Stupid Sim Tricks

[Flyerjosh]

Just thought of another one... Last year when I was doing my upgrade/type rating, I had arrived early to the sim to hopefully get into the box a bit early.

I found the sim up on motion with another crew that had been added to the schedule. Apparently they were doing an alternate gear extension or ADG pull or something like that. The FO was transitioning from a different plane where the particular button/handle to pull was at the bottom/rear of the center console. Instead of grabbing the correct handle, he pushed the "emergency shutdown" button for the simulator. Sucker came falling down off of motion (I guess the button opened up all of the hydraulic valves and shut off all of the power).

Took the sim tech 45 minutes to get everything back up and running again and looked like the crew got quite a jolt...

 

[some_dude]

Falcon 50, at Simuflite. I was taking a 135 check from the program manager at the time, who was notoriously thorough. He was multitasking, of course, and had a trainee running the sim panel.

I did the airwork, which was all fine, and "ATC" told us to descend to XXX and that traffic was a 757 at 12 o'clock. Okay, I guess that's how we're doing the unusual attitudes, no problem. I gripped the yoke, the airplane rolled...

and went completely out of control! I think we were in a flat spin. The altimeter was unwinding, I couldn't get the nose down or the wings level. The other pilot (a guy who had been flying Falcon 50s for 20 years) said "Let me try!" so I gave the controls to him.

The altimeter unwound and unwound, and thunk! We crashed. Now, in my mind, I'm thinking, jeez, what did I do wrong? And worse, I've flunked my 135 check, now I'll have to stay here another day and get retrained, and I'm really not happy about this.

The examiner leans forward, says, "Okay, that was great, I'm resetting you at 7,000 descending, get ready to fly." I'm dumbfounded. The rest of the checkride was uneventful.

At the break, I asked the examiner what the deal was. "Oh yeah," he says, "There's a bug in the sim software, and I forgot to tell the new guy about it. If you set the upset to put the airplane at exactly 90 degrees of bank, the software glitches and the aircraft becomes uncontrollable. Nothing you could have done."

 

[FN FAL]

All,

Curious as to some stories of precarious, brainfartish, or funny sim stories you might want to share. I'll start:

Last week at Flight Safety I was doing the ole' LOC 27 circle to 18R at KMEM. My instructor put a L CHIP light on outside the FAF...

That approach must be popular, that's one that we see in training as well as the check ride. Except they have us do the ILS 27 circle to 18R.

 

[Lrjtcaptain]

Nice and simple....simcom SDL. final day, sim instructor hadn't killed me yet....


Last day, all was well, take off out of KORL and get in the clouds, dual engine failure, hydro failure etc...only thing that worked was my airspeed indicator and my mag compass. Put it down on a road.....didn't crash, but he informed me I hit a fuel truck on I4 and I was dead

MK

 

[JediNein]

Good one Ozpilot!

Sitting instructor station on this one, high time FTD/sim instructor has me giving him an IPC. We'll go out and do the circling approach in-flight, later. The guy has spent the last 20 years programming and flying this particular FTD.

On the initial climb, he's nicely settled into the instruments, and follows the instruction to contact departure, already bored and complacent. 'Departure' tells him , "N142MA, Tower advises you were trailing smoke on takeoff. State intentions."

He checks his gages to see oil pressure dropping rapidly and oil temp rising steadily.

It was a long while before he could stand after that session, and that was just one approach.

Does anyone get the San Diego Brown Field departure at night in the sim?

Fly SAFE!
Jedi Nein

 

[great cornholio]

Flight Safety Beech 1900 sim. Instructor thought it would be fun to put us above KDEN at 10,000ft and lock up our controls and had us try to land with just diff power. It was kinda tricky but I managed to hit the grass inbetween the runway and taxiway. Other time I was a few thousand feet above KLGA and sim instuctor starts yelling stuff and pulls both T-Handles (Cockpit door usually open on the 1900 so he was a crazy pax). My sim partner was first and we ended up crashing into the approach lights of 22 and into flushing bay. In real life if we werent dead then being in flushing bay would have made us want to be dead. Reset the sim both engines still flammed out so now its my turn. I had towed and flown gliders and messed with the props they would come in and out of feather (not sure if it would work in real life) so I used to props like spoilers and managed to hit the runway.

Nothing too crazy happened while I was in the EMB 145 or the J-41 sims.

One sim instructor told me a story about a guy who jumped out of the sim once. I guess he messed up on something and thought he was gonna fail his ride so instead of doing that he (while still on motion and "in the air") unbuckles his harness jumps out of his seat runs to the back of the sim opens the door and jumps out. Story is he kept running till outside of Flight Safety and the sim instructor never saw him agian.

 

[91100 100 set]

Another one...

We were doing some initial training on the Dash at FlightSafety in Toronto. Sitting in the briefing room before session one, we were discussed some of the particulars and differences from that sim to one in Charlotte. Just as we were finishing up, we hear a huge bang from the sim bay. We get up, and half expect to see the sim laying on it's side, busted off the jacks, sparks flying and hydraulic fluid squirting everywhere. It was loud enough that I thought the sim had to have come off it's mounts.

At that, the instructor adds, "oh yeah, make sure your belt is tight for real and don't leave the rings open on your Jepps unless you want to play 54-plate-pick-up..." Apparently that sim had to tendency to crash.

 

[Gorilla]

As mentioned already, hydraulic malfunctions (of the SIM, not the scenario) can be spectacular. B777 sim, I think it was Seattle, and the instructor was doing the standard safety brief - "here's the rope ladder, fire extinguisher, emergency stop, yada yada..." We ignore him as usual... who needs to know that stuff?

At some point, the "airplane" begins to buck like a mechanical bull at Billy Bob's or some other country bar. "Holy S---! What is this, a turbulence scenario?" We look back at the instructor; he is pale, and hanging on for dear life. The sim ends up 40 degrees nose low, and we evacuate via the emergency door. Another crew on the outside witnessed everything. "that's quite a scenario - I hope we don't get it!"

 

[rfresh]

Sometimes we sim instructors are amazed:

I was instructing in an MD-90 simulator and we were doing a TO with the Captain flying. Right after liftoff I gave him a left engine fire. The aircraft was about 50 feet high with the LEFT engine fire handle illuminated and at that point the Captain commands the F/O to pull the fire handle. So, the F/O reaches forward and grabs the RIGHT engine fire handle and pulls it all the way out!! This is an un-reversable action as the engine is now shutdown and cannot be undone. I guess in a panic, the F/O realizes his error and pushes the fire handle back in (as if the engine will restart again) and then, trying to make good on his first error, reaches over and now pulls the LEFT engine fire handle out!! Even with the left engine on fire, it is still producing some thrust. So, at about 100 feet altitude, both engines have now been shutdown and the Capt lets it sink back down to the runway in a controlled crash!!

Yeah, hard to believe this really did happen!!

 

[Gorilla]

Just curious, aren't the pilots taught at your carrier to get oral confirmation from the other guy that "Yeah, that's the affected fire handle/fuel lever" before actuating it? I thought that was pretty much standard these days. Or was it just a nervous, shoot from the hip FO?