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Ok, today was a lot like yesterday. “Real world” “Real time” emergencies where we takeoff from one airport, have a problem and end up diverting into another airport and taking care of the problem.
Probably the best highlight I had today was going on the missed approach in Portland, OR and then the weather miraculously cleared up, with the “help” of the captain, I slightly misjudged my base turn for 28R and flew the 767-300ER like an MD-88 to get back on profile.
I landed, we taxied into the gate and I thought, “Oh yeah, it’s a 767 ‘heavy’” I probably shouldn’t be yanking and banking the way I’d do an MD-88, but the instructor didn’t have anything to say.
Speaking of not much to say, I guess I’ll tell you a little about sim training…
It’s called the ‘brief’ the ’sim’ and the ‘de-brief’
First, our sim times are divided into “periods” A thru E. We rarely fly E’s, except I think for new hires and when they rent out the sim to other airlines. They go like this:
A Period: Brief 0500 Simulator 0630-1030
B Period: Brief 0920 Simulator 1050-1450
C Period: Brief 1340 Simulator 1510-1910
D Period: Brief 1800 Simulator 1930-2330
E Period: Brief 2220 Simulator 2350-0350
When I was a 727 Flight Engineer, I had a lot of “D” and “E” periods. E periods in ATL and D periods in Miami which was great because I’m a nightowl and I could fly in the night, enjoy a beer or three after the simulator with my sim partner in Coconut Grove, sleep in, brief early by the pool with the instructor, take a nap and hit the sims that evening.
This time training on the 757/767, I had a week of “C” periods, a week of “D” periods and now I have a week of “A” periods which are kicking my ass having to get up so early on the east coast.
Speaking of that, I’ve got to hit the sack very soon so I’ll wrap it up.
“The Brief”
Before every simulator, there’s a “brief”. It’s where we sit for about 90 minutes talking about what we’re going to see in the simulator and other emphasis items. Like tomorrow, we’re doing RNAV RNP approaches into Bogota, Columbia, departing from Atlanta. So we’ll spend lot of time talking about RNP, what to do when you can’t meet the minimum navigation performance, what to do DIFFERENT when you’ve got to go missed and various items about ‘hot ‘n high’ operations.
“The Sim”
Pretty self-explanatory. You get to go flying in SimWorld. The strange world where the quality of your landings mean nothing, but if you didn’t brief the living daylights out of a visual approach you’re going to hear about it during the…
“Debrief”
Basically, you talk about (or are talked TO) your performance, critiqued on procedures, things to work on and you receive a few ’slaps on the wrist’, a few ‘attaboys’ and whatnot. At that point, we’re usually both exhausted and the only thing on our minds after an “A” period is lunch, sleep and how the hell we’re going to keep any interest in studying for the next day of simulator training.
Speaking of sleep.
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