Crash Courses for the Crew
 

Crash Courses for the Crew - WSJ.com

Training is expensive, but it can pay off handsomely. The military has show that training can't replace experience, but it can certainly bring pilots up to speed very quickly and much more ahead of their civilian contemporaries with more flight hours.

The recent accident with Colgon might have an icing component to its cause. How many airlines practice icing scenarios in the simulator?

At Eagle, they did a fair amount of icing stuff in the sim on the ATR. They gave us the Roselawn scenario, as well as making just about every other flight icing conditions requiring icings speeds, protection, etc.

Current employer--none of that, although the airplane I'm flying now hasn't had an issue with ice. Or hadn't at the time.

The simulator .... well let's just say it can be reset rather quickly with the push of a button.

I don't know about initial, but I know for a fact during upgrade training they GRILL you on in-flight icing procedures for the Saab

Did you just say that? yeah, its amazing civilians are allowed to fly at all.

I'm sure every airline practices icing scenarios.

Exactly generally speaking civilian pilots have more experience with flying "in" weather as opposed to their military counterparts.

Course civie's only have to dodge ice etc. Milly's dodge bullets and worse.

Not when the sim thinks you have "crashed" into the ground/terrain or bodies of water! Once it exceeds the proper operating positions for the hydraulic supports, your (Canadian) goose is cooked. The only thing that can get the sim "reset" at that point is a full restart and initialization, often requiring the assistance of a sim tech.

Some of the more vigilant sim instructors will pay close attention during V1 cuts etc, with a hand ready on the "flight freeze" button. Much easier to reposition after a flight freeze and debrief, rather than having to do a complete reset after the hydraulics come crashing down. :eek:

Simulators are smarter than that. If your simulator behaves that way, the software needs to be improved, period. Why would the sim 'exceed the proper operating positions for the hydraulic supports'?

I've had trouble with the motion on the sim, and software problems on the sim, though. It's usually due to a software problem or a hydraulic leak.

As far as icing stuff for training. I think it was zero. Then again, the ERJ has an all automated ice system. Probes detect ice, the anti ice turns on by itself, the pilot doesn't do anything. Nice system but no doubt it makes the pilots very complacent to icing.

Military pilots also hand fly in the soup, deal with emergencies that have lengthy, sequenced memory items, have a myriad of checkrides and constant evaluation.

At my airline I had a double engine-failure scenario that ended in an emergency landing. It might not have been the real deal, but it sure got my blood pressure up! Oh, I greased it on too. :D