clumpinglitter (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} clumpinglitter) wrote,@ 2006-09-02 14:31:00 |
|
sim: MSP intl
Now that I'm back from airplane camp, I can start up my weekly torture sessions again at Sim Flite MN, available to all for only a small hourly fee. This organization is already becoming a local center for King Air training, so get on the schedule.
The sim is set up as a twin, so we'll keep the throttle quadrant the same, and I'll be a Seneca III. And so begins a series of dramatic, hair-raising, and tragic approaches on ILS 21R into MSP. There won't be any equipment failures for the first approach -- fine with me, because I feel rusty after two weeks with no instrument flying. The Seneca III is even faster than the Bonanza, or at least, it feels like it's more to manage and harder to slow down. This approach has about six stepdown fixes, so I'm going to be busy. I haven't done a very good job of slowing the airplane down, so I end up not even levelling off for each stepdown. You would think this would decrease my workload, but it really doesn't, since I still have to keep close track of where I am and constantly refer back to the approach -- this airplane covers three miles pretty fast. And descending, it's even harder to slow down. But I'm unwilling to chop the power, because that's hard on the theoretical turbocharged engine. I eventually get it slowed down enough to put approach flaps in and drop the gear at the FAF.
I see the approach lights right at DA (no red bars, though), and Linda tells me to go missed. I already have the VOR for the missed tuned in on nav 1, because I had a different VOR tuned in on nav 2 to identify cross radials on the approach. So, I have to identify and center the needle on nav 1 while following the missed procedure and flying sort of blind. I end up turning too far and screwing up the HSI and flying away from the holding fix. Whoops. The only positive thing is that I catch it right away.
In the hold, my attitude indicator fails. I've somehow remembered to manually sequence to the hold in the GPS, so that helps. I put it into GPS mode, although I'm not sure that's strictly necessary. It says "susp", so I don't bother to put it into OBS mode. Seems to work ok. My HSI fails next -- Linda reminds me to use nav radio 2 after I say I'll just use the GPS. The compass is there for rolling out on headings, and the nav 1 page is there for helping to track the holding radial. Linda gives me a trick for using the nav 1 page on the outbound leg -- your bearing should be about ten degrees off or so.
My instruments miraculously come back, and I get vectors for another ILS. I do a better job of managing the airplane, but I end up about a thousand feet high right before the DME distance about where the glideslope should be intercepted. How did this happen? There's a bug in the Elite that makes its DME display the distance from the wrong VOR sometimes after a missed approach. I didn't catch it until stuff really started not making sense on the approach. I elect to try and catch up to the glideslope instead of going missed. Linda doesn't like to see more than a 1,000 fpm descent, because it's too out of control. I say my shady night 135 operator wouldn't like the extra expense of a missed approach, and my load of severed human heads has to be on the ground soon or they'll go bad.
So, the strategy is that I'll try catching up. If it doesn't work, I'll just go missed. If it does work, I'll know that such a big foulup can be fixed if it's really important. Linda suggests getting all the gear and approach flaps out as soon as I can. I end up catching the glideslope about halfway down and go missed again for vectors for another ILS 12R.
Vectors make life easy. ATC says to climb all the way up to 8,000 feet. I notice that I've been consciously omitting the AI for a while, because it's an untrustworthy instrument. I fly and fly up. The airspeed is nice and low, so I plan to level off by reducing power first, to keep the airplane slowed down for the rest of the approach. I next realize that my instructor has commited a shocking act of betrayal by failing my entire pitotstatic system, and even the alternate static source isn't fixing it. Holy crap! There's no way for me to know my altitude now.
Linda: "So, what options do you have now?"
Me: "Break the VSI!"
Apparently, we won't be simulating this in the Elite -- so much for the sim being able to produce situations that we can't do in real life. My only resources now are the ILS and ATC radar. I do know that I'm 500 to 1,000 feet above glideslope. Known power settings and the AI are the only way to control and estimate descent rate. The groundspeed readouts on the DME and GPS help to estimate when the airplane is slow enough to drop flaps and gear. In a situation like this, you work with ATC to figure out what to do -- they say it's ok to begin a descent now, and the MSA agrees. ATC asks if I want them to roll the trucks, and I say yes -- I'm done trying to save money for my rat bastard employer who makes me fly this shoddy equipment. After glideslope intercept, it's easier. Close to DA, ATC calls my altitude every hundred feet or so. I see the approach lights and land.
Later, I ask Linda if this emergency occurred in real life, would it be a good time to break good old 91.175 (one of only 3 FARs I know by number) and descend below the DA without any runway or airport in sight. Yup -- there's no way to fly the missed approach in that situation. And if you find yourself in this situation at a towered airport, call for help, get back into radar contact, and divert to an airport with an ILS and a big runway. And fire trucks.
It also so happens that Linda failed my airspeed indicator on the climb to 8,000 feet before the last approach, but I didn't catch it. Uh, bad. The ASI is the one instrument I have a problem with -- I've always tended to omit it. I was actually using it earlier but not comprehending that it was reading way slower than it should have been. I like to think that if I was more familiar with the airplane and had wind noise, I would have caught it. Still, no excuse.
Now that I'm back from airplane camp, I can start up my weekly torture sessions again at Sim Flite MN, available to all for only a small hourly fee. This organization is already becoming a local center for King Air training, so get on the schedule.
The sim is set up as a twin, so we'll keep the throttle quadrant the same, and I'll be a Seneca III. And so begins a series of dramatic, hair-raising, and tragic approaches on ILS 21R into MSP. There won't be any equipment failures for the first approach -- fine with me, because I feel rusty after two weeks with no instrument flying. The Seneca III is even faster than the Bonanza, or at least, it feels like it's more to manage and harder to slow down. This approach has about six stepdown fixes, so I'm going to be busy. I haven't done a very good job of slowing the airplane down, so I end up not even levelling off for each stepdown. You would think this would decrease my workload, but it really doesn't, since I still have to keep close track of where I am and constantly refer back to the approach -- this airplane covers three miles pretty fast. And descending, it's even harder to slow down. But I'm unwilling to chop the power, because that's hard on the theoretical turbocharged engine. I eventually get it slowed down enough to put approach flaps in and drop the gear at the FAF.
I see the approach lights right at DA (no red bars, though), and Linda tells me to go missed. I already have the VOR for the missed tuned in on nav 1, because I had a different VOR tuned in on nav 2 to identify cross radials on the approach. So, I have to identify and center the needle on nav 1 while following the missed procedure and flying sort of blind. I end up turning too far and screwing up the HSI and flying away from the holding fix. Whoops. The only positive thing is that I catch it right away.
In the hold, my attitude indicator fails. I've somehow remembered to manually sequence to the hold in the GPS, so that helps. I put it into GPS mode, although I'm not sure that's strictly necessary. It says "susp", so I don't bother to put it into OBS mode. Seems to work ok. My HSI fails next -- Linda reminds me to use nav radio 2 after I say I'll just use the GPS. The compass is there for rolling out on headings, and the nav 1 page is there for helping to track the holding radial. Linda gives me a trick for using the nav 1 page on the outbound leg -- your bearing should be about ten degrees off or so.
My instruments miraculously come back, and I get vectors for another ILS. I do a better job of managing the airplane, but I end up about a thousand feet high right before the DME distance about where the glideslope should be intercepted. How did this happen? There's a bug in the Elite that makes its DME display the distance from the wrong VOR sometimes after a missed approach. I didn't catch it until stuff really started not making sense on the approach. I elect to try and catch up to the glideslope instead of going missed. Linda doesn't like to see more than a 1,000 fpm descent, because it's too out of control. I say my shady night 135 operator wouldn't like the extra expense of a missed approach, and my load of severed human heads has to be on the ground soon or they'll go bad.
So, the strategy is that I'll try catching up. If it doesn't work, I'll just go missed. If it does work, I'll know that such a big foulup can be fixed if it's really important. Linda suggests getting all the gear and approach flaps out as soon as I can. I end up catching the glideslope about halfway down and go missed again for vectors for another ILS 12R.
Vectors make life easy. ATC says to climb all the way up to 8,000 feet. I notice that I've been consciously omitting the AI for a while, because it's an untrustworthy instrument. I fly and fly up. The airspeed is nice and low, so I plan to level off by reducing power first, to keep the airplane slowed down for the rest of the approach. I next realize that my instructor has commited a shocking act of betrayal by failing my entire pitotstatic system, and even the alternate static source isn't fixing it. Holy crap! There's no way for me to know my altitude now.
Linda: "So, what options do you have now?"
Me: "Break the VSI!"
Apparently, we won't be simulating this in the Elite -- so much for the sim being able to produce situations that we can't do in real life. My only resources now are the ILS and ATC radar. I do know that I'm 500 to 1,000 feet above glideslope. Known power settings and the AI are the only way to control and estimate descent rate. The groundspeed readouts on the DME and GPS help to estimate when the airplane is slow enough to drop flaps and gear. In a situation like this, you work with ATC to figure out what to do -- they say it's ok to begin a descent now, and the MSA agrees. ATC asks if I want them to roll the trucks, and I say yes -- I'm done trying to save money for my rat bastard employer who makes me fly this shoddy equipment. After glideslope intercept, it's easier. Close to DA, ATC calls my altitude every hundred feet or so. I see the approach lights and land.
Later, I ask Linda if this emergency occurred in real life, would it be a good time to break good old 91.175 (one of only 3 FARs I know by number) and descend below the DA without any runway or airport in sight. Yup -- there's no way to fly the missed approach in that situation. And if you find yourself in this situation at a towered airport, call for help, get back into radar contact, and divert to an airport with an ILS and a big runway. And fire trucks.
It also so happens that Linda failed my airspeed indicator on the climb to 8,000 feet before the last approach, but I didn't catch it. Uh, bad. The ASI is the one instrument I have a problem with -- I've always tended to omit it. I was actually using it earlier but not comprehending that it was reading way slower than it should have been. I like to think that if I was more familiar with the airplane and had wind noise, I would have caught it. Still, no excuse.
