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We are scheduled for the number 1 757 sim at Cranebank which is
somewhat older than we are used to being of 1982 vintage according to
the commissioning plaque on the wall outside the sim hall. As a
result of its age it is fitted with a limited visual system
consisting of overhead TV type displays which reflect off special
mirrors pointing into the cockpit windows. As with all sims the flight
deck is perfectly recreated even down to the jump-seat behind the
first officer's seat and the seating is as it would be in the
aircraft. As an added bonus we have also found that our first 757
airframe is the same model as the ones purchased by BA (a 757-236)
and as a result the flight deck is 99.9% identical to that of our
real aircraft (G-LSAA).
Terry spends the first few minutes of the slot explaining all the emergency exits and then all the myriad of lighting controls which allow us to get the mood lighting just right. Once we are properly lit, it's lights, cameras and action as we begin our pre-flight checks and I am nominated as the first guinea pig to take on the sim. We set up the FMC and do all our panel scans while Terry sets the aircraft to the correct version and sets our position to London Gatwick. In no time we are ready for engine start and we hear the rumble of the RB211's winding up. A quick start abnormality is thrown into the mix for one of the starts which we quickly deal with and find out how devious Terry can be. He had pulled the left ignitor circuit breaker while we were starting the first engine which meant we got no ignition when we tried to start the left engine. We recover quickly and once started and the ground crew have disconnected we are off and taxiing to the end of the runway.
Here is the first challenge albeit mainly for Simon as I am not yet permitted to taxi the aircraft despite my having a tiller. The 737 flight deck sits about 4 feet ahead of the nose wheel which means you have to use a little skill to place the aircraft where you want it. The 757 amplifies this as we sit a whole 12 feet ahead of the nose wheel. Put simply, we need to have our seats out over the grass before we turn to line up on the runway which is distinctly odd. The sim makes this difficult as we don't have a panoramic view out of the windows so I have to guide Simon in right hand turns.
Pushing the EPR button allows the auto-throttle to wind up the engines to the de-rated take-off power and we thunder off down the runway, the sim even bumping loudly as we hit the odd runway light. The acceleration effect is convincing as we swiftly reach V1 and then Vrotate. The sim mimics the acceleration by tilting backwards by about 10 degrees which therefore uses your body weight to push you back in your seat, a clever illusion which works really well. The added feel and cues allow me to smoothly rotate to the correct 15 degree nose up attitude and from there on the sim becomes almost identical to the fixed base sim with the obvious exception of the movement sensation.
We run through some upper air work including accelerating to the barber pole then decelerating back to minimum clean speed, stalls and finally steep turns all of which go with no real drama other than making you realise how much you loose that once polished instrument scan when you fly a modern jet. It soon comes back though and by the end of the instrument work I have got my act together.
Terry vectors us back to Gatwick for an autoland to demonstrate how the aircraft lands and thus give us a guide as to how we should do it. This mainly focuses on when we flare and when to chop the power. Terry rightly points out that this is much more an aircraft you fly by number whereas the 737 is one you feel for. We reposition on the runway for a standard takeoff and fly a vectored approach back to the same runway but this time the autopilot is not doing the work, I am!
With the benefit of the flight directors I manage to get us onto the ILS and fly the approach, which feels very similar to the 737. It isn't until the latter stage of the approach you start to feel the differences mainly caused by the additional momentum; after all the 757 is almost twice the weight of a 737-300. As instructed I use the audio call outs as my cues, at 30 feet I pause then flare a couple of degrees then at 20 feet slowly feed the power off. They say any landing you walk away from is a good one, an excellent landing is one after which you can use the aircraft again so I suppose it qualifies as excellent but there is definitely room for improvement.
As briefed we reposition once again this time for a visual circuit. This is made difficult by the limited visual system which provides a view only to about 60 degrees off the nose but using the EFIS map screen we manage to put ourselves downwind. We configure as we go and end up a little tight on a final turn so some correction is needed to get back onto the centerline. Fully configured and stable by 500 feet we again fly by number as the aircraft calls out the heights above the ground. This time by some miracle we kiss the ground so there is something in flying the numbers after all. We finish off my stint as pilot flying with another visual circuit this time with a crosswind for good measure and while less pretty than the previous approach we do end up in the same place and surprisingy seem to glide onto the runway with less fuss than I was expecting.
After a quick tea brake we dive back into the box this time with Simon at the helm. The profile remains the same and Simon thankfully makes similar mistakes to me in the early stages. In hindsight many of the control difficulties we both had initially we think is due to both of us not trimming enough. The lack of the constant clacking of the trimmer familiar in the 737 means we have no reference of how much trim we are applying or how fast it is being applied beyond our own feel through the yoke. As a result we both had rather aching arms by the end of our respective sessions. Simon's landings end up much the same as mine and in no time at all our credit for this big video game runs out and we have to get out to make room for the next crew.
First impressions are that this is a fabulous aircraft with less of the foibles of the somewhat more agricultural 737. Hardly surprising since this is a big development step beyond the venerable 737. The polished way even the simulator flies is a good indicator that this is a lovely aircraft and we are going to enjoy our next few years on the fleet.
The day commenced, as with the previous three days, with a full pre-flight and start sequence and a little taxi practice for Simon and a little familiarisation for me as well. The sensation provided by being so far ahead of the nose wheel is very odd so the more practice we get the better. We are starting to end up on the centerline a little more but practice makes perfect.
Our profile today is simple, numerous takeoffs and approaches to land or go around. Terry seems to have a liking for hammering the procedural approaches so we seem to be getting plenty of practice at procedure turns and course reversal. Simon was first to play today with my turn coming after our tea break at half time. The advantage to this is that any surprises sprung on Simon are significantly less surprising for me although I get the flip side tomorrow when we really start getting to grips with V1 cuts and single engine approaches.
My session at the helm begins with engines running as there are no differences in the start sequence whether captain or first officer are flying the leg. The task is to get airborne and go straight into a low level altitude capture and at the same time accomplish the published missed approach procedure to then go outbound on the procedure to join the ILS for a raw data manual ILS. The task is complicated slightly by the fact that Terry has made the aircraft very light with only 7000 kg of payload and 8000 kg of fuel. The end result is that the speed in the climb is very difficult to control even with the engines de-rated all the way back to the maximum de-rate allowed. The combination of the light weight and grossly over powered engines means we enter the alt capture mode within a thousand feet of the ground. The flight director commands a pitch down to slacken the climb rate and capture the altitude. Here's where the other pilot comes in. The autopilot isn't clever enough to realise that all that power thundering from the engines is too much so the other pilot must quickly push the CLIMB button on the thrust management selector panel, select speed on the MCP (Master Control Panel) and then wind in the desired speed in the MCP speed window. In the mean time it is my job as pilot flying to ensure that we both capture the correct altitude and also don't over-speed the flaps in the process. This can all be a bit frantic in a normal departure but this is complicated further by a turn at 2 miles from the airfield and also the fact that Terry has found the failure menu on the instructor station and is going through a 'what does this button do' period in his life!
With any structural damage to the flaps averted, the aircraft under control and the EICAS message dealt with we manage to clatter around the turn with some semblance of accuracy and are soon on our way back to the NDB at Birmingham ready to go beacon outbound for the ILS. The last few days of NDB and VOR approach practice has gotten us used to the lack of ADF pointers on the EFIS and we have become relatively proficient at tracking an NDB using the tiny needles on the RMI (Radio Magnetic Indicator) sat helpfully right behind the yoke so you need to strain to see it. Through a combination of the raw data on the RMI and the very helpful instantaneous track line provided on the EHSI (Electronic Horizontal Situation Indicator) I manage to coax us onto the correct outbound track out to the end of the outbound leg before turning back to the field and our next challenge, an ILS without the aid of the flight director or autopilot.
In my time on the F27 we had very few of these fancy flight director devices and most ILS approaches were flown on the raw data but the move to a glass cockpit really does make you lazy. Those magenta lines on the EADI (Electronic Attitude Direction Indicator) really are difficult to ignore particularly when they tend to tell the truth about what you should be doing. You get used to it and once very sharp skills are turned into somewhat jaded ones. Thankfully it's all a bit like riding a bike and it soon comes rushing back. A little bit of aggressive correction to get back onto the localiser and being in the correct configuration help to set up before adding the third dimension provided by the glide slope. The start of the glide sees the nose bobbing up and down like a bride's nighty but this is purely me over controlling. This is where knowing you are in a sim really helps. The sim is a computer after all and can only process variables that it is provided with. As a result if you set the power and then hold and attitude you are guaranteed to fly your chosen flight path. In the real world there are other factors like random wind and aerodynamic issues caused by skin patches and the like but the sim provides a perfect, new airframe and a computed wind. Hey presto it all becomes a numbers game. Find the track that compensates for the wind, set the power to 1.17 EPR and the attitude around 2 degrees nose up and it rides the ILS like it's on rails despite my attempts at yoke pumping!
We follow this first ILS with several other approaches including a
localiser only approach and an NDB approach to circle which in a sim
with visuals as old as this one is a challenge in itself. The bit I
want to get to comes fairly late on in the session once we have
ticked all the relevant boxes for today's session. We set up on the
runway and re-brief for the impending engine failure and then begin
the takeoff roll. Just past V1 the left engine winds down and I feed
the appropriate amount of rudder in just as Simon calls "ROTATE". The
liftoff is slower than normal but still more rapid than the 737. The
flight director commands a pitch to hold a speed between V2 and V2+15
and we climb away at over 1000 feet per minute and this is with the
smaller RB211-535C engines which is reassuring. The E4 variant fitted
to our aircraft have an additional 2500 lbs of thrust so even at high
weight we should be able to climb at a good rate if one of our donks
quits.
The climb to 1000 feet is uneventful and remarkably easy to control in comparison to the 737 which could be a real handful if you over controlled. The bigger, more powerful rudder of the 757 seems to make the whole affair much more civilised. At 1000 feet we enter the second phase climb, selecting V/S mode and climbing at around 200 feet/minute. The aircraft accelerates and we retract the flaps on schedule. Once clean we go to flight level change and climb to the cleared level. To say the engine failure at V1 is a non event on this aircraft would be trivialising the most unpleasant manoeuvre we have to train for. On the other hand this aircraft seems much easier to handle in that scenario which inspires me with yet more confidence in Mr. Boeing's slinkiest chariot. The 737 could be a handful in the same situation and the old F27 was simply grim so this is a very welcome change.
The debrief is reassuringly swift and it would appear that both Simon and I are getting our heads around this aircraft without too many problems. Tomorrow is another early start so we decide to brief now for the next session which is the engine out training in earnest, so I guess I should hit the books and get my game face on as I'm fairly sure we'll be at max weight and as a result max thrust and as a result the pussy cat of today may well change her spots tomorrow.
We brief in great detail as the 757 has some new procedures to follow which are slightly different to the 737 ones we have grown used to. We go through the profile that covers all possible scenarios of loosing an engine at V1 and then go to the sim to put all the talk to the test. In my experience while I enjoy the challenge of this exercise I am also acutely aware that it is very easy to take big knocks to your confidence and as a result it can have a somewhat detrimental effect on your mental state.
First of all we look at a high speed rejection (above 80 kt but below V1) to ease us into the sensation of the expected yaw and loss of power. As the engine flames out both Simon and I call 'STOP STOP'. Simon takes control as it is the captain who is responsible for all rejections. The swing caused by the engine failure is obviously noticeable but in comparison to my previous types it is very subtle. The F27 was a death trap in an engine failure scenario and the 737 while better in many areas could still be a handful.
With the high speed rejection out of the way we know what is coming. I advance the power levers to 1.10 EPR to allow them to stabilise then hit the EPR button, here we go! As always the acceleration is brisk but then as the words 'Vee One' escape Simon's lips, BANG, then heavy vibrations the EICAS screen lights up showing low oil pressure on the number 2 engine bit we are committed. I raise the nose slowly to 12 degrees following the flight director while applying rudder to oppose the yaw caused by the live engine. We lift off and still manage to get over 500 feet/minute climb at V2 (single engine climb speed). The aircraft is obviously in the midst of a catastrophic failure as it vibrates, pops and bangs its way into the sky. At 400 feet I call for Heading Select and ask Simon to restate the emergency. He confirms the right engine has failed and checks the EICAS to diagnose the problem. It would appear our simulated steed has had a turbine seizure causing the fan at the front of the engine to stop turning completely. The EGT on the engine is very high so I ask for the 'Engine Fire, Severe damage or separation checklist' memory items.
Simon runs through the memory items and secures the rouge engine but the vibration and yaw is still severe. Surprisingly even with all this going on I have managed to focus on the flying and kept us bang on the runway centerline, a considerable accomplishment with all the excitement of the N1 seizure. With the memory items complete we set about cleaning up. Passing 1000 feet I ask for 'V/S +200' on the MCP and the aircraft accelerates slowly through the flap retraction speeds. Once we have all the drag in I ask for 'Flight Level Change and Max Continuous thrust' I adjust the power to keep within the max continuous thrust limit and then engage the autopilot. With the aircraft in some semblance of order Simon can get on with the rest of the QRH actions. While there are memory items for this event that we must know verbatim that is not the end of the checklist. We must go through the QRH ensuring we have done the memory items correctly and then complete the subsequent actions to secure the various systems that have been affected. With the aircraft trimmed and at minimum safe altitude we get back to air traffic control and ask for an immediate return. Instructor Terry does his best impression of a particularly un-cooperative air traffic controller and we end up on a heading taking us away from the field. In actual fact this gives us the chance to set up for the approach and go through the EICAS messages to see if there was anything we missed.
Once set up we are vectored for an ILS approach and Terry asks me to take out the auto pilot and fly the approach manually with the help of the flight director. The aircraft is very nice to handle even with one engine out. The big rudder allows me to trim out most of the force required on the pedals. The power settings dictated by Boeing work like a treat and we are soon fully established on the ILS having configured to the single engine landing configuration of gear down flap 20. We use flap 20 for one simple reason, with one engine we would struggle to go around with flap 30 without hitting the ground. Flap 20 provides much less drag and also allows a slightly higher approach speed giving us that little bit more momentum. Power changes inevitably mean I have to jiggle the rudder trim a little, the less power from the live engine the less trim I need to keep the nose centered and vice versa. Other than the flap 20 configuration the approach and landing technique are thankfully exactly the same as the 737 with the exception of the go around which is much the same as the V1 cut technique we have just done minutes before. We hit the ground in a firm manner but not bad considering it's my first go. I opt not to use reverse thrust above idle to avoid any unpleasant runway excursions that my occur with a big input of reverse on one side. The auto-brake copes well and we still stop remarkably quickly.
We reset for another take off which yields an engine fire and then again to experience a simple flame out. All of these are nothing to write home about so we continue to look at the single engine approaches and the single engine go-around. We set up initially for another ILS but this time we allow the autopilot fly the approach to a go around. With the absence of the auto throttle (this is removed as part of the engine failure checklists) I have to add the power manually but the autopilot copes well leaving both Simon and I much better able to watch the situation and react to any other problems. The next ILS is the party piece of the 757, a multiple auto-pilot approach on one engine. The use of more than one autopilot allows the aircraft to control its own rudder so I can now let go completely and even better if we go around I need only push the 'Go-Around' button and add the power... now that is a big step forward!
In all we each do five or six takeoffs, engine failures and single engine approaches and by the end of the session we are both grinning from ear to ear. The height of the aircraft alone makes the control of the aircraft during a V1 cut so much easier as we can see which way the yaw is going and quickly counter it with a boot full of rudder. The length of the body gives a much longer lever and so the already powerful rudder is enhanced still further allowing us to trim out all the control forces nicely and so avoid the 'knee trembler' caused by continuous pressure on the rudder pedals. The auto-pilot approaches and go-arounds are the icing on the cake and yet again I am astounded by how much I like this real 'pilots aircraft'.
In the break between our respective stick time we get a pep talk from Terry and as we suck down our caffeine rich beverage of choice we start to feel a little better. Momentarily refreshed we get back into the dark and dingy sim and try to get our minds back on the job. As the handling pilot for the second half of the session I try to get my head together but when you have only managed three hours of sleep the night before the last thing I want to be staring at is a garish magenta flight director which just serves to needle the already painful headache I seem to have developed.
Perhaps the reason we are both so wound up is that this is our last session prior to our LST (License Skills Test or check-ride). We know we know how to handle the aircraft as we have demonstrated it to ourselves all the way through the previous seven sim sessions. Today however it seems to count for nothing, even with a fresh injection of caffeine we still seem to have our heads firmly wedged up our respective backsides.
The profile for the sim today was in effect a mock flight test and if I had been the examiner we would have failed miserably but Terry is much more up beat. Having been instructing in simulators for over twelve years he has seen this scenario once or twice before and tells us not to be too annoyed with ourselves. He does have a valid point that a break in the training of three days normally would make little difference to our performance but the fact that we both were heavily involved in family events meant we hadn't used the time to rest and indeed had probably run ourselves down rather than charging our batteries as we had intended. We both come away with a resolve to be well rested for tomorrow's actual test flight and with that we run away bravely for a much needed afternoon snooze.
The LST is carried out by a Type Rating Examiner (TRE) who is licensed by the UK CAA to examine both current type rated pilots for renewals and new trainee pilots like myself and Simon. Ray will be sitting in the back pushing the buttons and generally making sure we have a really bad day in terms of aircraft reliability. He briefs that this is not a 'chop ride' and that there are no tricks, everyone wants us to pass in the end and we wouldn't be here if we weren't infinitely capable of flying the aircraft. Ray seems very down to earth and as a line pilot for a large UK charter company we get the impression that he is very much a realist, a welcome change to the trappers who used to be rampant in the aviation industry.
Simon and I are given a route and load sheet and are asked to brief for the flight to save a little time in the box. Simon is to go first so he briefs his departure via the Honily 1R from Manchester. Ray tells us that there will be an event which will require us to return and once we have dealt with the problem and landed safely we can launch into the main test items, i.e. the single engine work. The purpose of this normal departure is that examiners must observe our CRM (Crew /Cockpit Resource Management). Gone are the olden days of authoritarian Captains stamping on downtrodden First Officers. Crews now must work together efficiently and demonstrate their ability to work as a team in order to pass even before things start to go wrong.
The fault we get is a left hydraulic system and as expected, once we have secured the problem we opt to return to Manchester to get the problem fixed. We fly a normal ILS approach and land normally. Positive noises are heard from behind us as Ray repositions us for the single engine work. We slowly work through the V1 cut, single engine ILS to go around and finally the single engine ILS to land. A further reposition leads into a non-precision approach and unlucky for Simon, Ray opts to give him an NDB approach. While the NDB approach is not difficult per say, it does present certain problems most notably due to the lack of NDB pointers on the EFIS screens. As a result we must use the very small RMI needles helpfully positioned right behind the yoke handles!
In all Simon's session has already taken a good 2 hours and 20 minutes when Ray drops his next bombshell but this time it's my turn to get the surprise. Simon has just had a heart attack and it's now up to me to get the aircraft on the ground safely. This is an exercise I normally love perhaps because I always enjoyed the single pilot flying of my earlier career but today I have caught unawares. I make a safe approach but I have to say I am still kicking myself for making such a dogs dinner of it. I left the spoilers out too long, I was un-stabilised and it was generally untidy but having said that it was legal and safe and for the purposes of test that is all that matters, perhaps now I might be a little more on the ball.
After a swift coffee break it's my turn to get a beating by Ray. We launch into the same normal take off scenario but this time we get a 'trailing edge flap asymmetry' warning. This is dealt with well and we opt to return, after all going all the way to Palma at flap 5 limiting speed would take an awfully long time not to mention more fuel than we have aboard.
We discuss the errors I made which amount to the fact that I didn't tell the cabin crew anything and then move on to the single engine items. The V1 cut goes without incident as does the single engine ILS to go-around and subsequent single engine landing. My spirits are lifted by the fairly good single engine performance and then further still when Ray opts to give me a VOR approach instead of the more challenging NDB approach that he had dealt Simon. The VOR approach went without too many problems although in my own mind I thought my vertical profile could have been handled better. Ray had adjusted the weather to make the landing slightly more challenging but even with limited visibility and a failed radio altimeter I still managed to pull off a nice landing.
We repositioned for another takeoff to which we were expecting to do go off and do some steep turns so I was somewhat less prepared when an engine failed as we levelled at 3000 feet. Ray reported that the simulated engineers had told ATC that the engine had done the same before and that a relight was a good option, in other words his chosen final test item was an in-flight engine start. Simon, as pilot not flying (PNF) ran through the checklist for the engine start and the engine did indeed come back allowing us to complete the steep turns before returning for a final ILS but this time on raw data without the aid of the autopilot or flight director. Thankfully this aircraft seems to run on rails and an ILS is simply a matter of setting the attitude and power and then resisting the temptation to play with it further.
 A very relieved pair of QUALIFIED 757 drivers - off to the bar! |
A lot of the ground school is just refresher knowledge but it is still nice to get things fresh in your mind before getting into a new aircraft, particularly when your line training will take place in the dead of winter in one of the worst airports in the UK for inclement weather (Leeds). After the mandatory slideshow we then move on to aircraft specific procedures focusing mainly on the use of the Autoland Status Annunciator (ASA) which is a new piece of kit from our point of view. The up and down of the whole thing is that if you still have a station ident and your ASA says you can autoland (LAND 2 or LAND 3) then you can go ahead and autoland as long as you observe any minima restrictions imposed by the changes from LAND 3 to LAND 2 (CAT 3B to Cat 3A). Following this we squeeze in a briefing before a quick coffee and then into the sim for our 3 hour session.
Both Simon and I were pretty clued up already on low vis approaches but it is always enlightening to see how a new aircraft deals with failures and problems in the last few moments of an approach. The 737 was fairly limited with regards to its redundancy as Boeing saw fit to only provide two systems for main systems like hydraulics and electrics. The 757 is a completely different beast with a third backup system being added to allow for even more redundancy. The sim allows us to see not only the result of an autopilot failure but what happens when we loose major aircraft systems such as hydraulics or in some cases even an engine.
We both watch with a wry smile on our faces as the auto pilot not only lays off the drift during a crosswind landing but then copes with an engine failure as well and then pulls off a landing which both Simon and I would have been over the moon with. The finesse with which the autoland system works is staggering in comparison to the more agricultural 737 system which literally drops the aircraft onto the runway. Finally we look at the difference between failures above and below alert height (200 feet rad alt). Put simply 200 feet is the point at which we make our decision to land regardless of weather (assuming you have LAND 3 annunciated). Above 200 feet we would either go around or adjust our minima to make a landing at a degraded category, e.g. Cat 3B may revert to Cat 3A raising our minima to 50 feet RA to make a decision to land. Below 200 feet however, we are committed to land assuming we are both happy with the systems handling of the situation.
The entire three hour session seems remarkably short following the marathon five hour session yesterday. Having said that we didn't have to do any flying today as George (the autopilot) was getting his workout today!
To be concluded in Part 3...
Kris Heslop
boxjockey99@hotmail.com
