Sim Question
 

A few friends of mine were talking about how the sim sessions at the regionals can be tough if you don't have any glass time. Do you guys think the most important thing is having glass time (to make the transition easier), or having good CRM skills? If so what would be the most efficient way to transition to a glass cockpit airplane when never having flown one? By the way this person is not a low timer either, he has just never flown a glass cockpit airplane. I value your opinions. Thanks!

MS Flight sim...................Im not kidding either the Lear has a very similar Honeywell display as the Primus thing that most erjs have, sounds cheese y but thats really all you need, just to get familiar after an hour in the FTD or sim you will be fine..............

That's actually a VERY good suggestion. I have used MS Flt Sim for interview sim preps and have not been turned down. Flying is flying... glass does take a little time to get used to, but the scan is usually a bit easier as all the info is in a smaller space than in steam gauge a/c.

The little bit of time I have spent in glass cockpits was an easy transition for me. During sim, I had troubles just controlling the thing. They aren't airplanes and they don't feel like airplanes. Again, MS Flight Sim can help get someone used to how sims are different than airplanes.

Once you've transitioned from the "scan" to the "blank glare" you use in glass, the only real hurdles are FMA awareness and the automation involved.

I guess I should invest in MS sim X

growing up, I use to play on 3.1(so fake), 95,98,2000(loved that concorde) and that 100 years of flight one...
It did help an awful lot when i started flight training...
I even "passed" the ATP checkride with Rod Machado in the 2000 version..haha:cool:

Gentlemen, thank you for your replies. He has Flight Sim 2004 with the Lear. I have actually heard this from people before. It must really work well! Thanks again for your help! If anyone has anything else they would like to add feel free!

I suggest start using a flight director if you havnt done much flying with one. It's really easy to use but you can find youself fixating you first couple of sim sessions.

quoted for truth

I think the biggest thing is the scan, nothing has helped me more than the 10 months of flying bank checks in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho in the middle of winter.

If you could fly the basic 6 pack steam gauges you will not have a problem with the transition to glass. Good Luck!

Though it has been said before it is certainly worth repeating, Flight Sim is great. Choose any jet in there and fly as many approaches as you can get your hands on. Fly them to minimums and throw some increasing x-winds and turbulence as you get more proficient- try to have a good profile and stay on speed etc. Get familiar with using VDPs in the non-precisions as well.

I have more time on Flight Sim than I do total time. I started using it when I was working on my instrument rating and my instructor could tell right away.

Look into some of the add-ons available for MSFS too. I absolutely love the CRJ 2004 package by Wilco Fleet.

http://www.wilcopub.com/index.cfm?fu...prod_CRJ_Fleet

Check out the screenshots. They also have a very good ERJ 145.

Eaglesoft also makes some pretty good corporate jets.
http://www.eaglesoftdg.com/

Flight One has a good webstore with a pretty good variety of quality planes for MSFS too. www.flight1.com

From the mouth of the director of hiring for ASA...he agrees. I asked him in a preinterview interview for suggestions on preparation coming from 172's to RJ's and he said FSX. I thought he was kidding. He said "Get you about 50 hours in the RJ Sim on Microsoft FSX and you have a lot better chance". I found that quite hilarious, but he stood by his statement.

just dont develop any bad habits if you decide to use flight sim. might confuse you

What types of bad habbits should i be aware of when flying MS Sim.

the first thing that comes to mind is pitch and power settings if you decide to get one of those software things off the internet, or buy one. (i.e. a certain N1 or EPR setting and X degrees nose up gives you level flight, or X fpm climb/descent). I doubt that kind of stuff would be accurate.

But I do agree it would be good for the scan.

I second that. Do what you can to find a similar display to practice on on MS flight sim but the truth is I interviewed at ASA, CRJ700 @ Flight Safety Atlanta, and nailed the SIM evaluation. *Not tooting my own horn, I could screw up the spelling of Rejonal Jet, THAT's how good I am* If you have a solid instrument scan you'll be able to adapt if you've spent a couple of hours honing the skills in your living room on your PC.

Same day, another applicant spent $600 on 1 hour of CRJ 700 sim time in preparation for the SIM EVAL portion of the interview (ended up being my partner) and she ended up not being around at the face to face interview the next day.

You're doing the right thing by asking about it...now spend a bunch of time gettin familiar with the layout where it's cheap and then go impress somebody.

When I got hired into the EMB, I had 500 hours - half of it was in Experimental's (hence the handle) with nothing but an altimeter that wasn't used.

Yes, the first few hours in the Sim were mind-boggling. But I got through training and half my class (with much higher time) didn't. Just work at it and you'll be fine.

We work all levels of experience, from prior airline experience to folks with nothing much more advanced than day VFR low altitude single engine piston time.

CRM is not a significant issue. What CRM means in an airline training context is getting used to Pilot Flying (PF) and Pilot Monitoring (PM) challenge and response procedures, avionics duties, and checklist roles and responsibilities. Most folks pick this up pretty easily.

Next, the issue of 'glass'. For your question, what you really mean to ask about is the EFIS display. The Electronic Flight Information System is the instrument display where all flight info is placed on one instrument for easier reference. An EFIS is what we typically see in many modern instrument displays.

The term 'glass' can be misleading...''glass' is a term used for the use of a electronically generated image (such as a cathode ray tube, CRT) to replicate a traditional 'mechanical' instrument. This image may look exactly like the traditional instrument...if so, using it is no different than in the past. So...depending on what we are talking about, 'glass' may or may not be synonymous with EFIS.

Not all EFIS look alike, but they have some common features. Typically, the 'attitude indicator' will be in the middle with altitude info on the right and airspeed info on the left. The EFIS 'look' often changes with what flight mode is selected...for example, an ILS approach display might include localizer and glide slope indicators whereas the standard display does not.

The 'attitude indicator' usually includes a flight director that may or may not be displayed depending on mode of flight. A flight director may be of two designs...a single cue or a dual cue. The single cue is by far the most popular as it is considered to be the most intuitive...and the most common type is the aircraft triangle and wedge shaped command bars design. A typical dual cue design is one that uses separate vertical and horizontal guidance...and is often referred to as 'crossbars'.

The single most important piece of guidance that I can pass along is that an applicant have a strong background in a basic instrument crosscheck with emphasis on the precision instrument approach. The basis for this crosscheck regardless of type of display needs to be a solid foundation in raw data. You can never go wrong with a raw data crosscheck...flight directors are not error free.

Here is an example of an EFIS that uses the single cue flight director based on the aircraft triangle and wedge command bars. Many consider this display to be the easiest to learn and use.

http://webpages.charter.net/alfakilo/glass2.bmp

Here is a similar picture of another single cue design that uses an entirely different type of flight director. The first picture shows a design where the 'miniature airplane' symbol acts as the flight director. In this second picture, the green circle with the magenta diamond is the 'flight director' used for flying...the black aircraft wings symbol is not used to control the aircraft. Both aircraft are on an instrument approach final.

http://webpages.charter.net/alfakilo/glass1.bmp

This third picture shows a typical dual cue flight director. The black aircraft symbol is flown to center on the intersection of the two magenta bars. The horizontal bar shows pitch command, and the vertical bar shows track or heading command.

http://webpages.charter.net/alfakilo/glass3.bmp

Or you can just turn off the FD all-together...pushing four buttons and spinning a couple wheels on the FGC to have the FD show you a constant airspeed-climb is NOT flying an airplane. Just my .02...I prefer raw-data - the FD is an excellent tool for when the wx goes downhill, but far too many Pilots I think rely on it.

Anyone going to an interview or training, Do NOT do this in the sim, EVER. It is an excellent way to become unemployed. I wouldn't do it on line with a check airman or an IOE Captain either. I've run into some guys who are downright millitant on the subject.

When you become Captain and run your own ship you can do as you see fit,
until then fly the airplane the way they taught you to do it at the schoolhouse and you'll avoid needless problems.

My IOE insructor had me fly the plane sans FD when we were VFR. I actually prefer to turn the darn thing off, especially hand flying on visual and non precision approaches- but I always brief the PM on when and why I turn it off. It's a nice tool to have in the right circumstances.... unless it's a Honeywell :p