Confessions Of A 757 Trainee - Circuits And Line Training

By Kris Heslop (15 April 2006)

4th January 2006 - Base Training

A new year and a new aircraft, some people have tame new years resolutions but I like mine to be quite large... 100 tonnes or so will do nicely. Simon and I both arrive at roughly the same time in the crew room at Leeds. Today is the first time we fly the real aircraft. As an added bonus we have been issued with the new aircraft which arrived only a few days before. G-LSAB has had a chequered past having worked for more airlines than most of us have flown on in a lifetime so the term new aircraft is a bit of a misnomer. Its final resting place prior to coming to us was in the desert in Arizona having flown for a Turkish airline prior to that. After being ferried from Arizona she spent several months being stripped back to bare metal and refitted. Finally she has arrived at Leeds and we will be the first to fly her and no doubt find all the faults that have been disturbed during the refit.

Our instructor Dave Trussler is joined by another instructor, Paul Chaplin. Paul is being trained by Dave to be an aircraft trainer so the plan is that Dave will fly in the right hand seat with Simon for his four circuits then Paul will swap with Simon and do two circuits. Finally it will be my turn to fly and I will then fly the jet back to Leeds for my fourth and final landing.

It seems somewhat bizarre that today, over a month after starting the course and after nine grueling sim sessions, is the first time we have officially set foot on the real aircraft. Of course both Simon and I had gone to ogle our new toy at our earliest possible convenience once we knew we were converting but this is the first time we will have gotten our hands on it for real. Some say this is a testament to the quality of simulators nowadays but following numerous aircraft visits during my F27 training I know how valuable it is to be able to go and poke around the real thing and really get to know what you have just been taught.

We all get together to brief for the flight and decide that our original plan to go to Teeside will not work due to the low cloud and forecast rain and drizzle. We look at our options and find the one reliable ray of sunshine in the UK...Prestwick near Glasgow. We then move on to decide on fuel loads and the like before calling for our transport and getting on with the job. Once on the aircraft we sit down and discuss the procedures and modified checks we will do during the circuits as an airliner tends not to be designed to do touch and goes thus all its procedures are written to bring you to a halt after landing. We also discuss what flap and gear configurations come where and finally what our contingency plans are if something goes wrong. Dave is then dispatched to the pointy end to prep the flight deck and program the FMC while Simon and I follow Paul on a walk-around check which will become a very familiar ritual once we are on the line.

The time has finally come, Channex 10T is cleared for push and start and we are off and running. The mighty RB211's rumble into life and gently push us along the taxiway without a hint of the true brute force that they can exert upon the aircraft. Each RB211 produces 40,000 lbs of thrust which easily makes the 757 a very expensive sports car of the air even when fully loaded, today however we only have four people aboard and just 20,000 kg of fuel giving a take-off weight some 20 tonnes lighter than normal. As a result we de-rate the engines by up to 20% to reduce engine wear and also to make the aircraft less of a handful. With the de-rate checked and our take-off clearance issued Simon stand the thrust levers up and engages take-off thrust. Even with the de-rated engines we are still easily airborne before using half of the 7000 foot runway available. With Simon and Dave working like one armed paper hangers I sit back and snap away at the rapidly retreating ground and enjoy my first ride in a rocket ship.

"Set Thrust"

"ROTATE"

"Positive Climb"

"Climb Thrust"

Leeds falls beneath us

Approaching Prestwick

Flight time to Prestwick is a little less than 20 minutes and we soon descend from our cruise level of 20,000 feet down to begin Simon's first approach, an ILS to runway 13. Air traffic give us vectors into the ILS and then it's up to Simon as the autopilot and auto thrust are disconnected and he takes the wheel. The aircraft is fitted with a sophisticated auto flight director system which continues to give Simon cues to fly the ILS perfectly but with the weather as gin clear as it is Dave soon suggests that it is no longer needed. The weather at Prestwick couldn't be better, no clouds, visibility as far as you can see and a gentle breeze straight down the runway. That combined with a gem of an aircraft and we feel like we're on rails all the way down the approach sweetened by the gentle squeak onto the runway marking the standard for the day..."how am I supposed to follow that!"

Touch and goes are a rapid event and with the runway rapidly disappearing ahead of us Dave raises the flaps, resets the trim and winds up the engines and we clatter into the wild blue yonder once again. Simon completes three more text book landings before coming to a halt and after a little grumbling relinquishing his seat; who wouldn't want to do that all day?

Paul Chaplin takes Simon's seat for his two landings and as a learning experience this time a de-rate is not selected. The engines wind up to their full 1.72 EPR and the aircraft leaps off the runway like a frightened rabbit. The circuit height is only 1500 feet so the engines are quickly reined in and we turn into a right circuit. After the first touch and go we then ask for a long approach to test the aircraft auto-land system and allow it to be certified for use. ATC vector us for an 8 mile final and Dave and Paul set up the autopilot to make an auto-land. All three autopilots engage as we pass 1500 feet kicking off what little drift is present in the calm air and we again ride the rails down to a smooth touchdown and rollout bang on the centerline and touchdown point proving yet again the capability and reliability of this superb aircraft.

As we taxi off I start to prepare myself handing, over the paper work to Simon who will now be chief time keeper and score keeper on the jump-seat. We come to a halt and Dave gets out of the right hand seat grinning like a Cheshire cat. I get in, strap in and make myself comfortable. Paul unexpectedly asks if I want to taxi, this being one of the few 757's fitted with a tiller for the first officer as well as the skipper. Having not taxied an aircraft for three years I jump at the opportunity. We get clearance and I pull us off the holding area onto the taxiway. Taxiing a large jet is a bizarre experience; my previous experience in light aircraft always had the nose gear fitted ahead of you but now I am in a situation where the nose gear is 12 feet behind me, somewhere just aft of the forward galley in fact, and behind that a very wide and long main undercarriage which I must ensure I don't drop into the grass. We manage to get to the runway and line up without too many hiccups and now it's my go to make it all happen.

As before I stand the levers up and ask for take-off power, the engines wind up to a derated 1.55 EPR and the familiar boot of G force hits the back of my seat. 80 kts, V1 and ROTATE calls come up very quickly and I rotate to 17.5 degrees of pitch, the flight directors command an altitude capture almost immediately and Paul pulls handfuls of power off as I call for climb thrust. The pitch / power moment is significantly more pronounced on this aircraft and as the engines come back almost to idle to keep below the flap limiting speed so the nose drops a good 10 degrees assisting me in levelling at the 1700 foot circuit height. We turn right almost immediately into the circuit maintaining flap 5 as we hurtle downwind.

The aircraft handles like a sports car as well as accelerating like one, its responses to my control inputs are staggeringly crisp. This is the first time I have felt like I was flying a fighter. As we come abeam the runway threshold I ask for the gear and flap 20, we time outbound for 30 seconds and then haul the nose around the corner onto final, descending in the base turn and taking the final stage of flap. We hit the slot bang on the glide and centerline just like in the books and I trim to maintain the steady 600 foot / minute descent rate and ride the rails to my first touchdown. At 50 feet the audio call outs cue me to prepare to flare and as we hear "30" I gently pull the power off and raise the nose slightly letting the rear wheels of the main bogeys kiss the ground. I fly the nose to the ground and Paul starts the clean up, resetting flaps and trims before telling me to "stand them up" referring to the power levers, he then sets take off power manually and we are airborne again in a flash. I remember reading several books by Steven Coonts about life as a naval aviator and this is about as close as I will ever get to the excitement of doing 'bolters' on an aircraft carrier "YEE HAW".

As we enter the downwind Paul suggests a slightly different flair method to and I agree to try it on the next landing and we are soon back on final. With Paul's new method I try to jockey the jet onto the deck as smoothly as the first one but this time we impact slightly more firmly than before. "Hmm" says Paul "Ignore what I just said, perhaps you should do what you did the first time!" We both have a laugh as I stand the levers up once again and blast into the blue yonder. The third and final circuit at Prestwick was much better kissing onto the ground just like the first one and we ask ATC for a vector towards our first en route waypoint as we wind the engines up to full power, point the nose skywards and leave sunny Prestwick in our jetwash, now all we have to do is find our way back to Leeds!

At about 5000 feet I engage the center autopilot and allow the blood to flow back into my white knuckles. You never realise how tight you grip when you are doing something completely out of your depth. An old flying instructor of mine used to put a pen between your knuckles to stop you gripping too hard; it was amazing how much pain that exerted if you gripped too hard.

In the cruise to Leeds briefing the approach

The flight back was again about 20 minutes and I set up the aircraft for an ILS back into runway 32. My plan was soon thrown into disarray when at the last minute Leeds changed to runway 14 making my planned approach useless and to add insult to injury making us very high and very fast. A further challenge was that 14 has a steep glide-slope so if you aren't at the right place at the right time you never will be! The full weather report also increased the challenge by giving a 15 knot crosswind and only 3500m visibility; ah well, I like a challenge! I pop out the speed brakes and wind up the speed increasing our energy state and dropping out of the sky like a sack of spuds. Thank you Mr. Robbie (my old physics teacher) I now understand the principles of kinetic and potential energy, I needed all the potential energy I could get!

Thankfully despite being a very slippery wing, the 757 has particularly good wing spoilers, so after a little chasing of the glide and a lot of advice from Paul I manage to get the ship back into the groove and the flight director captures both the localiser and glide simultaneously as we take the gear and flap 20. I catch the balloon effect caused by flap 20 trimming franticly to avoid going high on the glide. Flap 30 follows soon after we get below the limiting speed and passing 2000 feet we are fully stabilised and configured but still IMC in the cloud. I use my thumb to cover the Go-Around switches on the thrust levers fully expecting to end up going around due to weather but the cloud gives up and reveals the runway as we pass 1000 feet above the ground. The healthy wind makes the approach a little more exciting but at least it's steady and not gusting. Not quite as smoothly as in Prestwick I jockey the aircraft to keep it on the mythical rails and begin my flare at 30 feet kicking off the drift and dropping a wing into wind while holding the nose off until the main wheels touch... the speed brakes deploy and we know we are down and stunningly the aircraft settles onto the runway perfectly; it's at this point I remember to breathe!

Simon and I after our morning of bumps with our little RB211 engine!

The first flight of G-LSAB is over and that is probably the last time I'll get to play with an airliner for quite some time. We have burned over 10 tonnes of fuel and made 10 landings each of which costs many hundreds of pounds in landing fees but both Simon and I get off grinning like school children in a sweet shop. What an awesome machine and a great pair of trainers resulting in a fabulous day out.

During the flight we took a lot of pictures, the best of which are in this article. The external pictures were taken by Dave Townsend who very kindly has allowed me to use them in this article. You can see more of his aviation photos at www.davidtownsendimages.com.

Kris Heslop
boxjockey99@hotmail.com