"It's day two and the clock is ticking..."

Sorry for the Top Gun quote but I am at a flight training facility that is intended to hone the advanced skills that we are supposed to exude every day to make our jobs look easy.

Ok so we are not hot roding around restricted airspace practicing ACM in an F-14 jazzing to Kenny Loggins Danger Zone. We are reviewing systems and performance in the class to square up any misconceptions that may have crept into our cognitive thinking. Fuel, Electrical, Hydraulics, Flight Controls and Avionics are looked at. Possible failures are reviewed and compared to what the Abnormal and Emergency checklists call for. All good stuff but can be a little long in the tooth at the end of four hours. It has to be done though... Every six months. Below is a typical classroom that is used for this training session.

Then the fun begins. In our case this week we get the classroom stuff out of the way between 12:00 and 4:00 PM. We get a short hour break and are in a briefing and simulator session runs from 5:00 to 10:00 PM. All in all a full and fun filled ten hour a day for four days.

Above is a photo of one of four simulator bays at the Hawker Beech FlightSafety training facility in Wichita KS. There is one more simulator to the left of the image but the one in the forefront is of the Hawker 900XP. It is actually the newest simulator at the facility employing the latest in simulation technology. Ok... Enough of the FSI promo. Traditionally motion simulators set on top a six hydraulic actuator that require a bunch of plumbing and maintenance to keep the up and running. The newer sims have the same geometry but the actuators or some serious electric motors that extend and retract the rods ad an alarming rate.

I will leave something for tomorrows post and see if I can get some other pics of what it is we do.

TTFN, Cya... Doug