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Permalink Reply by Bob Pustell on May 15, 2014 at 9:54pm

Fun video. Fond memories of low level under enemy radar type flight in the Air Force.

It was always great fun if there was simulator time left at the end of a lesson. When the instructor asked if there was anything I wanted to try I always had an idea or two. Some of the guys just asked to be released and leave early, but what an opportunity -- a mondo expensive and sophisticated simulator at your service! I did "gentleman's aerobatics" in every large aircraft (simulator) I flew. It was good to see just what the plane could and could not do, just in case of an upset incident or whatever. Sometimes I tried all engine out approaches to landing, sometimes trying to fly a hydraulic aircraft with all the hydraulics failed. You never know what you may encounter out there in the real world. I did not always avoid crashing but I learned a lot about the aircraft.

Sometimes I learned things that the company did not even know about the airplane because we put the simulator into strange situations. While doing simulator aerobatics in the A300-600R (same model as your Fedex birds, but with passenger seats) all computer flight and nav display screens were blanking and showing only a diagonal slash across the screen for portions of the manuevers. We wrote it up as a simulator malfunction but it turned out the airplane really did that. We learned that anytime the roll rate exceeded 45 degrees per second (if I remember the number correctly, it was a couple of decades ago) the Airbus systems logic said "no airliner would ever maneuver at that roll rate so the flight display system must be wrong" and blanked out the displays. They had to go all the way to Airbus tech people to figure that one out. Nobody at the company or the FAA knew about that wrinkle. It took me playing games with the simulator and a very persistent simulator tech to figure that one out. We revised our manuals so guys would know what was happening if their displays blanked during violent maneuvers.

And, like you John, I sometimes just played around flying under bridges or between skyscrapers or landing on highways or whatever. Thanks for bringing up the memories.

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Permalink Reply by John Austin on May 17, 2014 at 3:07pm

Bob,

You're welcome!

When I first sat down in the simulator, the instructor looked at me, sighed, and said, "This is going to be very, very difficult ... for me!" "The problem is, you're going to want to actually fly the airplane! We teach our pilots to fly to the very highest level of automation possible! Usually, they rotate at take-off, flip on the autopilot, and don't touch anything until short final! ... I'm going to have to turn off a bunch of stuff that we never turn off so you can actually fly the airplane! However, I would suggest that you retain the auto-throttles ... it'll make things a lot easier!"

So, I proceeded to fly the A300 for the next 2 hrs with very little difficulty. The instructor was correct, with auto-throttles, you can chase a glide path to your heart's content and never get too badly out-of-shape! I remember dialing-in the approach speed (140 kts.) ... slightly faster than a STOL CH750!  ;>)  The other thing I learned is that cross-winds are no big deal - flying something as massive as an A300, it's pretty much going to go wherever you point it!

John

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