G-IV Type Rating, Day 16-17
I don’t know who that guy flailing around aimlessly in the cockpit yesterday was, but I’m happy to report someone better showed up today. There are a few reasons for the improvement. First of all, the sim sessions aren’t evenly split between the two pilots. Whoever starts off in the left seat tends to get more time there. I’d say it ends up being about a 60/40 split. Eventually it all evens out because the person starting out in that seat alternates from day to day. Yesterday it was my sim partner who got more time there, today it was me. Second, the instructor started us out with the engines running and all the pre-takeoff checklists completed. That provided at least another 25 minutes of breathing room. I flew seven approaches, four...
Read MoreG-IV Type Rating, Day 15
As Alec Baldwin famously said in the film State and Main: “So, that happened.” Yesterday I was feeling pretty good. Today? Not so much. People talk about how quickly and completely that giant video-game-on-steroids can humble even the best pilot, and I got a big fat taste of it this afternoon. The flight could be described as four hours of not being able to do anything right. I was behind the plane, exceeded the PTS standards, and generally couldn’t get my act together. I felt like Marty McFly hanging on to the back bumper of that car as he was towed around town. Except I’m not a kid hitching a ride on his skateboard, I’m a professional pilot who’s supposed to be in the driver’s seat. The sensation of hanging on to the...
Read MoreG-IV Type Rating, Day 13-14
Our class started out with five students (myself included), but now we’re down to four. It’s not what you’re thinking. Nobody’s dropped out, failed, or been asked to leave.. although that would certainly make for an interesting story. As with most things in aviation, reality is decidedly more mundane than you might expect if your frame of reference was a film or television show. What happened is that one of our classmates is chief pilot for a Fortune 500 company and his schedule didn’t permit him to take the full three week course all at once. He knew that going in, so the plan was always for him to finish at Simuflite’s Morristown, NJ location in a month or two with one of his company’s other pilots. I wish the guy luck....
Read MoreG-IV Type Rating, Day 12
I’ve been getting quite a few e-mails from people about the type rating program. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to answer all of them, but I did want to comment on one particular message. A retired Delta 767 pilot e-mailed me recently to pass along a 2001 AVweb article he thought I’d find interesting. The piece was written by a long-time 747 captain named John Deakin who, after retiring from Japan Airlines, went through the Gulfstream IV type rating program here at Simuflite’s Dallas location. You can read the article for yourself if you like, but suffice it to say the author did not like the program at all and stated quite clearly that, in his opinion, he had not been properly trained. Deakin — who’s well known for speaking...
Read MoreG-IV Type Rating, Day 11
Steve and I managed to get three highly coveted hours in the Level D simulator today. The instructor gave us our first dose of system failures and malfunctions. If I recall the full list correctly, before we even took off we’d had a hot start, a start valve which wouldn’t close, an engine failure while starting, a right main boost pump failure, and a hung start. This was my first opportunity to taxi an aircraft with a nosewheel tiller, so I got some practice with that. I figured out how the thrust reversers work, and honed my technique on the ground spoiler check and takeoff briefing. We managed to get in three approaches, a hold, and Steve — who has a lot of experience on the Gulfstream — performed a short field takeoff and landing when...
Read MoreG-IV Type Rating, Day 10
Today marked our last full day of ground school… and what a relief it was to reach that milestone! The morning was spent reviewing a few specific systems in detail. After lunch the instructor took turns calling each of us up to the front to teach one of the aircraft’s systems to the rest of the class. I’ve always said you don’t really know a subject until you have to teach it to someone else, and boy was I right. After each system was explained, the student/teacher would ask the rest of us various questions. Or we would ask him. I taught the ice & rain protection systems to the class and embarrassingly forgot what the SAT/TAS probe inlet looked like. Once that was done, we watched a 20 minute video on ILS-PRM (a system for...
Read MoreG-IV Type Rating, Day 9
A friend sent me an amazing story about a Japan Airlines DC-8 which inadvertently landed in San Francisco Bay in 1968. They were on final approach to SFO and the captain somehow descended into the water while navigating toward the runway in foggy conditions. Since the bay was only about nine feet deep in that spot, the jet came to rest in one piece with minimal damage. The occupants were even able to exit the plane without getting wet. Sound familiar? What’s truly incredible is that even after being partially submerged in salt water, the aircraft was hauled out of the bay, repaired, and went on to fly again. In fact, it continued flying until almost 2002. The captain answered a question about what happened by replying, “As you Americans say, I...
Read MoreG-IV Type Rating, Day 8
I’ve mentioned the substantial number of items on the G-IV checklist in use at Simuflite. Just a few short days ago, it took about 90 minutes to run through the Cockpit Preflight, APU Start, Before Start, and Starting Engines checklists. Not surprising at all since I’m new to the plane. It’s a complicated beast, and half the battle is just figuring out where everything’s located. And doing it in a pitch-black cockpit with a handheld flashlight, because they have you enter the simulator the same way you would in the real world: with it cold and dark. Even so, those lists contain a total of 153 items and it’s just a lot to wade through. Today we managed to do it all in 15 minutes flat. That might sound like a major victory — and...
Read MoreG-IV Type Rating, Day 7
It’s day seven and we’re back at it! I’m starting to see how SimuFlite has designed this course. The first week was all about learning the aircraft’s systems. This week will focus on two things: “Abnormals” – pilot lingo for dealing with things on the airplane fail or don’t work the way they are supposed to, and Simulator Prep – primarily working through flows, checklists, etc. in a mockup of the cockpit, as well as more advanced programming of the avionics (especially the FMS) We spent the the first hour this morning answering electrical and hydraulic system questions from our instructor. I’m still unclear about exactly what level of systems knowledge will be required for the checkride. Is the examiner...
Read MoreG-IV Type Rating, Day 6
A day off! Or not. I thought it would be a bit more relaxing, but alas, modern life has its demands. Answering email, returning phone calls, a bit of studying, laundry, writing something for the site here, and poof! before you know it, the day is over. I remember when I was a kid, a week seemed like an eternity. Now it’s like every time I blink another month has gone by. I’m practically suffering from jet lag without even leaving the time zone! I did take an hour or so today to check out the observation are on the northern end of Dallas-Ft. Worth International Airport. It’s not far from my hotel, and the view there is excellent considering this part of Texas is as flat as a pancake. DFW is a truly massive airport. I believe it’s the second...
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