Being an air cabin crew member is a job with great responsibilities, but also great rewards. As well as keeping up to 850 passengers fed, watered and calm, you’re also responsible for their safety in the event of any disturbance or accident. It’s a heavy responsibility, but the reward is the jet-set lifestyle so many dreams of. Starting the day in Gatwick, overnighting in Hong Kong, then on to Sydney and back the next day. Who knows? The next week, you could be in Istanbul, Paris or New York. To get that air cabin crew job, however, you’re going to need some specialist training. And where better to train for life serving aboard a commercial airliner than on a commercial airliner?

Decommissioned airliners are sometimes converted to serve as training aircraft for prospective cabin crew. They have a range of interactive facilities which mock-up cabins or standard training equipment doesn’t offer. Though you can practice how to reach customers, access equipment or carry out drills in such mock-ups, nothing else can so adequately prepare you for the sort of confined spaces within which you will (hopefully) be working.

A standard training programme aboard a trainer aircraft will help prepare air cabin crew for the sort of emergency situations which can’t so effectively be recreated in mock-ups. There are the practicalities of an overwing exit, including door removal – hard to replicate if you don’t have a wing to hand – and full training in the operation of the cabin doors. The aircraft also allows for the training of air cabin crew in some of the most stressful situations the job can throw up, such as having to locate an infant in a smoke-filled cabin or dealing with the rapid decompression of the cabin. There are also realistic simulations of a fire breaking out in various parts of the cabin – including the washroom and galley – with practical drills in how cabin crew should react. If the worst should come to the worst and the pilot is incapacitated, air cabin crew will already have experience of the full drill and the checklists which need to be performed.

Happily, it’s not all unconscious pilots and blazing infernos in the world of aviation. The air cabin crew training programme also covers the more routine, day-to-day work of working for a busy airline. You will be trained in the use of the passenger address system, and the ins and outs of the famous safety demo. You’ll also receive training in the use of the trolley, serving duty free, tax paid and discounted goods.

If you already have air cabin crew experience or are looking to brush up on specific areas of your knowledge for any reason, then specific programmes can be arranged for you. There is no substitute for a trainer aircraft when it comes to your cabin crew training programme.