After six weeks of waiting, I
finally got the letter telling me I got accepted for training
for my favorite airline! I was so excited – my lifelong
dream finally came true! My favorite airline has sent me a non-revenue
ticket to come to training for seven weeks at their home base
city. I received my packed for training, which included some
information about the airline that I would need to know by the
time I arrived for training. I had to learn aircraft definitions,
the 24-hour clock, and the three-letter codes of the cities
the airline flies to. It is Friday and I need to pack now, because
I leave for training Sunday afternoon!
My flight got into the home city of the airline
about 3 pm on Sunday, the day before training was to begin.
I checked in at the training center and found my roommate, Jill,
a perky brunette from Alabama. We would be sharing a room for
the next few weeks, so we spent that evening getting acquainted.
We brushed up on the information we had to learn for our first
quiz, and retired early before the long day ahead of us.
Monday
morning we arrived at the flight
attendant training academy at 0830. We were
required to dress in business attire for class. The first thing
that morning we filled out human resources forms and were given
a physical by the airline physician. We then took the test on
our pre-training packets and learned about the history of the
airline.
After
lunch we launch right into the 7 different types of aircraft
this airline uses. We begin to study the layout of the aircraft,
where all the exits are located and where all the emergency
equipment is located. Throughout the course of the next seven
weeks, we learn how to operate all the safety equipment such
as the fire extinguishers, protective breathing equipment, oxygen
systems, life vests, megaphone, emergency locater transmitters
and exits on each of the airplanes this airline operates. The
reason our training is seven weeks is because they have so many
different types of aircraft to learn, and EVERYTHING
IS IN A DIFFERENT PLACE on all the airplanes!
The
second week we got to try on and order our uniforms. This was
the best day during training – we could finally see what
we would look like all decked out in our
flight attendant finery! The uniforms had many
items from which we could choose – skirts, dresses, slacks,
blouses, vests, scarves, jackets and coats, as well as a flight
bag that would hold the Grand Canyon. At least it had wheels!
Each week we study a different type of aircraft
and have a test every day. I am now getting writers’ cramp
and a numb brain – they sure cram a lot into seven weeks!
We are also taught about FAA regulations, company policies,
drug awareness, crew relations, personal appearance standards,
service procedures, pre-flight briefings, and first aid. We
learned about decompressions and other inflight emergencies,
security, HAZMAT and COMAT. We fought fires and learned commands
to shout during emergencies. We even had a simulated emergency
evacuation, complete with smoke, red lights indicating fire
and a rocking, contorting fuselage that we had to exit within
90 seconds – by jumping into a slide that was 3-stories
high! What an experience – scary, but lots of fun! We
felt like we could conquer the world at that point!
The sixth week of training we performed a water
ditching. We were given a packaged life raft and were told to
toss it (TOSS 100 pounds?!) into the water, pull the red handle
to inflate it, and get in with our bulky life vests on! Rubber
against rubber makes this an extremely difficult task. I never
dreamed what a fiasco my entry into the life raft would be.
But after much tugging and pulling on the part of my trusted
classmates, my rear end up in the air for all to see, I finally
made it into the raft. And of course, some wise guy on the side
of the pool had to take a picture, which is now indelibly etched
in the brains of my classmates!
We then had to set up a canopy on the raft and
identify all the survival equipment. Our group got entirely
too much water in the raft and had to bail it out. Our rendition
of “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” was not a required
part of this particular exercise – it certainly wasn’t
in the training manual, and effectively unhinged our instructor!
But how else were we to cope with the stress of a water ditching?
Interspersed throughout our weekends in the
academy were our training flights. These brief missions were
a tedious test of our ability to withstand the embarrassment
of wearing the TRAINEE button on our serving smocks. They couldn’t
just make this a small, unobtrusive nametag – it was the
size of Missouri and had our designated titles in big red letters.
When standing in the front of the first class cabin, these tags
could be easily read all the way to the last row in tourist!
Everyone knew we were flunkies and took full advantage of our
obvious stupidity and innocence! The passengers and crew alike
had us jumping through hoops, but were actually supportive in
the end, giving us a hand for all the patience we had displayed.
Before
the end of flight attendant training,
we received our base assignments. I had buddied up with a couple
of people who were assigned to the same base I was, and we decided
to become roommates. The airline gave us a list of apartment
complexes frequently used by their crews, and we were all set.
Fortunately, I had saved about $1500 before training to help
with deposits on rent and utilities and other expenses until
our first paycheck arrived. We would be given a week after graduation
to return home to get our cars and other belongings and drive
to our base city.
Finally
graduation day arrived – we would soon be official. Our
class had begun with 35 people, but two never showed up the
first day, three quit after the second week, and 2 were mysteriously
sent home in the middle of the night, or so it seemed, after
failing too many tests. You must maintain a 90% grade while
in training, and if you fail one too many tests, you are O-U-T,
no questions asked!
Crisp
in our new livery, twenty-eight of us proudly stood in front
of our families, instructors and new friends, and received our
golden wings, the reason for it all. These wings indicated that
we had survived training and that we know how to help everyone
on our flights survive if we ever need to. Flight crews are
among the closest in any profession, and unbeknownst to me at
the time, the camaraderie I encountered in training would follow
me throughout my entire flying
career.
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