WHY FIVE TO SIX WEEKS OF TRAINING?

I recall a man asking me "Why in the world do you need to go to training for six weeks just to learn how to serve coffee and donuts?" You may be asking the same thing.  During those five weeks, from 8:30 until 5:00, sometimes later, we covered the following.

TWA Hostess Training Manual  1962

01 Basic Information
     The history of aviation and TWA
      Cities, Codes, and Airports,
      Nomenclature
      Terms and Definitions Relative to the Jet
      Jet Aircraft Comparison and Characteristics
      What Makes An Airplane Fly
      FAA and CAB
      24 Hour Clock - Time Zones
      Timetables and Official Airline Guide

01 Hostess Regulations
     Uniform Procurement
     Hostess Regulations Review
     Availability for Duty Review
     Scheduling Policy Review

03 Contract Scheduling Policy
     Contract Between TWA and Air Line Stewards and Stewardesses Assoc.
    
04 Flight Procedures Cabin Management
     Infant Care
     Care of Blind Passengers
     Items Found in PSK (Passenger Service Kit)
     Flight Procedures (Piston) Review
     Flight Procedures (Jet) Review
     Flight Procedures (General) Review

05 Meteorology
    
06 Special Information
     Hostess Conduct
     Ambassador Club

06 Dining and Liquor Service
     Dining and Commissary
     Galley Equipment
     General Galley Organization
     Beverage Service
     Bar Service Terms and Definitions
     Questions Regarding Liquor Service

08 First Aid
    
09 Emergency And Passenger Safety
     Passenger Safety
     Fire Protection

10 Aircraft And Emergency Equipment
     Aircraft Identification

# 10  was the "meat and potatoes" of training. We had to memorize and get tested on cabin equipment of each aircraft TWA flew at the time, and get qualified and certified by the FAA to fly them. This included location and operation of Cabin Doors, Emergency Exits, Emergency Slides at doors, First Aid Kits, Fire Extinguishers, Portable Oxygen, Light Control Panels, Galley Control Panels, Circuit Breakers, Interphone, Microphone, Jump Seats, Passenger Service Unit, Lounge, Coat Compartment, Lavatory, Passenger Seats, Ventilation.


Some things have changed since then, but the basic job description remains the same for today's Flight Attendant:

 "BE ABLE TO EVACUATE

A FULL LOAD OF PASSENGERS

 ON A BURNING AIRPLANE

IN 90 SECONDS OR LESS".

The rest is all "GLAMOUR".


The following  seven aircraft were in service with TWA when I graduated from training.

                                                    749 & 749 A Constellation
                          56 passengers & 57 passenger - all one class - two seats on each side.

Below is a picture of the "manual slide"  on the 749 . YIKES!  No automatic inflation here.  In case of an evacuation, we would ask "able bodied men" to volunteer to "shinny" down the slide and hold it for passengers to jump.

This was a fun plane to fly. Just two Hostesses - one worked the galley, the other worked the aisle, with lots of "ups and downs" . This plane made frequent stops, but it wasn't just the landings and take-offs that made this plane "fun" to fly, it had "ups and downs" in the air too!  The prop planes were not pressurized, so they could not fly at and high altitudes....above the turbulence and wind drafts.  Believe me, the "burp bags" got used on these planes - many, many times. An oddity on this plane was the location of one of the hostess jump seats. It was behind a curtain in the women's lavatory. No joke. It was a side seat facing a mirror, and the mirror reflected the port hole window above the jump seat. I remember sitting and watching the water slosh back and forth in the sink to my left and the horizon bobbing  up and down through the window's reflection and feeling pretty queasy. On warm summer days, it was horrible; not to mention the odor from the w.c., which was behind a bi-fold door. Come to think of it, maybe this plane wasn't all that much fun to fly. When it came to serving meals, connies didn't have drop down tray tables. Instead, there were bayonet trays in the seat pocket and we had to individually place each tray for the passengers. The trays had folding arms with a knife like edge (thus bayonet) which slid into the arms of the passenger seat. I remember a couple times flying with a more senior girl who would do a big "no no" and make a P.A. announcement for the passengers to place their own bayonet trays. It certainly saved a lot of time with a full load and a quick flight, but it wasn't "regulation". No ovens or coffee makers on the connies. Food and coffee were brought on board in containers and plugged into electrical outlets in the galley.  Sometimes the electrical outlets wouldn't work and the coffee wouldn't be hot and the meals would be cold.

Below are actual pages from my manual with my graphics. Notice the first one below....the aft of the airplane (bottom right hand corner) - right lav has a "CAS" printed in a box. That's the Cabin Attendant Seat I referred to above.
 



          
                                    1049-G Constellation
                                                            33 First Class - 39 Coach

Ahhh. The "Super G Jeststream".  After the DC-3's, the Martin 404, and the 749 Constellation, this plane was PURE LUXURY for passengers and crew! TWA was the first airline to have two classes of seating: First Class and Tourist . Due to the prop noise, First Class was in the aft section and Tourist/Coach was forward.  First Class had bayonet trays in the seat pockets and in Tourist, we gave them a pillow for their lap and placed the meal tray on top of the pillow. There were overhead berths in First Class which were used when this aircraft flew International Routes. Many a movie star enjoyed the luxury of the berths when TWA was known as the "Airline of the Stars", thanks in part to Howard Hughes' connection to Hollywood.

Check this out for wonderful pictures and stories about the stars who flew TWA: 

www.twaflightattendants.com/airlineofthestars.html

                                       1649 Constellation
                                                             32 First Class 40 Coach


                                                              Convair 880 Jet
                                                               34 First Class 55 Coach

This was the airplane Howard Hughes wanted and no one else at TWA did.  He wanted to have an all First Class Airplane.  But, that didn't work, so it was converted to First Class and Coach. It had a terrific vertical climb on take off and when seated in the aft jump seats, we always thought the tail was going to scrape the ground! The cabin doors were the heaviest of any airplane we flew. In the training mock up we had to open the door unassisted, and I was very much afraid I would not be able to do it when I was tested. This was my least favorite airplane to work, but I recall the pilots liked to fly it.

                                                         Boeing 707 131-331
                                                          30 First Class and 89 Coach
                   The configuration was changed for International flights to 12 First Class, 128 Coach.

My favorite plane of all, including the wide body Lockheed 1011 and Boeing 747. I loved this plane and the way the wings would sort of "flap" when flying. It had just the right amount of seats for comfort and serving. This is the plane depicted in ABC's Pan Am. It had dome lights in the ceiling and at night, the lights looked like stars,  and included the big and little dipper. Look at the 707 mock-up in the Pan Am series - they have replicated these dome lights. Additionally, on the mock-up, one side of the galley is the actual 707 galley with coffee maker and ovens.

                                                                Boeing  720 B
                                                              40 First Class 71 Coach

I must confess I do not remember this aircraft and don't think TWA had them in service very long. If any of my TWA readers recalls, let me know.