Airbus Type Rating
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Airbus Type Rating
hello guys as the title states i'm soon to be starting an airbus type rating for a regional airline, thus i'm currently nervous and stressing out in terms of what to expect and how best to pass the type rating-as this is one of my last steps in being employed within the company, is this a normal feeling? I have spoken to some of the students who where part of the previous type rating class and they have said just relax and you will be taught what you need and enjoy it as it comes, I'm currently in my late 30's and my class mates are in their 20's, thus i really feel the odd one out and am I out of my dept? I would really appreciate any advice, tips and if theres any books or youtube videos that can assist me in remaining calm / helping me thru this hurdle and any pointers in how to enjoy this transition before I embark on flying the real aircraft, is the feeling normal and how can I stay positive rather than negative and not my spoil my type rating experience...
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hello guys as the title states i'm soon to be starting an airbus type rating for a regional airline, thus i'm currently nervous and stressing out in terms of what to expect and how best to pass the type rating-as this is one of my last steps in being employed within the company, is this a normal feeling? I have spoken to some of the students who where part of the previous type rating class and they have said just relax and you will be taught what you need and enjoy it as it comes, I'm currently in my late 30's and my class mates are in their 20's, thus i really feel the odd one out and am I out of my dept? I would really appreciate any advice, tips and if theres any books or youtube videos that can assist me in remaining calm / helping me thru this hurdle and any pointers in how to enjoy this transition before I embark on flying the real aircraft, is the feeling normal and how can I stay positive rather than negative and not my spoil my type rating experience...
Systems knowledge to be honest you probably are best off with the learning material they offer you - which normally has “free play” panels demoing system behaviour on your ipad or whatever. I always found systems knowledge came far easier in context, particularly with airbus manuals!
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Slight Update, I've started the ground school and completed all written exams and this week we have started the sims, I have just finished my second sim session and have been told that my scanning technique is slow as that I am struggling to keep the flight parameters due to slow scanning...ie my situational awareness regarding the parameters of the aircraft ie SPEED AND ALTITUDE is poor and at times I have to be told by my sim partner/instructor SPEED / ALTITUDE ...thus can anyone recommend me any material or youtube videos that can assist me, I think reflecting what I am slow to react to is when the arrow comes on the speed indicator side I am a bit hesitant whether I need to increase thrust or reduce thrust as in their purposes etc..
Appreciate any replies...
Appreciate any replies...
Try to assimilate the yellow speed trend arrow. It indicates where the speed will go if nothing is changed.
If it is less than 5 mm long; just keep coming back to it to see if it stays like that or if it reduces or maybe goes the other way. If it is going positive, negative, positive, negative, you don't need to change thrust. If it remains in one direction without changing or gets longer, then - assuming that your flight path is correct - you need to make a small change to the thrust. Just walk the thrust levers up or down - each one a few mm at a time, rotating your wrist from side to side to move one lever then the other and so on.
Assuming your flight path is correct; If the speed trend arrow points up, speed is increasing so you need to reduce thrust slightly. If the speed trend arrow points down, speed is decreasing, so you need to increase thrust slightly- just walk the levers a small way in the opposite direction to where the speed trend arrow is pointing.
Try not to get fixated on your scan. Use the classic T scan on the PFD and keep your scan moving: Horizon, Speed (+ speed trend arrow), Horizon, Altitude (+ vertical speed arrow), Horizon, Compass, Horizon, Speed (+ speed trend arrow) etc. Centre, left, centre, right, centre, down, centre, left etc.
Remember - or realise - that Airbus FBW "stays where you put it" (in normal law).
Make sure you are using the outboard arm rest, which should be more or less horizontal and adjusted to be supporting the full weight of your forearm at the right height to allow your outboard hand to operate the side-stick with ease, and without any bias, and make small adjustments to the attitude with the side-stick - returning the stick to neutral between every small adjustment.
e.g. If you are drifting below your altitude, pull the side-stick an inch or so back then immediately return it to neutral; as quick as it takes to say "back, neutral". This will raise the nose a tiny amount and it will then stay at that new slightly higher pitch attitude with no further inputs. Observe the reaction on the vertical speed arrow, and keep the scan moving; Correct, neutral. Correct, neutral etc.
Good luck, I have not flown for a while and I am so jealous !
.
If it is less than 5 mm long; just keep coming back to it to see if it stays like that or if it reduces or maybe goes the other way. If it is going positive, negative, positive, negative, you don't need to change thrust. If it remains in one direction without changing or gets longer, then - assuming that your flight path is correct - you need to make a small change to the thrust. Just walk the thrust levers up or down - each one a few mm at a time, rotating your wrist from side to side to move one lever then the other and so on.
Assuming your flight path is correct; If the speed trend arrow points up, speed is increasing so you need to reduce thrust slightly. If the speed trend arrow points down, speed is decreasing, so you need to increase thrust slightly- just walk the levers a small way in the opposite direction to where the speed trend arrow is pointing.
Try not to get fixated on your scan. Use the classic T scan on the PFD and keep your scan moving: Horizon, Speed (+ speed trend arrow), Horizon, Altitude (+ vertical speed arrow), Horizon, Compass, Horizon, Speed (+ speed trend arrow) etc. Centre, left, centre, right, centre, down, centre, left etc.
Remember - or realise - that Airbus FBW "stays where you put it" (in normal law).
Make sure you are using the outboard arm rest, which should be more or less horizontal and adjusted to be supporting the full weight of your forearm at the right height to allow your outboard hand to operate the side-stick with ease, and without any bias, and make small adjustments to the attitude with the side-stick - returning the stick to neutral between every small adjustment.
e.g. If you are drifting below your altitude, pull the side-stick an inch or so back then immediately return it to neutral; as quick as it takes to say "back, neutral". This will raise the nose a tiny amount and it will then stay at that new slightly higher pitch attitude with no further inputs. Observe the reaction on the vertical speed arrow, and keep the scan moving; Correct, neutral. Correct, neutral etc.
Good luck, I have not flown for a while and I am so jealous !
.
Last edited by Uplinker; 12th Jun 2024 at 09:43.
To your first post, don't worry about your age. If you're in your late 30's, you're still young. But, you do bring things to the table that your 20-year old class mates don't. You might struggle with things that come easy to them, but then you'll find you have more life experience to draw on for other things. I've trained many a pilot in their late 40's and 50's who have the same issues you're seeing, but when it came to topics such as emergency management, they sailed through the session because they knew how to prioritize different things. The younger folks often got bogged down and would happily fly an airplane into a mountain just to finish a silly acronym their sim instructor taught them as a memory aid. So really at the end of the day, focus on the big picture. Something like a scan will come in time.
In fact, that makes me remember one thing I did with some of my students who had trouble with their scan, especially so early on as sim session 2. I would ask them if it was their first glass panel airplane. If the answer was yes, I'd have them do a series of turns and tell me the bank angle. A lot of times the answer would come back that they have no clue and they're very confused. You see, the sky pointer in most glass cockpits operates opposite of the way it does in conventional instruments. Sometimes this little change is enough to throw a person's scan right off. They're so hyper focused on trying to identify whether the airplane is turning left or right, that they let their speed and altitude get away from them. Then because it's an attitude awareness problem, they're not sure whether to add or remove power, even though there is this funky trend vector telling them what to do. Now, I'm not an airbus pilot (I fly the competition), but just remember that at the end of the day, it's just an airplane. Sure, it's a bigger and faster airplane, but the nose goes up and the nose goes down just like a Cessna. If a Cessna slows down and you don't want it to, you add power. If it speeds up and you don't want it to, you remove power. The airbus is no different (save for those funky FBW laws), except now you get a little device that tells you where the airplane will be in 5 or 10 seconds. But remember that trend arrows are just that - they tell you where the airplane will be in x number of seconds if you do nothing to change it. Don't chase the trend arrow, but use it as a tool to identify what you need to do - then go back to basic piloting (or whatever that is that you Airbus pilots do).
Also, remember that it is the job of the pilot monitoring to call out deviations. If your sim partner is calling those out, they're doing their job - in fact, that's a great sign! They are there to help you. It's not so much that you're having to be told, but rather that your sim partner is using their CRM and SOPs and it shows you're gelling as a crew. I've seen some PMs in the sim throw their partner under the bus (pardon the slight pun) by not calling anything out. But guess who I start to focus on as the sim instructor or check pilot? It's not the guy or gal doing the flying, but the guy or gal not doing their job by calling out deviations. You should thank your sim partner and ask them to keep doing it.
As for training material, this always sounds corny, but flight sim is a great tool for learning the scan. MSFS 2020 has a good default A320 with a few paid addons that I'm told are halfway decent. If they're anything as good as the PMDG 737, then you'll learn a lot just from watching what happens. I used the PMDG 737 when I came on to the Boeing, and I'm using it again as I begin to see my upgrade looming in the next 8 to 12 months. Like I said, corny, but I can attest that it helps with flows and interpretation of the instruments.
In fact, that makes me remember one thing I did with some of my students who had trouble with their scan, especially so early on as sim session 2. I would ask them if it was their first glass panel airplane. If the answer was yes, I'd have them do a series of turns and tell me the bank angle. A lot of times the answer would come back that they have no clue and they're very confused. You see, the sky pointer in most glass cockpits operates opposite of the way it does in conventional instruments. Sometimes this little change is enough to throw a person's scan right off. They're so hyper focused on trying to identify whether the airplane is turning left or right, that they let their speed and altitude get away from them. Then because it's an attitude awareness problem, they're not sure whether to add or remove power, even though there is this funky trend vector telling them what to do. Now, I'm not an airbus pilot (I fly the competition), but just remember that at the end of the day, it's just an airplane. Sure, it's a bigger and faster airplane, but the nose goes up and the nose goes down just like a Cessna. If a Cessna slows down and you don't want it to, you add power. If it speeds up and you don't want it to, you remove power. The airbus is no different (save for those funky FBW laws), except now you get a little device that tells you where the airplane will be in 5 or 10 seconds. But remember that trend arrows are just that - they tell you where the airplane will be in x number of seconds if you do nothing to change it. Don't chase the trend arrow, but use it as a tool to identify what you need to do - then go back to basic piloting (or whatever that is that you Airbus pilots do).
Also, remember that it is the job of the pilot monitoring to call out deviations. If your sim partner is calling those out, they're doing their job - in fact, that's a great sign! They are there to help you. It's not so much that you're having to be told, but rather that your sim partner is using their CRM and SOPs and it shows you're gelling as a crew. I've seen some PMs in the sim throw their partner under the bus (pardon the slight pun) by not calling anything out. But guess who I start to focus on as the sim instructor or check pilot? It's not the guy or gal doing the flying, but the guy or gal not doing their job by calling out deviations. You should thank your sim partner and ask them to keep doing it.
As for training material, this always sounds corny, but flight sim is a great tool for learning the scan. MSFS 2020 has a good default A320 with a few paid addons that I'm told are halfway decent. If they're anything as good as the PMDG 737, then you'll learn a lot just from watching what happens. I used the PMDG 737 when I came on to the Boeing, and I'm using it again as I begin to see my upgrade looming in the next 8 to 12 months. Like I said, corny, but I can attest that it helps with flows and interpretation of the instruments.
@+TSRA, the Airbus FBW flies as a normal aircraft. Think of the FBW as you would an auto gearbox in a car. It assists you, but it does not take over from you driving the car. FBW just helps with some of the "background" tasks; auto trimming in the Airbus is like auto gear changing in the auto car.
Flying Airbus FBW is still basic piloting.
A SIM partner who calls out every tiny deviation can be a nuisance to the learner pilot. Quite often the learner pilot knows full well that they are deviating but are still getting to grips with it. If PM keeps calling every deviation it can add to the stress the learner pilot is under. I have experienced this and having PM call every small deviation while I am getting my motor reflexes up to speed can be a pain in the ........ Give the guy a bit of "space" and let them learn without nit picking them too much.
On the line and/or when you are flying a CAT lllB, then of course call out any and all deviations.
Flying Airbus FBW is still basic piloting.
A SIM partner who calls out every tiny deviation can be a nuisance to the learner pilot. Quite often the learner pilot knows full well that they are deviating but are still getting to grips with it. If PM keeps calling every deviation it can add to the stress the learner pilot is under. I have experienced this and having PM call every small deviation while I am getting my motor reflexes up to speed can be a pain in the ........ Give the guy a bit of "space" and let them learn without nit picking them too much.
On the line and/or when you are flying a CAT lllB, then of course call out any and all deviations.
You are being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of data presented to you. Typical issue coming into a complex avionics aircraft along with its higher speeds and weight/inertia to deal with. You have to learn what stuff you need and when..so your scan is more concentrated and you disregarding all the info you dont need at that time. An Airbus is easy to fly (almost too easy to the detriment to your flying skills according to my friends who fly it) as the computers keep it where it has to be. But this is also an issue if you havent flown similiar setups let alone a sim which really doesnt fly like a real airplane either.
@ uplinker, I'm being facetious with my Airbus piloting comments. Many of my friends fly them, so I make my comments about flying an Airbus in jest.
I agree that you need to give space in the sim, especially so early on. You don't want to give the impression that it is OK for the pilot monitoring to never call out deviations. I would have a chat with the PM student if I felt their calls were bordering on a nuisance, but the OP mentioned it's both sim instructor and PM making comments, so I took the line that the PM is likely sticking to SOPs and not calling out a 2-knot deviation (which I too have had people do to me, and you're right - it's infuriating!). I would hope that, in this case, the sim instructor tells the PM to ease off at the appropriate times or otherwise remind the PM of the conditions at which a call is to be made. The issue comes that you don't have to tell experienced pilots like you and me when it's play time and when it's game time. But for a brand new pilot to the airline world, they don't yet know when to and when not to lay off, so I take it as a good sign that the PM is at least making the calls.
I've found when instructing that it's too easy to treat the sim as a flying only trainer, where the PM is there to flip switches and get the PM through their part of the session. I used to cover this possibility when teaching a train-the-trainer course, that instructors had to focus on both students. But inevitably it is easier for new instructors to focus on the flying and let the PM duties go by the wayside. This can leave the PM student thinking that they're doing the right things by calling out a 2-knot deviation or not calling out any deviations because the instructor didn't say anything. A previous airline of mine went through a period of increased unstabilized approaches continued to a landing where one of the root causes identified was that some of our junior instructors were not discussing or correcting unstable approaches in the simulator. Well, in a way they were: they'd reposition the sim for another approach, but never discussed why the additional exercise was added or how to correct the issue before the approach gates were passed. These students got to the line thinking it was OK to be unstable because of how quickly the airplane would respond to a corrective input. So, we rebuilt the sim scripts to tell the instructor and student when an exercise was for handling practice or for grading. That way we were telling the student PM that it is OK to not make the calls in exercise A, but in exercise B it was game on. I'm not sure how common that is in sim scripts around the world, but it certainly made things clearer for both instructor and student.
I agree that you need to give space in the sim, especially so early on. You don't want to give the impression that it is OK for the pilot monitoring to never call out deviations. I would have a chat with the PM student if I felt their calls were bordering on a nuisance, but the OP mentioned it's both sim instructor and PM making comments, so I took the line that the PM is likely sticking to SOPs and not calling out a 2-knot deviation (which I too have had people do to me, and you're right - it's infuriating!). I would hope that, in this case, the sim instructor tells the PM to ease off at the appropriate times or otherwise remind the PM of the conditions at which a call is to be made. The issue comes that you don't have to tell experienced pilots like you and me when it's play time and when it's game time. But for a brand new pilot to the airline world, they don't yet know when to and when not to lay off, so I take it as a good sign that the PM is at least making the calls.
I've found when instructing that it's too easy to treat the sim as a flying only trainer, where the PM is there to flip switches and get the PM through their part of the session. I used to cover this possibility when teaching a train-the-trainer course, that instructors had to focus on both students. But inevitably it is easier for new instructors to focus on the flying and let the PM duties go by the wayside. This can leave the PM student thinking that they're doing the right things by calling out a 2-knot deviation or not calling out any deviations because the instructor didn't say anything. A previous airline of mine went through a period of increased unstabilized approaches continued to a landing where one of the root causes identified was that some of our junior instructors were not discussing or correcting unstable approaches in the simulator. Well, in a way they were: they'd reposition the sim for another approach, but never discussed why the additional exercise was added or how to correct the issue before the approach gates were passed. These students got to the line thinking it was OK to be unstable because of how quickly the airplane would respond to a corrective input. So, we rebuilt the sim scripts to tell the instructor and student when an exercise was for handling practice or for grading. That way we were telling the student PM that it is OK to not make the calls in exercise A, but in exercise B it was game on. I'm not sure how common that is in sim scripts around the world, but it certainly made things clearer for both instructor and student.
Fair comment 
. I thought you were, but I just wanted to make sure that other non Airbus folk who might be reading, realised you were being light hearted and how good Airbus FBW really is.
One sees some daft comments sometimes - the ones that bug me imply that you are somehow not a real pilot unless you fly a "tractor", where almost everything has to be manually controlled and adjusted, but those same folk probably drive cars with the latest state of the art auto-gearboxes and other driver aids, such as Sat Nav, Cruise control and auto wipers and lights for example.
. I thought you were, but I just wanted to make sure that other non Airbus folk who might be reading, realised you were being light hearted and how good Airbus FBW really is.One sees some daft comments sometimes - the ones that bug me imply that you are somehow not a real pilot unless you fly a "tractor", where almost everything has to be manually controlled and adjusted, but those same folk probably drive cars with the latest state of the art auto-gearboxes and other driver aids, such as Sat Nav, Cruise control and auto wipers and lights for example.
