SkyWest FO Training Timeline

Posted by wolfstore@reddit | flying | View on Reddit | 38 comments

I’ve seen this posted before but I figured I’d write up a more current one for anyone in the SkyWest training pipeline.

Aircraft: CRJ
Cadet: July 2024
Contract Signed: Nov 2024
Interview: Dec 2024
CJO: Dec 2024
Class Date: Dec 2025

ATP-CTP | Denver | 12/11 - 12/18

I received travel and hotel accommodations on 12/1. Travel accommodations had me flying out the day before CTP (12/10) and leaving the day we finished. There’s a free shuttle that runs from the airport to the hotel. The training facility is within walking distance of the hotel so unless you drove your own car, everyone walked over to the facility. Four days of ground followed by three days of sims. Some people got a day off in the middle of the sim days, but others didn’t. My class was mostly ERJ pilots who had Indoc a few days after CTP. Since the CRJ Indoc did not begin until 12/29, the CRJ pilots flew home on the 18th. It does not matter which PSI testing facility you take the written at, you just have to schedule the ATP written and have it finished before Indoc begins. I took mine when I returned back home before Indoc.

The SIM training was a lot of fun during ATP-CTP. Our instructor encouraged us to really enjoy ourselves during it while still learning about the required material. After my last sim session, I received my certificate of completion for the CTP course before heading to the airport to fly home.

Indoc | Salt Lake City | 12/29 - 1/5

Flew into Salt Lake City on 12/28 and took the shuttle to the hotel. We were put up in the DoubleTree by Hilton near the airport. Wasn’t a bad hotel, but the rooms didn’t have a microwave in them which was kind of inconvenient. However, the hotel reserved a whole conference room just for SkyWest that has fridges and microwaves and can be used to hangout/study. Indoc started off learning about SkyWest culture, benefits, HR related stuff and getting fitted for uniforms. We were also issued our company EFBs and had logbook review which is a chance for you to learn of any mistakes that need to get fixed in your logbook before your checkride. The rest of Indoc you learn about SkyWest policies and Ops Specs. You usually start Indoc on a Monday, have the weekend off and then have a validation exam the following Monday.

CBTs | Salt Lake City | 1/6 - 1/11

*NOTE: I heard that in the next few months they’re going to start sending people in training back home during CBTs. Not confirmed but keep that in mind.*

After you finish Indoc you will switch hotels. We moved to the Residence Inn by Marriott right around the corner from the DoubleTree. We then spent Tuesday through Sunday doing Computer Based Training (CBT) on our own. You are able to go home during CBTs and do them there (a few people did) but I would strongly encourage you not to. Stay at the hotel and limit distractions so you can get them done. The CBTs cover a lot of the systems of the CRJ. The CBTs are designed to be started on Tuesday and finished on Friday. I started mine Monday evening and finished them Thursday evening, giving myself 3 days off to kind of relax and prepare for ground school.

Ground School | Salt Lake City | 1/12 - 1/24

Ground school is when you’ll really start to drink from the fire hose. First day of ground school you will bid for your sim sessions for maneuver training. This is strictly seniority based. If you want a good idea of how senior you are, the closer to the front of the class your seat is assigned, the more senior you are. Sims can take place in Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Denver, and Cincinnati. Ground school consisted of classroom lecture, FMS lab and use of the matrix simulators (basically the CRJ cockpit laid out on touch screens so you can interact with the switches and systems). You’ll spend a lot of time learning the different flows and checks that are required for different phases of flight. During ground school you will do an FMS validation, flow validation, and ground validation. You should also get your company badge and uniform during ground training at some point but this timeline can vary. You are allowed to come to the training center after hours or on the weekends to study or practice which is super nice. After ground, you’ll have one day of professionalism and leadership training before having two to three days off before starting procedure training.

Procedure Training (PT) | Salt Lake City | 5 Days

Procedure training is where you will start to fully apply the procedures you learned about in Ground. The procedure trainers are essentially a simulator with touch screens and a control yoke. You’ll have 4 sessions where you’ll simulate different scenarios and running your flows and procedures. The instructors were absolutely great and will make sure you are 100% before signing you off for your procedure validation at the end of the week.

Maneuver Training (MT) | 7 Days

Where your maneuver training takes place will depend on where you bid for sims. If you have to travel for sims, you’ll be flown in the day before to wherever your sims are at. So if your sims are in Denver and start on 2/3, you’ll be flown in on 2/2. This is when things get fun. Full motion sim and you jump right into the thick of it; V1 cuts, windshear escape, non-precision approaches, crosswind landings, etc. My best advice to prepare for sims is to know your callouts. The less you have to think about what callout you’re supposed to say, the more brain power you can put in to focusing on learning to actually fly the plane. You’ll have 7 days of maneuver training with a day or two off scattered in before taking your maneuver validation. The instructors again were fantastic, some of them having been with the company for 30+ years and they genuinely want to see you succeed.

LOFT | 3 Days

Line Oriented Flight Training (LOFT) was 3 sessions of gate to gate flights in the simulator where the instructors gave different scenarios you might encounter during a flight: system failures, holding instructions, diversions, etc. These sessions are extremely similar to what your LOE will consist of.

LOE/KV

Your final “checkride” is the knowledge validation and line operational evaluation. The KV is similar to the oral portion of a checkride we’re all familiar with: expect questions about aircraft systems, company procedures, etc. The LOE is similar to what you practiced during LOFT. You’ll be pilot monitoring for one leg and then pilot flying for the return leg. Once you pass this, you’ll receive your ATP and type certificate!

Extra Info

Food: Lots of different approaches for food while you're in training. Some people Uber'd to the grocery store, some used InstaCart, some people DoorDashed food every night, some rented cars and drove to get food, some brought their own cars etc. Lots of different options. The only hotel that really had a good kitchen for easy meal prepping/cooking was the Residence Inn. The other hotels were limited but didn't make it impossible. The training center at the SkyWest hangar also had a breakroom with snacks and small food items available for you to buy as well.

Laundry: Most of the hotels had some form of laundry machines. The Residence Inn had laundry machines that took credit cards, but other machines at other hotels (depending on where your SIMs were at) only took quarters. So plan accordingly there.

That's pretty much all I can think of right now! Feel free to ask me any questions if you have any and I'll try to answer them in the comments or edit the post to include new info.