Page 36 - March 2015 Volume 19 Number 3

great pilot. Furthermore, the key to passing “Initial” is having a great co-pilot. We got all of that and more when we hired KK Harvey.
Simuflite’s CE 525 PIC Initial training requires 50 hours ground school and 28 hours simulator training. It’s a fully-packed 15 days with one day off to catch up on studying (and laundry). A typical day might cover powerplant, fire protection, fuel systems, flight controls, hydraulics, landing gear, brakes, pressurization, oxygen system, and ice/rain protection. The next day might cover emergency operations for all these systems.
One only had to look around to feel inadequate. During introductions, the first pilot retired from Delta after with 25,000 hours, keeping his hand in as a freelance charter pilot. The next had 6,000 hours flying F-16s and planned to fly for a Part 135 operation. Then there was the A&P mechanic who already had an SIC rating – he could fly and fix the airplane. I was feeling green with 500 Aztec hours and another 1,500 in a mix of light aircraft.
Simuflite maintains a superb set of computer-generated simulation models that demonstrate the airplane’s behavior during normal, abnormal and emergency conditions.
An animated diagram of the affected system is presented on one screen and the view from the cockpit on another; especially effective.
Despite the amount of material, relatively few memory items are needed to fly the 525, most associated with emergencies. Simuflite publishes a handbook with checklists for the three conditions. On the cover, yellow annunciators indicate an abnormal condition while reds indicate an emergency, like fire. Each light has a page number where the proper procedure can be found. This all works smoothly during classroom rehearsal. In the simulator, things get a lot more interesting.
The Level D simulator is painstakingly realistic. The landscapes, weather, airports, buildings and other aircraft are only slightly stylized. The IFR world is completely authentic.
Eight Sessions To Complete
The simulator training consists of eight sessions, including the final checkride. Sessions 1-7 are all about getting ready for number 8, with no time to spare. As a crew, each pilot serves two hours per session as PIC and two as SIC. Fortunately, as the simulator can edit for critical phases of flight while layering in emergency scenarios, a vast amount of material can be covered. And four hours of approaches to minimums with multiple failures and fires certainly feels like forever.
Simulator Day #3 turned out even worse than #2; I seriously considered quitting. But, we didn’t crash. During an engine-failure scenario, I became disoriented on a difficult JFK ILS 4L approach, circle to land 31R. The ceiling was only 40 feet above MDA, with visibility of 1⁄2 mile. The plan was to break out and turn right to 90 degrees, hoping to see 31R’s lead-in lights. I never saw them, and while bumbling around I caused a TCAS alert with another aircraft before executing the miss.
Afterwards, instructor Norwood Band said “You’re going to have to do better than that!” Norwood is a
• • • •TWIN & TURBINE
MARCH 2015