Originally Posted by CaptAmerica

hey guys!! im new to the forum but i been reading the Mesaba thread for the past few months. Got hired to Mesaba with 660/50 (now with 820/50) back in october and i picked a Jan 14 class date so i can finsh some students off. HR recently told me (two days ago) i got the Saab 340 and that the class had alot of CRJ 900 being offered. Looking foward to see all you guys in class

Originally Posted by CaptAmerica

hey guys!! im new to the forum but i been reading the Mesaba thread for the past few months. Got hired to Mesaba with 660/50 (now with 820/50) back in october and i picked a Jan 14 class date so i can finsh some students off. HR recently told me (two days ago) i got the Saab 340 and that the class had alot of CRJ 900 being offered. Looking foward to see all you guys in class

Originally Posted by CaptAmerica

hey guys!! im new to the forum but i been reading the Mesaba thread for the past few months. Got hired to Mesaba with 660/50 (now with 820/50) back in october and i picked a Jan 14 class date so i can finsh some students off. HR recently told me (two days ago) i got the Saab 340 and that the class had alot of CRJ 900 being offered. Looking foward to see all you guys in class

Originally Posted by Squawk_5543

Your on your own for the medical. The SIDA badge costs you nothing.....just don't loose it.

Originally Posted by evh347

This is how it worked out for my group of -200 FOs hired late October...

-1 week of Indoc followed by a written test. Form study groups and study often! Your instructor should clue you in on important stuff. The hardest stuff is the 3585 and duty time stuff.
-7 days of Gen. Subjects (2 days of CRM) followed by a written test. Your captains will have joined you at this point and they're required to take the same test. Again, study groups are helpful. Ask for clarifications and study hard. More 3585 and duty time and TLR stuff to study.
-7 days of CBT systems training. No test...each module ended in an online multiple choice test which you would take until you passed. This is the easiest thing to get through, but make sure you ask questions because this will prepare you for FTD/SIM. Use this time wisely.

Eventually, you get paired with a captain during CBT training. There were SIM schedules posted and the captains bid on the available schedules based on their seniority. Your captain/FO pairings were based on age.....oldest FO with highest seniority captain. My pairing resulted in two weeks off before reporting to Denver.

-5 sessions (4 hours each) of systems integration with a FTD (touch sensitive computer screens).
-8 (4 hour) SIM sessions in a full-motion FTD device
-Oral (2 hours individually or 4 hours as a team w/ your captain). The Oral test was easy, but only because we over-studied. They ask questions about every button on the overhead panel, weight & balance, TLR's, and the walk-around. All of this is well-within your capabilities is your focus is to pass.
-2 PC (proficiency checkrides), one day (4 hours) is for your captain and the other day is for you.
-1 LOFT (line oriented flight training = ~6 hours) which is just a "fun" flight and no pressure designed to give you the flavor of actual line flying.

The schedules for the SIM sessions are posted on schedules at the CAE training center in Denver in a couple locations and they can be different from what you initially see on the schedules given to you during CBT training. Each FTD/SIM training session is predicated with an hour "pre-brief" and an hour "de-brief"...so you should report an hour before any scheduled FTD/SIM session. Even when you're here...you should be prepared to receive phone calls from the training center providing updates to your schedule based on the availability of instructors.

We've had nearly a different instructor for every day of FTD/SIM training. That's good and bad. One thing I can say is that the majority of the instructors have been great to work with. They really do everything they can to ensure you are ready. We have our checkrides starting with my captain tomorrow and I'm very confident. Everything didn't really start clicking until SIM #5 and this is coming from a 650TT FO/pilot.

In total, is was 3 weeks of Ground followed up with 3 weeks of FTD/SIM with a 2-week break in between. My advice...during Indoc...focus on Indoc. During General Subjects...focus on that. At Systems, start memorizing "flows" and read over subjects covered on that day later in your hotel room. Before you report to your first sessions of FTD, you need to know your "flows" down cold and start working on "callouts". You must know your "callouts" before your first SIM session. The guys who have had the most success (thusfar) have followed that strategy.

We were told to expect IOE within 3-4 weeks. Basically, we were told to expect a phone call from the scheduling department 2-3 days prior to our IOE.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by tsween

i think this needs to be said

THE SAAB ROCKS

Originally Posted by ConnectionPilot

any new routes in the near future out of MSP? I know that Mesaba has been growing extremely fast with several routes added on Wednesday.

Originally Posted by tsween

i think this needs to be said

THE SAAB ROCKS