Here we go

Well I finally leave for recurrent today. My schedule is fairly busy for the next four days as you might imagine. My ground courses each day start each day at 0730 and run through 1115. The schedule looks like this:

Day 1
0730-1045
Intro/Fuel System/Power Plant/Aircraft General/Lights/Master Warning
1045-1115
Specific Situations/System Integration
1530-1600
Sim #1 Briefing
1600-1900
Sim # 1 Full Flight Simulation ( Flight Safety's Lear 60 is a Level D simulator )
1900-1930
Post Sim Briefing

Day 2
0730-0800
CRM
0800-1045
Electrical System/Hydraulic System
1045-1115
System Integration
1530-1600
Sim # 2 Briefing
1600-1900
Sim #2 Full Flight Simulation
1900-1930
Post Sim Briefing

Day 3
0730-1115
Avionics/Flight Controls/Pneumatics/Pressurization/Air Conditioning
1530-1600
Sim # 3 Briefing
1600-1900
Sim # 3 Full Flight Simulation
1900-1930
Post Sim Briefing

Day 4
0730-0800
Performance/Weight & Balance/Flight Planning
0800-1115
Ice & Rain Protection/EXAM
1530-1600
Sim # 4 Briefing
1600-1900
Sim # 3 Full Flight Simulation
1900-1930
Post Sim Briefing

As you can see they pile a lot of stuff in short periods of time. You'll notice that on the last day there is only 30 minutes available for performance, weight & balance, and flight planning. It might take slightly longer than that, but believe me it moves rapidly. Lots of info to absorb and re-absorb. The simulator portion of this training holds most of the stress and work. The instructors can and do throw multiple scenerios at you during the flight. I think the thrive on putting the students through pain, but that's their job.

My "favorite" sim flight happened to me during my last recurrent session in 2008. The instructor put the aircraft in Reno on a hot day ( of course ) and the aircraft was right at gross weight ( of course again ). After rotation, at about two hundred feet, our aircraft encountered birds. The right engine spooled down and the left engine caught fire. It was asses and elbows as the co-pilot and myself worked on restarting one engine, then shutting the other down, all while trying to keep the aircraft from hitting high terrain. Did I mention that the airport visibility was at 1/2 mile and the ceiling was 200 feet. After we got the aircraft stabilized we had to position ourselves for the ILS. As we were coming out of the 200 ft overcast there was an aircraft on the runway ( of course for the third time ) which meant that we had to do a single engine go around, again avoiding terrain. This was a busy part of that flight. That's right, we had to do other things during this flight, including windshear ( microburst ), stalls, and steep turns. It was great, although not at the time I was doing it.

Believe me, at Flight Safety it's always a "good time". The instructors and equipment are great and I can't wait to get started. I might not be able to sleep tonight.