Week 72: A320 Type Rating Week 11

After the less than perfect performance from me last week in the sims, I was expecting myself to do better this time round. Had a total of two sim sessions with a two day break in between being a much better cushion space for me to digest what I've learnt.

For the first sim, nothing has changed, there was the stall training in clean config as well as approach config in Normal Law and Alternate Law. All checklists and briefings were done accordingly and approach to land with ILS assistance.

What was different was the use of the bird by pressing the FPA button. With another thing on the PFD to monitor, it gets a little confusing at first, but when you get the hang of it, the bird actually provides a better accuracy in flying down the 3degrees glideslope. I didn't fly the approach as good as I would have wanted with the bird further confusing me on what's going on, and only got better when I had visual of the runway and flew with my eyes intermittently looking outside and on my PFD.

The approach conditions were also different with an introduction of slight 5kts crosswind and we were instructed to be in full landing config by 3000ft to fly the straight-in approach. With the aircraft in landing config at close to 10miles out, I had to apply more thrust to fight the huge amount of drag from the flaps and landing gear. A lot of focus is needed to keep the speed in a safe range and yet be on a stabilized approached with the crosswind.

30 degrees AoB

For the second sim, it was the last lesson before the end of training Phase 2A. There is going to be Phase 2A-2D, 3 and 4, with each phase focusing on different aspects of the training syllabus. That was really quick but 2A only has six sessions, which is less than half of the next phase.

I was very much revising on my SOPs and radio calls to get them right once and for all as the next phase onwards we will be graded by our efficiency in the cockpit. My instructor also commented that we should be familiar and good at these aspects of the flight by now.

On the radio part, starting from the gate, we have to communicate with Singapore Delivery and Ground Crew. Once pushed back, it is to Singapore Ground for taxi instructions. And just before entering runway for departure, it is to Singapore Tower. After take-off, it is to Singapore Departure. Lots of usage of the radios for instructions and if you screw that up, things are going to get messy and it makes you look really inefficient.

The flight wasn't of much difference with radar vectors given and lots of clouds to simulate IFR conditions. Our instructor also taught us how to calculate whether we're high or low during the descend phase to prepare for approach. He very much focused on how we analyse different situations so as to communicate with the ATC and make certain requests to aid in our flying.

He also taught us on how to calculate that in a simple way. For example, using our height to determine whether our distance to threshold is appropriate.

At XX,000ft

XX*3 + 10 = How many miles out you should roughly be 

Nearer than actual distance ==> High 

Further than actual distance ==> Low

That's indeed very useful. With that, I could increase or reduce my descend rate using a combination of my pitch angle and thrust. On my approach, a thunderstorm was simulated ahead of me and I had to request ATC for flight plan deviation. Interesting stuff I must say, trains me with dynamics of flight for future decision making.

There was so much simulation of bad weather, I still couldn't get visual below 2000ft. My ILS landing with zero visual sadly wasn't very good, However once the weather clears, I could fly it way better now. There is still a lot of room for improvement, but my confidence got boosted by this session's landing performance. This somehow reminded me of how much trouble I had with my landing flare during my C172 flying phase. Hopefully I get my ILS landing sorted out soon.

The night before, I had a few practise runs on my SOPs with the mock-up cockpit

End of Phase 2A, more challenges ahead in the next phase

In between my two sim sessions, I went for my Class 1 medical renewal to prevent it from lapsing. The renewal consists of numerous medical history declaration, measurement of blood pressure, checking of eyesight, urine sample and simple arm/leg movement. Took me roughly an hour and cost S$176.55, which was done at Raffles Medical Clinic with a LME.