Value for money in simulator sessions
Since retiring I have been lucky to score an enjoyable job as a 737 simulator instructor on a casual as required basis. In my past life, simulator sessions were invariably grim occasionally career busting square-box ticking exercises with irritable check pilots hovering over one's shoulder and snarling at petty perceived errors of judgement or handling technique.
The scene was set in my very first session on the old 737-100 where my first experience of an airline check captain was this cranky old man snarling at me for adjusting the course indicator and the heading bug on the HSI with my left hand, instead of my right hand - or was it the other way around? And did it matter in the scheme of life, anyway? And shouting at me for not holding the thrust levers with my hand in a claw shape ready to abort - then re-shaping my grip differently when adjusting the thrust in flight!
At the end of the course he deigned to ask me what would I like to do for "fun" -such as flying under the Sydney Harbour Bridge or another flapless, maybe? Instead, I asked him could I give the first officer the take-off and get him to do a full scale abort at max take-off weight. You see, in those early days, the F/O never did an abort in the simulator because it was considered a BAD THING. The crusty old instructor was absolutely astounded at my request and said NO WAY would he permit my request as F/O's should NEVER be allowed to do an abort.
Decades later I am now in the back of the simulator, training pilots from many different cultures and a wide spread of experience - 250TT to 15,000TT. Sure, the syllabus squares have to be ticked to meet the regulations and ensure technical expertise. But I can always find half-an hour to let them relax and enjoy some fun exercises. Such things as barrel rolls, stall turns (which are really a cunning way of doing unusual attitude recoveries and thus there is a serious side to all this). We set a scenario of a raging cabin fire on lift off and the game is to carry out the fastest low level circuit ever, with timing starting at lift off and stopping the stopwatch when stopped on runway. Anything goes as long as you don't crash. Times vary from one minute and forty seconds lift off to final stop, to 4 minutes depending on personal practice and technique (flap use - speed and height control etc)
There is always a lot of laughter and ribbing at the time, and beers are bet - but the exercise has a deadly serious aim. And that is that hand-flying skills are vital for survival in some situations. We practice forced landings with all engines dead. First few are invariably cock-ups with landing a mile short or a huge overshoot. They improve markedly the next go. We play with full hard over rudder landings from 5 mile final. Best of all, we finish a fun session with single pilot circuits and touch and goes. The PNF is banished to the back of the sim cab and so am I - leaving the PF completely on his own. This simple exercise is the best confidence builder for a new pilot on type.
My own reward is at the coffee break afterwards, listening to the laughter and merriment of the students as they recall being upside down or whatever, and obviously happy after a hard days work.
So much better than the all to common sight of grim unsmiling unhappy faces that shuffle into the coffee room in my past life.
Can any of you suggest a few more fun sim exercises to soften the hard grind of box filling - yet with a serious purpose to them?