Small twin to a jet question.

[smfav8r]

Each aircraft manufacturer sets the minimum altitude you can use the AP after takeoff...somewhere around 500 to 1000 feet.

You can use the AP whenever you want, with or without the autothrottles.

You can use the autothrottles whenever you want (takeoff too), with or without the AP.

Also depends on the airline. I've flown the A320 for three different airlines, each airline had a different minimum for autopilot on and off (autoland).

Depends on the Ops Specs for each individual airline.

Depending on the aircraft, autothrust may be used in all aspects of flight.

 

[CFIse]

Bo,
Autopilots are nice but you still need to FLY the jet well. "Systems management" is not the answer (unless you want to hide behind your autopilot for your career and turn hand flying into an emergency procedure).

One bit of advice you might try is armrests. If you're not using them, try it. It may sound like a small thing, but it helps relax your arms and helps moderate your control inputs.

This is all great advice - but he's trying to pass a checkride in, I imagine, the next few sim. lessons and he's got a series of emergency procedures to practice including V1 cuts and go-around cuts and non-precisions approaches and......

Use the auto-pilot, hand fly it to 800 ft (or whatever your companies rules are) and put the AP on and turn it off out of MDA or 100 ft on the ILS (or again whatever your airline allows).

I *GUARANTEE* you don't have enough time to learn how to hand fly the jet well in the sim. - for better or worse you're going to have to figure that out on the line, otherwise you're going to wash out of the sim. and won't get the opportunity to figure any of it out.

Just one persons advice.......

 

[smfav8r]

This is all great advice - but he's trying to pass a checkride in, I imagine, the next few sim. lessons and he's got a series of emergency procedures to practice including V1 cuts and go-around cuts and non-precisions approaches and......

Use the auto-pilot, hand fly it to 800 ft (or whatever your companies rules are) and put the AP on and turn it off out of MDA or 100 ft on the ILS (or again whatever your airline allows).

I *GUARANTEE* you don't have enough time to learn how to hand fly the jet well in the sim. - for better or worse you're going to have to figure that out on the line, otherwise you're going to wash out of the sim. and won't get the opportunity to figure any of it out.

Just one persons advice.......

If you don't get enough time to learn how to hand fly the jet well in the sim, you shouldn't make it to the line!

 

[BoDEAN]

I've found the toughest aspect of sim training is the constant ZAP REPOSITION then continue. We shoot an approach, the sim goes on freeze, you are put 2 miles from GS intercept, unpaused, and go. Im sorry but that can get overwelming quick. Been living in a hotel since Jan 23rd and it's starting to wear. I have a phase check tomorrow, checkride on Friday, LOFT monday, then IOE. Im hanging in there. It's tough when your sim partner (Capt) flies so well and you are still learning the power settings and how to fly the plane.

 

[urflyingme?!]

Hang in there man!!

 

[smfav8r]

I've found the toughest aspect of sim training is the constant ZAP REPOSITION then continue. We shoot an approach, the sim goes on freeze, you are put 2 miles from GS intercept, unpaused, and go. Im sorry but that can get overwelming quick. Been living in a hotel since Jan 23rd and it's starting to wear. I have a phase check tomorrow, checkride on Friday, LOFT monday, then IOE. Im hanging in there. It's tough when your sim partner (Capt) flies so well and you are still learning the power settings and how to fly the plane.

If it was easy, everyone could do it! Remember, you will be doing this the rest of your career. I don't know how old you are, but if your 30, you've got a minimum of 30 more check-rides and that's if you don't change equipment or never upgrade!

I always hate it when I guy comes to the sim for a PC and starts complaining about how they can't fly the sim. Todays Level D sims react very similiar to the airplane, if not exact.

Training is part of the job and a very important part too.

Keep working hard and you will succeed. Everyone has a bad day in the sim, no PC goes perfect, it's a fact of life. Just learn from your mistakes and don't dwell on every f**k up. Press on and keep going.

Act like it's the airplane, if things aren't going well, do you just give up and let it crash. I hope not.

Good luck and hang in there!

 

[BoDEAN]

Great news.........passed my checkride on Friday! Start IOE on Wednesday. Thanks to all the great posts! Much appreciated.

 

[SCT]

Congradulations!!

 

[cougar6903]

Great news.........passed my checkride on Friday! Start IOE on Wednesday. Thanks to all the great posts! Much appreciated.

congrats

 

[rfresh]

I have a question, may be a silly one to some. At what alt do you turn the AP on and let it fly on its own? Do you engage the AT at the same time and keep it set at 250 below 10,000? I have always been curious on how the AP process works. Thanks in advance .

SeanD

It depends on the type of aircraft and the company policy. On the MD-80/90 series it was 400 feet minimum altitude before you could engage the AP.

I have always wondered why the jet manufacturers such as Boeing, Airbus, McDonnell Douglas (when they were still around) never designed the AP to make take-offs while they spent a lot of engineering time and money to make the AP work for autolands down to CAT III standards. The only reason I can think of is that for TO if the wx is bad you don't have to launch but if you're already in the air, and the wx is bad, it would still be nice if you could land.

 

[Lead Sled]

You're not having a small twin to jet problem...you're having a small twin to sim problem.

What's the difference between an airplane and its simulator?

The airplane is more realistic.

Lighten up, you're probably trying way too hard. Most jets fly perfectly well hands off. Keep it trimmed up and let it do most of the flying. The other thing is make your you keep your scan going.

'Sled

 

[Loafman]

You're not having a small twin to jet problem...you're having a small twin to sim problem. Remember that you're flying a computer. If you make tons of inputs, the thing gets overworked and will fly crappy. Make deliberate slow inputs, and point the thing where you know it needs to be, the FD will catch up.

As an ex-sim instructor, I called this phenomenon "chasing your last mistake"

Imagine the simulator as a calm pool of water. When you make a control input "Flaps 9" it's like throwing a stone into the pool. Wait for that ripple to subside before throwing another stone like "gear". If you make too many inputs in a short period of time, it's like throwing a handful of rocks into the pool. Ripples in all directions overlapping one another. Fly the sim with one deliberate control input at a time, and don't over-correct flight director cues, you'll only scare it back in the other direction.