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It went pretty well. As usual, I got a lot out of it and feel humbled walking away but I SWEAR that sim doesn't fly like the real plane. You sure don't want to say that to the instructor, though, or tell him how things are out on the line...sometimes I talk too much.
The one day ground school is a total blow off...hard to stay awake. Then two days of hell in the sim. Very first sim was my leg and we had smoke in the cockpit...which means you have to put on your oxygen mask and shop goggles... yeah, I think the goggles they give us are like the ones in shop class. Anyhow, you have to talk to each other via the intercom and can't see anything very well. The F/E who was reading the checklist actually said "My glasses are fogged up and I can't read the checklist"...not what you want to hear when you're on fire.
I did a GPS approach but didn't push it over fast enough at the VDP and was a bit high. Got it on the runway but past the touchdown zone...should have gone around but, luckily, the instructor didn't make me do it over. It's really hard making a non-precision approach because we can't start down until the VDP and then can't exceed 1000fpm, either. I think I could do better if we actually did them once in a while rather than once a year in the sim...
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Sounds interesting, DE.
Shoulda told the sim guy what things really are like on the front lines vs the desks...
Funny you mention the non precision IAP/VDP. Do you guys compute your own VDP based on the desired glidepath you're looking for, or fly the on depicted on the plate? Reason I ask is that I've seen some published VDPs, that if I do the equation and check them, for my desired glidepath they're off by up to 0.5nm. Granted for a shallower GP, that'll push your VDP out, but do you guys use a standard GP, or can you select one? Luckily for us, there's no descent rate minimum, so it's not unlikely to break out right at VDP, then take an initial 2000 FPM descent to establish an overrun aimpoint, then reset to a normal descent rate.