Boeing 737: Revising for Your Type Rating

The 737 is a twin-engine, single-aisle Boeing aircraft that first flew in 1967. It exists in several generations: the Original series, the Classic, the Next Generation (NG) and the MAX. The Classic and NG are fitted with CFM56 engines, while the MAX uses LEAP-1B engines.

Depending on your career path, you may be concerned with one or several generations. The differences between them — for example between the NG and the MAX — are covered by dedicated training: check with your airline to find out what's required.

Unlike Airbus aircraft, the 737 has conventional flight controls: a control column and wheel, connected to hydraulic systems. If the hydraulic systems are lost, there's a manual reversion mode available. Understanding this principle is essential for answering questions on hydraulic failures.

The stabilizer trim, flaps and slats, spoilers, and autothrottle management each have their own particularities. On the MAX, the role of the MCAS system, added to address high angle-of-attack handling characteristics, is one of the topics you need to know.

The 737's hydraulics rely on two main systems, A and B, backed up by a standby system. For each one, learn what it powers and what remains available if it's lost.

On the electrical side, remember the logic of the power sources (engine generators, APU, standby power source, battery) and how the buses are restored after a failure. Fuel, air, pressurization, anti-ice/de-ice, landing gear and brakes round out the syllabus, each with their own typical failures.

At Boeing, failures are handled using QRH (Quick Reference Handbook) checklists, preceded by a few memory items to be carried out without reference to the handbook. Knowing how to distinguish these memory items from the read-and-do steps, and knowing when to move on to the checklist, is a classic check item.

Also learn to read your aircraft's alerts: lights, annunciators, messages, and what immediate response each one requires.

Start with the chapters where you have the least experience, reading first, then working through a set of questions per chapter. Read the explanation for every mistake and note down the ones that keep recurring.

Set aside dedicated sessions for limitations and memory items, which you need to know cold, without having to think about them. And from time to time, do a mixed set of questions covering several chapters: this is what most closely resembles a real check.

If you're preparing for a check with a specific operator, ask them for their list of topics: each airline places particular emphasis on its own procedures, and it's better to devote part of your time to that than to revise everything at the same level of detail.

Examiners often start from an alert and ask you to explain the whole chain: which system is affected, which checklist applies, which actions are memory items, and what limitations remain afterward. They also check that you understand the logic of the system — for example, why a given component remains powered after the loss of a hydraulic system.

Differences between 737 generations are also a possible topic. If your airline operates several versions, prepare a short list of what changes from one version to another.

Allow thirty to forty minutes. Spend ten minutes re-reading a chapter, work through a set of questions, then read through all the explanations. Finish by restating out loud the logic of the system you've studied, as if explaining it to a colleague.

Keep one session per week for memory items and limitations, and another for a mixed set covering several chapters. This alternation keeps you from thinking you've mastered a chapter just because you've just read it.

The first pitfall is mixing up the generations: a rule valid on one version may be different on another. When a question mentions a specific version, place it in the right context before answering. The second is reasoning as if you were on a fly-by-wire aircraft: on the 737 the controls are conventional, and the behaviour in the event of a hydraulic failure is based on a different principle altogether.

A third pitfall concerns the memory items: you need to know them exactly, in the correct order, because they're the very first things you carry out, even before opening the handbook. Reading them through once isn't enough: have a colleague test you on them, or run through a set of questions, on a regular basis.

In the ATPL's Type Rating tab, the 737 has sets of questions organized by chapter, in English just like its documentation, along with illustrated courses that follow the aircraft's systems.

These question sets are training tools: they don't replace your aircraft's manuals (FCOM, FCTM, QRH) or your airline's documentation, which remain the sole authoritative references. ForAllPilots is an independent website, with no affiliation to manufacturers, airlines or authorities.