jb747
Enthusiast
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2010
- Posts
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A rundown on another sim exercise.
It starts with both of us flying a circuit at KL, as a warm up.
This exercise is largely about teamwork and management, and a lot is directed at the FO (who starts off doing the flying).
Basically it starts in KL, with the aircraft having supposedly diverted there, and the crew running out of hours. The weather is poor, with heavy rain. Supposedly fuel issues, so minimal fuel load, though nothing nasty forecast at Singapore (!). Multiple little things inserted to basically muck up the flow. Start malfunction on one engine. Late notice runway change (so new performance data, FMC loading, SID). Lots of weather en route to Singapore, so the only time you're on track is as you cross it. Multiple changes to the arrival clearance...all of this is intended to try to reduce your situational awareness.
Approach flown into Singapore where the weather is rather worse than forecast, though still acceptable. The sim was supposed to insert a late 'windshear', but it didn't....so the instructor had to very quickly reduce the vis below acceptable to force a go around (would have been hilarious if we'd managed to land off the approach). Options could be to fly another approach, hold for a short while, or immediately divert to Batam. Fuel is now getting a little scarce, so I opt for the immediate divert. Radar vectors to join the VOR approach and land.
This is all in real time, and starts with a 'cold' aircraft, so elapsed time is about two hours thirty.
Coffee break.
Back into the sim, and we each fly a take off and then an ILS without any of our normal aids (i.e. autopilot or flight director).
We always have a low vis package in the licence renewals. So, we take off with 125 metres vis (i.e. thick fog), max crosswind (which in low vis is 10 knots) and max weight. First take off results in an engine failure just prior to V1, and abort. Next take off also has an engine failure, but this time right on V1, just as I'm pulling my hand off the levers. Continue the take off, clean up. The engine restarts in flight (yeh!). Instantly lose a couple of hundred tonnes, and fly a CAT II approach and landing. Back out to ten miles and do it again, but this time the system loses the plot at about 200 feet, so go around. Exercise over once the aircraft is cleaned up and checklist done.
A little bit of time left over, so we have a play with some windshear scenarios.
It starts with both of us flying a circuit at KL, as a warm up.
This exercise is largely about teamwork and management, and a lot is directed at the FO (who starts off doing the flying).
Basically it starts in KL, with the aircraft having supposedly diverted there, and the crew running out of hours. The weather is poor, with heavy rain. Supposedly fuel issues, so minimal fuel load, though nothing nasty forecast at Singapore (!). Multiple little things inserted to basically muck up the flow. Start malfunction on one engine. Late notice runway change (so new performance data, FMC loading, SID). Lots of weather en route to Singapore, so the only time you're on track is as you cross it. Multiple changes to the arrival clearance...all of this is intended to try to reduce your situational awareness.
Approach flown into Singapore where the weather is rather worse than forecast, though still acceptable. The sim was supposed to insert a late 'windshear', but it didn't....so the instructor had to very quickly reduce the vis below acceptable to force a go around (would have been hilarious if we'd managed to land off the approach). Options could be to fly another approach, hold for a short while, or immediately divert to Batam. Fuel is now getting a little scarce, so I opt for the immediate divert. Radar vectors to join the VOR approach and land.
This is all in real time, and starts with a 'cold' aircraft, so elapsed time is about two hours thirty.
Coffee break.
Back into the sim, and we each fly a take off and then an ILS without any of our normal aids (i.e. autopilot or flight director).
We always have a low vis package in the licence renewals. So, we take off with 125 metres vis (i.e. thick fog), max crosswind (which in low vis is 10 knots) and max weight. First take off results in an engine failure just prior to V1, and abort. Next take off also has an engine failure, but this time right on V1, just as I'm pulling my hand off the levers. Continue the take off, clean up. The engine restarts in flight (yeh!). Instantly lose a couple of hundred tonnes, and fly a CAT II approach and landing. Back out to ten miles and do it again, but this time the system loses the plot at about 200 feet, so go around. Exercise over once the aircraft is cleaned up and checklist done.
A little bit of time left over, so we have a play with some windshear scenarios.
