I passed my first line check at Cathay Pacific, and am good to go for another year. Airline pilots have lots of recurrent checks and training during their career. At Cathay, we have two simulator checkrides a year (every six months) and an annual line check. These three checks are the cause of many sleepless nights, heartburn, stress, and angst amongst most pilots. Especially at Cathay, the checks are taken quite seriously. At other airlines, sometimes the checks aren’t too stressful as there isn’t much jeopardy in the grading of the recurrent checkrides. At my last job, I knew the aircraft and the operation quite well, and the checkrides were no big deal, but since I’ve moved on to Cathay, it’s a whole other story. I’m newer, don’t fly as much, and have a lot more to think about compared to my last job.
Simulator rides aren’t too fun because the sim instructors throw problems at us all the time and we have to perform up to standards. Dealing with engine fires and malfunctions is somewhat of a harrowing experience. Line checks are a different story. A captain that is paired up with me does the check as we fly on a regular flight in the real airplane. We do three flights to see if I am up to par on all my procedures. The stress comes in when he starts asking all sorts of questions about, “what would you do if . . .” As we crossed the North Pacific, I got questions like: “Where would you go now if we had an engine fire?” Or “What would you do if we depressurized?” These are excellent questions and the answer always needs to be in the back of our minds, because emergencies don’t happen when we expect them too, they happen at the worst possible time.
There are a myriad of procedures on what to do when, depending on what the terrain is like below us, how much fuel we have, how far away from the nearest airport are we, and the like. Keeping all that knowledge in our head is what they pay us for, though we all obviously hope that none of that info is ever required.
My line check started in Los Angeles, and went to San Francisco and then up to Anchorage. The following day, we headed over the Pacific to Hong Kong. My check captain was a great guy, who formerly flew Air Force One for Bush Senior and Bill Clinton. His résumé is outstanding and impeccable and he was truly a gentleman to fly with, and extremely knowledgeable. I learned a lot from him and was glad to soak up all the information I could. I passed my check and am good for another year. Sure, it was stressful to have my job “on the line” but it’s all part of life as a pilot — we gotta know this stuff. Tests are never fun, but at least I can look back on this experience as a good one.