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Reply With QuoteYou know, they should offer passenger seats in those simulators. Sell tickets for them. I'll hop on.
Every airline pilot has to take simulator check rides. At my line, we use only sims. Delta still does some training in real aircraft. Line pilots go three times over a twenty-four month period to the box. However, instructors have to go once a quarter. Probably because we don't fly the line, management figures we need to do more sim training. (Actually pretty good thinking for management types.) About six weeks ago was my turn in the box for the quarter.
We were doing unusual maneuvers and upset training. That's the fun stuff. You almost never see an unusual attitude let alone an upset in line flying. And because upsets and unusual attitudes are dangerous we avoid them with passengers onboard. Thus, the box is the only place to practice them. Training follows a syllabus. Classroom study with lots of power point slides. An oral review with an instructor and then fly the box. This year, with a couple of emergency descents in the book I knew that would be on the agenda in the box.
The trip was fun, lots of unusual attitudes. Yes, you can roll a 737, the rate's not impressive, but it's fun! About half way through, the instructor called for an emergency descent. The goal is simple descend from the flight levels to 10,000 feet as fast as possible but still in control. The idea being that an emergency descent would be required by some sort of pressurization emergency. To save the lives of the passengers, we have to get them to life supporting atmosphere quickly. (Yes we have supplemental oxygen, but there's no guarantee that all the passengers will use it correctly. You know, extend the hose to its full length, place the mask over your mouth and nose and breathe normally. Extending the hose actually activates the oxygen flow. That's the step that most pax don't accomplish.)
The emergency descent in the 737 is fun and relatively straight forward. Memory items are few. That's true of most jets today. Ring the chime three times. Power to flight idle. Left bank to 45 degrees if the pilot flying is in the left seat, right bank if the pilot flying is in the right seat. Speed brakes out above 330 knots indicated airspeed. As the plane descends it airspeed will decay. Below 330 knots indicated, gear down. From very high altitudes, gear and speed brakes may come out at the same time. By now, we're descending at about 5000 feet per minute in a 45 degree bank left turn. Below 250 knots, flaps to approach and retract speed brakes, slow to Vref and level out at 10,000 feet. Just a shade over four minutes from FL300 to 10,000 feet. Just a touch over positive 1G for the whole maneuver. That pins everybody in their seats if they didn't have their seat belts fastened. Beats any E-ticket ride I've ever seen.
You know, they should offer passenger seats in those simulators. Sell tickets for them. I'll hop on.
"Only Nixon can go to China." -- Old Vulcan proverb.
I'll take economy classOriginally Posted by gunnut
You know, they should offer passenger seats in those simulators. Sell tickets for them. I'll hop on.
No such thing as a good tax - Churchill
To make mistakes is human. To blame someone else for your mistake, is strategic.
I've done the 737, 747, 757, and 777 simulators at Boeing's training facility. They are fun as hell.
A 747 will just barely fit under the West Seattle bridge- take off from 13R on Boeing field, 180 degree right turn immediately out of the pattern and descend down to the river, 50' above the water, follow it all the way to out Elliot Bay.
"We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008
Hell yes!You know, they should offer passenger seats in those simulators. Sell tickets for them. I'll hop on.
My 2 hours in the 747 simulator was bought at a charity auction for $300. Even got to bring a couple friends.
Boeing donates a few of these every year.
"We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008
Will they fly me to the US price inclusive?
Lol. No, you got to get yourself here, then you have to be high bidder.
But $300 was cheap considering the airlines pay $2,000 an hour for the same machine.
When I was living in Seattle I had a friend who was a simulator instructor, so I was able to get in at night on a few occasions and play around. His only request was that I didn't prang the hydraulics. My first attempt at manual landing a 757 was a little bumpy...
The 777 was the newest one, and had the best programs. You could even see people eating dinner in the Space Needle on a fly-by. Very realistic right down to the thump-thump when the gear doors closed, and the buffeting when you applied the airbrakes.
Next time I get up to Whidbey Island I have a promise to get me in on the EA-18 simulator, which will be seriously cool if I can pull it off.
"We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008
See thats why America is great: you guys get to play with flight simulators and real planes, all we get to do is tie bungie cords to our feet and throw ourselves off bridges
C'mon, Pari....
Be a little bit more free-spirited!
Next time leave the bungie cords off when you do that.
I hate to be the sour-puss in all this, but 90% of line pilots despise the simulator, hate every moment, and just want to get out. Something that people would pay for is a chore. The difference is that seeing if a 747 will fly under a bridge is a lot more fun than setting up for a single-engine CAT III ILS, and doing it over, and over...
Modern simulator technology is phenominal. It's so good, many folk get airsick. A pilot can be fully trained in a type and the first flight is with revenue passengers. Most agree that the simulator is harder than the real thing, as the feel, while very close, is not perfect, and there are subtle differences in seat forces.
Part of our syllabus was to fly a ride in the F-15 sim at Tyndall. My class got screwed out of it because our incompetent capt gave it to another class since they enjoyed their first run so much. F that guy.
It's been a fight between the pilots and the airlines for a long time. Simulators are cheaper than checkrides.
Just like autolandings. The pilots want to maintain proficiency doing the real thing, the airlines want to save money by restricting the number of manual landings.
Some things can only be done in the simulator, but the ability to land the airplane without the autopilot is a skill I want my pilot to have...
"We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way." -President Barack Obama 11/25/2008
With line oriented flight training we don't do that over and over again. Demonstrate proficiency and move on. However, if the pilot cannot fly a single engine CAT III ILS, then we will train him or her to do so. Now, if I really want to get nasty, I'll throw a CAT I ILS, engine out, on raw data at a student. (Far more demanding than CAT III since the III is basically set up the autopilot and let her rip.)
About 6-7 years ago, I was invited to speak to Cathay Pacific's senior management team out at their Lantau Island headquarters. After the talk, I had got a chance to fly their 747 simulator.
Great experience, and I'm a natural-born pilot, . . . except, I managed to land about 6 feet below the surface of the runway.
Whoops.
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