Page 30 - TNT Jan 17

28 • TWIN & TURBINE
January 2017
From the Flight Deck
by Kevin R. Dingman
Guppy School
Learning the B737-800 NG
We needn’t climb the 268 steps to the majestic Big Buddha (Tian Tan), at the Po Lin Monastery in Hong Kong, China, to learn that embracing change is the path to wisdom and happiness. And the path of a pilot, especially commercial pilots, is certainly chockfull (pun intended) of
wisdom and humility-enhancing changes: different planes, different aircraft systems, regulations, governments, employers, contracts and managements. You’ve been listening to me whine like a T-37 engine about leaving the MD-80 since last summer (Mad Dog, June 2016, and Abducted, October 2016). Well, no more. I’m letting go of that rung of the monkey bars and moving forward to the B737-800, also known as the Guppy.
Since it’s “just” another airplane and not a totally alien transportation system like a submarine or your first 10-speed bike, similarities are to be expected. Most airplanes have the same general components: a vessel to keep passengers and cargo safe, separated, warm, fed and entertained; something to make varying amounts of lift and drag; a thrust system to propel it through the air; systems for cooling, heating and pressurization; and devices to help negotiate the environment like anti-ice, radar, lighting, communication and navigation. Of course, we need hydraulic pressure and both the straight and wavy flavors of electricity to make it all go. Plus, we require a combination of wheels, skis or floats to make our landing less dramatic. Then there is the humanistic component of our flying machines: multiple interfaces for us to hold, touch, interpret and control all the above.
And finally, we need warning systems to protect us from the environment, the machine, other airplanes and ourselves if we dork something up as we hold, touch, interpret and control.
Let It Go
Letting go of deeply embedded knowledge about a preceding airplane is the first step when transitioning from one machine to another. And forgetting the old stuff is just as difficult as learning the new airplane. Associating new systems and limitations with the old is the first step, followed by trying to forget the old information all together. This is not an easy task. Some of us mix in numbers and procedures not only from a GA airplane or three, but we can still recite limitations and memory items from military airplanes and several airliners, despite trying to unlearn them.
Training in a new airliner, Part 121 style, is very efficient, if you believe that fire hose-style information, delivered by a nonhuman, online, at-home course, is efficient. We now use a pre-training video series before going to the company school. Completion is tracked via the
Getting over a painful experience is much like crossing monkey bars. You have to let go at some point in order to move forward.
– C. S. Lewis