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Apr 17 / Rebecca Lougheed

Becoming a Pilot: Ongoing training

The milestone of gaining your ATPL(f) is a huge one, and the journey to it is filled with challenges and obstacles, pressures and stresses, all of which you overcome, and all of which add to your experience and resilience. So when it happens (or if it already has), take a moment to celebrate, congratulate yourself and feel proud of where you’ve got to, because it is a really big achievement!

OK, now take a deep breath because... the hard work doesn’t stop there (sorry!), and being prepared for what comes next is just as important. In fact more so, because from the moment you step into that first airline job you are no longer just aiming towards your own goals, you are flying with hundreds of people behind you. It is a huge responsibility and because of that, you will face even more challenges, expectations and hard work to make sure you keep “earning” the place you have up front.

Which is why this article is all about sharing with you some insights into what the training you’ll face throughout your career will look like, so that you can prepare for the assessments, line checks, exams and every other challenge that comes your way a bit more.

Let’s talk knowledge

Passing your ATPL theory exams is tick box #1 on the “pilot exam” checklist, and it is a fairly long list of things you need to learn and tests you need to take, in order to maintain (and develop) the knowledge needed for your role. The good news is, at the airline pilot level it gets a little easier because everything else is taught and managed by your airline. 

What do I mean? Well, there are a whole load of things you have to learn, but near on all airlines nowadays tend to do this via CBT (sometimes in the classroom, at least for initial ones). The exams also tend to be open book (which is much easier because you just need to know where to find information, rather than knowing it all by memory), and you tend to get very used to the subjects, because you write a lot of them every year!

I am talking the likes of Dangerous Goods, Security, Safety Management Systems, Winter Ops, Fire Fighting, First Aid etc. In addition to the mandatory recurrent checks, airlines often do refresher training on tech knowledge for the aircraft too - again this tends to come in the form of CBT (computer based training) courses which knowledge checks at the end to help consolidate.

What about sims?

These are unavoidable and can cause pilots some stress, particularly early on when starting out.

It’s easy to say this with experience, but try to remember these are training and learning opportunities and not something to be scared of. If you have passed your initial LST then that means you can fly to the standard you are expected to fly to - and if you’ve done it once you can do it again.

But that doesn’t mean you can be complacent. Hard work and preparation before sims is really critical. Learning your memory items, ensuring your procedures are spot on, and refreshing on systems and knowledge is key to these going well. There is certain knowledge you can guarantee you will be tested on so make sure you’re good with those items.

In addition, don’t rely on the days leading up to your sim to swot up, try to do it while on the line (long cruise sectors are a good place to recap on a topic or two), and try to self-evaluate any events from on the line so that each sector becomes a learning and development opportunity as well.

What actually happens in a sim check?

OK, what are we talking? What goes on in the scary sim sessions we are subjected to every 6 months? And yes I do mean every 6 months. You tend to do an LST - licence skills test - which is what is required to get a type onto your licence, and then you do an OPC or LPC. The OPC (operator proficiency check) is required once a year, or you do a LPC (line proficiency check).

What you sim days consist of will vary from operator to operator, but in general, you are going to have a training day and a check day. The training day covers some set items, usually from a 3 year syllabus (so all training items are completed every three years). Airlines that have shifted to CBT/EBT will also probably have some sort of LOFT (line orientated flight training) event in there too.

What’s that?

Well, CBT is competency based training and EBT is evidence based training. The latter is the next step from CBT, and enables training that can be geared to the specific needs of the student. CBT is training which focuses on consolidating and developing the competencies, using an evaluation of how they are applied to consider the overall performance throughout an event, rather than just the outcome.

It might be better if I give you an example.

A LOFT might be set out of an airport you operate at with your airline, in conditions as you might expect at that airport. So it is realistic. You tend to have a route planned, a flight plan, you’ll set up and brief and prepare as you would for an actual flight. Then they add in challenges similar to ones you could realistically expect during a normal operation. Perhaps a late runway change on the ground, an MEL, that sort of thing. 

Once airborne, you will encounter a failure or some sort of event that requires a level of crew coordination, problem solving and decision making. It is rarely a simple “engine failure, come back and land” type situation. Something like a flap failure with contaminated runway conditions requiring you to determine the best airport to divert to would be more the level of difficulty you could expect.

There may be additional challenges like a medical event, ATC keeping you high - things that can distract, test your situation awareness, and basically make it as realistic but challenging (in a way to develop skills). These are designed to push you, to challenge you as a crew, so you can learn and build confidence and competence.

During the debrief, the trainer should have you review the event, with their facilitation, considering your competencies and observable behaviours. The second half of the training day tends to be the items required - things like a TCAS, an emergency descent, crosswind landings where you train to standard (making sure you are comfortable with these for the line).

OK, that’s the training day.

The check day is generally broken into two parts. First up an LOE - line orientated evaluation - which, much like the LOFT, will test you as a crew in those competencies. Then you have the manoeuvres, which are mandatory to see tasks primarily checking you can fly within tolerances.

You can download a standard check form from your authority (CAA, EASA etc) but they tend too contain the same - a engine failure on take-off, a TCAS, an engine out ILS manual flown to a go-around, a 2D approach and landing, an RTO etc. LVOs and other mandatory recurrent training will also be done here too.

Line checks


Line checks are not done by all airlines, although you can always expect one after your first join and airline and complete the initial training. For those that do, these tend to be yearly. These are sectors flown as a normal crew, but with an additional check captain onboard who will monitor your procedures and line operations from the jump seat. 

During the check, the check captain should not have to intervene with any safety critical input. If they do, that tends to be a fail (because if they hadn’t been there to catch it, what would have happened?) But these are often a chance to pick up more knowledge and learn something, more than a “testing you” type assessment. If you’ve kept up with your procedures and haven’t let bad habits creep in, then these are really nothing to stress about.

The Medical

Not strictly an “exam” of the training sort, but something we do every year so worth a mention because folk can get quite stressed about these. Again, preparing for it in advance by staying healthy, eating well, working out etc is really the way to address any stress these induce. At the end of the day, if something comes up on the medical then you should consider it better it has been caught so you can fix it.

How to handle the pressure

There’s no real answer to this. Folk have different methods, and any pilot who says they never stress a little about sim check especially is probably lying. We are often our own worst critics though, and set ourselves high standards which can be hard to move on from if we “fail”.

I find going into sims well prepared is the best method. I try not to “get all the info” from folk on what to expect, because it can lead to you over pre-preparing and being too rigid and unadaptable when unexpected things are thrown at you. While in the sim, if something goes wrong the trick really is to just fix it and then move on. Often a small error is not a fail worthy item, so long as the examiner can see you identified it, fixed it, and understood what led to it in the first place (so you’re unlikely to make the same error again).

Our Psychologist blog posts focus on this, so be sure to check them out too.

Be prepared!

That’s really the golden rule with this, and why I said right at the start that the hard work doesn’t end when you receive your licence, because we are constantly checked and tested as pilots (we have to be to ensure safety is maintained). Yearly medicals, line checks, bi-annual sims and a lot of recurrent training and CBTs can cause stress for pilots, but they are a necessary “low” within a role that is really worth these moments of less enjoyable stuff.

At Airline Selection Programme, one way we can support you through this is with our revolutionary Operational Procedures Course. Head here for more information on this and how it can support you in your career development.