Hey everyone - I'm back!! I'm sitting in a hotel room taking a break from memorizing limitations and boxed items and told you I would write about my training when I finally got to 604 school so here it is.....
We finally got a deal done on a Challenger 604 - it's a 1999 model with about 1400 hours on it. Real nice airplane. It was formally owned by a Swiss company so it had the Swiss cross on the tail - it was painted over before we took delivery so now the airplane just has a big red square on the tail. Anyway - since we bought the airplane from Bombardier Resale Group(Bombardier's used airplane lot) we received several free training slots that we had to use at either the Montreal or DFW training centers. It took me all of about .15 seconds to decide 3 weeks in Montreal in December isn't my idea of a good time so I packed my bags for DFW!
I arrived late Sunday evening after a rather significant delay off the gate in CVG - someon checked a bag on the flight and then didn't board so under the new rules they had to search the cargo hold until they found that one bag and deplane it before we could depart. We finally pushed about 35 minutes late and it then took the Delta Mad Dog crew another 2 hours and 40 minutes to get to DFW(Doug - you guys are aware that those things are capable of going faster than .67 right????) Anyway - spending over 3 hours on an MD90 with every single seat filled is certainly not the funnest thing I've ever done. Apparently I wasn't the only one as there was almost a fight in the first class cabin as we were deplaneing! It took me a little over an hour and half to get off the airplane, find my bags, find the rental car plaza, get my car and get to my hotel! Whew what a day!
Class started bright and early at 0800 Monday morning. This is a little change of pace for me since we usually train with FLight Safety. I found the training facility with no major problems and what a facility it is! The facility is actually a CAE/Simuflite facility that houses something like 30 sims(everything from a Citation II to a BBJ). Bombardier has their own 'wing' of the building that houses their own facility including 4 Learjet sims, the 604 sim, and space for the new Challenger 300(nee' Continental) sim when it arrives. Absolutley magnificent facility.
The 604 initial pilot trianing program is designed to be 21 days in length. I am fortunate in that I'm the only one in the class which allows us to move ahead of schedule so hopefully we're going to be able to cut off about 7 days of the program. The 604 is virtually identical to the CRJ that I flew so most of it was review and we flew through the systems.
Day one was a review of the aicraft general, audio/visual warning system, electrical system, and flight instruments. All in all a pretty simple day. It's a complex aircraft but fairly straight forward systems that make sense if you just think about it a little.
Day Two(today) started off with the APU, engines and thrust reversers, fuel system, and pneumatics.
We also were able to get into the sim today for the first time. It was supposed to be a 'FTD - Flight Training Device' session(basically a sim session with the motion turned off) to get familiar with the cockpit and the prestart checklists. Again everything was so similar to the CRJ we zipped right thru the checks and got the engines started in about 30 minutes so we took off and flew around a little including a short trip from JFK over to White Plains. Even though my airplane doesn't have these options the sim is equipped with a heads up guidance system, auto throttles, and Performance Plus FMS software(more about this later) - I'm going to have some cool toys to play with during training. The auto throttles are great - just roll onto the runway and hit a button - they run themselves up to takeoff thrust and you literally dont have to touch the throttles again until you flare. At HPN we flew a visual to Rwy 34 - we programmed the visual approach into the FMS with all of the Vertical Nav(VNAV) info. Basically all I had to do was hit the 'Approach' button on the autopilot panel and the airplane set it's self up on a 5 mile final to Rwy 34 and flew right down to the runway - all I had to do was put the gear and flaps down and disengage the autopilot at 80 feet to flare. Technology is absolutley amazing.
Well I'm going to get off of here and do some studying - let the questions fly - I'll check in every day or two and answer any thing I can.
Happy flying - Jason
We finally got a deal done on a Challenger 604 - it's a 1999 model with about 1400 hours on it. Real nice airplane. It was formally owned by a Swiss company so it had the Swiss cross on the tail - it was painted over before we took delivery so now the airplane just has a big red square on the tail. Anyway - since we bought the airplane from Bombardier Resale Group(Bombardier's used airplane lot) we received several free training slots that we had to use at either the Montreal or DFW training centers. It took me all of about .15 seconds to decide 3 weeks in Montreal in December isn't my idea of a good time so I packed my bags for DFW!
I arrived late Sunday evening after a rather significant delay off the gate in CVG - someon checked a bag on the flight and then didn't board so under the new rules they had to search the cargo hold until they found that one bag and deplane it before we could depart. We finally pushed about 35 minutes late and it then took the Delta Mad Dog crew another 2 hours and 40 minutes to get to DFW(Doug - you guys are aware that those things are capable of going faster than .67 right????) Anyway - spending over 3 hours on an MD90 with every single seat filled is certainly not the funnest thing I've ever done. Apparently I wasn't the only one as there was almost a fight in the first class cabin as we were deplaneing! It took me a little over an hour and half to get off the airplane, find my bags, find the rental car plaza, get my car and get to my hotel! Whew what a day!
Class started bright and early at 0800 Monday morning. This is a little change of pace for me since we usually train with FLight Safety. I found the training facility with no major problems and what a facility it is! The facility is actually a CAE/Simuflite facility that houses something like 30 sims(everything from a Citation II to a BBJ). Bombardier has their own 'wing' of the building that houses their own facility including 4 Learjet sims, the 604 sim, and space for the new Challenger 300(nee' Continental) sim when it arrives. Absolutley magnificent facility.
The 604 initial pilot trianing program is designed to be 21 days in length. I am fortunate in that I'm the only one in the class which allows us to move ahead of schedule so hopefully we're going to be able to cut off about 7 days of the program. The 604 is virtually identical to the CRJ that I flew so most of it was review and we flew through the systems.
Day one was a review of the aicraft general, audio/visual warning system, electrical system, and flight instruments. All in all a pretty simple day. It's a complex aircraft but fairly straight forward systems that make sense if you just think about it a little.
Day Two(today) started off with the APU, engines and thrust reversers, fuel system, and pneumatics.
We also were able to get into the sim today for the first time. It was supposed to be a 'FTD - Flight Training Device' session(basically a sim session with the motion turned off) to get familiar with the cockpit and the prestart checklists. Again everything was so similar to the CRJ we zipped right thru the checks and got the engines started in about 30 minutes so we took off and flew around a little including a short trip from JFK over to White Plains. Even though my airplane doesn't have these options the sim is equipped with a heads up guidance system, auto throttles, and Performance Plus FMS software(more about this later) - I'm going to have some cool toys to play with during training. The auto throttles are great - just roll onto the runway and hit a button - they run themselves up to takeoff thrust and you literally dont have to touch the throttles again until you flare. At HPN we flew a visual to Rwy 34 - we programmed the visual approach into the FMS with all of the Vertical Nav(VNAV) info. Basically all I had to do was hit the 'Approach' button on the autopilot panel and the airplane set it's self up on a 5 mile final to Rwy 34 and flew right down to the runway - all I had to do was put the gear and flaps down and disengage the autopilot at 80 feet to flare. Technology is absolutley amazing.
Well I'm going to get off of here and do some studying - let the questions fly - I'll check in every day or two and answer any thing I can.
Happy flying - Jason