Proficiency Check

Sunday was my proficiency check.  Every six months we have a pc for work.  That entails a two hour oral and four hours in the simulator.  The oral consists of questions about the Federal Aviation Regulations, Flight operations manual, Standard operating procedures, and systems of the aircraft.  The simulator consists of two hours as the flying pilot and two hours as the non flying pilot.  We are given several instrument approaches and emergencies.

We also are required to attend ground school once a year and have a line check once a year.  I always dread the simulator.  I feel like the weeks leading up to the sim I can't do anything fun with my spare time...that I should be studying.  It was challenging to feel motivated to study during the holidays.  Luckily the last couple of weeks I haven't been called into work very much so I have had time on my reserve days to study.

My simulator ride was with a first officer based in Fresno who lives in San Francisco.  This was his first proficiency check.  Bruce Cruser did our proficiency check.  He did my initial training in the sim when I was first hired.  The sim was from noon until 6:00 pm.  Everything went pretty well and I was just excited to be done.  I put restrictions on myself until I was done with training (like I couldn't start any good books).  

At the end of the session as we were leaving Bruce asked me to hang back for a second.  My heart kind of dropped.  I thought "Oh No, what have I done wrong?"  Luckily Bruce just told me that I did a really nice job.  He said that if I wanted to apply for a position as a check airmen that he would be happy to write me a letter of recommendation.  I couldn't believe it!  That was such a great compliment.  Check airmen are basically the captains that train new hires and do line checks on all the captains.  There couldn't have been a better ending to a very stressful day.