Kellwolf's Upgrade Updates

[kellwolf]

Originally Posted by BobDDuck

Kel, sim 2 is normally a bit better. I pretty much thought I was going to fail my upgrade after the first sim session.

It's hard flying with your left hand. And it's even harder adjusting the damn seat.

Glad it's not just me.

[ERfly]

Originally Posted by kellwolf

Glad it's not just me.

It happens to all of us. The first sim will be a little shaky. Also, be advised, you will most likely have one sim session that, to you, will be pure Hell. Nothing will go right and you'll walk out thinking that you can't fly and will never pass the type ride. We all have them, and Lord knows I had mine. However, the subsequent sims and type ride went beautifully. Don't let it get you down. Just a head's up that will probably happen.

Good luck, man! It's worth it in the end!

[kellwolf]

Sim 2 went a lot better. Still need to smooth off the rough edges, but a lot better than sim 1.

Started out doing the flight deck safety/inspection checks for a through flight, so we got started a bit quicker. None of those pesky FFOD items. Caught the "APU FIRE FAIL" that was tossed in on me, and pushed back. Got a no lightoff, put the thrust lever to shut off.....and notice the fuel flow wasn't decreasing, so I hit the engine fire switch to kill the fuel SOV. That did the trick. Oddly enough, that was the only abnormal start he gave me. Ran the QRH and taxiied out. Normal takeoff and climb up to 5000 feet for my new fav manuever, steep turns. If my type ride lived or died tomorrow on my steep turns, I'd be okay. Stalls were MUCH better. Managed to do them within PTS, so that little fear in the back of my mind is gone.

Finished the stalls and got a "HYD 3 LO PRESS" message. Ran the QRH and discovered no fluid in our #3 hyd system. This is a bad thing b/c you lose the normal gear extension and the nose wheel steering. I can live without being able to retract the nose door. Declared an emergency, got vectors back to MEM for a LOC 36L approach. Asked for 36C since it's 2000 ft longer, but it was closed. At least I asked, though. Got set up for the approach, fought off the panicky/stressed ATC guy that kept trying to rush me into an approach to get me out of his airspace, ran the last couple of checklists and headed in. I'm still a little shaky on some of the call-outs in the sim, but I can fire them off when I'm sitting in a chair not moving. Just gonna take more practice to fight through the adrenaline dump, I guess. Normal landing in a 10 kt crosswind, up until the accumulators for the inboard brakes finally gave out, no nose wheel steering, and I wasn't sure I was EVERY gonna get the thing stopped.

Reset on 18R, take off and had an engine flame out at V1. This was my first V1 cut in over a year, and it was pretty bad. I wound up about 10 feet off to the left of the runway in the air, so we reset and did it again. Much better this time. Did the SE takeoff profile to the letter, got up to the final segment and ran the single engine procedures QRH. 'Course the WX in MEM was crap, so we couldn't go back there, so we wound up going to Tupelo for the VOR/DME 18. Did all the normal stuff we do, declared an emergency, checklists, notifying the right people, etc, etc and headed to TUP. Better on the call outs for SE non-precision, and the go around (hey, you KNEW that was coming, right?) wasn't too bad. Publshed missed and entered the hold to get set up for the ILS 17 into TUP. SE ILS went well, and the SE landing was actually better than the normal landing from earlier.

All in all, I still need work on the landings from the left seat. I'm winding up off centerline b/c I'm used to the sight picture from the right seat. My hands are starting to work together a little bit better now, but it still needs work. I think if I can get the landings down, iron my call-outs a little more and just relax a bit I'll be okay.

Sim 3 is tonight, and I'll be halfway done with sims. Sim partner's checkride is next Wed. Mine is next Thur.

[cptnmarcus]

Kellwolf congrats on the upgrade. I just signed my first release as 121 captain on Monday. Felt nice. I'm sure when your done, the whole thing will just seem like a process.

[kellwolf]

Sim 3 was right out of the Marquis de Sade's playbook. Sadly, I found this as the sim I had the most fun in so far, though.

Started off in MSP with heavy thunderstorms all around and lightning everywhere. Honestly, in the real world, my ass wouldn't have left the gate. Thinking it might be some trick, I said this. Instructor said "Sorry, sim world says ya gotta go." Ah well.

So, lined up on the runway, took a look with the radar and asked for an immediate left turn after takeoff to avoid the level 5 right in front of us. Approved. Windshear on takeoff, so we aborted the takeoff. Try again. Climbing through about 400 ft, we got a windshear warning and carried out that procedure.....right into severe turbulence.

AP kicked itself off, and I'm hand flying in this crap. The airplane's yelling "bank angle" about every 30 seconds, so I request a block altitude along with a possible report of ANYTHING smoother. Gives us a block from 4000-10000 and the smooth rides are at FL210. Great. About this time the radar fails. Well, that's not too good, so we declare an emergency, tell 'em we want to go back to MSP and we'll need a heads up on the heavy stuff. So we start heading back. Get a descent to 4000 and it magically smooths out.

Start getting vectored for the ILS 30R, and WHAM! wake turbulence from a 757 knocks us sideways. Recovered from that and continued what we were doing. Sim instructor has me disconnect the AP during the approach. Break out about 500 AGL, and we get a windshear warning on short final, so we do the go around and follow those procedures.

Reposition to FL350.....and both engines start spooling down. Maintain .7M (or 240 kts below FL340) and run the QRH for a dual engine flame out while turning towards MSP. Get a windmilling re-light on one and do a crossbleed re-light on the other. Crisis averted.


Vectors for the LOC 30R to a normal landing. Reposition on the runway, climb out.....DING "FLAPS FAIL." Okay. Run the QRH for a flaps fail, climb checklist, call dispatch and MX see what they want to do.....and we're coming back to MSP. Call the FA, tell her why we're doing a 180 and let the passengers know. Get setup for a visual to 30L (second longest runway since 22 was closed). Go to back it up with an ILS.....oh, glideslopes out of service. No problem. They've got PAPIs. Huh? THOSE are out, too? Well, we can.....crap FMS just failed. Okay, looks like this is gonna be done the old fashioned way. Sad thing is, if I hadn't flared a BIT too much, I woulda nailed the 1000 ft markers.

Stopped, taxiied to the gate, ran the shutdown and terminating checklists and called it a night.

Off for two days, and sim four (mountain flying, yay!) is on Saturday.

[kellwolf]

Sim 4 - aka Mountain Flying for dummies

Start out on the runway in Helena, MT, 52,000 lbs and it's 25C outside. Which means the airplane is gonna climb even worse than it normally does. Takeoff roll, and lose the left engine at V1. Now, Helena is basically in the bottom of a fishbowl with mountains forming the sides, so we have a company procedure for engine out climbs. So, we start flying that procedure while doing the SE takeoff profile. And lemme tell ya, we had PLENTY of time to make the calls. This thing climbs like a DOG when it's heavy, hot and single engine. Finish up the company procedure and get repositioned to FL370.

Now it's time for some of the fun stuff. Jet upset, unusual attitudes, mach buffet and mach tuck demo and a dutch roll demo. I wasn't totaly comfortable flying in the left seat, but after doing all of those, I feel TONS better over there. Then we had an explosive decompression to an emergency descent with the masks on. Finished that up, and did a max rate descent down to 7000 ft for a CFIT/GPWS demo. Basically it was to show us what the system will do when you start getting close to the things that will make you go "splat." Did the recovery manuever from the GPWS warning and leveled out.

Next was some flight control malfunctions. First off was an aileron PCU runway. Not much to do other than catch it and fight the airplane. 'Course I found out the left seat in this particular sim aparently doesn't have full travel on the ailerons. Plane rolled over on it's back even though I was about to break the friggin yoke. The FO's side still had plenty of travel, but the CA side was to the stops. Me thinks someone needs to re-calibrate. Anyway, averted that crisis by running the QRH procedures. Then we got the dreaded stab trim runaway. I felt the yoke start to push back against me....hard, so I hit the disconnect button. I hit it too soon for the teaching part of the lesson, though. It wasn't out of trim very badly, so the instructor spun my trim up so I could feel what it's like to fly it fighting the stab trim (AP doesn't work in this situation).

So, fighting this beast (left arm was totally extended just to keep the nose down and in level flight), I flew the southern DME arc into the ILS 27 into Helena.....and no runway in sight at minimum. So, now I do the go around out of trim. Reset to about a 5 mile final, and then land it out of trim.

Normal takeoff out of Helena for vectors on the northern DME arc for the ILS 27.....no FMS. So, we do the whole thing green needles with the RMI up for the VOR. It's just like doing a DME arc in a Seminole with an RMI, you're just going really fast. Come in on that approach, land and I'm done.

All in all, the lesson went really well. I forgot to de-select 1/2 bank when I got to Vt on the SE procedure, but other than that I managed to shuffle my way through without any other screw ups.

Tomorrow I've got the insanely early 4 am sim slot, and it's winter ops procedures, an ISIS only approach, an RA recovery and a LOC BC approach. After that, it's one more sim, and on to the checkrides.

[WestIndian425]

Wow! Those sim sessions are a lot of work...

[kellwolf]

Sim #5.....which started before the sun was even up this morning.

I went second, so I started out on the ground in Jackson, TN. Departed runway 20 and got vectors to the Jackson VOR. Cleared for the full approach, LOC BC 20. Went out, did the procedure turn, came back and flew the approach to a landing. No problems. Take off, climb up to 5K and did a steep turn to the left and one to the right. Takeoff stall and landing stall both went okay. No longer concerned about stalls and steep turns on the checkride.

Zapped to MEM, where there's a 1/2 inch of snow on the runway, and do the contaminated runway takeoff. Climb up, and get an ICE DET FAIL. Dispatch and MX say "go back to MEM," so we go back for a two engine ILS 36L to a normal landing with poor braking. Zapped out to the OM and did the ISIS only approach. Best way to do this is for the PF to control pitch and bank while the PM controls thrust levers and speed. Normal landing.


Take off again, and we get an N1 fan burst at V1. Deal with the single engine stuff.....poorly. I don't know whether it was just early in the morning or just a total brain fart, but I forgot to call flaps up. Everything happened fast, and he failed the AP on me right when I called for it on. Wouldn't actualy happen on a checkride since they're not supposed to give you more than one failure without telling you, but that's no excuse for not catching the AP not coming on. Anyway, back around for a single engine ILS to 36C, and no problems on the approach.

I was really disappointed with my performance on this one. This close to the checkride, I shouldn't be flubbing calls on any of the profiles. So, I'm gonna berate myself for about ......7 more minutes and let it go. Tomorrow's the last sim, so assuming I do well with everything (and I think I'll be okay tomorrow), checkride is on Thurs.

[kellwolf]

Sim 6 - Phase check sim

Well, this one went quite well. Started off at the gate like I had just accepted the aircraft from another crew. Did the flight deck inspection check, before start, cleared to start and pushed back. Got a no light off on the engine start, so that wasn't too bad. Taxi to 18R (RVR 700) and do the checklists on the way out. Got an N1 fan burst on the takeoff, so we aborted the takeoff. Zapped back to the end of the runway and did a normal takeoff. Climbed up to 10K for steep turn, takeoff stall and landing stall. Honestly, they were the best steep turns and stalls I've ever done. Told to intercept a radial outbound, and as we intercept we get a R FUEL FILTER caution message. MX says bring it back to MEM, so we go back for the LOC 18R. Lots of step down fixes on this one, so we did that....and FedEx was on the runway. Go around, and the engine caught fire about 500 AGL on the go around. Come back around for a SE ILS 36L to a landing. Zapped to the end of the runway again, and get a left engine flame out at V1. Get through the profile and the malfunction is reset. Then we get a FLAPS FAIL caution message and get vectors for the RNAV 36C. Do that just fine, and I'm done for the day.

After my sim partner had his turn, we still had FORTY FIVE MINUTES left in the lesson. So, he opted to do another takeoff stall since his was a little shaky. His last one was right on the money, though. My landings were shaky (kept floating), and we discovered it was b/c I try to land the sim like the actual airplane. It won't do it. You just have to more or less thump it on. Once I got that figured out, it was in the first 1500 ft everytime. Two engines, one engine, no flaps. Didn't matter. Once I got it figured out that you really DON'T flare in the sim, it was cool. Basically, the thrust vector generated by pulling the engines to idle pulls the nose up (yeah, it's backwards from GA airplanes b/c the engines are in the TAIL). It actually pulls the nose up into a near perfect flare when you do it. Works in the sim. You'll rupture someone's spleen doing that in the real plane, though.

So, I'm officially signed off for the checkride on Thurs. I'm off tomorrow, my sim partner goes on Wed, and my turn is at 10 am on Thurs. If things go well, we've got LOFT on Fri and Cat II training on Mon.

[SteveC]

Knock the bottom out of it buddy!

[ERfly]

Best of luck to you, man!

You guys do a separate sim for Cat II? We have ours combined with the LOFT.

[Captain_Bob]

Woohoo!!! Almost there!

Good luck Thursday!

Bob

[ready2fly]

Originally Posted by SteveC

Knock the bottom out of it buddy!

Just want to say....good luck....we're all counting on you!!

[sdfcvoh]

Looking forward to reading about how great it went!

[IFly85]

Goodluck on the ride. Cat II what's that?...

[Boris Badenov]

Knock em dead. I mean figuratively.

[Douglas H]

6 sims before your checkride? At CHQ, you only get 4.

Would have been nice to get the extra time. You sound prepared and relaxed.

Enjoy the rest of upgrade.

[E6BAV8R]

Good luck mane!

[kellwolf]

Well, my sim partner's checkride was yesterday, and that one didn't go so well. I had mine today.

Started out by meeting the check airman at around noonish. We went through the paperwork, verified the 8710, medical, license, etc. Finally got in the box about 20 minutes later. Started off at the gate with the flight deck saftey and flight deck inspection checks already done. So, all we had to do was set it up for a flight from MEM to MOB, and start from there. Did my takeoff briefing, the before start flow and the before start check. Cleared to start flow and checklist, had the ground crew capture us, and got clearance to pushback. Pushed back, one good engine start, so I released the ground crew. Second engine had a non-starter cutout. Ran the procedure and the QRH and went from there. Taxiied out to 18R with no issues, running checklists along the way. Cleared to takeoff, and got an N2 vib on takeoff. Rejected takeoff and shut the engine down. Ran the checklists and reset to the end of the runway.

Normal takeoff and climb. Did some intercepting and tracking with the FMS, and then did a steep turn. No problem. Set up to do a takeoff stall, and the demons returned. Lost about 300 ft in the stall, but just kept flying the airplane. It's the examiner's choice to do another stall, and he opted to have me do a stall in the landing config, which I nailed perfectly. Cleared to 12K, but then ATC says MOB has closed due to security issues. Dispatch says return to MEM. So, we head back to MEM for an ILS 36L. Go around at 50 ft due to a mower on the runway, and lose an engine in the go around.

Climb single engine in the published missed and hold at MREON. Get setup for the GPS 18R. Go back, do a single engine GPS 18R with no runway at the PDP. Single engine missed approach and back for the ILS 36L, except this time the AP failed during the approach, so I was hand flying. I somehow pulled out a greaser in the sim single engine, which I didn't think was even possible.....

Reset on the runway, takeoff with a V1 cut. Climb up to 4000, run the checklists, and then reset with both engines back......and the flaps fail. Run the QRH and get vectors for either 36L or 36C. I opted for 36C since it's the longer one. Break out about 100 above MDA, click the AP off and landed with a slight sideload (12 kt crosswind). Stopped, told to turn left, contact ground. Ground clears us to taxi to gate C2. Park it, run the shutdown check and I'm told "Congrats. Good job."

So, there ya go. I've got an ATP with a CL-65 type rating now. I've got LOFT tomorrow and Cat II on Monday. Honestly, it feels like someone has lifted a 3 ton truck off of me.

[BobDDuck]

WAHOOO!!!

Congrats man.

[Polar742]

Congrats!!! Sounds like the ride went real well since he combined a bunch of maneuvers.

I wanna hear about the first line flight when you sign the book, and turn your head left and ask the window if it's ready to go.

[Alchemy]

Congrats on the ATP/type!

[FlyboyZR1]

What went wrong with your sim partners ride?

Congrats to a job well-done, you earned and deserve it! Appreciate all the informative updates.

[SteveC]

Congrats Steve!

[bike21]

Originally Posted by kellwolf

Climb single engine in the published missed and hold at MREON. Get setup for the GPS 18R. Go back, do a single engine GPS 18R with no runway at the PDP.

Congrats sir!

btw...are you guys approved for GPS approaches? We are not unfortunately, only terminal & enroute for now.