Coming back!!
 

Hey guys,
I'm coming back to flying after being furloghed from a regional (RJ 200's). How hard do you guys think it'd be go thru training for an MD80?? I know for a fact I'll study my a$$ off and sims won't be easy.... Any more survival tips??

find a frasca sim to shake off the rust if your worried about the sim

Currency
 

Piece of cake. I sat as an engineer for 5 yrs. before I went up front to the window seat again. Like riding a bike, your body does not forget.

you got furloughed from an RJ operator that now got MD-80s or you got a new job?

Former company is no longer around, I might start flying the MD. Any tips??

not really but it sounds exciting, Have fun with it and don't worry.

Going to Allegiant?

1morguy,

Hopefully, you're next post will be telling us that you're in ground school.

I flew the MD80 for a few months before furlough. The -80 is a fairly simple airplane systems-wise, in fact, some of the systems and design are kinda weird. The tail basically flies itself thats why when taxiing behind it sometimes it looks like the tail is split. There are other peculiarities (sp?) that I'm sure you'll find different. The first day of class ask why there are two mirrors on the glareshield...lol.

With that said, the -80 is a "fly by cable" airplane and flies fairly easily. During eng-out manuevers the centerline thrust makes this one of the easiest twin jets to fly on one engine.

With that said, and I hope those on the m.b. with a ton more experience than I will chime in, I'll list some of the things that are noteworthy.

These were the observations I made on the -80s I flew at TWA/American. If you'll excuse my run-on sentence, I'll list them:

Brakes are grabby, the APUs had a hard time cooling in the Summer, the wing is very small and climbing above 33,000 is usually reserved for near empty weights, the landing technique usually involves pushing the nose over as opposed to a conventional flare, the airplane cruises comfortably at Mach .75-.78, the airplane climbs well till approx 25,000 then after that its' climb perfomance slows down; if you're a tall person, wear a helmut when getting into the cockpit it's a low ceiling, prior to the wing heater blankets-the wings would make ice, and finally, the altitude selector's we used required the non-flying pilot to pull the altitude selector after dialing in the altitude...oddly enough sometimes the altitude did not capture.

I don't want to come across as being anti-MD80, it's not a bad plane. But if you know all the gotcha's beforehand it might help you breeze thru class.

Good Luck,

FF

I asked that while a ramp rat and never got an answer from any of the crew, except for one guy that said it was to see the compass. So, is that the answer, and if so, where is the compass? :confused:

I used the mirrors to look at female passengers. :)

The compass is above and behind the First Officer's right shoulder and the mirors are used to see it.