Friday, February 23, 2007

Final push

With only 6 training sessions left before my EMB-145 SIC checkride the heat is most definitely on. Ive spent the last 5 days learning procedures in the non motion flight training device(FTD). The "box" was great for learning flows, procedures, and profiles. I have to admit that in the fully air conditioned room, I left there sweating each and every night....a literal sweat stain on the back of my shirt. Intense stuff.

We passed the stage check last night with an 8 year captain. The check focused on checklists and flows, abnormal engine start procedures, PRM approach procedures, and non precision approach profiles--both with and without the autopilot. We had our work cutout for us.

The PRM stands for precision runway monitor. When there are two runways in use closer than the minimum prescribed lateral distance, the FAA has made a legal way for approaches to both runways to proceed. A zone of no transgression has been established, and a monitor frequency has been set up that all pilots are to monitor(in addition to the normal tower freq). If either aircraft enters the no transgression zone the tower issues the non-offending aircraft "breakout instructions". It was an interesting excercise.

The non precision approaches were alot more interesting. the first was done via the autopilot. Not much problem there. The second was handflown. That was alot tougher. With multiple stepdowns on the localizer approach the workload was high. We managed.

Handflying the ERJ is much different than what I am used to. It is much heavier and a hell of alot faster. The roll and pitch of the aircraft has a slight lag to it. They say that the FTD is much harder than both the sim and the actual aircraft, so I am hoping my handflying skills get better as I go on. I have mastered the automation, but my handflying skills worry me. We will see.

Ive got 12 hours to get it right.

3 comments:

Dave Starr said...

Thanks for taking the time to write now, it's great to get a little feeling of what the course is like. A tip from back in th day when I used to be part of a training team (I fixed the sims and did the outside radios required, etc., in the "box" we had a pilot instructor and a flight engineer instructor). When you go to the class room for that oh so hard to stay awake for 2 hour breifing before you go in the box? Listen hard, becuase what they talk about in the pre-breif is what they are going to throw at you that session in the box.

That sounds simplistic, but I useed to sit in our pre-brief day after day after day and then work with the crew as they trained. If the conversation in the classroom was about runaway pitch trim, for example, don't you think even the very first session in the box was going to have a pitch trim malfuncton, probably right at V2? About 90 out of 100 crews never thought so... the 10% who "got it" flew better and sweated a lot less.

Press ... but have fun at odd moments

ERJ Driver said...

its 2 am and i just finshed sim 1. what a blast. did a bunch of t/o and lndgs, a few abnormals...not too hard but i am struggling with pitch control. I can nail and airspeed and can t/o and land but i cant fly straight and level and its making the maneuvers much harder. ill keep trying though. back at it tomm night,.

Clint said...

you'll do well.