I'm not a commercial pilot, thus the question:

How much, and with what study method, do you prep for recurrent sim and ground training, particularly on a/c types for which you are rated but don't fly in your day job?

The rule of thumb is every 1 hour of sim takes 2 hours to prep for.

I try to prep in small-ish increments over a few weeks. The cruise is a good time for this if you fly long haul. The cockpit is right there so you can "chair fly" and actually get a feel for stuff, and the other guy might be helpful to bounce ideas off. I print out the sim profile, go through all the relevant charts, read everything in the manuals about every specified proficiency and training item in the manuals, and make notes of relevant stuff.

I find it helpful not to "cram" but to let things simmer in my mind. Small increments periodically versus trying to cram a massive amount of stuff into your head at once. Even if you only manage to study for 10-15 minutes because it is the middle of the night, it does help.

If the sim seems to be one of the more involved ones, I try to meet up with my sim buddy beforehand, even if only a couple of hours prior to reporting time. At the very least I'll send him an instant message to see if we have any question marks. (Sometimes your sim buddy changes last minute, or you get a sim on reserve call, but those are the breaks.)

Even when I don't have a sim coming up, I try to at least study a little bit during the cruise, or discuss some scenario with the other guy. Endless repetition of memory items and re-reading of the manuals tends to come in handy. I might scenario (or be inspired by reading the maintenance log), then figure out what the scenario entails, what capabilities are affected, and what my actions should be.

Sometimes I go nuts at home and make tables and graphs and "Cliff Notes". Everyone has their particular study habits and ways of learning. Some guys have an eidetic memory. I don't. So I need to organise stuff, write it down, reorganise, reread, go blank when asked a question during a check, repeat. I find it works best for me to take notes on paper. I use note paper to scribble, graffiti all over a sim profile, use a proper notebook. Rereading my illegibly handwritten notes half a year later often leads to a few "aha!" moments.

"Every day is a school day."

WPvsMW wrote:

How much, and with what study method, do you prep for recurrent sim and ground training, particularly on a/c types for which you are rated but don't fly in your day job?

If I don’t fly it in my day job, I don’t need to spend any time preparing for any recurrent sim and ground training because there isn’t any.

If I do find myself in the position to fly one of the types on my certificate again, I’ll have to go through the entire training course to get qualified to fly it again.

Starlionblue, do you load your "cockpit iPad" with study material, even for "dormant types" for which you have a recurrent?

Woodreau, if you have type ratings for a/c that are in your operator's fleet but not your "active" type, would the operator pay for your recurrent ground and sim on the other types if you elected to stay current?

WPvsMW wrote:

Woodreau, if you have type ratings for a/c that are in your operator's fleet but not your "active" type, would the operator pay for your recurrent ground and sim on the other types if you elected to stay current?

No the company will not pay for the training as they do not have a requirement for it.

When it comes down to requalifying on a type rating I already possess I will go through the full course again and after 90 days my currency in the previous aircraft lapses.

WPvsMW wrote:

Starlionblue, do you load your "cockpit iPad" with study material, even for "dormant types" for which you have a recurrent?

Woodreau, if you have type ratings for a/c that are in your operator's fleet but not your "active" type, would the operator pay for your recurrent ground and sim on the other types if you elected to stay current?

I don't have any "dormant types" unless you count light pistons. As Woodreau says, the company is paying for me to stay current on the type(s) I operate. They're not going to spend money on training me on other types since they don't make money off that. If I change fleet I'll be trained on the new type and my currency on the old one will lapse.

The company apps keep the documentation on my iPad up to date. All the manuals, performance tools and other bits are on there. If the company doesn't operate a type, it won't be on the iPad. It's a controlled device and we can't put just anything on there.