[
i did fly without engines but that was a little bit of playing time we got left at the end of my session
]
It is a fact of life in the airline training industry. Most of your recurrent training will be on the same old sequences of engine failures, ILS and occasional non-precision approaches - mostly using the autopilot of course. Conversion courses same thing. For LOFT exercises you will get a whole panorama of highly improbable combinations of scenarios that require pages and pages of reading the QRH and huddle sessions on the flight deck on the intercom, seeking the views of everyone in the crew while the simulator logs the hours droning on to its destination or alternate. Most of these talk-fest scenarios could be adequately covered in the classroom. Valuable simulator hours are wasted and more important priorities are ignored. The Air France A330 debacle in the South Atlantic is a tragic case in point.
These priorities should real hands-on flying in the simulator designed to increase pure flying skills on such vital sequences as high and low level stall recoveries, 35 knot night crosswind landings, ditching on instruments, realistic unusual attitude training, black hole approaches to marginal airports, loss of thrust on all engines followed by forced landing and so on.
For those (most pilots) bound by company operations policy to make maximum use of automation during line flying, the above sequences are important for handling confidence - yet are generally regarded by instructors as five minutes of `playing time` at the end of a session, instead of serious training.