757 stall

[TOGA]

In an EMB145 Level D sim, we turned off the shaker and the pusher and the instructor talked me through a stall, intentional spin and recovery. I was very surprised at how violently the "airplane" reacted. My Jepp binder just missed my face and the right side of the Captain's head as it flew across the cockpit from the shelf by my right thigh. We lost almost 12,000 feet, and the instructor seemed to think that that was a decent recovery!

 

[profile]

OK, time for another interjection. One of the classic errors we have seen is various instructors (sometimes endorsed by the training dept itself) demonstrating things in a non-engineering sim that even an engineering sim has not been programmed to accomplish. There is not a sim out there (ESPECIALLY a training sim) that can replicate the actual aircraft handling qualities in a full stall, let alone a spin. Period.

 

[TOGA]

Yeah, Profile, can't argue with that too much. Questionable training value, too. We were done with the training event, and it sounded kinda fun. As for the sim 'knowing' how the a/c would behave, supposedly ours are extremely close to real. This is because one of our crusty, hard-ass old instructors (that's meant to be a term of respect) did a whole bunch of pretty hard core test flying in the a/c, then transferred the data from the a/c to the sim. Supposedly, this greatly reduced the amount of interpolation the sim has to do in those situations you'd never attempt in the a/c.

 

[Vortilon]

I have to agree...simulators are only built to faithfully duplicate certain areas of operation. I had to fully stall an ERJ135 and 145 on aircraft acceptance/delivery flights in Brazil (with factory test pilots) and its a very docile airplane....just loses a lot of altitude.

That instructor should just stick to the syllabus...

(btw, if this hard-core instructor is who I think he is [Commander Abij....] I'd take the stories about him with several large grains of salt.)

 

[TOGA]

Hey, quit peeing in my Cheerios, dammit!! Geesh, we were done . . . it was fun (and done in that context)! You guessed it . . . the Commander. Yes, I'm aware that's he's a legend in his own mind. Nonetheless, he's a good instructor, and a fair check airman.

 

[njcapt]

As part of some demonstration maneuvers (in the sim) while in initial training at ATA, we did some deep stalls while at FL300. The 737-800, at moderate enroute weights, broke sharply from 15° pitch up to 25° down in about 2 seconds. It took more than 5000ft to accelerate to an indicated airspeed that allowed even the most minor increase in pitch (therefore, load factor) that didn't cause the stick shaker to activate. The best recovery I managed was to level flight in 12,000ft.

Ergo the stick shaker and stick pusher.