https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_Trainer
How the sim sessions work at CAE is you are allocated an hour before the sim for prebrief and an hour afterward for debrief. Each pilot gets about 2 hours as pilot and 2 hours as copilot. So, 12:30 show means 1:30 in the sim and done by 6:30.
At least that's how it's supposed to work!
We showed at 12:30 only to find out the sim had broken a little while before and they were trying to fix it. Unfortunately, it also meant that the previous session hadn't been completed and they still had about 3 hours left. Now, there isn't a lot of spare time built into the schedule - I'll be in the sim every day until my checkride on Monday. So lots of different scheduling options were being thrown around (including slipping every, including my checkride, one day - ugh), but it all depended on how quickly the sim could be fixed. Fortunately it didn't take too long (a few hours) so the decision we settled on was to only do half (2 hours) or our sim session today, and do a session and a half tomorrow (6 hours). The instructors and the scheduling office worked quickly together to make sure this would work.
We finally got into the sim at about 4:00 PM today. Since we were only doing half a session, only one of us got to be pilot. I went ahead and served as copilot for today (but I'll do the exact same flight tomorrow morning as pilot).
Sim lesson 1 is a pretty basic intro to checklists and flying the sim. No emergencies or abnormal conditions for this flight! On the ground at JFK, we ran through all the startup checklists, and lined up on runway 4R.
Cleared for takeoff, we flew the Kennedy Five Departure, navigated to a VOR (remember those?) and then proceeded into the "practice area". The main maneuvers for today were steep turns, stalls (clean, landing, and takeoff configuration, that last one with a turn) and an ILS approach.
The steep turns seemed pretty straightforward, nothing that would be unusual to any Private Pilot. The stalls were also very benign and predictable - having an AOA indicator here helps a lot, you know exactly when it's going to stall. Recoveries were also straightforward, using pretty much the same methods you'd use in a 172. Well, I guess a 172RG anyway. Of course that's all from the right seat, I'll see if I think they're so simple after tomorrow's lesson!
From the copilot's side I was busy running checklists, calling out speeds, and generally helping the pilot out. Even got to say familiar things like "watch your altitude" - sounds a lot like flight instruction!
Just about 2 hours total in the sim today. More tomorrow!
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