ownership of a new airplane. “There is a lot of stress on them to make their delivery successful,” Carlisle said. “So doing our part to make that go smoothly for them is rewarding.” n eric.c.fetters-walp@boeing.com communicate in simple aviation-related English, as well as observe local customs when interacting with airline pilots. “It’s definitely about serving the customer and really helping identify and understand their needs,” said Bill Scanlon, assistant chief pilot, Pilot Services. Wayne Ridenour, another instructor captain for the 737, 777 and 787, said even after the pilots return home from an assignment with an airline, they continue to receive questions from their customer. His favorite part of the job, however, is working with relatively new pilots as they first sit down in a 737 flight deck. “Training a 737 co-pilot, they’re typically new to flying and they usually have minimal flight experience, so you’re often their first jet experience,” said Ridenour, who flew U.S. Air Force transport aircraft for 20 years. Another pilot, Ian “Rocky” Sullivan, said he finds satisfaction in the moments when he can help pilots who are already good improve their knowledge. “Lots of times, when we’re out flying with the airlines, we’re flying with senior managers,” he said. “It’s nice and rewarding when you can still teach something new to someone who’s a pretty experienced pilot.” Murray Strom, chief pilot, 777/787, Air Canada, said his pilots lauded the Boeing training pilots who recently taught them on the 787. “It has been a great experience for our pilots, and they have let us know about it,” Strom said, explaining that such praise is unusual. Boeing’s training pilots also work closely with the company’s flight-test pilots in Boeing Test & Evaluation when testing and validating new airplane models and simulators. For example, they participated in validating the 787 simulator, Nogales said. But the pilots’ priority is with the company’s customers, especially as commercial airplane deliveries hit record highs. Brian Carlisle, who trains pilots on the 787, 777 and 747 models, said the Boeing pilots know that an airline has much invested as it takes 30 Frontiers November 2014 PHOTO: At the controls in a Boeing 777 simulator cab are Boeing instructor pilots Rich Denton, foreground, and Rich Brown, background, with simulator cab integrator Tom Kmitta. Denton and Brown are with Commercial Aviation Services; Kmitta is with Boeing Test & Evaluation.
Frontiers November 2014 Issue
To see the actual publication please follow the link above