Saab Sim Training & PC
Posted August 4th, 2008 at 00:55 by v1valarob
The day after we passed our indoctrination test we where sent to St Louis, Missouri for training in the Saab Simulator. Colgan gives us 7 sim sessions and then a proficiency check. Sim is basically one huge mind ####, to be honest. The first day you fly the sim you are just getting used to it, we went out and did steep turns, stalls and shot a few instrument approaches. Thats where the normal flying stopped.
Sim sessions 2 through 7 are just pretty much the worst things. After you are finished, you realize how fun it all was. But when you have an engine failure prior to rotation, then a generator failure on the engine that does work and you have to fly using only a compass and back up instruments, it gets really tiring. You are running checklists over and over and over again. The biggest thing you learn about checklists is FINISH THEM (more on this later.) They basically want to give you the worst possible situations and see how you handle it, and see IF you can handle it. They also want to make the proficiency check seem like a cake walk in comparison to what they have put you through during sim.
On a side note for any family and non-aviation geeks, the sim which we fly in is a full motion simulator. The inside is a full mock up of the actual aircraft. Every button does what it really does in the real plane. When we have a hard landing in the sim, the simulator shakes and gives us a hard hit. When we retract the landing gear, we feel a thud as the gear locks up into the plane. Its about as real as it gets, and trust me, when your coming in an your about to crash it, you actually feel a bit of fear thinking its real.
The proficiency check was easy in comparison to what you get during sim training. However because you are now being tested, it is stressful. My flying partner and roommate went first. Basically the guy in the right seat flies the plane and the left seat guy runs the actual checklists and talks on the radios. You use each other, otherwise it would be impossible to fly the plane. My partner passes his ride, he also received no retraining. During our proficiency checks we are allowed to be retrained on 3 things during the actual checkride.
During my checkride we learned why completing checklists is necessary ;D After taking off we where told to fly a localizer approach. While setting up for the approach and landing we tried to extend the flaps like you normally would. However our flaps failed. My flying partner then ran the checklist for no flaps. The checklist will basically run down a few items to look at, it will give you new airspeeds for your approach, as now you will not have flaps to slow you down. The new speeds are located on this chart, and right underneath the chart is the last part of the checklist, which we forgot to do. The last part basically tells you to override the Ground Proximity Warning System. In normal flight if you have no flaps down and you are close to terrain, the aircraft will start to yell at you “Terrain, Terrain.” Then it will say “Pull up, Pull up.” You are required to follow it. When you put your flaps down, it overrides this warning. However when your flaps arent working and your coming into land you dont want that thing shouting at you, and giving you a false warning, because of course your getting close to terrain, YOUR LANDING! However we forgot the flip the override switch. So while coming into land the plane starts yelling at me to pull up, I realize that this is a checkride and there is no way I am going to crash into a mountain I cant see and bust the checkride (these checkrides are done with the plane set at “night time” so you cant see anything but runway lights), so I opt to go around. As soon as I call for the missed approach the person giving the checkride pauses the sim and asks us what just happened. My partner then fesses up that he just realized we didnt finish the checklist and thats why the plane was shouting at us. Lesson learned to us about finishing checklists.
We are then given vectors to another airport. At the other airport we are told that we are going to shoot an approach to one runway, but circle to another. No big deal, we had done this same approach a ton of times before in training. However this time it was going to be without flaps, she kept them failed. The problem with this is that now instead of coming in at around 125 knots, Im coming in at somewhere closer to 150knots. So as I begin to turn toward the runway at the same location I always would have, I overshoot the runway. I also come in high, as we have no flaps, this causes the plane to start shouting “Sink rate, sink rate” meaning Im coming down to fast. My mind is now going nuts thinking, “Oh ####, Im about to fail this checkride.” I then have a hard landing. The person doing our check then asks me if I knew how much bank I had into the turn. I said that I knew it was “alot.” She then said “you had 45 degrees.” Pretty unacceptable. 30 degrees is pretty much max allowed. She then started me back at the beginning and gave me flaps this time. I came around and turned towards the runway and had a perfect circle landing. This was my only “retraining” during proficiency check. Needless to say I was pretty pleased to get it over with
Sim sessions 2 through 7 are just pretty much the worst things. After you are finished, you realize how fun it all was. But when you have an engine failure prior to rotation, then a generator failure on the engine that does work and you have to fly using only a compass and back up instruments, it gets really tiring. You are running checklists over and over and over again. The biggest thing you learn about checklists is FINISH THEM (more on this later.) They basically want to give you the worst possible situations and see how you handle it, and see IF you can handle it. They also want to make the proficiency check seem like a cake walk in comparison to what they have put you through during sim.
On a side note for any family and non-aviation geeks, the sim which we fly in is a full motion simulator. The inside is a full mock up of the actual aircraft. Every button does what it really does in the real plane. When we have a hard landing in the sim, the simulator shakes and gives us a hard hit. When we retract the landing gear, we feel a thud as the gear locks up into the plane. Its about as real as it gets, and trust me, when your coming in an your about to crash it, you actually feel a bit of fear thinking its real.
The proficiency check was easy in comparison to what you get during sim training. However because you are now being tested, it is stressful. My flying partner and roommate went first. Basically the guy in the right seat flies the plane and the left seat guy runs the actual checklists and talks on the radios. You use each other, otherwise it would be impossible to fly the plane. My partner passes his ride, he also received no retraining. During our proficiency checks we are allowed to be retrained on 3 things during the actual checkride.
During my checkride we learned why completing checklists is necessary ;D After taking off we where told to fly a localizer approach. While setting up for the approach and landing we tried to extend the flaps like you normally would. However our flaps failed. My flying partner then ran the checklist for no flaps. The checklist will basically run down a few items to look at, it will give you new airspeeds for your approach, as now you will not have flaps to slow you down. The new speeds are located on this chart, and right underneath the chart is the last part of the checklist, which we forgot to do. The last part basically tells you to override the Ground Proximity Warning System. In normal flight if you have no flaps down and you are close to terrain, the aircraft will start to yell at you “Terrain, Terrain.” Then it will say “Pull up, Pull up.” You are required to follow it. When you put your flaps down, it overrides this warning. However when your flaps arent working and your coming into land you dont want that thing shouting at you, and giving you a false warning, because of course your getting close to terrain, YOUR LANDING! However we forgot the flip the override switch. So while coming into land the plane starts yelling at me to pull up, I realize that this is a checkride and there is no way I am going to crash into a mountain I cant see and bust the checkride (these checkrides are done with the plane set at “night time” so you cant see anything but runway lights), so I opt to go around. As soon as I call for the missed approach the person giving the checkride pauses the sim and asks us what just happened. My partner then fesses up that he just realized we didnt finish the checklist and thats why the plane was shouting at us. Lesson learned to us about finishing checklists.
We are then given vectors to another airport. At the other airport we are told that we are going to shoot an approach to one runway, but circle to another. No big deal, we had done this same approach a ton of times before in training. However this time it was going to be without flaps, she kept them failed. The problem with this is that now instead of coming in at around 125 knots, Im coming in at somewhere closer to 150knots. So as I begin to turn toward the runway at the same location I always would have, I overshoot the runway. I also come in high, as we have no flaps, this causes the plane to start shouting “Sink rate, sink rate” meaning Im coming down to fast. My mind is now going nuts thinking, “Oh ####, Im about to fail this checkride.” I then have a hard landing. The person doing our check then asks me if I knew how much bank I had into the turn. I said that I knew it was “alot.” She then said “you had 45 degrees.” Pretty unacceptable. 30 degrees is pretty much max allowed. She then started me back at the beginning and gave me flaps this time. I came around and turned towards the runway and had a perfect circle landing. This was my only “retraining” during proficiency check. Needless to say I was pretty pleased to get it over with
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