01Command and the step up
The upgrade itself, and the first stretch after it, when the job quietly changes shape.
Performance coaching
Are you performing to the best of your ability?
One-to-one and small-group coaching for pilots who want to be better than the minimum acceptable standard — through early development, a command upgrade, a check that's coming or one that didn't go to plan, the technical detail, or the parts of the job training never quite covers. With a line captain and type rating examiner.
Start a conversationWho it's for
For the pilot, not the licence
Some pilots come with a command upgrade ahead of them. Some have just finished training and want to develop faster than the line alone will take them. Some have a check coming, or one that didn't go the way it should have. Some want to go deeper on the technical detail. And some just want an honest second opinion on how they're flying. All of it is fair game.
Wherever you are in it, the work starts from where you actually are — not from a template.
How it works
One to one, or a small group
Most of it is one to one — private, and shaped to exactly where you are. Where it helps, I also run small-group sessions and command-cohort discussions over video: a handful of pilots working through the same transition together, which surfaces things a solo conversation doesn't. Either way it starts with a conversation and goes wherever it's useful.
No fixed syllabus. We work on whatever's actually in front of you.
In confidence
This stays between us
Nobody needs to know you're working on something — not your airline, not your training department, not the crew room. Whether you're preparing for command, quietly rebuilding after a check that didn't go your way, or just want a straight answer from someone who isn't marking you, discretion is the starting point. You never have to ask for it.
Where it helps
Where it tends to matter
02Early-career development
Building judgement and depth faster than currency and the roster alone will give you.
03Interview and simulator assessment
Preparing for the process that decides it, from the inside of how it's actually run.
04Checks and retraining
Getting ready for an assessment, or regrouping calmly after one that didn't go to plan.
05Technical depth
The systems, the procedures, the detail — worked through with a type rating examiner.
06Performance under pressure
Decision-making, workload, and nerve — in the seat and out of it.
Why James
Coached from inside the assessment process
James is a serving Airbus captain and type rating examiner on the A350 and A380. As an examiner he assesses pilots against the same competencies a command course is built to develop; as an instructor on type, he can go just as deep into the technical detail. It comes from inside the process, and it's current — he still flies the line on the fleets he examines.
The Mach Talk YouTube channel is a public demonstration of the approach — a fair way to judge the thinking before you get in touch.
A350 · A380
Type rating examiner
CBTA · EBT
Competency-based
Enquiries
Start with a conversation
Where you are, what's coming up, and what you want to be sharper on. No cost, no obligation — and in confidence, always.
james@mach-talk.com