Saab 2000 procedures
 

He guys,

I'm going to start my first rating on Saab 2000 in 6 months. I would like to fly the Saab in advance on my home Sim in order to prepare myself as good as possible. For the 737 one can find lots of tipps around the web such as Pitch&Power tables etc. Does anyone have some tipps for T/O, Cruise, Approach, OEI, ... in terms of power settings and further configurations?

Thx a lot.

You won't find any info from the regional section. Regionals only operate the 340 and it is a completely different aircraft. Its like comparing a DC-3 to a DC-9.

I have several thousand hours of SAAB2000 time from when I flew in Europe. But my last flight on it was over 8 years ago. Not sure I remember much.

It's a pretty easy airplane to fly though. Lot's of electronic help. The engines have FADEC, meaning very easy power management.

I would play around on your computer but don't put too much stock in what you learn from others on the internet. I don't know who the operator is that you work for but I would follow their training program and not something you learn online.

Fastest way to have trouble with your instructors is to say, "Yeah, but someone online told me this is a better way....."

Is this in the US or in Europe? Or somewhere else?

There were only like 56 SAAB2000s ever made and I don't know how many are left flying but they're actually getting up there in years and my buddies in Europe who fly them have said that the remaining ones on the market have had corrosion issues.

Cool airplane, but an orphan and now an old orphan.

So you recommend to move that thread to another community in order to improve the chance of answers? ;)

Yeah, your best bet would be the corporate section or 135. I know one Saab 2000 is on a 135 certificate but I believe it is only used by the owner as a personal aircraft. It was based in Texas but its 135 certificate is overseen by the ABE (where I ran into it and the chief pilot) FSDO.

There are very few SAAB2000 pilots in the entire United States. And this whole forum is kind of US-centric, though obviously not entirely so.

Fact is that no US operator has experience with this airplane, outside of a couple private owners. It was never in airline service in the US or Canada.

I flew them all over Europe for a Swiss operator called Crossair, which took over Swissair to become SWISS International Air Lines.

They got rid of their SAAB2000s in 2004 IIRC.

It's a German operator. (There is only one in Germany ;) )

I just want to play around with the home sim a bit in order to familiarize myself with that aircraft and cockpit. I've never flowm more than a PA44. ;) Some basic speeds, power settings etc. would be great. I have an aircraft for my sim but no checklists, no settings, just the plane.

Of yourse I'll use the procedures of that operator once in training.

I do not remember the power settings anymore, except that the FADEC used a system of "Power Units" for the reduced power take-off setting.

We flew it as fast as we could as someone had done the math and figured that was the lowest cost way to fly the airplane, at least at that time.

The T/O setting had the propellors at 1100 RPM and the climb and cruise settings at 950 RPM. Honestly, I don't remember much else. It flies like any other airplane though..... Pull back and the houses get smaller. Push forward and they get bigger. Single engine requires a fair amount of rudder, but that's normal for any airplane with two engines not in line with each other......

Sorry I can't be of more help. Enjoy the airplane! And know that anything you learn on your PC will go out the window on the first day of training........

Drinking from a fire hose is what we call it in the US at your first airline job.

Here are a few shots I found on my computer. I loved flying in Europe a lot more than in the US, that's for sure.

Mods: I hope it's OK that I posted a few pics.....

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7155/6...fdbef940_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7164/6...2db5ff26_b.jpg
http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7010/6...452c9545_b.jpg

Here's a link for to a site that has a lot of info and profiles for ya. Most of there stuff is very close to Simuflite/Flight Safety materials. Most importantly follow whatever your instructors are teaching you. Like others have said....not too many of them running around the states. The only ones I've seen are two own by Joe Gibbs Racing for shuttling support personnel for race day.

SmartCockpit - SAAB 2000

saab2000....never seen inside the cockpit of one thanks for the pics, weird seeing a t-prop without prop and condition levers

It has little levers below the throttles that they call 'Condition Levers' but they're really more fuel on/off switches. There's a 'Fuel Cutoff' position, a 'Start' position and a 'Run' position if I remember correctly. Once they're in 'Run' you don't touch them until you're ready to shut down the engine.

This turboprop flies like a jet. You just push forward to go faster and pull them back to go slower. Very simple.

Nice Nokia!

Always loved the S2000's cockpit. I'd say try the PPRune forums, lots of foreign guys over there, I'm sure one or two if not a few are S2000 drivers. Hope that helps.

http://www.tickld.com/images/441.png

Those Nokias were beasts...

Neat...those crazy Swedes!:D

Amazing seeing a Saab that is so clean!

The only things they kept original are the flimsy cup holders and non-too-effective chart holders... go figure :rolleyes:

The cockpits of all of our airplanes were really clean. It was a point of pride among the pilots to take 30 seconds when you got into an airplane to just wipe down their area. If everyone does that, they stay clean.

There is no such mentality in the US, where the cockpits of most airplanes are filthy. I find this unfortunate, to say the least.

As everyone knows, practically everything in Switzerland is clean. The airplanes are no exception.

I'm confuseded, they plane looks all nice and shiny and super modern but in the top picture, notice the Nokia old school brick of a phone! :p

Edit: Just noticed everyone else beat me to it :(

Yeah, I agree. If one were to see me in at home, he would see me put my feet up on the table in a very disorganized room. But, when I am in someone else's space or a shared space, I always make an effort to leave the place clean. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the norm.

Interesting story about the phones.....

We had no ACARS in the airplanes and so no way to communicate with the company. Remember, this was 10+ years ago and cell phones, while everywhere, were still not quite as ubiquitous as they are today. And people didn't want to use their own phones. So the company put these Nokia cell phones in the airplane. I don't know if they had an plan that allowed them to only call the company or not, but theft was not an issue.

The batteries were changed out daily as part of the daily MX check when the mechanics would come by to do what they do.

It was a good way to keep in touch with the company. Forward thinking. Proactive thinking. Unlike many US companies.....

Always. Photos that add to the discussion are more than welcome.

.......delete......

What's a typical cruise fuel burn on the saab 2000?

HUDS?

Did you guys have the HGS in the Saab 2000's at CrossAir? It looked like an HCP in one of the pics.

Yes, we had a HUD on the captain's side and it was generally used for Cat IIIa approaches but was approved for en route usage as well. Very useful. The control was on the center console to program the info for the actual approaches. I remember a number of times we used it down to near mins and one time in Paris at CDG where we saw the runway really at mins, which was a 50' DH, based on the radar altimeter. With a regular Cat 1 approach we would not have made it in.

They get really, really thick fog in parts of Europe.

As to the fuel burn question? I honestly don't remember anymore.... But looking at one of my pics I zoomed in. And during climb it was 630 KG/hour on one side and 640/hr on the other. Multiply that times 2.2046 and you'll end up with roughly 1390-1400 lbs per side per hour. That is less than the CRJ, without doubt. Of course, in the CRJ, one covers more ground per hour as well, clouding the issue.

Also, the current fuel savings program we're running at my current company has us pulled back in cruise to some fairly reduced speeds and we're doing burns in the 1100-1200 lb/hour/side range.

So I'm thinking that the CRJ at 50 seats is not really that far off the SAAB2000 when pulled back to econ speeds, and the econ speeds are still at least as fast as the SAAB was at max cruise speed.

There's a lot to the fuel question in my estimation..... Not an easy question to answer, though the SAAB probably ultimately burns less.

saab2000, what made you leave Europe to come fly in the US?

That's awesome!

We have the same system in the Q400's at QX, and had the system in the Dash 8-100/Q200 and CRJ-700.

I wasn't aware that CrossAir or the Saab 2000 had them, learn something new every day!

yeah seriously, so clean! I cleaned every nook and cranny on the center console in one of our saabs on a long delay and it took nearly twenty minutes....

and yeah the chart clips, jumpseat and cupholders are the same crummy ones as on the 340. that must be something like a 4 oz cup to fit inside that thing. like the one you got with punch in it at a middle school dance where the assistant principle comes around and tells the kids dancing to "Leave room for Jesus!"

I got furloughed and there was no work in Europe. I was born in the US and so I returned. When I was recalled I had lost my work permit and I didn't really pursue getting it back as I was close to upgrade here.

There are positive things about the job in both places and negatives in both places. I think I earn more money here but we also work far, far harder in the US, with longer duty days and more intense flying, at least on the east coast at my current employer. Operationally there's no comparison - Europe wins. But some of the perks we have in the US are far better. For example, jumpseating as we know it in the US does not exist in Europe. If I wanted to go somewhere I had to go to the Staff Travel office and get a ZED or ID90 ticket and it was a hassle.

I get more days off in the US too. Work harder when I'm on duty, but I only work more than 15 days a month if I choose to do so. Over there we had 11 days off per month and it was pretty much always just 11 days off. Everyone sits reserve about 4 days per month, so it's not just low-seniority people.

The nicest thing about working there was the professionalism of the operation, which was generally far better than in the US. The other great thing was there there is a night flight ban at most European airports, meaning that you don't fly all night just because you're running late. There is generally an end in sight if you have fallen behind. I have finished here in the US at 3AM and once at 4AM on duty days which had started 14 or 15 hours earlier. That is inconceivable in Europe and so I definitely miss that aspect of it. The most legs I ever did in Europe was 6 and that happened once. Here it is the norm to have at least one 6-leg day per trip and it is often more than that.

Otherwise it's kind of a wash with plusses and minuses to both places. But answer the question? I was born in the US and grew up here but I lived there for about 15 years and learned how to fly there, so coming to the US was a bit of a shock even though it shouldn't have been. I came to the US with really no knowledge of US aviation. After nearly 8 years at a US 'regional' carrier (I hate that word.....) I now have a better understanding......