1. How much time on average does a commercial pilot spend in simulator training per year?
Will vary by carrier (and their approved program), operation, and seat. Captains get more than first officers. Initial training you may get upwards of 30-40 hours of simulator training. I've been through three type ratings, one that was 28 hours, one that was 35 hours, and one that was 24 hours. Recurrent training will vary from upwards of 2 hours.


2. Do you have materials to study, such as a manual, that tells you what specific emergency situations you must know for the simulator?
We have memory action items for emergencies such as engine failures, control jams, cabin depressurizations, onboard fires, etc. These are taught during initial training and are done by memory when the particular situation arises. After accomplishing the memory items and stabilizing the aircraft, we refer to a specific checklist to secure/troubleshoot/minimize the problem.


3. What is the purpose of simulator training? I mean is it to practice emergency situations that cannot be practiced in a real airplane, or is just to improve your communication skills?
We can do things we can't do in the simulator. Engine failures immediately after takeoff, onboard fires, control jams, none can be adequately or safely simulated in an actual aircraft. But more than anything from an airline point of view, it comes down to cost. The simulator is expensive (I've heard everything from $500-1500 an hour), but it's still massively cheaper to operate than the aircraft.