but you were still
in the hotel. The system doesn’t pick these up automatically.

Line Training
After you’ve completed the LOE you’ll be sent home for a few days to celebrate, sleep and
decompress! You should already have your line training scheduled for the following week. You
may be shipped around the network for this, though if you’re lucky you may see some
consistency in basings and instructors!

The rough schedule is as follows:

16 sectors line training, with the training captain in the right seat (rostered with code ‘b’).
2 sectors aircraft competency check with training captain in the right seat (rostered with code
‘k’).
6 sectors observation with training captain on the jumpseat (rostered with code ‘a’).
2 sectors line check with training captain on the jumpseat (rostered with code ‘c’).

(For all the roster codes and their meanings see the Easyjet Documents: Documents/Pilot Training
Docs/Training Standards/Useful Documents/Airbus Training Admin Guide/Page 21.)

You don’t sign the OFP/Tech Log/Loadsheet until you’ve passed your aircraft competency check.
You aren’t being paid as a Captain until you’ve passed your line check.

Once you’ve passed the line check, breath a sigh of relief and start the countdown to your next 6
monthly sim! You’ll be officially given 2 consecutive days to transfer (rostered with the codes
'BFER' and ‘TFER’), though I was given a couple of days off after the transfer days.

Final Thoughts … (Ready with the pinch of salt?)

The course is difficult (for the most of us mere mortals!), but try to enjoy the better moments and
find time to get out of your hotel room and away from the books once in a while.

Keep thorough notes on the briefs/debriefs. Read your training reports from the last few years to
remind yourself of your strengths and weaknesses.

The way core non-tech/technical competencies assessed should be consistent between all
trainers, if not this should be raised with training standards. However it's possible that some of
the finer debrief points/advice MAY be slightly contradictory from one instructor to the next.
What can be especially frustrating is when you try to eagerly apply this advice only to be met
with disapproval or contrary advice by the next instructor. In hindsight I could have avoided
much frustration if I had focused more on doing what I know works, what I know I'm
comfortable with and what I would do in real life, rather than trying to 'play the game' and
getting it wrong. Apply learning points judiciously and don't ‘overcorrect’ trying to tick boxes
and appease.

If you're falling behind or need an extra sim for development/repeats, try not to be concerned.
Easier said than done but do speak to someone about it, be it your friends and colleagues,
instructors or even higher up. My experience: I had a below average sim 2 and struggled to
maintain/catch up on sim 3. I received an email the next day from JG asking for a chat
(GULP!), however he was actually very supportive, positive and made it clear that the suggestion
of an extra sim is not a failure, but rather a useful tool to make sure you pass that LOE first time.
There is of course a pragmatic reason: they've invested a lot of time and money to get you this
far, so within reason they'll do what they can to make sure you get to that LOE as well prepared
as possible. They're not trying to recruit just the aces and future training captains; they want a
safe, trustworthy, individual with good non-techs.

Take a good look at FTLs, the Tech Log, parking on stand, signing the Loading Form (search/tidy?)
etc ahead of time. You don’t want to be figuring out these relatively straight forward items during
your command course or line training, you’ll already have a lot to think about.

As an FO, get ahead of the game and ask captains for advice and tips. So many captains have
great advice to offer (and the some of the best ones won’t offer it unsolicited!) so put yourself out
there and get a conversation going. I have words of wisdom and advice that still rebound around
my tiny brain on any given day, one or two have saved me great embarrassment over the course
of training/line flying.

Enjoy the course,

DS.