The Master Executive Council (MEC) appreciates Inflight management addressing the rumor mill regarding Recurrent Training (RT). We are particularly thankful Inflight went on record to state the recent changes to RT in response to an audit by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were absolutely not due to inadequate Inflight Instructors. However, the MEC is extremely disappointed that management has not taken more ownership of the situation at a much earlier date.
We are further frustrated by the fact that management missed a key opportunity to potentially mitigate or perhaps even eliminate some of the changes. How so? Management failed to accept AFA recommendations during integration in 2018 to incorporate “approved alternative” evacuation command verbiage into the Flight Attendant Manual (FAM).
AFA officers and representatives, the Inflight Training Committee and Inflight Flight Attendant Instructors have spent much of the past few months asking tough questions of management regarding the RT debacle and advocating for the best interest of Flight Attendants. We’re certainly not finished, but this is what we can report so far:
RT Computer Based Training (CBT) “Homestudy”
Cornerstone is a joke and needed to be replaced yesterday. AFA will continue to pressure management to provide Flight Attendants with the tools to help make us successful. Cornerstone is not one of those tools.
RT Written Test
The written test is still 25 questions and requires 80% (20 or more correct) to pass. Although the test question database has been eliminated for RT 2020, AFA has confirmed the test is derived exclusively from the (as of this writing) 74 questions in the various knowledge checks of the Homestudy. Once you have completed the Homestudy, you can go back and directly access each knowledge check separately in order to review the questions and answers as many times as you would like.
Be aware the order of the questions and/or responses may be randomized, but the actual questions and the one correct answer for each respective question will remain the same. If the knowledge checks in the Homestudy happen to be updated (this happens occasionally if a question is corrected or if a policy or procedure changes), then the questions and answers may change slightly. In summary, the Homestudy knowledge check database that is current at the time of RT is the one used to construct the written test.
How to access the knowledge checks?
World of Inflight (login required) -> Training -> Recurrent Training -> Recurrent Training SharePoint Site -> “IMD Tutorial” or “Web Tutorial”
Evacuation Commands
Flight Attendants are expected to come to RT prepared to demonstrate proficiency by using verbatim evacuation commands. However, AFA can positively confirm all those meetings with management over the past few months about the commands paid off!
Flight Attendants will be deemed proficient (and therefore successful in completing their evacuation evaluation) if they inadvertently use any of the four approved exceptions: “the” may be added between “Help” and “people,” “airplane” or “aircraft” may be used instead of “plane” and “jump” may be said twice in a row. Although a Flight Attendant will be coached to use verbatim commands in the future, the following commands would be considered successful:
“Heads down, stay down” / “Open seatbelts — Open seatbelts” / “Stay back –Stay back” / “You two, stay at the bottom” / “Help (the) people off” / “Send them away from the plane (/ airplane / aircraft)” / “Leave everything” / “Exit here” / “Jump (Jump)”.
Again, you are expected to deliver the commands verbatim, but using the approved alternatives will still result in passing the evaluation. We hope this information will help to reduce the understandably high level of anxiety regarding evacuation drills in RT this year. Please keep in mind that Inflight Instructors are Flight Attendants, and they are feeling stressed about Recurrent Training as well.
Contact your Local Executive Council (LEC) leadership if you have any concerns or questions about Recurrent Training. The Inflight Training Committee may also be utilized as an additional AFA resource.
In Solidarity,
Your MEC – Jeffrey Peterson, Brian Palmer, Linda Christou, Matt Cook, Terry Taylor, Mario de’Medici, Melissa Osborne, Tim Green and Brice McGee
Your MEC Inflight Training Committee – Megan Brown, Steve Vincent, Sam Clifton and Justin Wetherell
Victoria Adams says
Thank you. We were all so stressed about the the verbage change after so many years.
E Vigiletti says
Thank you for this. Could you explain why RT was cancelled 1/17/2020 in SEA and LGB?
Jeffrey Peterson (MEC President) says
Management believed the Inflight Instructors were not sufficiently calibrated to the same standard for drill evaluations and needed additional training. They were concerned the “new” evaluations would be applied differently by different instructors. With the possibility of another FAA audit looming, management chose to cancel in order to give a few more days of prep time.
Jody says
Thanks Tim. I had a really boozy of a time with RT 2019
Debby Hufford says
Thank You to our fabulous MEC for all their work on our behalf regarding RT. May I encourage/beg/plea that you also work toward an agreement on some type of assistance with hotel stays. At minimum for many commuters this will be a two night hotel bill, and for some who cannot get home on the final day it may be a three night hotel bill. This is an expense which is difficult to fathom.
Jeffrey Peterson (MEC President) says
AFA has already called upon management to provide a hotel on more than one occasion, but management has declined. AFA cannot force management into an agreement, so we’re planning a letter writing campaign in the very near future.
Jodi Snow says
I personally cannot thank you enough for stepping in and trying to make it better for the flight attendants.I was in a November class and it was the most stressful RT in all of my years of being a flight attendant I was exhausted at the end of the day, so once again from my heart thank you
Catherine Henno says
Thank you for this very important update! Thank you for all you do!