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Airline new-hire training: what actually happens
You got the class date. Now what? Here's the order things usually go in at a Part 121 airline, from your first day of indoc to your last IOE leg, in the words pilots actually use.
The regs are linked so you can check them yourself. Every airline does it a bit differently, and your training department's schedule beats this page. Sources last checked October 30, 2026.
The big picture
Indoc → home CBT → systems + systems exam → flows on a paper tiger / CPT / FTD → full-flight sim → checkride (or MV + LOE) → IOE on the line
Pretty much everywhere, indoc comes first, systems come before the sim, you pass a simulator evaluation before you fly the line, and IOE is last. Everything in between depends on the airline.
1. Indoc
Basic indoctrination (also called company indoc or general indoc) is company ground school, and the rules require it. In a traditional program the reg sets 40 programmed hours unless the FAA approves a reduction. It covers your duties as a crewmember, the FARs that apply to you, the company's operating certificate and OpSpecs, and the company manuals.1
In practice you'll also get HR and benefits, badging, security, and dispatch and weather policy. None of it is about your airplane yet. Emergency drills (doors, slides, fire, ditching) often happen during indoc or right after it.1
2. CBT at home
The FAA lets airlines deliver some training as computer-based or distance learning. Many airlines send you home with systems CBT modules, then bring you back for instructor-led review, a "systems validation," and the oral or written exam. Some do part or all of indoc remotely too. The mix varies a lot between airlines and has shifted in recent years.
Tip: home CBT is where people fall behind. Treat it like a job with set hours.
3. Systems ground school
This is where it gets type-specific: electrical, hydraulics, pneumatics, FMS, limitations, and performance. It usually ends with a systems exam. Indoc is about the company. Systems is about the jet.
4. Flows and procedures: paper tiger, CPT, FTD
Before the sim you learn flows, callouts, and checklists until you don't have to think about them. Then you practice them in progressively better devices:
| Device | What it is | What you use it for |
|---|---|---|
| Paper tiger | A full-size cockpit poster. Informal, not FAA-qualified. | Flows, scan, callouts. Use it in your hotel room with your sim partner. |
| CPT / FMS or desktop trainer | A procedures trainer, often touchscreen or desktop. | Checklists, flows, FMS programming. |
| FTD (Levels 4–7, Part 60) | A fixed-base cockpit with no motion. | Procedures and some maneuvers. Under AQP it may be used for more. |
| FFS (Levels A–D, Part 60) | The full-motion simulator. | Maneuvers, abnormals and emergencies, LOFT, checkrides. Level C/D allows "zero flight time" type ratings. |
Not every airline has a separate FTD phase.
5. Full-flight sim
Sim sessions usually go maneuvers first (V1 cuts, engine failures, approaches, go-arounds), then LOFT, which is full line-style scenarios flown start to finish. You fly with a sim partner, so chair-fly and practice flows together before every session.
6. The checkride, or MV + LOE
Traditional program: you take a type rating or proficiency checkride in the sim.
AQP: you take a Maneuvers Validation (MV), then a Line Operational Evaluation (LOE). The LOE is a full-crew line scenario flown start to finish built from event sets, and it counts as a checkride. Don't confuse it with LOFT. LOFT is training. The LOE is graded.5
7. IOE
Initial operating experience (also called OE or IOE) is real line flying, with paying passengers, next to a check airman. The FAA sets minimum hours, and airlines often add more. Once you're signed off, you're a line pilot.
AQP vs traditional
AQP (Part 121 Subpart Y) is a voluntary alternative to the traditional training rules, and the FAA has to approve it.2 Many larger airlines and many regionals use it. Smaller, cargo, and charter operators are more often traditional. Ask your airline which one it runs; we haven't verified a list.
| Traditional (Subparts N/O) | AQP (Subpart Y) | |
|---|---|---|
| How training is measured | Programmed hours | Proficiency, built from a job-task analysis4 |
| Curriculums | Indoc, initial, transition, upgrade, recurrent | Indoctrination, Qualification, Continuing Qualification3 |
| Indoc | 121.4151 | Indoctrination curriculum, 121.9116 |
| The graded event | Checkride | MV + LOE |
| CRM | Its own training | Built into technical training and evaluation |
| After you're trained | Recurrent | Continuing Qualification cycles7 |
AQP airlines also collect performance data and report it to the FAA, and the program is designed to work alongside safety programs like FOQA and ASAP, which feed changes back into training.4
What varies by airline
- How much is CBT or done at home
- How long each phase runs. People often say 6–10+ weeks in total, but that's a rough range, not a rule.
- Whether there's an FTD phase
- AQP or traditional
- How sim partners get paired
- Whether the type rating is done in-house or at a training vendor
- How much IOE beyond the FAA minimum
Your class schedule and training department are the final word. Ask early, and ask the pilots a class or two ahead of you.
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Check the source
- 14 CFR 121.415: crewmember and dispatcher training requirements (basic indoctrination)
- 14 CFR Part 121 Subpart Y: Advanced Qualification Program
- 14 CFR 121.909: approval of AQP (required curriculums)
- FAA AC 120-54A: Advanced Qualification Program
- FAA AQP ISD example: LOE vs LOFT
- 14 CFR 121.911: AQP indoctrination curriculum
- 14 CFR 121.915: AQP continuing qualification curriculum
This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice. The reg text and your airline's approved training program win. Part 60 device levels and the IOE minimums come from standard FAA citations.
Last checked October 30, 2026. Spot something wrong? Tell us on the contact page.