I just returned from the ATOP course at the Continental Airline Pilot Training Facility in Houston and in one word, it was fantastic. On Sunday morning we met in the lobby of the hotel for introductions and a course overview. The instructor was Wayne Phillips, an instructor, DE, and writer for AvWeb and AOPA who is also the course founder. It was soon obvious that he had an outgoing personality and a passion for what he does. He spoke to us about his background and the history of the ATOP course, which has existed since 1993.
After his intro, the eight participants introduced themselves. There was my coworker and myself, an Embry Riddle student, a flight instructor for Florida, two pilots that worked in the broadcast industry, an A&P for Continental Express who is a private pilot, and a controller at Austin TRACON who is a commercial pilot and former instructor. After getting the brief and driving a few minutes to the training center, we received our B737 mini manuals consisting of descriptions and schematics of all the systems, and detailed fold-outs of all the panels. We covered in-depth the fuel system, electrical system, pneumatic system, hydraulic system, and just about every other system in fair detail. Again it was obvious that Wayne had a thorough knowledge of this aircraft and we certainly benefited from the real world system knowledge of our A&P counterpart and the knowledge of our friend from Austin Tracon.
Since six of the eight students were pursuing the high altitude endorsement, we turned lunch into a working session and fulfilled some of the ground school requirements by watching a video on turbulence, oxygen requirements and hypoxia, and decompression. After the end of a most exhaustive day, a group of us went to the cockpit procedure trainer to practice the procedures for depressurization and rapid descent emergency checklists. The procedure trainer is just a wooden mock-up of a cockpit with switches, knobs, and levers used to practice flows and checklists. We had spent most of the day flipping through the foldouts of the various panels and looking at large cockpit pictures on the wall, but sitting in the 3-D environment of the trainer and looking for the right switches was a lot harder. A huge storm was passing though around this time so none of us were in a hurry to go outside.
After switching teams for about an hour we called it a day at about 8pm and headed back to the hotel for a little study. We started the next morning at around 9am in the Computer Based Training lab. The computers in this lab contain excruciating detail about any system in any plane used by Continental, as well as on using the FMS. Those of us taking the high altitude endorsement had to review the modules on fuel system, the pneumatic system with includes the pressurization system, and the oxygen system. At 10 am class began with a discussion on the day's activities. We would spend several hours in the flight training device, which is similar to a Frasca FTD you would find in a flight school, except it replicated the 737 cockpit and was pretty amazing to behold with the glass cockpit. Each team had an opportunity to practice engine starts from a complete shutdown, and it was pretty cool to hear the various systems come on line and to hear the engines spool up. After engine starts, each partner had an opportunity to act as captain and FO for emergency descent procedures after blowing a cabin door. These were the procedures we had practiced the night before in the cockpit procedure trainer.
While this was a blast the best was yet to come. The eight of us were split into groups of four for the Level D sim. We were originally scheduled for a 8pm-12am slot, but there was availability at 4pm so were were able to move everything up by four hours. My quad left to grab dinner before our sim time at 6:45, and during that time we practiced the script for the flight. Each of use would act as pilot and copilot for half an hour in each position and observer from the jumpseat for an hour. We would take off from San Francisco, fly an extended pattern, and return for a visual landing on the ILS. Then we would do a touch and go and climb out. On the climb the instructor would reposition the plane on final, but in IMC with a 500' ceiling. The script contained all of the relevant call-outs for the Captain and F/O, and this is when we realized just how highly regimented airline flying is.
In addition, the instructor would throw emergencies at us, which the F/O had to verify and handle while the captain flew the plane. About 20 minutes before our scheduled time we returned to the sim bay observation deck. That's where we saw Christine in all her wonder. Christine is the name given to that particular sim by Wayne, based on the car in the Steven King movie of the same name. The sim is about two stories high and sits on a number of hydraulic pumps and actuators, and from the outside it was apparent that it had a great deal of motion authority. It was amazing to watch even from that vantage point. When it was our turn we stepped inside and it was nothing short of breathtaking. It was an exact replica of a 737 cockpit and unlike the FTD, there were visuals and we were sitting at the departure end of Rwy 28R at SFO at night. And it looked as real as sitting in the cockpit of a 172, complete with realistic moving traffic.
Since this story has already gone long I'll describe my experience and wrap it up. The ATC pilot was captain first with the A&P as his F/O. Then we rotated teams with me playing captain first. My coworker hasn't flown a lot in the past year and didn't feel comfortable going first. At this point we had witnessed what this thing could do during the past 30 minutes and words simply can't describe it. You feel the acceleration as you're barreling down the runway at nearly 150 kts. I took my seat with my coworker in the right seat. I raised the throttles to straight-up and called for take off thrust as we started to roll. My coworker neglected to place his hand on mine and push the throttles to a target N1 of 95%. This is where I learned the first big lesson. The purpose of the F/O doing this is so the captain can fly the plane. As I looked over to bring the power up I soon realized I was almost off the runway. I got back on the centerline and listened for the remaining calls. 80 kts, V1, rotate, V2. At rotate I pitched for 18 degrees. That's right, not eight degrees, but 18. Positive rate gear up.
The rest was essentially trying to get a feel for the plane. We had autothrottles set and any change in attitude causes the throttles to adjust to maintain the set airspeed. Each time this occurred required me to retrim. Also, level flight requires about 5 degrees nose up attitude at 240 kts. We flew a large pattern and returned to SFO for a visual approach to 28R. I captured the localizer and using the flight director held the localizer with no problem. The flight director consists of two pink lines on the attitude indicator, one horizontal and one vertical. The horizontal line gives pitch guidance and you're admonished to keep "pink in the wings" to stay at the correct pitch attitude. At 1.5 dots above the glideslope we slowed to 146 kts with the autothrottle and dropped the gear. One dot above set flaps 15, and half a dot flaps 30. From then on I stayed on the ILS using visual references and the flight direction. 1000 feet on the radar altimeter, 500 feet, at 200 feet I disengaged the autothrottles. At this point I started to overcontrol and at 50 feet I started pulling power back and raising my nose to flare.
It's easy to overcontrol close to the group because the control surfaces are still highly effective, plus you're so high off the ground that your sight picture is totally distorted. My first landing would have had passengers up in arms to say the least. We cleaned up the plane quickly. Speed brakes up, flaps 15, five seconds of nose down trim with the electric trim, power up and rotate at 140 knots. At about 1000 feet Wayne paused the sim and placed me on final, this time with 400 foot ceilings and a solid overcast at night. My recent instrument training kicked in and feeling more comfortable with the feel of the plane, I keep the flight director bars perfectly centered all the way down. Unlike my other colleagues that were usually 20-30 degrees off the centerline when breaking out, the rabbit was right beneath me. I was feeling good and as the F/O made the calls I disengaged autothrottles at 200 feet, went visual, waited for 50 feet and eased the power back while raising the nose to arrest the descent. With a little patience I managed to grease her in with only a light thump indicating I was back on the ground.
And if you don't think you can bounce a 737 like a 172, trust me it can be done. I witnessed it, but it wasn't me.
I finished the night as the F/O. I had to deal with a generator failure that was thrown at us and the loss of hydraulics on the A side. It could have been worse, the instructor from Florida got an engine out right after V1 as well as several failures.
So in closing, a really great experience and I'm glad I could enjoy it with the instrument rating in hand. Words can't describe what these simulators can do. And while I was once a heavy simmer before starting my flight training, let me state that based on what I saw last night, MSFS would in no way prepare one to land the real thing without autoland, especially by someone who has no flight training. I have a new appreciation for what those guys do. I'll post pictures later.
Dave
After his intro, the eight participants introduced themselves. There was my coworker and myself, an Embry Riddle student, a flight instructor for Florida, two pilots that worked in the broadcast industry, an A&P for Continental Express who is a private pilot, and a controller at Austin TRACON who is a commercial pilot and former instructor. After getting the brief and driving a few minutes to the training center, we received our B737 mini manuals consisting of descriptions and schematics of all the systems, and detailed fold-outs of all the panels. We covered in-depth the fuel system, electrical system, pneumatic system, hydraulic system, and just about every other system in fair detail. Again it was obvious that Wayne had a thorough knowledge of this aircraft and we certainly benefited from the real world system knowledge of our A&P counterpart and the knowledge of our friend from Austin Tracon.
Since six of the eight students were pursuing the high altitude endorsement, we turned lunch into a working session and fulfilled some of the ground school requirements by watching a video on turbulence, oxygen requirements and hypoxia, and decompression. After the end of a most exhaustive day, a group of us went to the cockpit procedure trainer to practice the procedures for depressurization and rapid descent emergency checklists. The procedure trainer is just a wooden mock-up of a cockpit with switches, knobs, and levers used to practice flows and checklists. We had spent most of the day flipping through the foldouts of the various panels and looking at large cockpit pictures on the wall, but sitting in the 3-D environment of the trainer and looking for the right switches was a lot harder. A huge storm was passing though around this time so none of us were in a hurry to go outside.
After switching teams for about an hour we called it a day at about 8pm and headed back to the hotel for a little study. We started the next morning at around 9am in the Computer Based Training lab. The computers in this lab contain excruciating detail about any system in any plane used by Continental, as well as on using the FMS. Those of us taking the high altitude endorsement had to review the modules on fuel system, the pneumatic system with includes the pressurization system, and the oxygen system. At 10 am class began with a discussion on the day's activities. We would spend several hours in the flight training device, which is similar to a Frasca FTD you would find in a flight school, except it replicated the 737 cockpit and was pretty amazing to behold with the glass cockpit. Each team had an opportunity to practice engine starts from a complete shutdown, and it was pretty cool to hear the various systems come on line and to hear the engines spool up. After engine starts, each partner had an opportunity to act as captain and FO for emergency descent procedures after blowing a cabin door. These were the procedures we had practiced the night before in the cockpit procedure trainer.
While this was a blast the best was yet to come. The eight of us were split into groups of four for the Level D sim. We were originally scheduled for a 8pm-12am slot, but there was availability at 4pm so were were able to move everything up by four hours. My quad left to grab dinner before our sim time at 6:45, and during that time we practiced the script for the flight. Each of use would act as pilot and copilot for half an hour in each position and observer from the jumpseat for an hour. We would take off from San Francisco, fly an extended pattern, and return for a visual landing on the ILS. Then we would do a touch and go and climb out. On the climb the instructor would reposition the plane on final, but in IMC with a 500' ceiling. The script contained all of the relevant call-outs for the Captain and F/O, and this is when we realized just how highly regimented airline flying is.
In addition, the instructor would throw emergencies at us, which the F/O had to verify and handle while the captain flew the plane. About 20 minutes before our scheduled time we returned to the sim bay observation deck. That's where we saw Christine in all her wonder. Christine is the name given to that particular sim by Wayne, based on the car in the Steven King movie of the same name. The sim is about two stories high and sits on a number of hydraulic pumps and actuators, and from the outside it was apparent that it had a great deal of motion authority. It was amazing to watch even from that vantage point. When it was our turn we stepped inside and it was nothing short of breathtaking. It was an exact replica of a 737 cockpit and unlike the FTD, there were visuals and we were sitting at the departure end of Rwy 28R at SFO at night. And it looked as real as sitting in the cockpit of a 172, complete with realistic moving traffic.
Since this story has already gone long I'll describe my experience and wrap it up. The ATC pilot was captain first with the A&P as his F/O. Then we rotated teams with me playing captain first. My coworker hasn't flown a lot in the past year and didn't feel comfortable going first. At this point we had witnessed what this thing could do during the past 30 minutes and words simply can't describe it. You feel the acceleration as you're barreling down the runway at nearly 150 kts. I took my seat with my coworker in the right seat. I raised the throttles to straight-up and called for take off thrust as we started to roll. My coworker neglected to place his hand on mine and push the throttles to a target N1 of 95%. This is where I learned the first big lesson. The purpose of the F/O doing this is so the captain can fly the plane. As I looked over to bring the power up I soon realized I was almost off the runway. I got back on the centerline and listened for the remaining calls. 80 kts, V1, rotate, V2. At rotate I pitched for 18 degrees. That's right, not eight degrees, but 18. Positive rate gear up.
The rest was essentially trying to get a feel for the plane. We had autothrottles set and any change in attitude causes the throttles to adjust to maintain the set airspeed. Each time this occurred required me to retrim. Also, level flight requires about 5 degrees nose up attitude at 240 kts. We flew a large pattern and returned to SFO for a visual approach to 28R. I captured the localizer and using the flight director held the localizer with no problem. The flight director consists of two pink lines on the attitude indicator, one horizontal and one vertical. The horizontal line gives pitch guidance and you're admonished to keep "pink in the wings" to stay at the correct pitch attitude. At 1.5 dots above the glideslope we slowed to 146 kts with the autothrottle and dropped the gear. One dot above set flaps 15, and half a dot flaps 30. From then on I stayed on the ILS using visual references and the flight direction. 1000 feet on the radar altimeter, 500 feet, at 200 feet I disengaged the autothrottles. At this point I started to overcontrol and at 50 feet I started pulling power back and raising my nose to flare.
It's easy to overcontrol close to the group because the control surfaces are still highly effective, plus you're so high off the ground that your sight picture is totally distorted. My first landing would have had passengers up in arms to say the least. We cleaned up the plane quickly. Speed brakes up, flaps 15, five seconds of nose down trim with the electric trim, power up and rotate at 140 knots. At about 1000 feet Wayne paused the sim and placed me on final, this time with 400 foot ceilings and a solid overcast at night. My recent instrument training kicked in and feeling more comfortable with the feel of the plane, I keep the flight director bars perfectly centered all the way down. Unlike my other colleagues that were usually 20-30 degrees off the centerline when breaking out, the rabbit was right beneath me. I was feeling good and as the F/O made the calls I disengaged autothrottles at 200 feet, went visual, waited for 50 feet and eased the power back while raising the nose to arrest the descent. With a little patience I managed to grease her in with only a light thump indicating I was back on the ground.
And if you don't think you can bounce a 737 like a 172, trust me it can be done. I witnessed it, but it wasn't me.
I finished the night as the F/O. I had to deal with a generator failure that was thrown at us and the loss of hydraulics on the A side. It could have been worse, the instructor from Florida got an engine out right after V1 as well as several failures. So in closing, a really great experience and I'm glad I could enjoy it with the instrument rating in hand. Words can't describe what these simulators can do. And while I was once a heavy simmer before starting my flight training, let me state that based on what I saw last night, MSFS would in no way prepare one to land the real thing without autoland, especially by someone who has no flight training. I have a new appreciation for what those guys do. I'll post pictures later.
Dave
