Recurrent Rehash

Well Lear 60 recurrent training at Flight Safety has ended. This time around my sim instructor sort of specialized in the FMS or Flight Management System. He was a wiz at working the magic box. The training had all the usual stuff, including stalls, steep turns and assorted emergencies.
The emergency training included engine failures before V1 and after V1. Basically prior to V1 you try to stop on the runway and after V1, you're going flying.

During one session I had an engine failure right at V1 on a slushy runway and windshear. That was plenty challenging. Having a thrust reverser deploy on takeoff (treat it as an engine failure) can be a fun experience as well.There was of course the high,hot,and heavy departure from Reno.

The Reno departure is interesting because of the steep climb gradient and, of course, the tall rocks nearby. And sim instructors, being black hearted creatures, have nasty things planned for you to take care of during the departure. In fact. the instructors have plenty for you to do during all phases of flying. Their job is to prepare the student for the unexpected, and they do it well.

On the way to San Francisco from Reno ( and yes the entire flight takes place ) the crew experienced a loss of pressurization at FL320 ( 32,000 ft ) and an emergency descent was warranted. The crew has to don the oxygen mask and try to communicate all while trying to attend to the simulated passengers and run the appropriate checklist. It's demanding.

However, for this recurrent session, the most demanding thing for me was the elevator jam while trying to fly the ILS to minimums. The pitch of the Lear 60 is very, shall we say, touchy when thrust is applied or removed. Having to land using just slight power adjustments and trimming was definitely not easy. In the end, I was able to put it on solid concrete, touching the ground at a descent rate of 700 ft per minute. So it worked out.

There were other challenging things, as you might imagine. Dual generator failure, total hydraulics failure and others. Of course, the weather was always crappy ( see blackhearted comment above ) now matter what kind of approach was going on. I performed ILS, VOR, and GPS approaches throughout.

I had a great time and I really like Flight Safety. Looking forward to the next recurrent training date.