How do pilots get experience in new planes?

[Julie Betts-nicholson]

I've recently booked a flight out to Orlando in 2011 which will be my first flight for 3 years, so I'm getting a little apprehensive. When we booked, we were told that Thomson should have got their new Dreamliners by then so we might be lucky and get the new plane. At first I was quite excited but then a little apprehensive. I now know delivery's been put back, but it did prompt me to think: how do pilots get the experience they need to fly new aircraft?

 

As an avid viewer of "Aircrash Investigation" (I know I shouldn't, but I can't help myself. Weirdly it helped me: I know more about planes and it's really sunk in that these really are incredibly rare freak accidents!!! Perhaps I'm the weird one, so I certainly don't recommend it to other fearful flyers!) they always seem to bring up the importance of the experience of the pilots in a type of jet, but how can pilots get that if the plane's new? One flight is going to be a pilot's very first time flying passengers. So what rules are in place to make sure the crew are properly experienced?

[Captain Keith]

Hi Julie

Niceto have you back. If it helps you I eckon that without any training I could get the dreamliner up and down quite safely. A plane is a plane. However it's quite a good idea to be able to do more than that so pilots will get a minimum of about 40 hours in a Simulator and then 20 or so flights on the real thing before operating on his/her own. Remember that the training is very intensive and all captains will have flown other aircraft so it isn't a question of learning how to fly , rather how to operate that particular type.

They will undergo aviation authority tests before passing the course.
The problem with Air Disaster programmes is that they don't always tell the truth.

The manufacturers will have developed a training programme to make sure pilots are adequately prepared. Don't worry about it anymore. It's all taken care of.



Keith