Airbus Simulator Hints/Tricks/Tips
When all the dust settles a sim ride is an act to keep your salary for the next
6 months. Just do everything the check guy wants to see, impractical in real
life or not.
Any pre-ride training seshes are extremely useful and should be utilised to the
full. Use every valuable minute to your advantage and don't be afraid to ask for
specific exercises that you can learn from for either the sim check or real world.
Know where the references are even though you know some by heart. A simple
manual switching, like for a Brake Sys Fault, and the checkie might ask why you
didn't use the book reference if you just went ahead and did it off your own pat.
Do not rely solely on the QRH and that ECAM - pull out those FCOMs because
they'll have stuff in em not shown anywhere else. Use them for each and every
relevant problem he throws at you even if it says "Crew awareness". This will
keep your @rse fully covered and prevent you forgetting anything, especially
those notes in italics and "Items not shown on ECAM". Airbus manuals are so
damn bloody confusing and mish-mashed like a dog's dinner, that its easy to
overlook and miss something important.
Another thing - don't be thrown off by any damn checkie bitching on about
sim time running out. No pilot worth his stripes rushes a G+Y inop or Emer
Gen until all bases are cleared, all speeds and distances double-checked by
both pilots, full briefing understood by both. Let him rant afterwards at the
debrief on how long it took you to complete the exercise, but there's nothing
he can put on paper if you've done the entire procedure timely, correctly and
without rush.
Oh and never ever bull!!!! any checkie - if you don't know something just say
so. The bugger will see right through you if you don't.
If in doubt anytime: balls-to-the-wall TOGA. Even if you screw up the approach
(or TO for that matter) better to just go around and try again then push a bad
position and prang, and then the checkie ticking the FAIL box on your form.
Summary: if you have the book reference for everything you say and do you're
fireproofed to the hilt. Good luck!
