Feeling My Wings – First Time in a FFS

Halldale GroupIndustry Reporter Amanda Towner tries out her nascent flying skills in TRUSimulation + Training’s (TRU) XLS+ Full-Flight Simulator (FFS) at the company’straining center in Lutz, Florida.

We are approaching the Ronald Reagan Washington NationalAirport runway in Washington, DC. The control tower is near, and beyond that Ican make out the Monument. David Smith, Vice President, Business Aviation, TRU,pilots us on our flight, teaching me a three-minute course in the basics whileI absorb what I can.

Inside TRU Simulation + Training’s XLS+ FFS, housed in the training center as part of the Flight Safety Textron Aviation Training joint venture between FlightSafety International and TRU.

It’s my first time flying anything. I keep the yoke steady,pulling up if we drop below the point I am told is too low. We coast along onour flight path, and I sit back a little more in my chair, feeling immenselysmall in this cockpit that engulfs me and yet makes me feel tightly packaged. Icould really only compare it to sitting in an SUV, but without seeing above thedashboard or feeling comfortably in-control of the wheel. Although thesimulator is to spec with the aircraft, I wasn’t expecting it to be so compact,and I couldn’t imagine calling it home for more than a few hours whiletraveling. If I stretch my arms, I would end up hitting the pilot.

I had quite the time getting in the cockpit earlier, feelinglike a clumsy racecar driver as I climbed in. Standing behind the chair at anangle, I stepped one leg out in front of the seat and, holding the headrest forany kind of balance, somehow swooped the other leg out in front beforecollapsing into the chair.

Now my legs hit the console of buttons to the left and rightof me and I feel the need to be very still and alert so I do not accidentallypress anything.

I cast my eyes over its technical architecture, feeling bothoverwhelmed and ignorant of all the knowledge that’s needed to fly this thing.I only know about two instruments from Smith’s briefing: the altitude indicatorand the vertical speed indicator, both of which I keep my eyes on.

All of a sudden an alarm sounds and I turn to see the leftengine button blink red: fire.

“What do we do?” I say.

“We land with one engine,” says Smith.

Our altitude is at 800 feet or so. “What do we need to be atto start landing?”

“About 500,” he says.

The DC runway is getting closer and we are flying over thePotomac River now.

We are still too high. I push down harder on the yolk.

Smith begins the landing protocol, flipping switches andlevers around me while I wait for the impact.

After we land, the instructor behind us changes our route,and with the convenience of the simulator, we are now approaching a differentairport – John F. Kennedy International Airport.

I can see buildings below us this time, and there are carsbusily moving about. I peer out over my side window just as Smith informs me to“climb.”

“Climb?” I stare blankly at him.

I hear the instructor’s warning about hitting the buildings just as Smith says “pull up.” I hold my breath and tug up abruptly as we narrowly miss hitting one of the buildings. Relief washes over me, followed by the embarrassing realization that I almost made us crash into a building. The fact that pilots can learn how to fly a different type of aircraft in just two weeks of training really marvels me.

Earlier, during take-off, I pulled up too fast and, had webeen in an aircraft, would have made the wing stall. I think it’s safe to saythat I won’t be getting my “wings,” and, more importantly, that I should begetting my wings clipped.

We are over the Jamaica Bay now and the landing strip isright in front of us. As we near the runway, Smith takes control of the landingprocedures and we land successfully. If I was a passenger on this ride I wouldhave clapped.

I exited the XLS + FFS and Smith continued my tour of thefacility.

The XLS + is just one of seven FFSs housed in the trainingcenter, as part of the Flight Safety Textron Aviation Training (FSTAT) jointventure between FlightSafety International and TRU Simulation + Training, aTextron Inc. company. It also features five Flight Training Devices (FTDs),with one more being delivered later this year. The XLS + FFS and all of thedevices at the training center are built here in about 14-18 months, on themanufacturing side of the building.

This type of simulator in particular, modeled after theCitation XLS+ business jet, is used at the center to train roughly 30 percent pilotsfor private or small business, and 70 percent professional pilots. It could bea pilot’s third or fourth type rating.

An instructor teaches students about the various components of the aircraft as part of ground school training.

Out of the two weeks of initial training, students will haveeight days of ground school, where half of the day is spent training on thecomputer and with an instructor – understanding basic systems functions,components of the electrical system, viewing alerts and schematics, callouts –and the other half is spent in the FTD to train for confidence, comfort andinstinct in flight operations. For recurrent training, there are only two daysof ground school, and pilots can complete the coursework online and then come into the center for their checkride.

A class was in session during our tour, and I got to seesome of the material presented in the lecture. The instructors, I was surprisedto find out, only taught courses on aircraft they actually had seasoned experiencein.

The FTD training starts on the first day so instructors canunderstand where students are immediately struggling and can make them familiarand proficient with the components before the FFS phase. The training involvesscenarios mostly on safe operations, but also includes some critical events andmalfunctions so that students can learn the cause and effect to the actionsthey perform in flight.

Textron Aviation’s Citation Latitude FTD, which is used in ground school training to help students gain confidence, comfort and instinct in flight operations.

When students move on to the FFS, they spend anywhere from2-2.5 hours in training each day with the instructor – my experience was about20 minutes. Instructors can simulate malfunctions, like the engine fire we had,and configure or position the FFS as needed to test the student’sdecision-making abilities. The types of scenarios that can be simulated varyacross each device, taking into account the particular specifications of theaircraft, including the number and type of engines, avionics and navigationequipment.

In addition to scenarios, the device replicates the exactamount of thrust a pilot would feel in the actual aircraft using itsacceleration vector, which is what I was most interested in experiencing forthe first time. On take-off I really felt the challenge of pulling up on theyoke and experienced the pressure of acceleration on my back. We encounteredbetween 1-2G, but the simulator could have safely reached accelerations of upto 3G. Interestingly, pilots are required to go through annual medicalassessments, which show they are physically fit and still capable of handlingthe plane and the amount of force it produces – something else I had not known.

All of the training comes down to the oral examination andthe checkride, which is a pass/fail final exam that can only be attempted twotimes.

At the end of our tour, Smith left me with an inspiringmessage: to be continuously sharpened by training and to increase safety eachyear. Due to the amount of stress that students go through during training, TRUis integrating a variety of student performance tracking-features into its nextgeneration of training devices. TRU hopes that by implementing this newtechnology, the company can supplement training to help students cope withstress and help improve their performance as well as safety in the cockpit. Thecompany expects to provide more information on this development later thisyear.