Day 2
Woke up this morning and 5:45 and brought the flashcards down to the treadmill for a half hour. Confident that the memory items were, in fact, committed to memory I had a light breakfast and we headed over to FSI. (the older I get, the harder it is to memorize ... or re-memorize things)
During our briefing we loaded the iPads with our planned airports for the day, a round trip from Atlanta to Las Vegas (with a little simulator magic to make the enroute phase go a little bit faster). We discussed lessons learned from yesterday's session and some tips for how to make today a success. Today we would be doing RNAV arrivals and departures in order to comply with AC 90-100a. We would depart ATL via the GEETK rnav departure to VUZ and then magically appear over Peach Springs for an RNAV arrival into LAS.
The visibility was 600 RVR for taxi so after engine start I asked that the taxi checklist be conducted with the parking brake still set. I wanted both sets of eyes outside for low visibility taxi. At the end of the runway we switched to tower who, of course, changed our runway assignment and cleared us for an immediate takeoff. Not so fast! Parking brake still set, we reprogrammed and verified the departure for the (new) correct runway and then continued our taxi. I set the brake one more time to complete the before takeoff checklist. No simulated ATC person can rush me!
I also wanted to take one last quick look at our takeoff alternate weather before we go airborne and lose 3G service (airborne WiFi is disabled below 10,000 MSL)
I armed the NAV and upon takeoff we followed the LNAV/VNAV track northbound, and then westbound on a downwind -- accelerating to 250 knots rapidly as is required by the SID. Once westbound a large thunderstorm appeared on the radar ahead and directly on the leg to VUZ. The instructor wanted to see if the SIC would be able to create a fix using the joystick on the MFD. He expertly moved the curser to a point well north of the weather, determined the distance north of our actual course to report to ATC, and then inserted the joystick point into our flight plan. We maneuvered north of the weather as we continued our climb.
Through the magic of simulation, a few moments later we were established on the RNAV descent into LAS. We were "cleared via" the arrival, so it was just a matter of putting the lowest altitude on the STAR into the altitude preselect and allowing the VNAV to calculate a constant rate of descent that complied with all of the various intermediate altitudes. The Learjet 40/45 is not equipped with autothrottles so I managed the speed. We briefed the transition from the STAR to the ILS, set up and briefed the approach, and completed our approach checklists as we descended through 18,000 feet. Weather in LAS was VFR and we could see the airport and the strip in the distance as the sun "set" over the mountains to the west of Vegas (odd as it was about 9am...can't help but to feel sleepy). The simple arrival was interrupted by a loud BANG and a cascade of CAS (crew alerting system) messages. The hydraulic system was getting sick.
Main and aux hydraulic systems fluids quantities were dropping towards zero and the pressure on both systems dropped off moments later. This was a catestrophic failure of the hydraulic system. We declared an emergency -- Vegas is a great place to do so if you have to, with some of the longest runways in the country. My job was easy. Fly the arrival and talk on the radio while the SIC was buried in one of Bombardier's less impressive checklists. I slowed the airplane to 200 knots, declared an emergency, and notified ATC. There should be no reason for delay vectors or holding at this speed. During the course of running the checklist we allowed the landing gear to free-fall, the flaps would be stuck at "0". The performance computer bugged the appropriate speeds and we briefed the landing. There would be no thrust reverse or antiskid so I would stop the airplane using the emergency brake. I briefed the SIC that should we evacuate I would secure the aircraft and he would be responsible for getting the passengers off. I asked CFR to roll the trucks to the 3/4 point on the runway. I also asked that the SIC give a "brace" command just prior to landing -- just in case. Without anti-skid the possibility of blowing a tire and going off the runway was all too real.
Upon touchdown we rolled to a stop with runway to spare and the fire truck came towards the airplane along with a tow vehicle to get us off of the runway.
<ZAP> A moment later we were in a perfectly good airplane at the end of the runway. Simgod wanted to do some "batting practice" with V1 cuts. You do these so often that they become second nature, so having a good simulator partner can make or break you. V1 cuts are essentially a crew coordination exercise. All I have to do is fly the airplane... put the little airplane into the command bars... aaand the monkey gets a peanut. Easy. The SIC, on the other hand, had to hang on, call "positive rate", get the gear up, bug V2, notify ATC, put us in half-bank, make sure we were navigating terrain, and fight the checklist... he is busy.
On the first takeoff we were given a reject by ATC at 70 knots. We rejected the takeoff and notified ATC that we needed someone to come inspect the tires and brakes and it would be 30 minutes before we could make another attempt. Satisfied that we would not just go back and try again, the instructor zapped us back to the end of the runway for #2.
This time a perfectly normal, milktoast V1 cut. Got to acceleration altitude, cleaned up and <ZAP> back to the end of the runway. "This one's for the money" he said. Next was an engine fire. Even easier (if that's possible) -- the engine is still running and making thrust. It's just burning. Climb to the acceleration altitude, clean up, and ask for the memory items for en engine fire. The SIC started to get a little antsy during the climb. "Do you want me to shut it down?" Nope. That's ok.... I remembered an old mentor telling me that jet engines are always on fire... this fire is just on the outside.
<ZAP> back to the end of the runway. "This one's for the money" he says. We takeoff and, this time, about 100 feet AGL the engine rolls back to idle. This is a little bit tougher because you don't have the nose gear assisting with directional control. We get up to acceleration altitude and clean up. "Jerry" I said to the instructor. "I wouldn't typically attempt a restart since we've got everything under control and the airport's right there... do you need to see one anyway?"
yup. Because the PTS says so. No damage, engine is rotating. It just rolled back. Okee dokey... we start it back up again. That always goes well. Now Vegas has weather has gone down and is 1/2 mile in fog, sky obscured. Naturally. We set up for a coupled approach to RW25L. At about 500 AGL - you guessed it - the engine fails again. Disconnect the autopilot, bump the thrust levers, flaps 20, Vref+5. And we descend to 100 feet above TDZE taking advantage of 91.175 to get the sick airplane on the ground.
<ZAP> Back to the end again. Are we done yet? I'm sleepy! This time on takeoff the left engine overspeeds to 108% and begins banging and shaking the whole airplane. It feels as though it's going to rip itself off of the fuselage. I know the only answer is shutting it down, but going from 108% to 0% while at takeoff thrust on the opposite engine will be ... sporty. I got ready on the controls, lowered the nose to prepare for the loss of 3600 lbs of thrust, and called for the engine to be shut down. I fed in the rudder as the airspeed quickly bled down and we transitioned from a high-performance two engine climb to an engine failure. Now under control we headed back to Vegas when suddenly the SIC display units went black with two big red "X"s. Ok... symbol generator failure? Wait, the #2 engine instruments are are blanked out as well. DAU failure too... that doesn't make sense. We both check our circuit breaker panels. right essential bus circuit breaker popped... bingo. Recover to a partial flap landing again, inboard brakes only, and the copilot can't transmit. Great.
We touched down a few minutes later and had 10 minutes to compose ourselves before we climbed back in for the trip back to Atlanta -- my partner's turn to shine.
After lunch we went over the powerplant and hydraulic systems. We fly two aircraft types and I had confused them at one point in the simulator -- thinking that we had thrust reverser accumulators. The refresher on that system made it all clear again. I wished that we had class before sim.. maybe I wouldn't have made myself look as foolish! After a few hours in the classroom we were ready to get out. We were both tired and we have a good deal of prep for tomorrow.
More then...
