There were a total of four sessions this week with a two-day break separating two pairs of sessions.
Session #1
Like the previous session the day before, we were still handling the situation of engine failure after take-off. One added portion was the Go-Around during landing with one engine out. The yaw is immense and the climb rate is very poor, but at least the aircraft is capable of executing such a move with only half its power left. Catching the yaw with rudder is the key, or the plane and start rolling into dangerous parts of the airport.
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| No Memory Items, No FSI, No OEB, My Radios, ECAM Action! |
Session #2
This was a very troublesome session which tested us on how to handle slats/flaps jam during extension. The very first thing to note is not to bust the Flaps speed. Immediately after the jamming has been displayed by the ECAM, we fly a Select speed of Vfe-next minus 5kts. The speed limits of different stages of flaps are conveniently located below the FCU panel so no memory work is required there.
After ECAM actions were carried out, we had to refer to the QRH on what speeds to adhere to for different stages of flight. Next, the DODAR will be carried out with the QRH being used extensively.
We have the fuel penalty to consider with the aircraft now experiencing more drag as well as the landing speed and landing distance required, plus weather conditions factored in. Quite a bit of table reference and calculations are needed to get the speeds and distances right.
I got the worst of the three types of jams with mine being jammed at Flaps 1 configuration. My approach speed was so high I was flabbergasted!! Then came the astounding attitude of the aircraft for the approach. My nose was 8degrees up and I was totally not used to such an approach attitude even though I had the FD to guide me for the ILS approach. I was cautious on the flare, so much so that I didn't really apply any pullback on the sidestick, With the speed so high, I can feel that the landing was hard, and my instructor commented that he didn't see any flare. The approach stunned my two other sim partners as well haha.
Session #3
Another session with Slats/Flaps jam, but this time the take-off was in Config 2 rather than the usual Config 1. Needless to say, the jamming will come right after take-off during retraction, as opposed to the previous session with it coming during extension.
There wasn't much difference from the previous session and I had a very high approach attitude again. This time round, I was able to execute the flare properly with my attitude just above 10degrees and not getting a tailstrike.
After two sessions of slats/flaps jam, I can conclude that it is quite a pain to handle with lots of QRH referencing. Nevertheless, this is what we're trained for, to handle abnormal situations appropriately.
Session #4
After slats/flaps jam, the next thing to jam was the Landing Gear! Good thing was this is way easier to handle with no QRH procedure as the gear failed to retract instead of the gear failing to extend. The latter situation will be heck lot more complicated I reckon. We had the gear lights not going off after retraction and the gear lever jammed in the DOWN position. But that didn't affect much of the flying except for added fuel consumption, especially if the PF decides to carry on flying to destination airport instead of returning. We selected to fly at Green Dot Speed while sorting out our options, noting that our landing weight might be higher than the Structurally limited Max Landing Weight since we've only just taken off and full load of fuel.
To make things more interesting, we were given the VOR CANPA approach. After flying ILS with FD approaches for so many sessions, some of us forgot how to fly a Non-precision approach correctly. Thankfully I took the lessons under CANPA flying very seriously back then and managed to manual fly the approach without any trouble. My sim partners got a little caught off guard with the ND view mode not selected correctly or not configuring the aircraft for an early stabilised approach which resulted in a pretty messy descend profile.
All these little things that were taught in the earlier part of the training are easy to forget I have to say, and there are a lot to remember and keep ourselves prepared for any situation to happen. Since we had quite a lot of time left after we've completed the lesson objective, our instructor gave us some serious crosswind landing training. We were taught the crabbing technique, with the flare+bank+rudder co-ordination skill to achieve a safe landing. But of course, if the crosswind is so strong, we are actually not allowed to land due to company safety policy. It was fun and very good training I must say, and my confidence to handle 40kts crosswind has just gone up a few notches!
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| 40kts crosswind with a 20degrees crab angle. Almost shit in my pants. |
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This week marked the end of 2014 and the start of a new year. Last year this time was spent overseas in Ballarat in the midst of my flight training. It feels better to be home this year.
2014 as a whole was fairly good with so many things happening in my life. I had an exciting January clearing my first solo flight in the C172 which I burst a tyre and feared for my life. February was a month filled with numerous solo circuit flights which were frustrating. March came and went like a wind with me flying my first solo navigation flight that was heart pounding as the weather was getting crazy and I tuned to the wrong radio frequency.
April was really painful with a huge number of flight cancellations due to poor weather conditions but it was also the month which I passed my PPL test; the first in my batch. May was the craziest month I had in Ballarat with almost 24hrs of flight hours. I had a week of consecutive flights prior to my return to Singapore. I was so happy to return after seven painfully slow months in Ballarat facing a climate which I rather not make friends with. June was the month I had my fill of local food as well as meeting up with friends which I hadn't seen since my departure.
July marked the start of A320 ground school and I had trouble adjusting my body and mind back to sitting in the classroom again attending lessons for the whole day. Very soon the ground school was over and my first sim session was conducted near the end of August, which shocked me with the steep learning curve in the cockpit. September reminded me how long ago it was since my course started as I had to get my Class 1 Medical renewed before it lapsed on the 24th month. Phase 2A of training was also completed by the end of the month.
October was the month which got me purring like an excited kid with two observation flights in a real A320 aircraft. That was a true eye opener! Training Phase 2B started in mid-month. November was largely uneventful as training came to a crawl with only 5 sessions for the whole month. And finally to December, when I sat for my last ever written exam at SAA and passed it. Phase 2B training was completed and Phase 2C commenced.
A blink of an eye, year 2014 was concluded. It has been 26 months since I've embarked on this course. It's getting longer than I would have preferred, but with the current aviation industry facing a challenging business environment, this delay is expected. At least I have a job for me at the end of training, I just have to grind out this delay and hope things turn for the better.
I don't know what 2015 will bring, but hopefully things will go smoothly and I can finally say byebye to days as a cadet and become a professional aviator in the commercial world. I dare not think too far; one step at a time is what I'm telling myself these days.
Wishing my readers a great 2015 ahead~!!
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