Another set of sim exercises.
When you've been away for a while, depending upon the time since you last flew, you need to go through a requalification process. If it's just been annual leave, then normally either a 'recency' sim, or a standard cyclic licence renewal will suffice. But, if you've been away longer, you may need to do a couple of sims, and a check flight, or, after about six months, a shortened version of the original conversion.
In my case it had been just over 57 days since my last flight, so I was scheduled to do three things…the recency sim, the cyclic, and then a sector.
Recency sims are often the closest things you'll ever have to fun in the simulator. They are not scripted at all, but have a simple requirement for you to do three takeoffs and landings, an abort, and a low vis approach. That doesn't take very long, and so means that you will often have plenty of time to practice whatever takes your fancy. It's a good time for items like multiple V1 cuts (engine failures), or manual engine out approaches. Getting things wrong doesn't matter, as long as you have them right at the end of the session. This particular exercise was for two Captains, so I started off by sitting in the wrong seat. I make a lousy FO.
The next day was a cyclic. As always, you hear various scenarios from other people before you arrive, and as always, it's always good to take whatever happened to others with a grain of salt. Whilst the skeleton of the exercise will be the same, the the instructor has a large amount of leeway as to just how he manages it, so your exercise may not look much like someone else's at all.
In this case we start off with a circuit for each of us. Just like you'd do in your Cessna. Take off, turn left or right as appropriate and land…hopefully without embarrassing yourself too much (circuits simply aren't something we do in the real world, but, of course, you never know). Then into the guts of the exercise. The instructor had briefed that whatever happened, and whatever decisions we made, would be carried out in real time. That's a bit unusual in the sim, as the time is so precious that 'blank' time is often just skipped over (i.e. fuel dumps that take an hour are made happen in minutes), but that has an unrealistic effect on management, and that was what this exercise was largely about.
The plan is a take off from Melbourne 16 for a flight to LA. Max take off weight. I guess we won't go to LA in real time….
Quite late in the take off roll, vibration can be felt, though quite mild. Take off and retract gear, and into the clean up. Once the inhibit period ends, the ECAM comes up with a tyre pressure warning, and the vibration is explained as the failure of SIX tyres on the same truck. Guess we ran over something. Clean up proceeds normally, but the next thing that happens is a fuel system warning, and a look at the tanks shows that the #2 feed tank is leaking. Obviously not going to LA, so off to a holding pattern. Resolving the fuel issue involves turning off all of the fuel transfer pumps (which stops a leaking tank being filled from somewhere else), and in this case shutting down the #2 engine (which is done to see if the leak is at the engine or prior to it). As the leak was confirmed from the tank, the engine can be fed from elsewhere and restarted.
So, you're well above max landing weight. You've lost four brakes (the last set of wheels on the body gear are unbraked). Your weight is going to become very asymmetric once the feed tank eventually drains (20 tonnes roughly). Can you go back to Melbourne, or should you look at going elsewhere? At this stage Melbourne is wet, with about a 15 knot crosswind. Landing appears acceptable in the current situation. So, what next? Well, dump all of the excess fuel. That's about 150 tonnes worth, and, assuming the #2 tank is empty, will leave us with about 60 tonnes. Still plenty for any further issues, but getting back towards a reasonable landing weight. As I don't consider landing is a huge priority at the moment, I also intend flying around for a while after the dump is complete to get the aircraft below max landing weight. For training reasons, the instructor tells us that he needs to see an overweight landing.
Once the dump is happening, we've got the better part of an hour to look through the performance application at our exact scenario, and even time to look at the manuals. The big question is simply "is this all, or will there be more". But, whilst you can plan for more, you can only really react to what has happened, so once the fuel dump is complete, and the various checklists actioned, it's time to head back for a long finals to 16. The decision was made to take the initial flap, and extend the gear, very early, so they were selected at 9000 feet (and about 40 miles to run) and both operated normally. The landing flap selection was next and at about 5000 feet, we were rewarded with a 'Flaps Locked' message, which means the system has detected a problem and the flaps are now locked in their present position, whatever that happens to be. This cannot be fixed in flight. An additional part of this system response is that the aircraft reverted to alternate law, which takes away the option to do an automatic landing (which is the preferred option in any overweight landing). Some more performance figures needed to be crunched to come up with both an approach speed and runway length requirements…but as the weigh was now almost normal, and we had Flap 2, the approach speed was still quite reasonable (in the high 140s). A few more checklists to be carried out, and some items to get into our heads (with regard to speed control, and go around). The approach would be flown automatically with a manual landing, and I disconnected the autopilot at about 500 feet. Landing normal, and no wheel fires or other nasties thrown in. Come to a halt…and then go and get a cuppa.
Last part of the exercise was quite straightforward. FO take off and then ILS approach and landing, and then lo vis take off and landing for me.