Before we talk about what training will be doing in 1999, it’s important to understand the role the Training Department plays in relation to the rest of the Company. Know that the two busiest times for an airline’s training department are when its company is either shrinking or when it is growing. These are the two events that generate pilot movement from one seat to another. Growth moves pilots up and expands the size of the training department while shrinkage pushes pilots toward the bottom of the list and shrinks the training infrastructure.

We are all intimately familiar with the effects of shrinkage on our property. It now looks like we will have to re-aquaint ourselves with working for a growing company and the effects growth will have on our training.

As a part of the case presented before the US Airways and Shuttle pilots’ merger arbitration in Washington the week of January 11, some interesting data came to light that helps to outline the Company’s growth plans for 1999. Let’s take a few minutes to check out some facts.

Form 10-Q is a quarterly document that is filed based on requirements outlined by the Securities and Exchange Commission. US Airways’ most recent 10-Q filing lists the Company’s projections for 1999. Toward the end of the document, these projections are listed. In 1999, US Airways projects a growth of eight percent in available seat miles (ASMs) over 1998. Even though the Company is bringing on bigger airplanes (A-319s) and parking some smaller ones (DC-9s), it will still have to fly additional block hours in order to fly these additional seat-miles. The question becomes: How many additional block hours?

The block hour figure is more difficult to find, but six percent is the figure that the Training Department has been told to prepare for in 1999. Backing up these projections are the following figures that discuss the Company’s past and forecasted training load:

     Year    Missions     Tng Float

      1997           850          120
      1998         1365          160
      1999     3500 (projected) 370

A "mission" is an initial training event defined as Requalification, Differences, or Initial/Transition/Upgrade training. "Training Float" is the approximate number of pilots per month who are unavailable for line flying due to their attendance in initial training courses. In order to support this increase in training, the population of check pilots will increase as follows;

If you add the columns across, you get the total number of check pilots on staff at the end of each year. At the end of 1998 there were 295 check pilots on staff. At the end of 1999 there will be 582 check pilots on staff!

Factor the full effects of the Early Retirement Incentive Program and forecast that every pilot on the seniority list will change seats during the next 18 months, then you can begin to see the magnitude of the problem the Training Department faces.

In order to support this growth in block hours and the Early Retirement Program, US Airways is projecting the addition of 624 new hires during 1999. These factors will affect your training for the foreseeable future. Let’s discuss what will happen and what you can do to make your training more meaningful when you attend training during the coming months.

So what to do? In short, be assertive. In the past, you were able to count on the instructor being able to address all of your needs, probably before you even knew what you needed. Now the instructor may be operating under considerably more stress. You should be prepared to initiate the discussion with your instructor if you feel uncertain about any subject during your ground school training. If in doubt, ASK! And don’t be shy about it either. The oral you save may be your own.

New instructors in the classroom and the simulator are good, solid people who are there because they want to do a good job for you when you come into the training regime. When they are new, they may not see the subtle cues that an experienced instructor may easily pick up that head off trouble later in a training course. But we all know when things aren’t going well. That is when we must take the initiative to approach our new instructor and tell them in clear and specific terms what we want from our training experience. I think that you will find that new instructors will respond with great vigor in answering your needs. You may just have to tell them what you want, that’s all.

Everybody had to start out sometime. We’re just not used to seeing so many new check pilots and flight crew training instructors start out at the same time. Ask questions, be assertive in asking for what you feel you need to successfully complete your training, and be patient.