BobDDuck
Island Bus Driver
Kell's posting of his upgrade thread (hey, good luck man!) reminded me I've been meaning to post mine from last month. Some of you made have read it play by play, but for those who don't waste their time reading my regular blog (and that's probably for the best) here's the whole thing from first day of ground to last day of sim. I'm about halfway done with IOE now, and maybe I'll tag that stuff on the end of this, but for now this is just ground and sim.
Here ya go...
12 Feb 2008 09:55:05 am
Done
I survived my 4 day of early mornings intact. It was actually a pretty easy trip, although the time shift did drag a bit. Yesterday was a very early start (4:30am in the van) to fly Akron to Charlotte and then back up to Dayton. We walked out of the hotel into negative 5 degree weather with gusty winds and blowing snow. Of course, I had to do the walk around of the airplane in this and managed to freeze pretty good. The nice thing was the plane had just come out of the maintenance hanger so it was already running when we got there and was warm inside.
The irony of all this is that it was my last time doing the first flight of the day walk around as a First Officer. This whole trip was a trip of "lasts" for me, although I didn't really think about it too much until I rotated the plane off the ground into the low clouds of over Akron and realized that was the last time I would rotate a CRJ from the right seat.
(A quick aside... right now, about 45% of the guys upgrading are failing. That number is incredibly high, and nobody knows for sure why it is happening. If they fail, they get sent back to the line as an FO again and have to wait a few months before they can try to reupgrade. I certainly don't plan on having any problems with upgrade, but then again, neither did these guys. So, it is possible I could end up back in the right seat, but that is no way to be thinking when going into upgrade training).
It was a pretty quick flight down to Charlotte and I managed an ok landing as the sun came up to the east. From there we turned north towards home, losing sight of the ground somewhere north of Beckley, WV. The captain brought the plane in for a very soft touchdown on 24L in Dayton and I ran the after landing check. We then taxied to the gate and shut it down. I think that was the slowest I've ever run through the shutdown checklist. After saying the final item I took a deep breath and realized, that despite the fact I am very much looking forward to upgrade, I am going to miss this seat a bit. I've learned so much in it, and it was my introduction to 121 flying.
Eh, onward and upward they say.
20 Feb 2008 08:09:26 pm
Upgrade: Day 1
Today was the first day of upgrade training. The schedule (as of now) is 5 days of ground with an oral exam at the end, 6 days of sim and then a sim checkride followed by a LOFT training and then a PT in what ever airplane I DON'T do the checkride in. After that I have IOE in the actual airplane. We get the schedules for the sim some time this week.
Today got off to a pretty slow start. It snowed last night and I drove up to the airport (normally a 30 minutes drive) in a white out part of the way. Despite adding 15 minutes to the drive I managed to get there before the 8 am start time. After lugging my flight case inside and upstairs I hung out in the hallway with the 8 other members of my upgrade class waiting for our classroom to be unlocked.
The class is made up of two guys from my new hire class (for a total of 3 of us), a girl from the class after us (who was awarded the class just 4 days ago), two guys from the class before us (my old roommate's class), two guys from the class before that, and one guy who has been here for almost 4 years. The ages range from 25 up to 39 with me being the second youngest at 26.
We have 1 1/2 instructors for the class. Mario is our primary instructor and a second instructor is observing the class in preparation for being certified to teach upgrade training in addition to new hire training. Mario has been with PSA as a mechanic and instructor off an on for a while now and has several thousand hours as a flight engineer for various airlines.
We got started with handing in our licenses, medicals and passports for them to be photocopied for company records. While that was happening Mario briefly spoke about the out line for training and how stuff would progress for the next few days. We then started filling out our 8710 forms (FAA forms that have to be filled out every time you apply for a a new rating or certificate). One of the Pilot Examiners was in the training center and he stopped by to walk us through filling out the form. Basically it involved checking the right boxes and filling in the correct flight times (and ensuring that the mins were met). Fun stuff. He then spent some time talking about problems previous upgrade candidates were having (the pass rate is down to about 60% right now) and answered some questions.
After he left we headed downstairs to wait for a hotel shuttle to the remote training building to go through the doors trainer. There was also new hire pilot and flight attendant classes that had to do doors as well. All in all there were about 25 of us to get through. The doors training is a cabin mockup with 3 rows of seats, a main cabin door, a service door and 2 emergency window exits. The FAs use it as both a doors trainer and a platform to practice evac drills on. It took all of 2 minutes to pop both window exits and open and close the main cabin door. After doing the service doors and then putting on and inflating a life vest (fun with CO2 cylinders) the 9 upgrades grabbed a van back to the training center.
Once back we took a quick break and then started in on weather. Weather is confusing. By weather I mean the minimums we need in order to be able to go, and adding alternate airports that we can use in the event the weather is too low at our destination. There are several rules to apply and things to check, and it wasn't being explained very clearly, which didn't help. A quick note... I've been studying on my own for several weeks now so I had a pretty good idea of what I was doing. However, I was sort of hoping for a quick over all clarification and that really didn't happen. The class managed to work through some of it but never really got to a definitive "this is what is is" point. Somewhat frustrated, we took a break for lunch.
4 of us headed over to Arby's. There are only two of us in the class that are Dayton based and had cars. The other guys decided to eat at the hotel restaurant.
After lunch we started back up at 1pm with a briefing by the head of the Safety Department about the ASAP program. Basically the ASAP program allows pilots (and dispatchers and mechanics as well) to submit a report any time a non standard even occurs. The system primarily is in place as a way of self disclosing data, but also protecting those that submit a report. The FAA can not take certificate action (a bad thing) against somebody if they file an ASAP unless they knowingly or maliciously broke the regulation. We talked about the program, how it works and reviewed some sanitized data. After about an hour and a half we took a break.
After the ASAP talk we went back to working with weather. This time we were (mostly) able to get a working definition. I feel a little better now about my understanding of it, but it is still something I am going to have to review several times. After that we moved on to working with the flight release and what is on it. We got about halfway through that before our instructor had to leave for the day at 4:45 to get to a prior commitment. He left us with a 50 question test that the Directory of Flight Standards had given to the last class (as a surprise test, no open note, not working together). We worked on the test (mostly by our selves) until about 6:15 and then called it a day. I was pretty happy with how much of the test stuff I knew. There were a few I had no idea about but for the most part I at least had a clue.
I made it home by 7pm to cook dinner, type this up and then go review a couple of things from today. Then it's bed time to get some sleep before getting back up at 6:30 tomorrow to do it all again.
Ah yes. It's for a good cause though.
21 Feb 2008 07:48:21 pm
Upgrade: Day 2
Today was a little bit more productive then yesterday. I am now starting to feel like I at least have a chance of learning what I still need to know between know and Thursday when my oral is.
Today we got started with finishing up the flight release, which took most of the morning. Ground school (here anyways) very typically gets side tracked and at one point we all thought we had ADD as we couldn't spend more then a few minutes on topic with getting caught up with something else. At one point there were 3 different conversations going on about different things, all of which would have been useful to know. I was trying to keep up with all three, while trying to clarify something else with the guy sitting next to me. Confusing to say the least.
There is (in theory) a syllabus for the way class is supposed to work. The problem is there is a block of 24 hours (that's three straight days) of systems. While it probably takes just about every bit of that time to go over all the systems, it would be maddening to do so. Burn out would hit after about the first day. So, to cut down on that, we are interspersing systems throughout the 5 days. It makes it a little hard to follow along, but at least I'm not going brain dead.
After finishing up the release the Vice President of the airline came in to talk with us while we had lunch (company supplied pizza). He managed to spend about an hour saying just about nothing. Unfortunately it is typical of the labor-management relationship here. The one or two questions we actually wanted answered he was unable to answer. After about an hour he left and we finished up eating.
After lunch they posted the schedules for the next few weeks. Basically we've got 3 more days of ground school, an oral check with an FAA inspector, 6 sim sessions, a sim checkride, a LOFT (basically a flight from start to finish in the sim) and then a Proficiency Training event in the other airplane sim. Busy busy. My class has 9 people in it, and I am actually the youngest so because there were only 4 sim slots (for 8 people total) I was pushed back until the next sim period, in mid March. People picked partners for the sim with the senior partner picking the sim time based on seniority. Fortunately for me there was actually an extra sim spot that came open with a guy who had to wait from the last class. Because he was the most senior for this round he got his first choice, and by default I ended up with the 10am to 2pm sim slot. Not too bad.
Once the schedules were taken care of we finished up the release and then moved on to systems for the afternoon. I was sort of surprised at how much I knew. I guess that's a good thing.
Tomorrow is more systems and some weight and balance work. Assuming I make it up there as there is a big snow/ice storm going on right now.
22 Feb 2008 09:42:38 pm
Upgrade: Day 3
The days seem to be getting longer. I managed to go to sleep last night by 10:30. The weather in the morning was supposed to be bad (freezing rain/snow) so I set my alarm for 6:15, which would give me 45 minutes to get up and ready and then a whole hour to get to the airport. It took me about 15 minutes to scrape the ice off my car (for the first time), but the road conditions were actually ok and I managed to make the trip in about 40 minutes.
We got started with systems. Hydraulics, electrics and some others. I'm finding that not only do I have the stuff memorized (which was something I had to do almost 3 years ago in new hire training) but I can also apply the systems to bigger picture stuff. Levels of learning baby!
The systems took us us through lunch time. After a break (and a chicken fajita burrito at Chipotle) we started back up again on weight and balance. A combination of that and speed cards took us through 5pm. There were a few more sections to go over but the Director of Training stuck his head in and told everybody to go home as it was starting to ice up pretty good. The lucky 7 that were staying at the hotel dragged their bags downstairs while the two of us that are Dayton based headed outside to scrape ice off our cars (time number three for me counting the morning and lunch) and then drive off. The drive home was pretty bad until I was about half way home when the precip turned to rain.
I've got the weekend off now which is good. I certainly have a bunch of stuff to go over, but I'm starting to feel like I might be ready for this.
24 Feb 2008 09:27:05 pm
Upgrade: Day 3.5
We had the weekend off from class, but that doesn't mean it wasn't study time. I am at something of a disadvantage as almost everybody else is based outside of Dayton and hence is being put up at the hotel attached to the training center. On one hand, that's actually pretty good for me as I don't have to live out of a hotel for a week (that will come with sim down in Charlotte) but on the other hand, they are able to study together during off hours as well as access the training center when ever they want. For me it's a 30 minute drive each way.
I spent yesterday thinking as little as I could about training. Of course, that's easier said then done, and although I managed to get a bunch of other stuff accomplished, I was still constantly going over stuff in my head. By the end of the day I broke down and broke out my Operations Handbook. The deal I made myself was I would only study during commercial breaks. So I watched Blade III (Wesley Snipes is STILL badass) and manged to go over normal and abnormal procedures before one last shuffle through my limitations note cards and bed time.
Today I forced myself to get up early (ok, 8am, not exactly early) to stay on a morning schedule for the upcoming week. After taking care of some stuff I headed up to the training center and got there about 10:30. I spent the next 4 hours going over systems and procedures with a few guys from my class. It was a pretty laid back session, but I felt pretty good about what we went over. I left them at about 3:30 to head home, with a quick stop at Panera Bread for a late lunch.
The rest of the afternoon/evening has been pretty much a waste. Well, not really a waste but apartment cleaning certainly didn't help me get ready for my oral on Thursday. My goal for tonight is to go over the 700 system differences and my limitation cards a few times. I've got two more days of class, a day off and then my oral and I'm feeling like that will be plenty of time to get ready. As is, I almost feel ready now.
While taking a break from vacuuming I moved all the pictures I've taken from February (and there weren't that many as I only flew 5 days this month) into a different folder. While doing that I took a look at some of the pictures I took learning to fly as well as the ones I took instructing in Jacksonville and Phoenix. It got me thinking about the transition I made from student to teacher and how I am really about to make that same step again, just at a different level and in a different airplane. Granted, there are some big differences. Most notably, the "students" (err.. FOs) I'm going to be working with have an assumed basic level of knowledge, something that wasn't always the case when I was instructing. Also, these students are here to learn how to be a good captain, not so much how to operate an airplane or in the Airspace System, although from a lot of stories I've heard, that is not always the case. Of course, the other difference is that in the past when I was instructing it was just me and the student in the plane. Now there are a whole bunch of people in the back who didn't pay to ride along on a instructional flight.
Either way, I think it will be ok. I just spoke to a friend of mine who has been a captain for about a year now at a different airline. He pretty much said the only way to do it is just jump in. It's a trial by fire.
Yippee.
25 Feb 2008 08:00:30 pm
Upgrade: Day 4
I managed to get nowhere near enough sleep last night (up too late, stomach bothering me, neighbor making lots of noise) so when my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning I was in no mood to get up. Oh well, duty calls. I was out of the house by 7:15 and stopped to top off my gas tank with some (comparatively) cheep $2.85 gas. Even with the stop and typical morning Dayton traffic I still managed to get to the trianing center by 7:55 for another exciting day of class. I really don't know how I did this 5 days a week for 4 years of college and 12 years of school.
Today was pretty much all systems. All day long. Of course with the group ADD we have going on (see previous post) it didn't get too dull until the very end of the day. I honestly can't remember what systems we covered, but what I do remember is that for the most part nothing we went over was something I was unfamiliar with.
We broke for lunch at noon and the two guys from my original new hire class and I went over to BW3s for lunch. It was sort of interesting to see how much of a different person they were now, compared to almost 3 years ago when we ate in the same place during new hire training. I'd imagine I've changed just as much, although seeing myself in the mirror every day pretty much negates any chance of see change myself.
After lunch we got back into systems. Again, there were often a few conversations going on at once but I think we managed to hold it together and finished up just about all the aircraft systems before taking another break. There was a recurrent that started at noon today that was made up of mostly all Dayton Captains. Of the 8 that were there (plus one Knoxville CA and one Dayton FO) they were all really great guys to fly with. Of course, I won't be flying with any of them again now that I will be in the same seat as them. Interesting thought.
We started back up with a slide show walk around of the 200. Basically, what's this? what does it do? when does it do it? sort of stuff. Again, there wasn't much there that I hadn't seen/heard before. We finished up the slide show just before 5pm. After that I packed up my bag and headed home. 4 days down, one more to go.
And now, if I can convince myself to go to sleep before 10, I may actually catch up on my sleep.
26 Feb 2008 09:58:47 pm
Upgrade: Day 5
Today was the last day of ground school. It was yet another drive in the slush/snow for me in both directions, but I've just about got used to that.
We spent most of the day going over differences between the 200 and the 700. They are relatively the same plane and are a common type per the FAA (meaning if you are trained on one you are trained on the other) but there are a few differences. The problem of course is that most of my training over the next few weeks will be in the 200, including the oral exam with the FAA on Thursday. So I spent most of the day trying to listen with one ear and then dump it out the other so I don't get confused between airplanes.
After (mostly) not paying attention all day we took a written 100 question test. For the most part it went well. I think I got around 90 questions right with out having to look stuff up (it was an open book test) and then once corrected I got all but 3 right. Makes me feel pretty confident about the oral.
We'll see I guess.
No more studying today. Tomorrow is a review day. Thursday is meet and greet with the Feds. Wahoo.
27 Feb 2008 05:43:01 pm
The Waiting Game
Here I sit and wait. My oral was scheduled for 1:30pm tomorrow and has been pushed back to Friday at 10am now. No idea why. I've been ready to take this thing for a few days now, so I guess one more day of waiting won't kill me. In theory I guess I should be studying more, but I'm at a point where anything else in would start pushing other stuff out. Or so I am telling myself. I did manage to go over limitation and immediate action items once this morning and chair fly a few flows and procedures. Maybe I'll do that again tonight and then hit everything once tomorrow.
Grrr... enough already.
29 Feb 2008 02:05:16 pm
Upgrade: Oral
Today was the first of 3 tests I'll have to get through before getting signed off for the left seat. This was the oral exam. They are done by either a company pilot examiner or the FAA. I lucked out and ended up not only drawing the FAA, but our POI (Principle Operations Inspector, sort of the FAA-Company contact point) for the airline. Fun stuff.
Pretty much anything is fair game for this oral, and I'd been studying for it for about 2 months now, with intensive ground (and at home) study the last week or so. I'd like to say I felt 100% ready going in to it, but that is never the case with a checkride, at least for me.
I was scheduled to go yesterday at 2pm, but then that was moved to today at 10am, which was then moved back to 9am. I got to the training center by 8:30 and waited until 9 for the POI to show up. Once he did, he introduced himself (he's a new POI for us, so I hadn't actually met him) and then gave me a flight plan and performance data to run a weight and balance with. That took about 10 minutes (with me TRIPLE checking every number). Apparently I was close enough as we moved on from there.
First off we hit some limitations and memory items. Despite some of the things he requested NOT actually being memory items, I'd gotten a heads up from a guy who went with him yesterday and had those number memorized too. After that we moved on to some dispatch and weather related questions as well as some performance related theory. I guess I answered everything he wanted as we headed into systems from there.
Systems pretty much blurred by until I got stuck on the Mach trim. I told him what it did, but couldn't adequately describe the theory behind it. That was ok with him, as he apparently wanted to teach something anyways. After 10 minutes of discussing aircraft certification and stability we moved on. After a few more minutes he said I seemed to know the airplane pretty well and he was satisfied.
Filling out the rest of the paperwork took a few minutes and I was heading out the door by 11am.
Two days off and then I head down to the sim in Charlotte on Monday.
03 Mar 2008 11:01:04 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 0
I made it down to Charlotte this evening, just beating out the rain in Dayton. Actually, it was coming down pretty good as I walked from my car to the terminal. The flight out was smooth and despite a quick hold short of the runway for ATC flow we got to Charlotte on time. I stopped by Pizza Hut in the terminal to grab dinner and then called the hotel and headed outside to wait for the van.
There was another company pilot waiting outside as well. He said he'd called the hotel at 7:29pm. I called at 7:39pm. As of 8pm there was no van. I called back and was told any time now. He called back at 8:15 and was told 10 minutes. The van finally showed up 8:35. At least it was warm out. Turns out the van driver disappeared and one of the desk clerks came to get us. At least they had my room already reserved (and for all 12 days I'm supposed to be here).
My room is ok. The downside is it's right across from the elevator so I hear the double beep every time the door opens. Also the wireless signal is very weak. The plus side is there's a refrigerator and a 40 inch flat screen TV (with HD channels). Home sweet home for the next week and a half.
Sim starts tomorrow at 10am.
04 Mar 2008 08:58:04 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 1
Ouch. That's all I can say.
I got to the training center around 8:45 and by 9am we were briefing. Basically an overview of the next 6 sim sessions and what we can expect on the type ride. From there we headed down to the sim bay to wait for the last crew finish up. My sim partner elected to go first so he climbed into the left seat while I made myself at home on the right, a spot I actually feel comfortable in. There was a new hire waiting on sim in STL that wanted to observe so he took the second jumpseat while our instructor set up infront of the control computer.
We started with a dark airplane with no APU (sort of realistic actually) and moved on through taxiing out with very low visibility in Philly. The sim does a pretty good job simulating the feel of a plane in flight, but the motion is very strange on the ground. Hence, it's not unusual to feel queasy taxiing around. Fortunately it doesn't seem to bother me, but some people are affected. We got to the runway and had the plane configured to go after a bunch of false starts. (Basically, the point of the sim is to get every single failure possible that you'd never see in the real world. So it's pretty normal to be single engine, missing electrics and have something burning).
We were finally cleared for take off and while the captain was getting set the instructor handed me a note telling me to play dead at 70 knots. I had a moment of thinking, "that's really not fair" but I played along. We set the power and started rolling down with visibility down to about 500 feet. Normally the pilot not flying (that would be me) would make a speed call out at 80 knots of airspeed. This serves to check that both the CA's and the FO's instruments are reading the same thing. After that the PNF is supposed to called out V1 which is the maximum speed we can reject a take off and then "rotate" at which point the pilot flying will start to lift off. Of course I was "dead" at 70 knots so the PF got no "80 knots" call. Unfortunately he didn't catch it and assumed I was just not paying attention. He even tried taking off with me not doing anything. Sim is often a game of retribution, and to make his point the sim instructor fail his engine and then gave him unrecoverable windshear. He froze the sim before we crashed.
We reset for take off and tried again. This time I called 80 knots but shortly there after we had an electric failure. We caught it this time and rejected the take off. Another reset and another attempt to take off. This time at about 20 knots the whole sim shut down. This was not planned and led to a 20 minute break while a sim tech came up and reset everything.
After that we finally were able to take off and climb out. A quick level off at 5000 and we were climbing to 8000. From there the CA went through some steep turns to the left and right. Normal turns for us max out at 30 degrees. Steep turns are 45 degrees. After that he ran through three different stalls and then the plane magically climbed to 35,000 feet. We did a quick dutch roll demo (basically turn off the yaw damper and stamp on a rudder and then turn the YD back on and watch it recover) and an unusual attitude (we close our eyes and the instructor puts us inverted or something fun like that and we have to recover). After that we cruised along for a few minutes when there was a loud bang and our cabin pressure started climbing. We both put our masks on and Darth Vedar sounds ensued. To get some oxygen we set up an emergency descent down to 10,000 feet and headed back to Philly.
After leveling at 10,000 we got vectors for an approach into Philly, but of course, not only did we never find the runway, but we also lost an engine while the captain was starting the go around. The plane got away from him a little bit but he managed to get control of it and we were able to restart the motor. From there we headed back around to do another approach. After that was complete (we never found the runway... again) we set up for a ILS PRM (basically two ILS set up right next to each other) into Philly. Some idiot landing on the other runway got off course and started blundering towards us so we had to break out and get out of his way. Typical. After doing that twice we were cleared for the approach again, and this time the captain actually broke out and we landed.
After a quick break it was my turn. So many things felt strange in the left seat. All the buttons are not where I'm used to them. The displays sit the other way (with the primary on my left and the multi function on my right) and the seat adjustment bars are backwards. Oh yeah, and I have to fly with my left hand. Something I haven't done in almost 3 years.
To save time we started holding short of the runway so I didn't have to go through all the pushback and taxi stuff. We were cleared for take off and at 80 knots my FO made the call out. Except, my airspeed was frozen at 65 knots. I called Reject and got the plane stopped. However, I was slow making a cabin PA telling everybody everything was ok, and to make his point, the instructor blew both emergency over wing exists as all my people ran away from the airplane. Whoops.
Another takeoff roll and this time we got in the air. The rotation was fine but there was lockup in the controls (not planned) and the plane got a little squirrelly. What ever the problem was fixed itself and I was soon climbing through 5000 on the way to 8000. Normally in the sim you let the autopilot fly as much as you can because the sim does not fly like a normal plane. However, both my partner and I hand flew a bunch just to get a feel of flying with the other hand.
Level at 8000 I rolled in to a steep turn. I felt the one to the left was ok and the one to the right was good until the last few seconds when it got away from me. After that it was 3 stalls, two of which were fine and one of which I lost about 4o0 feet. Not so good. From there we repositioned up to 35,000 where i got my unusual attitudes. The first one was really extreme the plane pretty much got into a flat spin (think, Goose dieing in Top Gun). I may have been able to get out of it, but the sim froze as we hurtled through 15,000 feet. The second one was much better and I was able to recover around 22,000 feet, still a lose of 13,000 feet in about 20 seconds. After we were stable the cabin blew again so the masks went back on and we dropped out of the sky down to a breathable altitude of 10,000.
We were then given vectors to Philly for a GPS approach to runway 27R. I managed to set up just about everything right but never found the runway. On the go around my engine died, but I held it together enough to head towards the miss approach hold. We ran a few checklists while in the hold and magically the engine started working again. From there we headed back around for the ILS PRM. I managed to avoid the pesky intruder aircraft (twice!) and then was cleared one more time for the approach. This time I managed to find the runway and land (although it was a really ugly landing). As I was in the process of flaring my left engine caught on fire. A quick stop on the runway and we blew both fire bottles into the engine. Of course that didn't fix it so I called for the evacuation checklist, which is pretty much the standard way of leaving the sim.
From there we headed up stairs and debriefed for a bit. Nothing too surprising. Obviously pretty much everything has to improve, but that is to be expected on day one. Also, we really didn't do too much single engine work (no V1 cuts and no single engine approaches) so that will start up tomorrow.
Over all I was not as happy with stuff as I could have been, but I'm not too worried.
Day 2 starts at 9am tomorrow.
05 Mar 2008 08:01:13 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 2
Today was a little better... maybe.
It was my turn to go first so I started in the left seat, in a dark and (not very) cold airplane parked at gate E18 in Charlotte. I flew through the Safety and Power On Checklist (basically establishing power to the airplane and checking the safety equipment) and then moved on to the Originating Checklist. That consists of checking pretty much every switch and button in the cockpit and making sure it is in the correct position. Also, many systems (such as the Fire Detection/Extinguishing, the pneumatic, hydraulic and others) have test switches that perform some built in test feature. It's a lot from memory, not only remembering what switch to hit next, but also what is supposed to happen (often times multiple things) when you do press the switch.
I managed to get through that only missing one test, which I caught when we actually went through the checklist. After that I briefed the departure and weather (nasty... gusting to 27 knots, 1/4 mile visibility in mist and thunderstorms) and the route for our flight from Charlotte to Fayetteville, NC. After that we ran the before start checklist and the "Flight Attendant" (or sim op/instructor, who also plays Air Traffic Control, Ops, Maintenance and just about anybody else we'd "talk" to) gave us our weight numbers. That allowed us to shut the door and my FO to call for pushback clearance. With that in hand I popped the parking break and gave the "tug" driver the ok to start the push.
We rolled back and I gave the ok for the FO to start the right engine, which he did. Of course, because this is upgrade sim, the engine didn't start right and we had to abort the start attempt and run a checklist. With that problem solved and the parking brake set after the pushback was complete I started the left engine. That one didn't start right either (no light off, meaning our spark plugs were dead). Another checklist and a call the "maintenance" had the problem solved. We were good to taxi.
Ramp cleared us out and I started off in the mist. There is a windshield on the sim, but no windshield wipers. However, if stuff starts looking blurry outside, you can turn on the wiper switch and it will clear the visibility a bit, complete with an authentic "wiper" noise. We taxied out to the runway and ground gave us clearance the rest of the way. Midway out I called for the taxi checks which my FO completed. We ended up holding short of the runway while an American Eagle BACJet (something they haven't flown in a LONG time) took off in front of us. I then ran then had my FO run the Before Take Off Checklist which he finished, conveniently just as we were cleared for take off.
The visibility was now down to 500 feet, which is the lowest we can go with. Of course in Charlotte we actually need 600 feet minimum but for training purposes we were authorized to use the lower visibility. 500 feet isn't much. After letting the radar take a look down the departure corridor (there was nothing there) I put up the power and off we went. My FO called 80 knots (he wasn't dead) and we kept accelerating. As a captain we are required to keep our hand just over, or on the thrust levers until the V1 call, whether we are the pilot flying or not. That way we can reject quickly if we have to. Going through about 100 knots the stick pusher on my yoke activated, driving the yoke full forward. The pusher is part of the Stall Protection System that activates when the aircraft approaches a stall. Initially the yoke will shake to get your attention. If you still don't lower the nose the yoke will pitch forward, forcing the aircraft nose down and preventing a stall. Of course, it's only supposed to go off when you are about to stall, not when you are barreling down the runway trying to take off. I chopped the power and deployed the reversers while calling "reject".
After cleaning up the airplane from that we repositioned to the top of the runway and tried again. This time I managed to take off (slightly better then yesterday) and start climbing out. Of course we got some nasty windshear climbing through 400 feet. We lost about 200 feet before I had the plane climbing out of it again and heading on the departure. From there we were cleared to climb to 14,000 feet and head on towards our destination. As we turned east the radar started showing heavy returns on our route. I asked my FO to get me a heading that would keep us north (and upwind) of the weather, even though it would add a few minutes to our flight time. Being downwind of a storm, especially down low, is not a good thing.
Once we leveled off at 14,000 I started in on the airwork. Today my steep turns were "ok" (slightly better then yesterday, but still not great). One of my stalls was ok, the other two need work still. They'll get there I guess. After that we turned back towards Fayetteville.
At that point our FA called up to tell us we had a passenger having a seizure. There really wasn't much we could do at that point. I asked if there were any medical personal on board (there weren't) and thought about getting a radio patch through to MedLink (a company that provides medical advice and drug usage approval for in flight aircraft). However, it takes a while to set up the patch through ARINC and we were only 15 minutes away from our destination. I had the FO tell the FA to just do the best they could and we'd declare the medical emergency and hope to get expedited in. The FA called back once more to say the guy was getting worse, but I had the FO tell them to just stop calling unless there was another emergency, as there wasn't much we could do at that point.
By then we had the weather for Fayettville, and I set up for the approach in use. It went fine, except I made a math mistake when figuring my Visual Descent Point (the latest point I could descend from the minimum altitude for the approach and still get down to the runway using "normal" descent rates of less then 1000 feet per minute. I came up with 3.3 miles from the end of the runway, when it really was 2.8. Because in the si world everything is set to just about minimums, we had no runway in sight at at 3.3 miles so I had to go missed.
We came back around for another approach, which got us the runway. Unfortunately I had trouble getting the airplane down fast enough (something I've alway had problems with in the sim) and had to go around again. For punishment I lost my right engine while going around. After we got that cleared up we headed back around for another try, this time single engine. I managed to get it down, but it was FAR from pretty.
To finish up I did three V1 cuts (engine failing right at V1 meaning you have to continue your take off single engine). The plane can handle it just fine, but it's a little busy for the guys flying. My V1 cuts actually went pretty well, and I'm not really worried about them too much. To end the ride he gave me a visual approach, although the sim messed up and put me well to the right of the runway at 1000 feet. I was still able to get it lined up (single engine) and land slightly better then the last one, but still a long ways from being ok.
We then swapped seats and I settled into the (rapidly diminishing in) comfort of the right seat. It was odd having to actually think what I was doing over there, almost as much as I was having to on the left. I guess that's a good thing.
My sim partner had a rough day as Captain. A few things tripped him up and he started to let them snowball. He recovered a bit as we finished up, and I'm sure tomorrow will go fine for him.
Overall, while I'm still no where near where I want to be I guess there's a chance I may get through this.
06 Mar 2008 10:37:51 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 3
I started in the right seat today and my sim partner played captain while we started up and taxied out of a winter Washington Nation Airport (it will never be Reagen Airport to me). Visibility was a 1/4 of a mile and blowing snow. Fun stuff. We finally made it out to the runway and started the take off roll only to have to reject. I don't even remember why, as it is all starting to blend together. We eventually reset and took off again. My partner was struggling a bit today with keeping up with the big picture, but hopefully tomorrow will be better for him.
After about two and a half hours we took a break and swapped seats. I took off into the same blowing snow only to have the nose wheel make an uncommanded turn (the nose is steered hydraulically through an electric linkage to the tiller) at 100 knots. Off the runway we went, but I managed to keep it mostly going straight and got it stopped before we went into the river. A quick call to tower had the crash trucks rolling and we reset to the top of the runway. We were departing to the north, which requires a quick turn to the left to avoid restricted airspace over the White House. You have to make this turn even if you suffer an engine failure, which is of course what happened. I started my turn early, and it got slightly squirrelly. I did manage to keep it together though and we started climbing heading up the Potomac River (although we couldn't see it in the snow). Tomorrow will be better.
From there we headed north and got the engine restarted. After that it was time for steep turns and stalls. I nailed the steep turns today, but still had problems with one of the stalls. It was an improvement, but still not nearly good enough. The second stall was fine. Once the air work was done we magically jumped up to 35,000 feet. We were only there for a few seconds before one of the doors blew off the plane and the cabin depressurized. Masks on, oxygen 100% and get clearance for a lower altitude. By the time we hit our max descent rate we were coming down at nearly 10,000 feet a minute. If it had been for real we wouldn't have come down that fast due to the possible structural damage, but because we were running behind the instructor okied it.
Once we were back down to 5000 feet we got vectors towards DC for a LDA (has lateral guidance only, no vertical guidance) approach to Runway 1. About halfway there my stabilizer trim ran away (meaning the yoke pitched down and I had to disconnect the trim). I caught it quickly, but it was still way out of normal trim, and without the trim I had to keep a lot of pressure on the yoke and hand fly. The approach requires lots of intermediate level offs (because there is no vertical guidance you have to "step" down as you pass distances from the airport based on a mileage readout) which kept me pretty busy. My FO was still trying to pull circuit breakers per the checklist he was running, when I finally told him just to forget it and help me fly the approach. It would have worked out, but I was running slightly behind as far as descending and had to hurry to get down. I apparently was coming down too fast and the computer triggered an obstacle alert. Even though I wasn't going to hit anything (in a sort of grim irony, the structure that triggered the alert was the Pentagon) the computer thought that with my current descent rate I might. Procedures require us to start climbing any time we hear that alert, so I broke off the approach and headed to the missed approach point. Oh yeah, did I mention I was single engine for all of this?
After I got towards the missed approach point, my engine and my stab trim came back. We got vectors around for an ILS approach (lateral AND vertical guidance) to Runway 1. The good news was short lived though as we were then informed that the glide slope (the vertical part) had just broken and it would be another non precision approach. The bad news kept coming as first my right and then my left generator shut down. The APU generator then spiked and shut off. Fortunately we have a ram air turbine that pops out of the nose when there is no other power source and provides limited power as it spins in the airflow. And I mean limited. All the FO's displays shut off. The GPS shut off. All the radios, except COM 1 and NAV 1 shut off. Two of the three hydraulic systems shut off. The flaps don't work. It gets pretty ugly. I still manged to get vectored onto the final approach course and get down to find the runway. Unfortunately at 200 feet a fog bank rolled in and everything went away. Around we went once again (making the left turn to avoid the prohibited airspace) as my left engine died. Fun Fun.
I managed to hold it together (it certainly could have been better though) and get stabilized in the climb out. At that point the instructor took pity on my and gave me a generator back. But not the engine. After the power came back online we got vectors for a GPS approach to Runway 33. I hand flew it down to minimums and saw the runway early enough to attempt to land. So far I think I have had the most trouble with landings. This one (single engine and all) wasn't great, but it was acceptable. Even with the higher approach speed due to the engine out, I was able to set it down and get it stopped. At that point I set the brake and we were done for the day.
I felt much better about stuff went today. There are about 4 things that I KNOW I have to improve drastically on, and there are a few things I want to do better just because I know I can. Today was the mid point in sim. There are three more lessons, with a day off thrown in (on Saturday). I'm thinking I'll be ready.
07 Mar 2008 11:23:27 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 4
We switched instructors for today (and for the next two lessons as well). The sim instructor schedules don't match up with the schedules of line pilots going through training, so it is common to switch around. It's not a bad thing as you get two or more people evaluating your readiness for a checkride. It also allows for exposure to different teaching styles. The guy we have now did my initial new hire sim.
Today I was up first and started off in a running airplane parked at the gate in Greensboro, NC. The plan was to fly to LGA, and we set up accordingly. We were off the gate in about 12 minutes and my FO started the right engine while we were pushing back. It hot started and he shut it down. A quick checklist and a call to MX and we we had it running. I started the left engine only to have it catch on fire. I was able to get it out and then talked through calling the fire trucks (just in case) and then heading back to the gate. After that we taxied out to runway 5.
I started the take off down the runway and rotated into the low clouds. Fittingly my left engine flamed out and we headed out single engine. The trick with an engine failure just after V1 is ensuring you are tracking straight down the runway before trying to rotate. If you take your time with it (not so easy to do when you are hurtling towards the end of the runway at 150 miles an hour) they are pretty easy to handle. This one went rather well and after we got the plane stabilized in the climb we were able to restart it.
Once everything was running again I ran through some steep turns (the best I've done so far) and then stalls. Again, the maneuvering stall was a little rough, but I tried it again and it worked out ok. The landing stall was fine. Coming out of the landing stall we had a 10th stage duct (the one that provides engine bleed air to the air conditioning) overheat. A checklist fixed the problem but I elected to return to GSO. We got vectors around for a full procedure (with a DME arc) VOR approach. The approach went pretty well but the final approach course is about 20 degrees off of the runway heading and by the time I broke out of the clouds there was no way I was going to be able to land so I went missed.
The sim is such a wonderful place. I picked up an engine fire while going around but handled it pretty well and was able to keep it flying and head towards the missed approach hold. With the fire out and the engine secured we headed back towards the airport to shoot the localizer only approach to runway 23. The approach went ok despite some confusion around when to descend at the outer marker. I did manage to get down in time and found the runway. I pulled off an ok landing and taxied clear.
We then repositioned to the top of the runway for another take off and things started to fall apart for me. At V1 my left thrust reverser deployed. This is a pretty bad thing when you consider the engine is generating close to full power for take off and the reverse snaps out and directs it all forward. Fortunately the CRJ has a system that automatically retards the thrust lever on the effected side. It will take your hand off if you're not careful. Still, not only do you have only once engine generating forward thrust, but the other one, even at idle is generating a bit of reverse thrust. Even though we were past V1 I knew that the runway was 10,000 feet long and there would be room to stop so I rejected the take off.
Basically, the first rule of flying a turbine powered airplane is thou shalt not reject after V1. There are a few exceptions (like both engines dieing or your flight controls locking up) but for the most part it holds true. In this case I should have kept going, especially since I had already lifted the nose off the ground. But I didn't. I stopped with plenty or runway left, but the instructor wasn't too happy about my decision. I don't really know why I rejected but for what ever reason, in that 2 seconds I thought about it, I decided that was the best thing to do.
As we reconfigured for take off again I started to second guess my decision, and I got pretty wrapped up about it. So much so that my next 20 minutes of decision making was shot. I know why it happened. I was tired, I was hungry (I hadn't eaten breakfast and it was noon already) and I made a really bad decision. But I should have just let it go and moved on. Anyhow, we took off again and the reverse popped out. This time I continued and maintained about 200 feet per minute in the climb up to 1000 feet. In real life I don't know if it would have been enough to clear the trees and terrain at some airports, but in the sim we managed just fine. I continued to make some bad calls in the climb out and tried to rush things to get the reverser stowed. In real life it might fly, but in the sim world you have to stick to procedure. We eventually did get it stowed and the aircraft handling returned to normal.
From there we were vectored around for a visual approach. I knew we had to do a flapless landing today so I started guessing what was going to happen next, which really isn't a great thing to do. Lesson learned. The flaps did eventually fail and the first bright thing I did since the reverser coming out was to ask for delayed vectors to the final approach course since we needed some time to get set. At one point I thought we were ready to go and commenced the approach but wasn't ready to do so and ended up high just 5 miles out.
With a flapless landing, the approach speeds are near 200 miles per hour, which is much faster then normal. That means you have to descend at a quicker rate, but the aircraft pitch is much different then normal. Of course, they don't make it easy and you have no form of visual guidance other then a normal for every one mile from the runway you should be 300 feet.
I made my second good decision and asked for a left 360 degree turn to reestablish on the approach. We were given the turn and headed back in. This time I was on altitude and managed a firm but acceptable landing. At that point I was done and after a break my partner took over captain duties. He did pretty good today so that was good.
In writing this up I'm realizing the mistake I made wasn't that big a deal, and it really didn't knock me off my game as much as I thought it did. Still, it was frustrating to feel like I'd been making good decisions up until today and to have that go away a bit.
Tomorrow is an off day and then we have two more sessions before the type ride.
09 Mar 2008 06:50:45 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 5
Despite the time change we managed to all show up at the right time and after a pre brief we were in the sim by 10am. My partner was captain first so I took the right seat (which is becoming less and less familiar all the time) and set up for a flight from Charlotte to Boston. This session was at night, and it was the first time I'd seen the sim in night mode. The visuals, while ok, are certainly no where near photo realistic. However at night, it does look more life like then during the day. The once problem is the refresh rate on the displays (it's a 180 degree wrap around) is slightly slower then the human eye. This leads to a sense of laggyness.
We went through the profile with my partner flying. He did pretty good today. After about 2 hours we took a break and then I got set up in the left seat. To save time I started with the plane already on the runway and after a quick take off brief I was cleared for take off. Of course my engine died on the first take off, but the sim did a strange thing and immediately crashed me. Weren't to sure what happened, but we were able to reset it at the top of the runway. This time after the engine failure it kept going and I was able to climb out. After leveling off at and cleaning up the plane I got the engine back and continued climbing to 10,000 feet.
Once there I did steep turns and stalls. They were ok today. There are a few points I want to clean up, but overall I was happy with them. From there we headed around to shoot a ILS approach into Charlotte. Midway back to the airport my left engine caught on fire. We were able to put out the fire but obviously the engine was toast. Yeah for single engine approaches. Today we hand flew all our approaches, so as I joined the final I dumped the autopilot and started on down. I managed to hold it together all the way down with my sim partner calling the runway in sight. For what ever reason, even though the instructor thought it looked good, I never acquired a good sight picture and felt like I was way off centerline. Instead of forcing a bad approach I went around, which is no fun to to when single engine. We got tight vectors back around for a GPS approach which I saw the runway from but had to go around again because the visibility dropped at the last second. From there we got vectors to a localizer only approach which did get us on the ground finally. I actually managed an ok landing too.
We reset on the runway and took off into the clouds again. My engine failed (like usual) on rotation but I was still able to hold the centerline and climb out. After accelerating and cleaning up the airplane I called for the engine failure checklist, which got me my engine back. It also got the visibility up to clear and a million. After leveling at 3000 feet my flaps failed at 0. Around we came again for a flapless approach at almost 200 miles per hour. This one worked out much better then the last one and I got it down no problem. On the roll out we got a cargo bin fire, which we attempting to put out after stopping on the runway. It wouldn't go out so I called for the evac checklist, which is a pretty normal ending to a sim session.
Overall I was happy with today. I think almost everything is good enough to get through the checkide and I've still got tomorrow to polish up some last minute stuff. The trick of course is to keep everything up to par. We'll see.
10 Mar 2008 07:36:21 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 6
Today was the last training session. Tomorrow is the type ride. Oh boy.
Both of us were signed off, and I am pretty confident I'll do fine. The last two sessions were acceptable on pretty much everything. It's just a matter of slowing down (some times hard to do when you are on fire) and working through the problem.
I'll know how it went by this time tomorrow I guess.
11 Mar 2008 09:04:22 pm
Upgrade: Type Ride
I passed. Maybe I'll write more about it later. Right now I just want to go to sleep.
12 Mar 2008 12:52:36 pm
Upgrade: Type Ride Write
Up So, it's mostly a blur, but here's what I remember.
We were supposed to start at 10am, but due to the sim breaking the night before and examiner that was doing our ride staying at work until 4am, we were pushed back to 3pm. Add to that that the sim was running late we didn't even get in until 4:30pm. My sim partner had wanted to go first, but changed his mind, which was fine with me as I'd just as soon get it over with, so I strapped in to the left seat first.
We started at the gate in Washington with the airplane powered. I managed to get through the receiving checklist and the before start checklist with out too much trouble. We pushed off the gate and I had the FO start the right engine. No problems there, so with the parking brake set, I started the left. The engine started ok, but it never really stabilized correctly so I shut it down. A quick call to MX didn't turn up anything so I tried starting it again. This time it started fine so we moved on.
The taxi out was fine, despit the 1/4 mile visibility. We got to Runway 1 with out any problems and after being cleared for take off I pushed up the power and released the brake. At about 100 knots the right engine died so I rejected the take off, set the brake, talked the problem over with my FO and elected to clear the runway. This time I remembered to tell the passengers to remain seated so nobody jumped out of the plane. We reset to the top of the runway and tried again.
This time we actually took off and after turning north west up the river, we climbed to 8000 feet. Once there I did steep turns (not my best, but ok) and a maneuvering stall (acceptable). We then repositioned up to 35,000 for unusual attitudes and the emergency descent. They both went ok and we were cleared back to DC and down to 3000 feet. They gave us the GPS approach to 19.
The autopilot kicked off just after I joined up on the final so I had flew down. It went pretty well until I broke out of the clouds and sort of had the runway in sight. The problem is that the inbound course is 30 degrees off the runway heading so the approach involved a low level turn to align with the runway. I had the weather to do it, but it just never looked right for me so I went around. Halfway to the hold our right engine blew up so I briefed the VOR approach to 15 for a single engine procedure. The approach was fine, but I couldn't find the ruwnay soon enough to descend so around we went one more time.
They gave us vectors back around for the same approach. This time I saw the runway soon enough to get down, but at 50 feet off the ground tower had us go around. Nothing like being single engine, power idle and in the flare when trying to go around. I managed to keep it together, but took too long to climb so I ended up going past the missed approach course before I could turn. A quick turn in heading mode solved the problem and we entered the hold as published. From there they gave us an ILS to Runway 1.
This approach worked out pretty well and it got me all the way down to the runway. I missed the center line but still managed an ok landing. From there we reset at the top of the runway and took off again. This time my engine failed at V1. I managed to hold the climb and headed up the river again. Fortunately we were able to restart the engine just as the visibility came up to clear and a million.
They gave us the visual to Runway 1 and midway on the downwind I put the flaps down. Of course they broke. So we took delayed vectors to run the checklist and then headed in to land. I was a little low the whole way down, but I managed a nice landing right on the 1000 foot markers. We taxied clear and I took it to the gate. Once there we shut down and I was done.
Over all it wasn't pretty, but it was within standards and it was safe.
I did a quick LOFT this morning and now I'm heading home for a few days before coming back on Friday for a PT on the 700.
15 Mar 2008 07:27:27 pm
Upgrade: 700 PT
Today I had my 700 Proficiency Training. Basically it's to give us at least a bit of time on the other plane (all my upgrade sim was in the 200) before we get out on the line. Because my sim partner from upgrade didn't make it through I was paired up with another guy from my class for this ride. We showed up at around 8:45 in the morning and our instructor met us at 9:15. The previous group got out of the sim at 9:30 so after a quick talk we got in. I started in the right seat while my sim partner played captain. He managed to adapt to the different feel of the 700 pretty quickly and after about 2 hours we swapped seats. Also, at that point an FO who is upgrading next month jumped on the extra observer seat to watch.
I started on the runway on 27R in Philly. After getting everything set we blasted off, only to encounter severe windshear at about 400 feet. The plane bottomed out at around 100 feet before I was able to get it climbing again and clear the weather. Once everything was stable we climbed to 5000 feet and I did a pair of steep turns. The roll rate on the 700 is a bit slower and the controls feel more sluggish to respond then the 200. But, that makes it a bit easier to control. After the steep turns I did two stalls and then got vectors around for a GPS approach back to Philly.
"Approach" (our instructor) asked us to slow to 170 knots so I put out the flaps and of course they broke. I had my FO run the emergency checklist and then we headed in on the approach for a flapless landing. During my type ride I did this same thing, except the weather was clear and a million. This time it was 3 miles and 1000 foot ceilings, so it was legally VFR weather, but I couldn't acquire the airport until 1000 feet. Coming through 500 feet another plane appeared holding short of the runway and then started taxiing into position. I stared to call for a go around but our instructor realized he'd put that plane there about an hour ago for my sim partner to have to go around for, but it never activated. The plane disappeared and I continued the approach and still managed an ok landing, but forget that when the sim is set to the 700 you have to be VERY gentle lowering the nose to the ground after landing or else it tends to slam pretty hard.
After landing we reset at the top of the runway and took off again. This time at about 90 knots my stick pusher (for the stall protection system) activated and I rejected the take off. Another reset and off we went. This time just after V1 my left engine blew up and we rotated and climbed out single engine. After leveling off at 3000 feet I had my FO run the checklist while I declared an emergency and we headed back around for an ILS approach. Other then the autopilot breaking and me having to hand fly the approach it went fine until 50 feet off the ground when tower told us to go around. So around we went, back up to 3000 feet.
This time we got vectors for the localizer approach to Runway 9R. Another brief, and we were on our way back to the airport. Once again I found the field in time and I managed my nicest landing in the sim yet. We still had a bunch of time left so our instructor repositioned us to 10,000 feet and about 25 miles from the airport heading away. He then dropped our fuel to 300 pounds (which is about 5 minutes worth). We started a turn back to the field, but both engines and the APU flamed out in the turn. The ADG (air driven generator) popped out and we got limited power back, but I was gliding back to the field that was over 20 miles away. The other problem was that with only the ADG power the airplane I didn't have my moving map display and I didn't have a DME (distance measuring equipment) receiver. So I could line up on the runway, and I could follow vertical guidance down, but I had no way of knowing how far from the airport we were until I got on the glideslope and figured a rough 3 to 1 ratio. Tower called my distance for my at 15 miles and 10 miles. I realized we had plenty of altitude so I went to flaps 8 and put the gear out to get down. We eventually caught the glideslope about 6 miles from the airport and our airspeed started increasing so I made a mistake and called for flaps 20. At that point the speed started rolling back very quickly and so I had to trade altitude for airspeed and drop below the glideslope. By now were were 3 miles from the airport and well below the glideslope. I had my FO bring the flaps back up, but at that point it was too late. I managed to stretch out the glide to about 500 feet short of the runway before we crashed. It certainly was a survivable crash, and we were right next to the runway so Crash and Fire could have gotten to us. Still, I was sort of ticked off about putting those flaps out and not making the runway.
After that we were done and after our instructor signed some paperwork we caught a shuttle to the airport. I managed to get on an earlier flight (which was a good thing because the weather in Charlotte died later in the day) and I was home by 5pm. After being gone for 12 days I was pretty happy to be home even if all the mail that was jammed in my box consisted of lots of junk, 3 bills and a wedding invitation.
I start IOE on Thursday. Until then, I don't even want to think about airplanes.
Here ya go...
12 Feb 2008 09:55:05 am
Done
I survived my 4 day of early mornings intact. It was actually a pretty easy trip, although the time shift did drag a bit. Yesterday was a very early start (4:30am in the van) to fly Akron to Charlotte and then back up to Dayton. We walked out of the hotel into negative 5 degree weather with gusty winds and blowing snow. Of course, I had to do the walk around of the airplane in this and managed to freeze pretty good. The nice thing was the plane had just come out of the maintenance hanger so it was already running when we got there and was warm inside.
The irony of all this is that it was my last time doing the first flight of the day walk around as a First Officer. This whole trip was a trip of "lasts" for me, although I didn't really think about it too much until I rotated the plane off the ground into the low clouds of over Akron and realized that was the last time I would rotate a CRJ from the right seat.
(A quick aside... right now, about 45% of the guys upgrading are failing. That number is incredibly high, and nobody knows for sure why it is happening. If they fail, they get sent back to the line as an FO again and have to wait a few months before they can try to reupgrade. I certainly don't plan on having any problems with upgrade, but then again, neither did these guys. So, it is possible I could end up back in the right seat, but that is no way to be thinking when going into upgrade training).
It was a pretty quick flight down to Charlotte and I managed an ok landing as the sun came up to the east. From there we turned north towards home, losing sight of the ground somewhere north of Beckley, WV. The captain brought the plane in for a very soft touchdown on 24L in Dayton and I ran the after landing check. We then taxied to the gate and shut it down. I think that was the slowest I've ever run through the shutdown checklist. After saying the final item I took a deep breath and realized, that despite the fact I am very much looking forward to upgrade, I am going to miss this seat a bit. I've learned so much in it, and it was my introduction to 121 flying.
Eh, onward and upward they say.
20 Feb 2008 08:09:26 pm
Upgrade: Day 1
Today was the first day of upgrade training. The schedule (as of now) is 5 days of ground with an oral exam at the end, 6 days of sim and then a sim checkride followed by a LOFT training and then a PT in what ever airplane I DON'T do the checkride in. After that I have IOE in the actual airplane. We get the schedules for the sim some time this week.
Today got off to a pretty slow start. It snowed last night and I drove up to the airport (normally a 30 minutes drive) in a white out part of the way. Despite adding 15 minutes to the drive I managed to get there before the 8 am start time. After lugging my flight case inside and upstairs I hung out in the hallway with the 8 other members of my upgrade class waiting for our classroom to be unlocked.
The class is made up of two guys from my new hire class (for a total of 3 of us), a girl from the class after us (who was awarded the class just 4 days ago), two guys from the class before us (my old roommate's class), two guys from the class before that, and one guy who has been here for almost 4 years. The ages range from 25 up to 39 with me being the second youngest at 26.
We have 1 1/2 instructors for the class. Mario is our primary instructor and a second instructor is observing the class in preparation for being certified to teach upgrade training in addition to new hire training. Mario has been with PSA as a mechanic and instructor off an on for a while now and has several thousand hours as a flight engineer for various airlines.
We got started with handing in our licenses, medicals and passports for them to be photocopied for company records. While that was happening Mario briefly spoke about the out line for training and how stuff would progress for the next few days. We then started filling out our 8710 forms (FAA forms that have to be filled out every time you apply for a a new rating or certificate). One of the Pilot Examiners was in the training center and he stopped by to walk us through filling out the form. Basically it involved checking the right boxes and filling in the correct flight times (and ensuring that the mins were met). Fun stuff. He then spent some time talking about problems previous upgrade candidates were having (the pass rate is down to about 60% right now) and answered some questions.
After he left we headed downstairs to wait for a hotel shuttle to the remote training building to go through the doors trainer. There was also new hire pilot and flight attendant classes that had to do doors as well. All in all there were about 25 of us to get through. The doors training is a cabin mockup with 3 rows of seats, a main cabin door, a service door and 2 emergency window exits. The FAs use it as both a doors trainer and a platform to practice evac drills on. It took all of 2 minutes to pop both window exits and open and close the main cabin door. After doing the service doors and then putting on and inflating a life vest (fun with CO2 cylinders) the 9 upgrades grabbed a van back to the training center.
Once back we took a quick break and then started in on weather. Weather is confusing. By weather I mean the minimums we need in order to be able to go, and adding alternate airports that we can use in the event the weather is too low at our destination. There are several rules to apply and things to check, and it wasn't being explained very clearly, which didn't help. A quick note... I've been studying on my own for several weeks now so I had a pretty good idea of what I was doing. However, I was sort of hoping for a quick over all clarification and that really didn't happen. The class managed to work through some of it but never really got to a definitive "this is what is is" point. Somewhat frustrated, we took a break for lunch.
4 of us headed over to Arby's. There are only two of us in the class that are Dayton based and had cars. The other guys decided to eat at the hotel restaurant.
After lunch we started back up at 1pm with a briefing by the head of the Safety Department about the ASAP program. Basically the ASAP program allows pilots (and dispatchers and mechanics as well) to submit a report any time a non standard even occurs. The system primarily is in place as a way of self disclosing data, but also protecting those that submit a report. The FAA can not take certificate action (a bad thing) against somebody if they file an ASAP unless they knowingly or maliciously broke the regulation. We talked about the program, how it works and reviewed some sanitized data. After about an hour and a half we took a break.
After the ASAP talk we went back to working with weather. This time we were (mostly) able to get a working definition. I feel a little better now about my understanding of it, but it is still something I am going to have to review several times. After that we moved on to working with the flight release and what is on it. We got about halfway through that before our instructor had to leave for the day at 4:45 to get to a prior commitment. He left us with a 50 question test that the Directory of Flight Standards had given to the last class (as a surprise test, no open note, not working together). We worked on the test (mostly by our selves) until about 6:15 and then called it a day. I was pretty happy with how much of the test stuff I knew. There were a few I had no idea about but for the most part I at least had a clue.
I made it home by 7pm to cook dinner, type this up and then go review a couple of things from today. Then it's bed time to get some sleep before getting back up at 6:30 tomorrow to do it all again.
Ah yes. It's for a good cause though.
21 Feb 2008 07:48:21 pm
Upgrade: Day 2
Today was a little bit more productive then yesterday. I am now starting to feel like I at least have a chance of learning what I still need to know between know and Thursday when my oral is.
Today we got started with finishing up the flight release, which took most of the morning. Ground school (here anyways) very typically gets side tracked and at one point we all thought we had ADD as we couldn't spend more then a few minutes on topic with getting caught up with something else. At one point there were 3 different conversations going on about different things, all of which would have been useful to know. I was trying to keep up with all three, while trying to clarify something else with the guy sitting next to me. Confusing to say the least.
There is (in theory) a syllabus for the way class is supposed to work. The problem is there is a block of 24 hours (that's three straight days) of systems. While it probably takes just about every bit of that time to go over all the systems, it would be maddening to do so. Burn out would hit after about the first day. So, to cut down on that, we are interspersing systems throughout the 5 days. It makes it a little hard to follow along, but at least I'm not going brain dead.
After finishing up the release the Vice President of the airline came in to talk with us while we had lunch (company supplied pizza). He managed to spend about an hour saying just about nothing. Unfortunately it is typical of the labor-management relationship here. The one or two questions we actually wanted answered he was unable to answer. After about an hour he left and we finished up eating.
After lunch they posted the schedules for the next few weeks. Basically we've got 3 more days of ground school, an oral check with an FAA inspector, 6 sim sessions, a sim checkride, a LOFT (basically a flight from start to finish in the sim) and then a Proficiency Training event in the other airplane sim. Busy busy. My class has 9 people in it, and I am actually the youngest so because there were only 4 sim slots (for 8 people total) I was pushed back until the next sim period, in mid March. People picked partners for the sim with the senior partner picking the sim time based on seniority. Fortunately for me there was actually an extra sim spot that came open with a guy who had to wait from the last class. Because he was the most senior for this round he got his first choice, and by default I ended up with the 10am to 2pm sim slot. Not too bad.
Once the schedules were taken care of we finished up the release and then moved on to systems for the afternoon. I was sort of surprised at how much I knew. I guess that's a good thing.
Tomorrow is more systems and some weight and balance work. Assuming I make it up there as there is a big snow/ice storm going on right now.
22 Feb 2008 09:42:38 pm
Upgrade: Day 3
The days seem to be getting longer. I managed to go to sleep last night by 10:30. The weather in the morning was supposed to be bad (freezing rain/snow) so I set my alarm for 6:15, which would give me 45 minutes to get up and ready and then a whole hour to get to the airport. It took me about 15 minutes to scrape the ice off my car (for the first time), but the road conditions were actually ok and I managed to make the trip in about 40 minutes.
We got started with systems. Hydraulics, electrics and some others. I'm finding that not only do I have the stuff memorized (which was something I had to do almost 3 years ago in new hire training) but I can also apply the systems to bigger picture stuff. Levels of learning baby!
The systems took us us through lunch time. After a break (and a chicken fajita burrito at Chipotle) we started back up again on weight and balance. A combination of that and speed cards took us through 5pm. There were a few more sections to go over but the Director of Training stuck his head in and told everybody to go home as it was starting to ice up pretty good. The lucky 7 that were staying at the hotel dragged their bags downstairs while the two of us that are Dayton based headed outside to scrape ice off our cars (time number three for me counting the morning and lunch) and then drive off. The drive home was pretty bad until I was about half way home when the precip turned to rain.
I've got the weekend off now which is good. I certainly have a bunch of stuff to go over, but I'm starting to feel like I might be ready for this.
24 Feb 2008 09:27:05 pm
Upgrade: Day 3.5
We had the weekend off from class, but that doesn't mean it wasn't study time. I am at something of a disadvantage as almost everybody else is based outside of Dayton and hence is being put up at the hotel attached to the training center. On one hand, that's actually pretty good for me as I don't have to live out of a hotel for a week (that will come with sim down in Charlotte) but on the other hand, they are able to study together during off hours as well as access the training center when ever they want. For me it's a 30 minute drive each way.
I spent yesterday thinking as little as I could about training. Of course, that's easier said then done, and although I managed to get a bunch of other stuff accomplished, I was still constantly going over stuff in my head. By the end of the day I broke down and broke out my Operations Handbook. The deal I made myself was I would only study during commercial breaks. So I watched Blade III (Wesley Snipes is STILL badass) and manged to go over normal and abnormal procedures before one last shuffle through my limitations note cards and bed time.
Today I forced myself to get up early (ok, 8am, not exactly early) to stay on a morning schedule for the upcoming week. After taking care of some stuff I headed up to the training center and got there about 10:30. I spent the next 4 hours going over systems and procedures with a few guys from my class. It was a pretty laid back session, but I felt pretty good about what we went over. I left them at about 3:30 to head home, with a quick stop at Panera Bread for a late lunch.
The rest of the afternoon/evening has been pretty much a waste. Well, not really a waste but apartment cleaning certainly didn't help me get ready for my oral on Thursday. My goal for tonight is to go over the 700 system differences and my limitation cards a few times. I've got two more days of class, a day off and then my oral and I'm feeling like that will be plenty of time to get ready. As is, I almost feel ready now.
While taking a break from vacuuming I moved all the pictures I've taken from February (and there weren't that many as I only flew 5 days this month) into a different folder. While doing that I took a look at some of the pictures I took learning to fly as well as the ones I took instructing in Jacksonville and Phoenix. It got me thinking about the transition I made from student to teacher and how I am really about to make that same step again, just at a different level and in a different airplane. Granted, there are some big differences. Most notably, the "students" (err.. FOs) I'm going to be working with have an assumed basic level of knowledge, something that wasn't always the case when I was instructing. Also, these students are here to learn how to be a good captain, not so much how to operate an airplane or in the Airspace System, although from a lot of stories I've heard, that is not always the case. Of course, the other difference is that in the past when I was instructing it was just me and the student in the plane. Now there are a whole bunch of people in the back who didn't pay to ride along on a instructional flight.
Either way, I think it will be ok. I just spoke to a friend of mine who has been a captain for about a year now at a different airline. He pretty much said the only way to do it is just jump in. It's a trial by fire.
Yippee.
25 Feb 2008 08:00:30 pm
Upgrade: Day 4
I managed to get nowhere near enough sleep last night (up too late, stomach bothering me, neighbor making lots of noise) so when my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning I was in no mood to get up. Oh well, duty calls. I was out of the house by 7:15 and stopped to top off my gas tank with some (comparatively) cheep $2.85 gas. Even with the stop and typical morning Dayton traffic I still managed to get to the trianing center by 7:55 for another exciting day of class. I really don't know how I did this 5 days a week for 4 years of college and 12 years of school.
Today was pretty much all systems. All day long. Of course with the group ADD we have going on (see previous post) it didn't get too dull until the very end of the day. I honestly can't remember what systems we covered, but what I do remember is that for the most part nothing we went over was something I was unfamiliar with.
We broke for lunch at noon and the two guys from my original new hire class and I went over to BW3s for lunch. It was sort of interesting to see how much of a different person they were now, compared to almost 3 years ago when we ate in the same place during new hire training. I'd imagine I've changed just as much, although seeing myself in the mirror every day pretty much negates any chance of see change myself.
After lunch we got back into systems. Again, there were often a few conversations going on at once but I think we managed to hold it together and finished up just about all the aircraft systems before taking another break. There was a recurrent that started at noon today that was made up of mostly all Dayton Captains. Of the 8 that were there (plus one Knoxville CA and one Dayton FO) they were all really great guys to fly with. Of course, I won't be flying with any of them again now that I will be in the same seat as them. Interesting thought.
We started back up with a slide show walk around of the 200. Basically, what's this? what does it do? when does it do it? sort of stuff. Again, there wasn't much there that I hadn't seen/heard before. We finished up the slide show just before 5pm. After that I packed up my bag and headed home. 4 days down, one more to go.
And now, if I can convince myself to go to sleep before 10, I may actually catch up on my sleep.
26 Feb 2008 09:58:47 pm
Upgrade: Day 5
Today was the last day of ground school. It was yet another drive in the slush/snow for me in both directions, but I've just about got used to that.
We spent most of the day going over differences between the 200 and the 700. They are relatively the same plane and are a common type per the FAA (meaning if you are trained on one you are trained on the other) but there are a few differences. The problem of course is that most of my training over the next few weeks will be in the 200, including the oral exam with the FAA on Thursday. So I spent most of the day trying to listen with one ear and then dump it out the other so I don't get confused between airplanes.
After (mostly) not paying attention all day we took a written 100 question test. For the most part it went well. I think I got around 90 questions right with out having to look stuff up (it was an open book test) and then once corrected I got all but 3 right. Makes me feel pretty confident about the oral.
We'll see I guess.
No more studying today. Tomorrow is a review day. Thursday is meet and greet with the Feds. Wahoo.
27 Feb 2008 05:43:01 pm
The Waiting Game
Here I sit and wait. My oral was scheduled for 1:30pm tomorrow and has been pushed back to Friday at 10am now. No idea why. I've been ready to take this thing for a few days now, so I guess one more day of waiting won't kill me. In theory I guess I should be studying more, but I'm at a point where anything else in would start pushing other stuff out. Or so I am telling myself. I did manage to go over limitation and immediate action items once this morning and chair fly a few flows and procedures. Maybe I'll do that again tonight and then hit everything once tomorrow.
Grrr... enough already.
29 Feb 2008 02:05:16 pm
Upgrade: Oral
Today was the first of 3 tests I'll have to get through before getting signed off for the left seat. This was the oral exam. They are done by either a company pilot examiner or the FAA. I lucked out and ended up not only drawing the FAA, but our POI (Principle Operations Inspector, sort of the FAA-Company contact point) for the airline. Fun stuff.
Pretty much anything is fair game for this oral, and I'd been studying for it for about 2 months now, with intensive ground (and at home) study the last week or so. I'd like to say I felt 100% ready going in to it, but that is never the case with a checkride, at least for me.
I was scheduled to go yesterday at 2pm, but then that was moved to today at 10am, which was then moved back to 9am. I got to the training center by 8:30 and waited until 9 for the POI to show up. Once he did, he introduced himself (he's a new POI for us, so I hadn't actually met him) and then gave me a flight plan and performance data to run a weight and balance with. That took about 10 minutes (with me TRIPLE checking every number). Apparently I was close enough as we moved on from there.
First off we hit some limitations and memory items. Despite some of the things he requested NOT actually being memory items, I'd gotten a heads up from a guy who went with him yesterday and had those number memorized too. After that we moved on to some dispatch and weather related questions as well as some performance related theory. I guess I answered everything he wanted as we headed into systems from there.
Systems pretty much blurred by until I got stuck on the Mach trim. I told him what it did, but couldn't adequately describe the theory behind it. That was ok with him, as he apparently wanted to teach something anyways. After 10 minutes of discussing aircraft certification and stability we moved on. After a few more minutes he said I seemed to know the airplane pretty well and he was satisfied.
Filling out the rest of the paperwork took a few minutes and I was heading out the door by 11am.
Two days off and then I head down to the sim in Charlotte on Monday.
03 Mar 2008 11:01:04 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 0
I made it down to Charlotte this evening, just beating out the rain in Dayton. Actually, it was coming down pretty good as I walked from my car to the terminal. The flight out was smooth and despite a quick hold short of the runway for ATC flow we got to Charlotte on time. I stopped by Pizza Hut in the terminal to grab dinner and then called the hotel and headed outside to wait for the van.
There was another company pilot waiting outside as well. He said he'd called the hotel at 7:29pm. I called at 7:39pm. As of 8pm there was no van. I called back and was told any time now. He called back at 8:15 and was told 10 minutes. The van finally showed up 8:35. At least it was warm out. Turns out the van driver disappeared and one of the desk clerks came to get us. At least they had my room already reserved (and for all 12 days I'm supposed to be here).
My room is ok. The downside is it's right across from the elevator so I hear the double beep every time the door opens. Also the wireless signal is very weak. The plus side is there's a refrigerator and a 40 inch flat screen TV (with HD channels). Home sweet home for the next week and a half.
Sim starts tomorrow at 10am.
04 Mar 2008 08:58:04 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 1
Ouch. That's all I can say.
I got to the training center around 8:45 and by 9am we were briefing. Basically an overview of the next 6 sim sessions and what we can expect on the type ride. From there we headed down to the sim bay to wait for the last crew finish up. My sim partner elected to go first so he climbed into the left seat while I made myself at home on the right, a spot I actually feel comfortable in. There was a new hire waiting on sim in STL that wanted to observe so he took the second jumpseat while our instructor set up infront of the control computer.
We started with a dark airplane with no APU (sort of realistic actually) and moved on through taxiing out with very low visibility in Philly. The sim does a pretty good job simulating the feel of a plane in flight, but the motion is very strange on the ground. Hence, it's not unusual to feel queasy taxiing around. Fortunately it doesn't seem to bother me, but some people are affected. We got to the runway and had the plane configured to go after a bunch of false starts. (Basically, the point of the sim is to get every single failure possible that you'd never see in the real world. So it's pretty normal to be single engine, missing electrics and have something burning).
We were finally cleared for take off and while the captain was getting set the instructor handed me a note telling me to play dead at 70 knots. I had a moment of thinking, "that's really not fair" but I played along. We set the power and started rolling down with visibility down to about 500 feet. Normally the pilot not flying (that would be me) would make a speed call out at 80 knots of airspeed. This serves to check that both the CA's and the FO's instruments are reading the same thing. After that the PNF is supposed to called out V1 which is the maximum speed we can reject a take off and then "rotate" at which point the pilot flying will start to lift off. Of course I was "dead" at 70 knots so the PF got no "80 knots" call. Unfortunately he didn't catch it and assumed I was just not paying attention. He even tried taking off with me not doing anything. Sim is often a game of retribution, and to make his point the sim instructor fail his engine and then gave him unrecoverable windshear. He froze the sim before we crashed.
We reset for take off and tried again. This time I called 80 knots but shortly there after we had an electric failure. We caught it this time and rejected the take off. Another reset and another attempt to take off. This time at about 20 knots the whole sim shut down. This was not planned and led to a 20 minute break while a sim tech came up and reset everything.
After that we finally were able to take off and climb out. A quick level off at 5000 and we were climbing to 8000. From there the CA went through some steep turns to the left and right. Normal turns for us max out at 30 degrees. Steep turns are 45 degrees. After that he ran through three different stalls and then the plane magically climbed to 35,000 feet. We did a quick dutch roll demo (basically turn off the yaw damper and stamp on a rudder and then turn the YD back on and watch it recover) and an unusual attitude (we close our eyes and the instructor puts us inverted or something fun like that and we have to recover). After that we cruised along for a few minutes when there was a loud bang and our cabin pressure started climbing. We both put our masks on and Darth Vedar sounds ensued. To get some oxygen we set up an emergency descent down to 10,000 feet and headed back to Philly.
After leveling at 10,000 we got vectors for an approach into Philly, but of course, not only did we never find the runway, but we also lost an engine while the captain was starting the go around. The plane got away from him a little bit but he managed to get control of it and we were able to restart the motor. From there we headed back around to do another approach. After that was complete (we never found the runway... again) we set up for a ILS PRM (basically two ILS set up right next to each other) into Philly. Some idiot landing on the other runway got off course and started blundering towards us so we had to break out and get out of his way. Typical. After doing that twice we were cleared for the approach again, and this time the captain actually broke out and we landed.
After a quick break it was my turn. So many things felt strange in the left seat. All the buttons are not where I'm used to them. The displays sit the other way (with the primary on my left and the multi function on my right) and the seat adjustment bars are backwards. Oh yeah, and I have to fly with my left hand. Something I haven't done in almost 3 years.
To save time we started holding short of the runway so I didn't have to go through all the pushback and taxi stuff. We were cleared for take off and at 80 knots my FO made the call out. Except, my airspeed was frozen at 65 knots. I called Reject and got the plane stopped. However, I was slow making a cabin PA telling everybody everything was ok, and to make his point, the instructor blew both emergency over wing exists as all my people ran away from the airplane. Whoops.
Another takeoff roll and this time we got in the air. The rotation was fine but there was lockup in the controls (not planned) and the plane got a little squirrelly. What ever the problem was fixed itself and I was soon climbing through 5000 on the way to 8000. Normally in the sim you let the autopilot fly as much as you can because the sim does not fly like a normal plane. However, both my partner and I hand flew a bunch just to get a feel of flying with the other hand.
Level at 8000 I rolled in to a steep turn. I felt the one to the left was ok and the one to the right was good until the last few seconds when it got away from me. After that it was 3 stalls, two of which were fine and one of which I lost about 4o0 feet. Not so good. From there we repositioned up to 35,000 where i got my unusual attitudes. The first one was really extreme the plane pretty much got into a flat spin (think, Goose dieing in Top Gun). I may have been able to get out of it, but the sim froze as we hurtled through 15,000 feet. The second one was much better and I was able to recover around 22,000 feet, still a lose of 13,000 feet in about 20 seconds. After we were stable the cabin blew again so the masks went back on and we dropped out of the sky down to a breathable altitude of 10,000.
We were then given vectors to Philly for a GPS approach to runway 27R. I managed to set up just about everything right but never found the runway. On the go around my engine died, but I held it together enough to head towards the miss approach hold. We ran a few checklists while in the hold and magically the engine started working again. From there we headed back around for the ILS PRM. I managed to avoid the pesky intruder aircraft (twice!) and then was cleared one more time for the approach. This time I managed to find the runway and land (although it was a really ugly landing). As I was in the process of flaring my left engine caught on fire. A quick stop on the runway and we blew both fire bottles into the engine. Of course that didn't fix it so I called for the evacuation checklist, which is pretty much the standard way of leaving the sim.
From there we headed up stairs and debriefed for a bit. Nothing too surprising. Obviously pretty much everything has to improve, but that is to be expected on day one. Also, we really didn't do too much single engine work (no V1 cuts and no single engine approaches) so that will start up tomorrow.
Over all I was not as happy with stuff as I could have been, but I'm not too worried.
Day 2 starts at 9am tomorrow.
05 Mar 2008 08:01:13 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 2
Today was a little better... maybe.
It was my turn to go first so I started in the left seat, in a dark and (not very) cold airplane parked at gate E18 in Charlotte. I flew through the Safety and Power On Checklist (basically establishing power to the airplane and checking the safety equipment) and then moved on to the Originating Checklist. That consists of checking pretty much every switch and button in the cockpit and making sure it is in the correct position. Also, many systems (such as the Fire Detection/Extinguishing, the pneumatic, hydraulic and others) have test switches that perform some built in test feature. It's a lot from memory, not only remembering what switch to hit next, but also what is supposed to happen (often times multiple things) when you do press the switch.
I managed to get through that only missing one test, which I caught when we actually went through the checklist. After that I briefed the departure and weather (nasty... gusting to 27 knots, 1/4 mile visibility in mist and thunderstorms) and the route for our flight from Charlotte to Fayetteville, NC. After that we ran the before start checklist and the "Flight Attendant" (or sim op/instructor, who also plays Air Traffic Control, Ops, Maintenance and just about anybody else we'd "talk" to) gave us our weight numbers. That allowed us to shut the door and my FO to call for pushback clearance. With that in hand I popped the parking break and gave the "tug" driver the ok to start the push.
We rolled back and I gave the ok for the FO to start the right engine, which he did. Of course, because this is upgrade sim, the engine didn't start right and we had to abort the start attempt and run a checklist. With that problem solved and the parking brake set after the pushback was complete I started the left engine. That one didn't start right either (no light off, meaning our spark plugs were dead). Another checklist and a call the "maintenance" had the problem solved. We were good to taxi.
Ramp cleared us out and I started off in the mist. There is a windshield on the sim, but no windshield wipers. However, if stuff starts looking blurry outside, you can turn on the wiper switch and it will clear the visibility a bit, complete with an authentic "wiper" noise. We taxied out to the runway and ground gave us clearance the rest of the way. Midway out I called for the taxi checks which my FO completed. We ended up holding short of the runway while an American Eagle BACJet (something they haven't flown in a LONG time) took off in front of us. I then ran then had my FO run the Before Take Off Checklist which he finished, conveniently just as we were cleared for take off.
The visibility was now down to 500 feet, which is the lowest we can go with. Of course in Charlotte we actually need 600 feet minimum but for training purposes we were authorized to use the lower visibility. 500 feet isn't much. After letting the radar take a look down the departure corridor (there was nothing there) I put up the power and off we went. My FO called 80 knots (he wasn't dead) and we kept accelerating. As a captain we are required to keep our hand just over, or on the thrust levers until the V1 call, whether we are the pilot flying or not. That way we can reject quickly if we have to. Going through about 100 knots the stick pusher on my yoke activated, driving the yoke full forward. The pusher is part of the Stall Protection System that activates when the aircraft approaches a stall. Initially the yoke will shake to get your attention. If you still don't lower the nose the yoke will pitch forward, forcing the aircraft nose down and preventing a stall. Of course, it's only supposed to go off when you are about to stall, not when you are barreling down the runway trying to take off. I chopped the power and deployed the reversers while calling "reject".
After cleaning up the airplane from that we repositioned to the top of the runway and tried again. This time I managed to take off (slightly better then yesterday) and start climbing out. Of course we got some nasty windshear climbing through 400 feet. We lost about 200 feet before I had the plane climbing out of it again and heading on the departure. From there we were cleared to climb to 14,000 feet and head on towards our destination. As we turned east the radar started showing heavy returns on our route. I asked my FO to get me a heading that would keep us north (and upwind) of the weather, even though it would add a few minutes to our flight time. Being downwind of a storm, especially down low, is not a good thing.
Once we leveled off at 14,000 I started in on the airwork. Today my steep turns were "ok" (slightly better then yesterday, but still not great). One of my stalls was ok, the other two need work still. They'll get there I guess. After that we turned back towards Fayetteville.
At that point our FA called up to tell us we had a passenger having a seizure. There really wasn't much we could do at that point. I asked if there were any medical personal on board (there weren't) and thought about getting a radio patch through to MedLink (a company that provides medical advice and drug usage approval for in flight aircraft). However, it takes a while to set up the patch through ARINC and we were only 15 minutes away from our destination. I had the FO tell the FA to just do the best they could and we'd declare the medical emergency and hope to get expedited in. The FA called back once more to say the guy was getting worse, but I had the FO tell them to just stop calling unless there was another emergency, as there wasn't much we could do at that point.
By then we had the weather for Fayettville, and I set up for the approach in use. It went fine, except I made a math mistake when figuring my Visual Descent Point (the latest point I could descend from the minimum altitude for the approach and still get down to the runway using "normal" descent rates of less then 1000 feet per minute. I came up with 3.3 miles from the end of the runway, when it really was 2.8. Because in the si world everything is set to just about minimums, we had no runway in sight at at 3.3 miles so I had to go missed.
We came back around for another approach, which got us the runway. Unfortunately I had trouble getting the airplane down fast enough (something I've alway had problems with in the sim) and had to go around again. For punishment I lost my right engine while going around. After we got that cleared up we headed back around for another try, this time single engine. I managed to get it down, but it was FAR from pretty.
To finish up I did three V1 cuts (engine failing right at V1 meaning you have to continue your take off single engine). The plane can handle it just fine, but it's a little busy for the guys flying. My V1 cuts actually went pretty well, and I'm not really worried about them too much. To end the ride he gave me a visual approach, although the sim messed up and put me well to the right of the runway at 1000 feet. I was still able to get it lined up (single engine) and land slightly better then the last one, but still a long ways from being ok.
We then swapped seats and I settled into the (rapidly diminishing in) comfort of the right seat. It was odd having to actually think what I was doing over there, almost as much as I was having to on the left. I guess that's a good thing.
My sim partner had a rough day as Captain. A few things tripped him up and he started to let them snowball. He recovered a bit as we finished up, and I'm sure tomorrow will go fine for him.
Overall, while I'm still no where near where I want to be I guess there's a chance I may get through this.
06 Mar 2008 10:37:51 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 3
I started in the right seat today and my sim partner played captain while we started up and taxied out of a winter Washington Nation Airport (it will never be Reagen Airport to me). Visibility was a 1/4 of a mile and blowing snow. Fun stuff. We finally made it out to the runway and started the take off roll only to have to reject. I don't even remember why, as it is all starting to blend together. We eventually reset and took off again. My partner was struggling a bit today with keeping up with the big picture, but hopefully tomorrow will be better for him.
After about two and a half hours we took a break and swapped seats. I took off into the same blowing snow only to have the nose wheel make an uncommanded turn (the nose is steered hydraulically through an electric linkage to the tiller) at 100 knots. Off the runway we went, but I managed to keep it mostly going straight and got it stopped before we went into the river. A quick call to tower had the crash trucks rolling and we reset to the top of the runway. We were departing to the north, which requires a quick turn to the left to avoid restricted airspace over the White House. You have to make this turn even if you suffer an engine failure, which is of course what happened. I started my turn early, and it got slightly squirrelly. I did manage to keep it together though and we started climbing heading up the Potomac River (although we couldn't see it in the snow). Tomorrow will be better.
From there we headed north and got the engine restarted. After that it was time for steep turns and stalls. I nailed the steep turns today, but still had problems with one of the stalls. It was an improvement, but still not nearly good enough. The second stall was fine. Once the air work was done we magically jumped up to 35,000 feet. We were only there for a few seconds before one of the doors blew off the plane and the cabin depressurized. Masks on, oxygen 100% and get clearance for a lower altitude. By the time we hit our max descent rate we were coming down at nearly 10,000 feet a minute. If it had been for real we wouldn't have come down that fast due to the possible structural damage, but because we were running behind the instructor okied it.
Once we were back down to 5000 feet we got vectors towards DC for a LDA (has lateral guidance only, no vertical guidance) approach to Runway 1. About halfway there my stabilizer trim ran away (meaning the yoke pitched down and I had to disconnect the trim). I caught it quickly, but it was still way out of normal trim, and without the trim I had to keep a lot of pressure on the yoke and hand fly. The approach requires lots of intermediate level offs (because there is no vertical guidance you have to "step" down as you pass distances from the airport based on a mileage readout) which kept me pretty busy. My FO was still trying to pull circuit breakers per the checklist he was running, when I finally told him just to forget it and help me fly the approach. It would have worked out, but I was running slightly behind as far as descending and had to hurry to get down. I apparently was coming down too fast and the computer triggered an obstacle alert. Even though I wasn't going to hit anything (in a sort of grim irony, the structure that triggered the alert was the Pentagon) the computer thought that with my current descent rate I might. Procedures require us to start climbing any time we hear that alert, so I broke off the approach and headed to the missed approach point. Oh yeah, did I mention I was single engine for all of this?
After I got towards the missed approach point, my engine and my stab trim came back. We got vectors around for an ILS approach (lateral AND vertical guidance) to Runway 1. The good news was short lived though as we were then informed that the glide slope (the vertical part) had just broken and it would be another non precision approach. The bad news kept coming as first my right and then my left generator shut down. The APU generator then spiked and shut off. Fortunately we have a ram air turbine that pops out of the nose when there is no other power source and provides limited power as it spins in the airflow. And I mean limited. All the FO's displays shut off. The GPS shut off. All the radios, except COM 1 and NAV 1 shut off. Two of the three hydraulic systems shut off. The flaps don't work. It gets pretty ugly. I still manged to get vectored onto the final approach course and get down to find the runway. Unfortunately at 200 feet a fog bank rolled in and everything went away. Around we went once again (making the left turn to avoid the prohibited airspace) as my left engine died. Fun Fun.
I managed to hold it together (it certainly could have been better though) and get stabilized in the climb out. At that point the instructor took pity on my and gave me a generator back. But not the engine. After the power came back online we got vectors for a GPS approach to Runway 33. I hand flew it down to minimums and saw the runway early enough to attempt to land. So far I think I have had the most trouble with landings. This one (single engine and all) wasn't great, but it was acceptable. Even with the higher approach speed due to the engine out, I was able to set it down and get it stopped. At that point I set the brake and we were done for the day.
I felt much better about stuff went today. There are about 4 things that I KNOW I have to improve drastically on, and there are a few things I want to do better just because I know I can. Today was the mid point in sim. There are three more lessons, with a day off thrown in (on Saturday). I'm thinking I'll be ready.
07 Mar 2008 11:23:27 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 4
We switched instructors for today (and for the next two lessons as well). The sim instructor schedules don't match up with the schedules of line pilots going through training, so it is common to switch around. It's not a bad thing as you get two or more people evaluating your readiness for a checkride. It also allows for exposure to different teaching styles. The guy we have now did my initial new hire sim.
Today I was up first and started off in a running airplane parked at the gate in Greensboro, NC. The plan was to fly to LGA, and we set up accordingly. We were off the gate in about 12 minutes and my FO started the right engine while we were pushing back. It hot started and he shut it down. A quick checklist and a call to MX and we we had it running. I started the left engine only to have it catch on fire. I was able to get it out and then talked through calling the fire trucks (just in case) and then heading back to the gate. After that we taxied out to runway 5.
I started the take off down the runway and rotated into the low clouds. Fittingly my left engine flamed out and we headed out single engine. The trick with an engine failure just after V1 is ensuring you are tracking straight down the runway before trying to rotate. If you take your time with it (not so easy to do when you are hurtling towards the end of the runway at 150 miles an hour) they are pretty easy to handle. This one went rather well and after we got the plane stabilized in the climb we were able to restart it.
Once everything was running again I ran through some steep turns (the best I've done so far) and then stalls. Again, the maneuvering stall was a little rough, but I tried it again and it worked out ok. The landing stall was fine. Coming out of the landing stall we had a 10th stage duct (the one that provides engine bleed air to the air conditioning) overheat. A checklist fixed the problem but I elected to return to GSO. We got vectors around for a full procedure (with a DME arc) VOR approach. The approach went pretty well but the final approach course is about 20 degrees off of the runway heading and by the time I broke out of the clouds there was no way I was going to be able to land so I went missed.
The sim is such a wonderful place. I picked up an engine fire while going around but handled it pretty well and was able to keep it flying and head towards the missed approach hold. With the fire out and the engine secured we headed back towards the airport to shoot the localizer only approach to runway 23. The approach went ok despite some confusion around when to descend at the outer marker. I did manage to get down in time and found the runway. I pulled off an ok landing and taxied clear.
We then repositioned to the top of the runway for another take off and things started to fall apart for me. At V1 my left thrust reverser deployed. This is a pretty bad thing when you consider the engine is generating close to full power for take off and the reverse snaps out and directs it all forward. Fortunately the CRJ has a system that automatically retards the thrust lever on the effected side. It will take your hand off if you're not careful. Still, not only do you have only once engine generating forward thrust, but the other one, even at idle is generating a bit of reverse thrust. Even though we were past V1 I knew that the runway was 10,000 feet long and there would be room to stop so I rejected the take off.
Basically, the first rule of flying a turbine powered airplane is thou shalt not reject after V1. There are a few exceptions (like both engines dieing or your flight controls locking up) but for the most part it holds true. In this case I should have kept going, especially since I had already lifted the nose off the ground. But I didn't. I stopped with plenty or runway left, but the instructor wasn't too happy about my decision. I don't really know why I rejected but for what ever reason, in that 2 seconds I thought about it, I decided that was the best thing to do.
As we reconfigured for take off again I started to second guess my decision, and I got pretty wrapped up about it. So much so that my next 20 minutes of decision making was shot. I know why it happened. I was tired, I was hungry (I hadn't eaten breakfast and it was noon already) and I made a really bad decision. But I should have just let it go and moved on. Anyhow, we took off again and the reverse popped out. This time I continued and maintained about 200 feet per minute in the climb up to 1000 feet. In real life I don't know if it would have been enough to clear the trees and terrain at some airports, but in the sim we managed just fine. I continued to make some bad calls in the climb out and tried to rush things to get the reverser stowed. In real life it might fly, but in the sim world you have to stick to procedure. We eventually did get it stowed and the aircraft handling returned to normal.
From there we were vectored around for a visual approach. I knew we had to do a flapless landing today so I started guessing what was going to happen next, which really isn't a great thing to do. Lesson learned. The flaps did eventually fail and the first bright thing I did since the reverser coming out was to ask for delayed vectors to the final approach course since we needed some time to get set. At one point I thought we were ready to go and commenced the approach but wasn't ready to do so and ended up high just 5 miles out.
With a flapless landing, the approach speeds are near 200 miles per hour, which is much faster then normal. That means you have to descend at a quicker rate, but the aircraft pitch is much different then normal. Of course, they don't make it easy and you have no form of visual guidance other then a normal for every one mile from the runway you should be 300 feet.
I made my second good decision and asked for a left 360 degree turn to reestablish on the approach. We were given the turn and headed back in. This time I was on altitude and managed a firm but acceptable landing. At that point I was done and after a break my partner took over captain duties. He did pretty good today so that was good.
In writing this up I'm realizing the mistake I made wasn't that big a deal, and it really didn't knock me off my game as much as I thought it did. Still, it was frustrating to feel like I'd been making good decisions up until today and to have that go away a bit.
Tomorrow is an off day and then we have two more sessions before the type ride.
09 Mar 2008 06:50:45 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 5
Despite the time change we managed to all show up at the right time and after a pre brief we were in the sim by 10am. My partner was captain first so I took the right seat (which is becoming less and less familiar all the time) and set up for a flight from Charlotte to Boston. This session was at night, and it was the first time I'd seen the sim in night mode. The visuals, while ok, are certainly no where near photo realistic. However at night, it does look more life like then during the day. The once problem is the refresh rate on the displays (it's a 180 degree wrap around) is slightly slower then the human eye. This leads to a sense of laggyness.
We went through the profile with my partner flying. He did pretty good today. After about 2 hours we took a break and then I got set up in the left seat. To save time I started with the plane already on the runway and after a quick take off brief I was cleared for take off. Of course my engine died on the first take off, but the sim did a strange thing and immediately crashed me. Weren't to sure what happened, but we were able to reset it at the top of the runway. This time after the engine failure it kept going and I was able to climb out. After leveling off at and cleaning up the plane I got the engine back and continued climbing to 10,000 feet.
Once there I did steep turns and stalls. They were ok today. There are a few points I want to clean up, but overall I was happy with them. From there we headed around to shoot a ILS approach into Charlotte. Midway back to the airport my left engine caught on fire. We were able to put out the fire but obviously the engine was toast. Yeah for single engine approaches. Today we hand flew all our approaches, so as I joined the final I dumped the autopilot and started on down. I managed to hold it together all the way down with my sim partner calling the runway in sight. For what ever reason, even though the instructor thought it looked good, I never acquired a good sight picture and felt like I was way off centerline. Instead of forcing a bad approach I went around, which is no fun to to when single engine. We got tight vectors back around for a GPS approach which I saw the runway from but had to go around again because the visibility dropped at the last second. From there we got vectors to a localizer only approach which did get us on the ground finally. I actually managed an ok landing too.
We reset on the runway and took off into the clouds again. My engine failed (like usual) on rotation but I was still able to hold the centerline and climb out. After accelerating and cleaning up the airplane I called for the engine failure checklist, which got me my engine back. It also got the visibility up to clear and a million. After leveling at 3000 feet my flaps failed at 0. Around we came again for a flapless approach at almost 200 miles per hour. This one worked out much better then the last one and I got it down no problem. On the roll out we got a cargo bin fire, which we attempting to put out after stopping on the runway. It wouldn't go out so I called for the evac checklist, which is a pretty normal ending to a sim session.
Overall I was happy with today. I think almost everything is good enough to get through the checkide and I've still got tomorrow to polish up some last minute stuff. The trick of course is to keep everything up to par. We'll see.
10 Mar 2008 07:36:21 pm
Upgrade: Sim Day 6
Today was the last training session. Tomorrow is the type ride. Oh boy.
Both of us were signed off, and I am pretty confident I'll do fine. The last two sessions were acceptable on pretty much everything. It's just a matter of slowing down (some times hard to do when you are on fire) and working through the problem.
I'll know how it went by this time tomorrow I guess.
11 Mar 2008 09:04:22 pm
Upgrade: Type Ride
I passed. Maybe I'll write more about it later. Right now I just want to go to sleep.
12 Mar 2008 12:52:36 pm
Upgrade: Type Ride Write
Up So, it's mostly a blur, but here's what I remember.
We were supposed to start at 10am, but due to the sim breaking the night before and examiner that was doing our ride staying at work until 4am, we were pushed back to 3pm. Add to that that the sim was running late we didn't even get in until 4:30pm. My sim partner had wanted to go first, but changed his mind, which was fine with me as I'd just as soon get it over with, so I strapped in to the left seat first.
We started at the gate in Washington with the airplane powered. I managed to get through the receiving checklist and the before start checklist with out too much trouble. We pushed off the gate and I had the FO start the right engine. No problems there, so with the parking brake set, I started the left. The engine started ok, but it never really stabilized correctly so I shut it down. A quick call to MX didn't turn up anything so I tried starting it again. This time it started fine so we moved on.
The taxi out was fine, despit the 1/4 mile visibility. We got to Runway 1 with out any problems and after being cleared for take off I pushed up the power and released the brake. At about 100 knots the right engine died so I rejected the take off, set the brake, talked the problem over with my FO and elected to clear the runway. This time I remembered to tell the passengers to remain seated so nobody jumped out of the plane. We reset to the top of the runway and tried again.
This time we actually took off and after turning north west up the river, we climbed to 8000 feet. Once there I did steep turns (not my best, but ok) and a maneuvering stall (acceptable). We then repositioned up to 35,000 for unusual attitudes and the emergency descent. They both went ok and we were cleared back to DC and down to 3000 feet. They gave us the GPS approach to 19.
The autopilot kicked off just after I joined up on the final so I had flew down. It went pretty well until I broke out of the clouds and sort of had the runway in sight. The problem is that the inbound course is 30 degrees off the runway heading so the approach involved a low level turn to align with the runway. I had the weather to do it, but it just never looked right for me so I went around. Halfway to the hold our right engine blew up so I briefed the VOR approach to 15 for a single engine procedure. The approach was fine, but I couldn't find the ruwnay soon enough to descend so around we went one more time.
They gave us vectors back around for the same approach. This time I saw the runway soon enough to get down, but at 50 feet off the ground tower had us go around. Nothing like being single engine, power idle and in the flare when trying to go around. I managed to keep it together, but took too long to climb so I ended up going past the missed approach course before I could turn. A quick turn in heading mode solved the problem and we entered the hold as published. From there they gave us an ILS to Runway 1.
This approach worked out pretty well and it got me all the way down to the runway. I missed the center line but still managed an ok landing. From there we reset at the top of the runway and took off again. This time my engine failed at V1. I managed to hold the climb and headed up the river again. Fortunately we were able to restart the engine just as the visibility came up to clear and a million.
They gave us the visual to Runway 1 and midway on the downwind I put the flaps down. Of course they broke. So we took delayed vectors to run the checklist and then headed in to land. I was a little low the whole way down, but I managed a nice landing right on the 1000 foot markers. We taxied clear and I took it to the gate. Once there we shut down and I was done.
Over all it wasn't pretty, but it was within standards and it was safe.
I did a quick LOFT this morning and now I'm heading home for a few days before coming back on Friday for a PT on the 700.
15 Mar 2008 07:27:27 pm
Upgrade: 700 PT
Today I had my 700 Proficiency Training. Basically it's to give us at least a bit of time on the other plane (all my upgrade sim was in the 200) before we get out on the line. Because my sim partner from upgrade didn't make it through I was paired up with another guy from my class for this ride. We showed up at around 8:45 in the morning and our instructor met us at 9:15. The previous group got out of the sim at 9:30 so after a quick talk we got in. I started in the right seat while my sim partner played captain. He managed to adapt to the different feel of the 700 pretty quickly and after about 2 hours we swapped seats. Also, at that point an FO who is upgrading next month jumped on the extra observer seat to watch.
I started on the runway on 27R in Philly. After getting everything set we blasted off, only to encounter severe windshear at about 400 feet. The plane bottomed out at around 100 feet before I was able to get it climbing again and clear the weather. Once everything was stable we climbed to 5000 feet and I did a pair of steep turns. The roll rate on the 700 is a bit slower and the controls feel more sluggish to respond then the 200. But, that makes it a bit easier to control. After the steep turns I did two stalls and then got vectors around for a GPS approach back to Philly.
"Approach" (our instructor) asked us to slow to 170 knots so I put out the flaps and of course they broke. I had my FO run the emergency checklist and then we headed in on the approach for a flapless landing. During my type ride I did this same thing, except the weather was clear and a million. This time it was 3 miles and 1000 foot ceilings, so it was legally VFR weather, but I couldn't acquire the airport until 1000 feet. Coming through 500 feet another plane appeared holding short of the runway and then started taxiing into position. I stared to call for a go around but our instructor realized he'd put that plane there about an hour ago for my sim partner to have to go around for, but it never activated. The plane disappeared and I continued the approach and still managed an ok landing, but forget that when the sim is set to the 700 you have to be VERY gentle lowering the nose to the ground after landing or else it tends to slam pretty hard.
After landing we reset at the top of the runway and took off again. This time at about 90 knots my stick pusher (for the stall protection system) activated and I rejected the take off. Another reset and off we went. This time just after V1 my left engine blew up and we rotated and climbed out single engine. After leveling off at 3000 feet I had my FO run the checklist while I declared an emergency and we headed back around for an ILS approach. Other then the autopilot breaking and me having to hand fly the approach it went fine until 50 feet off the ground when tower told us to go around. So around we went, back up to 3000 feet.
This time we got vectors for the localizer approach to Runway 9R. Another brief, and we were on our way back to the airport. Once again I found the field in time and I managed my nicest landing in the sim yet. We still had a bunch of time left so our instructor repositioned us to 10,000 feet and about 25 miles from the airport heading away. He then dropped our fuel to 300 pounds (which is about 5 minutes worth). We started a turn back to the field, but both engines and the APU flamed out in the turn. The ADG (air driven generator) popped out and we got limited power back, but I was gliding back to the field that was over 20 miles away. The other problem was that with only the ADG power the airplane I didn't have my moving map display and I didn't have a DME (distance measuring equipment) receiver. So I could line up on the runway, and I could follow vertical guidance down, but I had no way of knowing how far from the airport we were until I got on the glideslope and figured a rough 3 to 1 ratio. Tower called my distance for my at 15 miles and 10 miles. I realized we had plenty of altitude so I went to flaps 8 and put the gear out to get down. We eventually caught the glideslope about 6 miles from the airport and our airspeed started increasing so I made a mistake and called for flaps 20. At that point the speed started rolling back very quickly and so I had to trade altitude for airspeed and drop below the glideslope. By now were were 3 miles from the airport and well below the glideslope. I had my FO bring the flaps back up, but at that point it was too late. I managed to stretch out the glide to about 500 feet short of the runway before we crashed. It certainly was a survivable crash, and we were right next to the runway so Crash and Fire could have gotten to us. Still, I was sort of ticked off about putting those flaps out and not making the runway.
After that we were done and after our instructor signed some paperwork we caught a shuttle to the airport. I managed to get on an earlier flight (which was a good thing because the weather in Charlotte died later in the day) and I was home by 5pm. After being gone for 12 days I was pretty happy to be home even if all the mail that was jammed in my box consisted of lots of junk, 3 bills and a wedding invitation.
I start IOE on Thursday. Until then, I don't even want to think about airplanes.
