1. Find a study method or two and use them. Many use flashcards. Write the checklist name on one side, the checklist on the other. If you were able to get the flows, limitations and emergency memory items, know them all before you arrive for ground school. If you were able to get your hands on the expanded checklists, know your limitations, flows, and memory items, then start working on the expanded checklists. Each flow item might have a seven-item checklist with it, know what those items are and what you are looking for. The harder you work before class, the better prepared you’ll be once you get there.
2. For limitations, you could make a worksheet like the ones available on this site. Run through the worksheet every morning and every night, and in a few days, you’ll find the knowledge starting to stick. When you’re first starting, only put the number correct at the top of the page. Dating them so you can see your progress and the ones constantly missed helps motivation.
3. Know memory items verbatim. If the company says “Reverse Thrust – Apply Maximum until Stopping Assured”, be able to spit it back that way. It’s standardization. “Thrust Reversers – Maximum” doesn’t cut it. When everyone says and does the checklist the same way, you can then work together immediately with the rest of the pilot group, and better be able to adapt to unusual situations.
4. When trying to memorize verbatim, one technique is to write the material on one side of the flashcard, and write the name of the flow or memory item on the front, as well as the first letter of each word in the checklist. For example: “1. Reverse Thrust – Apply Maximum until Stopping Assured” becomes “1. R T – A M U S A”
5. If you have time, learn required limitations verbatim as well as being able to explain what they mean. Then start working on the other limitations. You are responsible for all of them, so make life easy on the line and know them before starting ground school.
6. When in class, indoc is not the time to slack. Pay attention in class, take notes, review those notes at night, read all the assignments, take notes on those assignments. There will be a test (or three). Ops Spec (C055 & C078), duty limits, exemption 3585, when you can board, what happens when a pax gets disruptive, baggage weights, limits, memory items and so on. Don’t read ahead of the assignments if you haven’t mastered the previous and assigned materials. Make flashcards, the process of making them will help you to learn the material.
7. If you have a relevant question during class, ask it. Chances are the five guys next to you have the same question. However, class time is very limited, sometimes you may need to hold your question until before or after class.
8. There are plenty of gouge sites and commercial sites charging you for a version of the material your company provides and is paying you to learn. Read your company materials first. If you insist on using third-party materials, use the questions, look up the answers in company materials.
9. When in class, what your previous airline did doesn’t matter. You were hired by the current airline to fly it their way. Pull the big red FLUSH handle in your brain and dump that previous aircraft and company. Learn and master this one.
10. Many companies have paper tiger rooms that are available 24/7. Take advantage of them. If you can, find your sim partner early and get together to run flows, callouts, and maneuvers. Reach for each control. If you make a mistake, start over from the beginning. Once you and your partner have mastered the basic flows, start adding the expanded items. Switch up with other classmates occasionally if possible. Flight instructors know that you best learn materials when you try to teach it, so practice teaching your classmates the materials, and have them practice teaching you.
11. If you’re exhausted by the end of that night’s homework and practicing flows, callouts, and maneuvers is impossible, go to bed. Get up early and hit the flows in the morning, before class. Thirty minutes of practice while refreshed and awake each morning before class adds up and you’ll be able to spend more time on assigned reading each night. By the time you’ve completed indoc and systems, you should have a good handle on the requirements and CPTs/formal paper tiger practice will be much more productive, as well as once you hit the sim.
12. While reading through the manuals, you might have a question to ask the instructor. One instructor gave everyone a pack of large Post-It notes, and instructed everyone to write their questions and stick them on the page. In class, ask the questions. It worked. Page markers are useful, especially when organizing your notes.
13. During systems, one student took time at the end of each day to type up his notes. His studying included the re-phrasing of his notes into the computer system, plus he discovered the gaps in his knowledge. The next day in class, he filled those gaps. His study was efficient, and his tests were easy.
14. Another pilot, when faced with a new aircraft, and/or company, sits down the night he receives the aircraft systems books, and makes flashcards. Every switch, button, knob, and so on gets a flashcard. On the back he lists what happens when the switch is moved, knob turned, button pushed and pushed again, light illuminates, and so on. He first tackles the overhead panel, then works his way across the cockpit. You can get bogged down in EICAS messages, skip those until the major systems are done, then come back and card the important EICAS messages. It takes time, and more complicated aircraft might take several hours for this process to be completed. The systems exam is the first deadline, the oral exam the second, the checkride the third, and once out flying, each flight is the continual deadline.
15. Now that you have a ton of flashcards, make your studying efficient. Some systems use 7 boxes for flashcards, I use three. The first box holds all the new cards. The one on the right are the ones I got right. The ones on the left are the ones I didn’t know. When I start a flashcard session, I start with the box on the left, then add the new ones. I’ll usually hit the left box items twice in a study session. Every other day, moving to third day, then week, and so on, I review the box on the right. If I miss one of those, it goes into the left box.
16. When faced with a long open book exam, usually at the end of indoc and usually with a time limit, just like you did on your knowledge tests, go through and answer every question you know immediately, saving calculations and those needing research for later. Pay close attention to wording. You might think you know the answer, but one question might state “beginning” while the source in the manuals states “ending”. This is also a test of your attention to detail. The second time through, answer all of the questions that need calculations or research, but don’t spend more than the time it takes to look up the index and/or chapter table of contents, then read a few paragraphs on the page to find the answer. If the answer is not readily apparent, skip it and go to the next. You’ve probably earned a passing grade at this point. Now go through the exam again and research the tough-to-find answers. Finally, review the test making sure each question has an answer. These last two steps will take you from barely passing to the 90% and higher, which allows better absorption of trick questions or areas the entire class misunderstood. This process does not work on those exams that do not allow for review of previously answered questions.
17. Sometimes the company will show you how to read the releases, then you won’t touch them again for two weeks, after systems. Every other day or so, re-read the practice problems and work them. The faster you become at calculating weight and balances plus takeoff numbers, the more sim time you’ll have to practice maneuvers.
18. Once the company allows it and you have your crew badges, try to jumpseat on a company flight or two, solely to observe the procedures in motion.
Good luck with the studying!
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