Beware - Scroggs is back in the country!

[scroggs]

Hi peeps! I'm back from that great temple of all things Airbus at Toulouse, although still a little way from fully spammed-up on the electric death-jet. I can now trade FComs with the best of them, and ECAM-action my way through life with nary a care. Have I seen the light? I'll let you know when I exit the tunnel (is that a whistle I hear?). Still, it's been an experience. I didn't know you could fit 4 engines with 37,000lbs of thrust each to a relatively small aeroplane and still feel very underpowered! Ah well, at least the 600 has proper Rolls Royce motors - remarkably similar to the ones I'm used to from the 747.

Anyway, after 6 weeks or more without access to Pprune, I shall take a few days to catch up on what I've missed and then I'll be back in the thick of it. Watch yer backs!

[Wee Weasley Welshman]

Sigh, another Good Man lost to the dark side...

WWW

"If it ain't Boeing I ain't going" (all of a sudden) :)

[Baldie Man]

Welcome back Scroggs. We have missed your brusque form of moderation on here the past few weeks! ;)

Now then, tell us about what you've been up to over in Toulouse! Have you been converting to the A.340? I know you were F/O on the 747-200 and in the military you were on the Herc so how does the Airbus training compare in terms of difficulty, interest levels and learning curves etc??

Cheers mate,

BM.

[scroggs]

'Brusque'? Moi? Surely not! Just, how shall we say, to the point?:D

As for Airbus training, the best thing I can say for it is that it's probably good value for money at £5 per hour. At the more likely price of £5000/hr, it's *****! The CBT is dreadful, the sim course is better but non-airline specific (i.e. you need retraining on the line), and the overall technical content is aimed at the lowest common denominator of Airbus customers. Comparing it to Virgin's in-house Classic training is like comparing an Early Learning Centre activity trainer with a decent laptop computer. It's a bit like a Christmas cracker: shiny on the outside, but when you pull it it goes 'phut' and you find the cheapest tat possible on the inside! I'd get better instruction at my local college's evening macrami class.

The aeroplane, however, is very impressive in many ways. It's very obviously derived from a twin-engined family with bits tacked on, and the level of system redundancy we take for granted in US (and UK) built four-engined jets just isn't there, but then the system reliability is an order of magnitude better. The autoflight system is PFM - until it runs out of ideas and gives the mess back to you to sort out! There's been a fair bit of wheel-reinventing going on because Airbus can't possibly use anything Boeing may have thought of first, but at least that means a fresh approach to old problems. Sometimes their solution's better, sometimes worse. Anyway, as yet it's a bit (no, a lot) like a new computer game; the learning curve is quite steep (mainly because so much is self-taught!), it's very interesting for the moment, and I'm quite enjoying it so far. Ask me again after 13 hours trucking back from Narita!

A good tip for future 'Bus pilots: there is a programme called A320 Professional which is a plug-in for Flight Sim 2002. It's produced by Phoenix Simulation Software, published by JustFlight, and for £35 (retail) it's bloody nearly as good as Airbus' own training software - and more fun (and it doesn't talk to you in a dodgy 'Allo 'Allo accent!). A few features of the FMGS aren't reproduced, but nothing too significant, and it's close enough to the A330/340 to be very useful indeed. Just make sure you run at least an 800Mhz 'pooter with 128mb RAM on Win98SE or later for decent results!

That answer your question?!

[Baldie Man]

Nice one Scroggs. That answers my question just nicely! An interesting read and it brought a smile to my Chevvy Chase too. :)

Thank you,

BM.

[Gin Slinger]

According to Tom at BGS (ex-Cathay), the most important advantage the A340 has over the 747 from a pilot's point of view is that your lunch can be laid out properly in front of you ;)

[Baldie Man]

How's he gonna take being called a retard everytime he lands???? :D

(the old'uns are best'uns!)

BM.

PS: (talking about old jokes there not my ex-burdz!) :D :D

[David Balchin]

Good of you to point out the fact that the Fs2k2 add on is useful.
Theres plenty of Pro-pilots who would not say so for fear of ridicule. Even though you now have to fly a plane that calls you a
"Retard" every time you make an approach!
Welcome Home! and good luck with line training.

[MJR]

This is a silly question I know but how do you find a TRE for a new type aircraft and how does he/she get checked out.

cheers

MJR

[scroggs]

You take a TRE from another aircraft and let the factory train him in the tech side and let the test pilots fly with him in the sim. There's no great magic to being a trainer, just a lot of study! Training on an A340-600 isn't significantly different from training on any other aircraft.

David, are you anything to do with JustFlight or Phoenix? I have a few comments that might improve the product and a few suggestions for some spin-offs.

[Nigey]

Thanks for directing me here Scroggs. Sounds great, I'm pleased for you. Nice one!

Nige