Corporate flight attendants have a new option when picking a business for their cabin safety and service education. Alteon Training, LLC, a Boeing Organization, launched a plan in November 2003 for corporate flight attendants at their facility in Extended Beach, California. I was invited to participate in the class to get a much better thought about the instruction, their facility, and about Alteon itself and to share my findings with the aviation community by means of this internet site.
In an industry peppered with instruction organizations of varying sizes and capabilities, my very first thoughts about Alteon was that is was just a run-of-the-mill instruction agency. Alteon not only allayed my original misgivings, but they proved to me that all training companies should be undertaking the identical point: operating with the FAA’s blessings below FAR Portion 142. Certainly, Alteon’s plan could soon become the benchmark by which all training corporations will be judged. This is fantastic news for flight attendants who are confused or even mislead by some of the programs operating around the U.S.
I arrived in Extended Beach from JFK on a Sunday evening, picked up my rental vehicle and went to my room to prepare for my 7 a.m. Monday meeting with Alteon executives Jim Garner and Hal Collison. That morning, we toured the facility exactly where I was able to see their fully equipped education rooms sporting individual laptop or computer function stations complemented by the overhead media slideshow housing [indeed, when being educated students could appear at the pull down screen or at their pc monitor to view the PowerPoint presentations]. On the ground floor of Alteon’s facility, I was brought to a space housing individual flight simulators, each and every of which was for one Boeing solution or an additional.
By 8 a.m. the remaining five students arrived and I settled down with them in a training area to begin the class. Just after short introductions, Kathy Cummins was introduced as our service instructor for the initially day’s class. The Corporate School of Etiquette was selected by Alteon to present the service side of the instruction the first day. The middle three days was all Alteon-run instruction. San Diego CPR was selected to provide the in-flight health-related, CPR, and AED instruction on Friday. When I inquired as to why Alteon outsourced portions of their 5-day system, Hal Collison, Director, Flight Education, for Alteon declared, “We focus on what we are authorities at and do best. The other portions of the course are outsourced to the quite ideal specialists in their field with years of experience and access to the latest course content and instruction supplies.”
Kathy’s session began with a discussion on dispatching a trip. Covered material incorporated the steps behind the scheduling and releasing of an aircraft for flight crewmember assignments show occasions and reporting times aircraft, flight and passenger data and arranging for catering and supplies. Students previewed a dispatcher’s checklist and discussed preparing for a six leg international trip utilizing an actual trip sheet to choose what meals service was required and where.
Soon after two hours of classroom teaching, it was all hands on instruction for most of the rest of the day. Students boarded a firm van and headed south to John Wayne Airport in Orange County for the executive service instruction portion of the system. The class toured Signature’s FBO where we positioned the catering order placed earlier with Air Gourmet. After a discussion about refrigeration, we took the order outside to the waiting Worldwide Express which was graciously supplied to us for the day by Monarch Charters. When we boarded the aircraft I was pleasantly surprised to see that we had complete access to the galley and cabin whereby we have been in a position to really heat the food as effectively as maintain the aircraft cool for the “passengers.”
Kathy gave the students a trip scenario to operate with and we went via all the pre-departure procedures including, passenger arrival take-off meal and wine service in-flight procedures just before and soon after landing and aircraft cleaning procedures. By mid-afternoon with our in-flight service portion of the education behind us we returned to Long Beach for extra classroom education covering contracts and flight attendant enterprise preparation material. Somehow we managed to squeeze in what seemed like two days of education into one particular day. By 6 p.m. the class was over and the service coaching portion of the plan was behind us.
Pattie Adams took over the class on Tuesday and for the subsequent three days was tasked with guiding the class by way of the applicable FARs crewmember duties and procedures security hazmat and a lot more. As a backgrounder, Pattie was one of the chief creators of Alteon’s new program, drawing on her encounter as a contract corporate flight attendant as properly as a commercial flight attendant, purser and instructor with United Airlines. Pattie’s expertise in the corporate and commercial arenas was helpful as she skillfully translated the language and procedural differences among the two arenas, one thing that was not lost on those in the class who have been new to corporate aviation, but possessed commercial expertise only.
Due to the fact instruction was completed at Alteon’s Long Beach facility, guest speakers from inside the corporation were brought in to discuss some of the highly technical aspects of flying. training room rental Singapore discussed the mechanics of flight and Dick Bloomberg covered the aircraft systems, especially what happens in the cockpit. Dick also gave the students a thrilling SIM ride, a typical value added function for those attending this coaching program.
The third day of training covered turbulence and decompression and was followed by hands on practice of oxygen units and, later, aircraft doors, emergency exits and gear. Slides and photographs of the many configurations found on the Gulfstreams, Bombardiers/Global Express/ Challengers, and Falcons were covered as well as for the BBJ and Boeing’s newest corporate entry, the 717 Organization Express. Specifically beneficial to the class was the separate binder that we have been offered for Emergency Checklists this Jeppesen size manual could effortlessly be taken on trips, which is what Pattie encouraged students to do.
By Thursday, we have been all eager to leave the classroom for hands on activity we were not disappointed. Soon after a classroom discussion on how fires begin, we filed outdoors, donned individual breathing gear (PBE) and practiced fire fighting procedures. Quickly after lunch the class boarded the cabin trainer and spent a number of hours part playing. The day was capped off with a trip to the neighborhood hotel’s outside pool for ditching procedures and workouts.