Real life vs. Simulator
Its not often that real life flying the line is what you encounter in the simulator. The other night was an exception. There were lots of thunderstorms out there lighting up the sky as we weaved around them. Every time there was a big flash of lightning, all the windows of the cockpit would light up white. As we were bouncing along, I thought to myself "this is almost exactly like the sim". In the simulator thunderstorms are re-created by some turbulence and white flashes. This flight was pretty close to what the sim is minus the engine on fire, hydraulic system failure, 200 Ft ceiling and 1/2mi visibility that is always the norm in the sim. As much as I thought the sim was cool, its still no match for the real thing.
Another really cool thing about flying the real thing is what I like to call the "Space shuttle approach". This is when you are left high and dry only a few miles from the airport. This approach will come from either poor descent planning on the pilots part or air traffic control forgetting to give you a lower altitude until you are close to the airport, either way, its a good thing we don't have passengers to think about. I don't think they'd appreciate how fun they are for the pilots. The shuttle approach is fun. You get to fly the plane outside of the normal 1G environment. First you bring the throttles to idle, then extend the airbrakes. This creates a nose down pitch attitude and gets you a little light in the seat. If your speed is low enough, you can start extending the flaps, if not you pitch the aircraft nose high to bleed off airspeed until you can extend the flaps and gear. As soon as you get the flaps and gear extended, start the dive to the runway. Depending on how fast you need to lose the altitude, you can vary your nose down pitch attitude from -5 to -10 degrees nose down. With full flaps, gear and airbrakes extended the vertical speed indicator is pegged at 6000 Ft per min down. This configuration will get you down in a hurry. Typically this dive only lasts 10-20 seconds before the plane is again on glidepath and the airbrakes get retracted. Once your back on glidepath, its back to the normal 3 degree glideslope and ref +10. Fun stuff.
Another really cool thing about flying the real thing is what I like to call the "Space shuttle approach". This is when you are left high and dry only a few miles from the airport. This approach will come from either poor descent planning on the pilots part or air traffic control forgetting to give you a lower altitude until you are close to the airport, either way, its a good thing we don't have passengers to think about. I don't think they'd appreciate how fun they are for the pilots. The shuttle approach is fun. You get to fly the plane outside of the normal 1G environment. First you bring the throttles to idle, then extend the airbrakes. This creates a nose down pitch attitude and gets you a little light in the seat. If your speed is low enough, you can start extending the flaps, if not you pitch the aircraft nose high to bleed off airspeed until you can extend the flaps and gear. As soon as you get the flaps and gear extended, start the dive to the runway. Depending on how fast you need to lose the altitude, you can vary your nose down pitch attitude from -5 to -10 degrees nose down. With full flaps, gear and airbrakes extended the vertical speed indicator is pegged at 6000 Ft per min down. This configuration will get you down in a hurry. Typically this dive only lasts 10-20 seconds before the plane is again on glidepath and the airbrakes get retracted. Once your back on glidepath, its back to the normal 3 degree glideslope and ref +10. Fun stuff.
posted by Windsor at 7:33 PM
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