737 type rating Day 1: what actually happens

Day one, hour by hour

Day one is orientation, not flying. Expect roughly seven to ten hours in the classroom: meeting your instructors and classmates, receiving your training plan and flight records, and being issued the key reference material you will use for the rest of the course, most notably the digital Quick Reference Handbook (QRH). Some time also goes to administrative setup, badges, building access, and a walk-through of how the course itself is structured week by week.

It is a long day, but a low-pressure one. Nobody is graded on day one, and the goal is simply to leave with the logistics sorted so the actual systems teaching can start at full pace from day two.

Why you don't fly the sim on day one

A Level D full flight simulator session is expensive to run and briefed around specific systems or procedures knowledge. Putting a candidate in it before any ground school would mean burning simulator time on pure familiarisation, which classroom teaching does far more cheaply. Simulator sessions start once ground school has covered enough of the relevant systems and procedures for each session to build real skill instead of just orientation.

The full programme timeline

Most Boeing 737 type rating programmes run 3 to 4 weeks, commonly cited as 28 to 35 days, broken roughly into:

• Ground school, 7 to 14 days at 8 to 10 hours a day, covering the systems, performance and procedures content.
• Simulator training, 25 to 40 hours across multiple sessions, building from basic handling and procedures toward full non-normal and multi-crew scenarios.
• Skill test, the check ride with a DGCA-approved examiner that ends the course.

Some programmes run parts of ground school and early simulator sessions concurrently rather than fully sequentially, which is one reason quoted durations vary between providers even when the total content taught is similar.

How hard is it, honestly

The honest answer is that it is demanding on pace, not on raw conceptual difficulty. The systems content is learnable, and none of it requires an engineering background, but 8 to 10 hours a day of new material with no built-in slow week means there is very little room to fall behind and catch up later the way you might in a CPL ground subject spread over months. Most people who find it genuinely hard are behind on pace early and never fully recover the gap, not people who found the content itself conceptually out of reach. That is exactly why preparation before day one matters as much as it does: it buys margin against pace, which is the real challenge here.

Where it ends: the skill test

The programme ends with a skill test conducted by a DGCA-approved examiner, assessing the procedures, non-normal handling and crew coordination built up across the simulator sessions. Passing it is what allows the type rating to actually be endorsed on your licence, the training itself does not grant the rating on its own.

How to arrive ready

• Have memory items, limitations and V-speeds cold before ground school starts, not during it.
• Understand the major systems at a working level so ground school reinforces rather than introduces them from zero.
• Sort logistics, accommodation and rest before day one, so the first few genuinely long days do not also involve moving house.
• Expect day one to be administrative and low-pressure, and pace yourself for the weeks after it, not for day one itself.

FAQ

AviationGrade editorial team

From common ATO day-one orientation structures and published programme timelines

We build the B737 systems course and question bank these guides link to. Corrections welcome and credited.