Minima-No-Contact
Well-Known Member
Hi all,
I recently completed my upgrade to B1900 Captain and thought I’d better do the Jetcareers thing and share my experiences!
A little bit about me first, my first job was flying the B1900, right place right time and all that… and with 300 hrs total, I was flying as a very junior First Officer. (It wasn’t a PFT scheme, I took a risk and did a B1900 type rating and luckily enough, it payed off by getting a job 2 months later)
Anyway, after building hours in the right seat of the B1900, the occasional command Navajo flight and getting the Australian ATPL theory out of the way I eventually qualified for the full ATP licence and was now available to do my command upgrade... at the companies’ discretion of course. Three months after getting the ATPL, I was given my chance and before I knew it, I was scheduled in for my upgrade.
First off, completing the B1900 tech quiz, basically an engineering exam on aircraft systems, performance, limitations and some general knowledge type stuff.
Next up was the upgrade base check, we do these every 6 months so I knew what to expect, although this time it would be from the left seat. These flights are obviously without passengers, just me and the Training Captain.
A few of the things we covered:
- GPS NPA approach normal ops
- Simulated engine failure in the missed approach and return for a NDB approach to circling altitude. Visual at the minima and complete the circling approach to land (simulated low vis circuit at approx. 400’ AGL)
- Simulated Engine Failure prior to V1, abort and bring the a/c to a stop.
- Emergency Descent, (Simulate Pressurisation problem at altitude)
- General handling, steep turns etc.
- ILS to minima back at the base.
With that out of the way, line training was scheduled. Each flight from here until the line check was flown as what we call ICUS in Australia. (In Command Under Supervision). I flew a number of flights in the left seat with one of our Training Captains in the right seat.
His job is to make my job really hard
We are required to complete a line training checklist. It is a manual of about 17 pages which lists items to be covered. We would usually cover one checklist per flight, each checklist containing up to 25 items.
For example, one checklist will cover the Electrical system and then it is my job to brief the training captain on it and we have a discussion about the limitations and problems that can be associated with it. Some sort of scenario involving an associated electrical problem will occur on that flight or subsequent flight.
The checklists were relatively straight forward. The hardest part about command training is realising that you are responsible for EVERYTHING and it is up to the Captain to take command of every situation and make a good calculated decision!
Its easy to know where an important item in the Operations manual or Flight manual is located, but during an emergency or a situation that requires that information immediately, you won’t have time to look it up or ask someone else.
Line training was essentially enjoyable and was definitely a great learning experience. After sitting in the right seat for so long, I guess it becomes easy to get complacent. Sitting in the right seat, doing your job and I guess knowing in the back of your mind that at the end of the day, the Captain has the final say and he/she will be required to make the correct choices along the way to get us there safely. Don’t get me wrong, the FO provides a lot of valuable input to making a flight a safe one, but usually the FO isn’t the one having to explain a non-scheduled fuel stop, passenger refusal or some sort of complaint.
A couple of weeks into the line training, having settled into the left seat and having completed a large portion of the line checklist, the training captains started to play the “extremely junior’ and at times, “incompetent” FO. That’s where things get fun.
When it was the FO’s sector and we were shooting an approach in simulated IMC, the Training Captain would slowly wander to the limit of tolerances. Getting high on approaches, getting low and slow and not correcting when prompted, not staying on profile on a descent from the flight levels. They would be very subtle about these doing these things, and it was hard at times to know whether or not to call them on things because I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not. By the end of the training, I was calling them on everything without hesitation, usually if you suspect something of not looking right, it isn’t. So I’d call them on it.
Our company uses the B1900 on long sectors. Sectors that the B1900 wasn’t really designed for. Its funny, in one of the first paragraphs in the Flight Safety B1900 manual, it quotes “You may never need the maximum range of the 1900 airliner”
Well, almost all of our sectors are maximum range. Our model B1900 has about 3hrs range not including reserves, and we do 2.5 – 3 hr trips all the time.
So we are constantly calculating PNRs, and re-calculating fuel figures. Here in Western Australia, we don’t have the luxury of overflying airports that if needed, we could stop and refuel at. So fuel consideration plays a big part in our day to day flying and obviously played a big part in my line training.
Line check. After about 100hrs ICUS, I was recommended for a line check. The flight that I was rostered on was a 12 hr day with 10hrs flight time. Four sectors of about 2.5hrs each.
Just enough time to get asked almost everything
I’ll give you a rundown on what we covered.
1st Sector: Performance questions and rules and reg’s (when do we need an alternate, lighting requirements, what makes a "suitable aerodrome" etc)
A VOR/DME arrival with the FO (Check Captain) as handling pilot. He stayed nice and high on the approach after a couple of prompts by me to correct, so I took over and finished the approach and landing.
2nd Sector: The scenario was a pressurisation problem, and a PNR had to be calculated. We covered a bunch of systems questions also. The next approach was a GPS arrival and practice circling approach with simulated low vis/ceiling.
3rd Sector: Engine Failure en-route with the obvious diversion airports being closed due to weather requirements. The next approach was the FO’s again, briefed a straight in DME arrival, he stayed high on profile for the descent but flew a good approach which was an unexpected pleasant relief on my part!
Last Sector: Dual Generator failure 1hr from destination with all available airports nearby fogged in. It’s a load shedding exercise really, we have about 30mins of battery power available in the B1900 after a dual gen failure, so it’s a matter of turning off almost everything, advising ATC that we will be going "blind" and deadheading until a certain time where we will come back on air and update our intentions and expected arrival procedure. The next problem was a passenger with a heart attack...
We finished off with an ILS down to the minima and as I started to breath easy after landing, we had a simulated engine fire just prior to shutdown! Quickly briefed the FO on a simulated evacuation and that was it!
So all in all, over the past few weeks, I have learnt an incredible amount. Obviously command judgement is a huge part of becoming a good Captain and that is something we get to practice daily and learn from each flight. It’s a never ending learning curve I think, the day we think we know it all is a day where something bites us in the butt.
Here is a couple of pic's of one of our B1900s taken last year, I have a few more pics but no idea how to load them from my computer.
[image]http://www.airliners.net/open.file/405840/M/[/image]
[image]http://www.airliners.net/open.file/348716/M/[/image]
I hope this may provide a bit of an insight into command training in a light turboprop. I’m writing this at the moment completely exhausted from a long week, so I apologise if I’ve carried on a bit or not made complete sense in parts
If anyone is curious,
Total time: 2600
Multi: 2300
Command: 700
Turbine: 1750
Age: 24
Goal: Airlines!!
Feel free to fire away with any Questions or comments,
Cheers,
MNC
I recently completed my upgrade to B1900 Captain and thought I’d better do the Jetcareers thing and share my experiences!
A little bit about me first, my first job was flying the B1900, right place right time and all that… and with 300 hrs total, I was flying as a very junior First Officer. (It wasn’t a PFT scheme, I took a risk and did a B1900 type rating and luckily enough, it payed off by getting a job 2 months later)
Anyway, after building hours in the right seat of the B1900, the occasional command Navajo flight and getting the Australian ATPL theory out of the way I eventually qualified for the full ATP licence and was now available to do my command upgrade... at the companies’ discretion of course. Three months after getting the ATPL, I was given my chance and before I knew it, I was scheduled in for my upgrade.
First off, completing the B1900 tech quiz, basically an engineering exam on aircraft systems, performance, limitations and some general knowledge type stuff.
Next up was the upgrade base check, we do these every 6 months so I knew what to expect, although this time it would be from the left seat. These flights are obviously without passengers, just me and the Training Captain.
A few of the things we covered:
- GPS NPA approach normal ops
- Simulated engine failure in the missed approach and return for a NDB approach to circling altitude. Visual at the minima and complete the circling approach to land (simulated low vis circuit at approx. 400’ AGL)
- Simulated Engine Failure prior to V1, abort and bring the a/c to a stop.
- Emergency Descent, (Simulate Pressurisation problem at altitude)
- General handling, steep turns etc.
- ILS to minima back at the base.
With that out of the way, line training was scheduled. Each flight from here until the line check was flown as what we call ICUS in Australia. (In Command Under Supervision). I flew a number of flights in the left seat with one of our Training Captains in the right seat.
His job is to make my job really hard
For example, one checklist will cover the Electrical system and then it is my job to brief the training captain on it and we have a discussion about the limitations and problems that can be associated with it. Some sort of scenario involving an associated electrical problem will occur on that flight or subsequent flight.
The checklists were relatively straight forward. The hardest part about command training is realising that you are responsible for EVERYTHING and it is up to the Captain to take command of every situation and make a good calculated decision!
Its easy to know where an important item in the Operations manual or Flight manual is located, but during an emergency or a situation that requires that information immediately, you won’t have time to look it up or ask someone else.
Line training was essentially enjoyable and was definitely a great learning experience. After sitting in the right seat for so long, I guess it becomes easy to get complacent. Sitting in the right seat, doing your job and I guess knowing in the back of your mind that at the end of the day, the Captain has the final say and he/she will be required to make the correct choices along the way to get us there safely. Don’t get me wrong, the FO provides a lot of valuable input to making a flight a safe one, but usually the FO isn’t the one having to explain a non-scheduled fuel stop, passenger refusal or some sort of complaint.
A couple of weeks into the line training, having settled into the left seat and having completed a large portion of the line checklist, the training captains started to play the “extremely junior’ and at times, “incompetent” FO. That’s where things get fun.
When it was the FO’s sector and we were shooting an approach in simulated IMC, the Training Captain would slowly wander to the limit of tolerances. Getting high on approaches, getting low and slow and not correcting when prompted, not staying on profile on a descent from the flight levels. They would be very subtle about these doing these things, and it was hard at times to know whether or not to call them on things because I wasn’t sure if it was intentional or not. By the end of the training, I was calling them on everything without hesitation, usually if you suspect something of not looking right, it isn’t. So I’d call them on it.
Our company uses the B1900 on long sectors. Sectors that the B1900 wasn’t really designed for. Its funny, in one of the first paragraphs in the Flight Safety B1900 manual, it quotes “You may never need the maximum range of the 1900 airliner”
Well, almost all of our sectors are maximum range. Our model B1900 has about 3hrs range not including reserves, and we do 2.5 – 3 hr trips all the time.
So we are constantly calculating PNRs, and re-calculating fuel figures. Here in Western Australia, we don’t have the luxury of overflying airports that if needed, we could stop and refuel at. So fuel consideration plays a big part in our day to day flying and obviously played a big part in my line training.
Line check. After about 100hrs ICUS, I was recommended for a line check. The flight that I was rostered on was a 12 hr day with 10hrs flight time. Four sectors of about 2.5hrs each.
Just enough time to get asked almost everything
I’ll give you a rundown on what we covered.
1st Sector: Performance questions and rules and reg’s (when do we need an alternate, lighting requirements, what makes a "suitable aerodrome" etc)
A VOR/DME arrival with the FO (Check Captain) as handling pilot. He stayed nice and high on the approach after a couple of prompts by me to correct, so I took over and finished the approach and landing.
2nd Sector: The scenario was a pressurisation problem, and a PNR had to be calculated. We covered a bunch of systems questions also. The next approach was a GPS arrival and practice circling approach with simulated low vis/ceiling.
3rd Sector: Engine Failure en-route with the obvious diversion airports being closed due to weather requirements. The next approach was the FO’s again, briefed a straight in DME arrival, he stayed high on profile for the descent but flew a good approach which was an unexpected pleasant relief on my part!
Last Sector: Dual Generator failure 1hr from destination with all available airports nearby fogged in. It’s a load shedding exercise really, we have about 30mins of battery power available in the B1900 after a dual gen failure, so it’s a matter of turning off almost everything, advising ATC that we will be going "blind" and deadheading until a certain time where we will come back on air and update our intentions and expected arrival procedure. The next problem was a passenger with a heart attack...
We finished off with an ILS down to the minima and as I started to breath easy after landing, we had a simulated engine fire just prior to shutdown! Quickly briefed the FO on a simulated evacuation and that was it!
So all in all, over the past few weeks, I have learnt an incredible amount. Obviously command judgement is a huge part of becoming a good Captain and that is something we get to practice daily and learn from each flight. It’s a never ending learning curve I think, the day we think we know it all is a day where something bites us in the butt.
Here is a couple of pic's of one of our B1900s taken last year, I have a few more pics but no idea how to load them from my computer.
[image]http://www.airliners.net/open.file/405840/M/[/image]
[image]http://www.airliners.net/open.file/348716/M/[/image]
I hope this may provide a bit of an insight into command training in a light turboprop. I’m writing this at the moment completely exhausted from a long week, so I apologise if I’ve carried on a bit or not made complete sense in parts
If anyone is curious,
Total time: 2600
Multi: 2300
Command: 700
Turbine: 1750
Age: 24
Goal: Airlines!!
Feel free to fire away with any Questions or comments,
Cheers,
MNC
