Citation II type rating - Day 8 - Maneuvers and approaches

What a day! Showtime was at 6 AM so we could make up my sim session from yesterday. Fortunately we had already briefed last night so we were able to get right to it.

Started off with my "S1" lesson, with me in the left seat. We did the three type of stalls mentioned before, steep turns, and then back to JFK for the ILS OR LOC RWY 22L.

The steep turns went okay, especially on the second try. Stalls really weren't any different than in any other plane I've flown them in, easily controllable and the recovery actions were the same.

We then returned for the ILS. The instructors had prepared us for the power settings and such for the various segments of an approach, and with the autopilot running it was no big trick to make sure I was on speed. The instructor showed me the plot of glideslope and ground track, where he was happy with the consistent speed at about Vref + 10 (the top number on each pair of white numbers). Although, honestly, I just set the power, it seemed to be working, so I left it alone!

Time for a quick break, then back into the sim for my partner's "S2" lesson - review of steep turns, stalls, an engine failure in cruise, and non-precision approaches. While he's flying, of course, I'm running checklists and trying to stay ahead of the game so I can help him out as needed - course reminders, altitudes, and such.  At the end of his flying it was my turn for a RIGHT seat takeoff and approach. Now, I sit in the right seat several times a week in training, and have flown from that seat quite regularly. So I didn't think it would be that big of a deal, but it was. Although this aircraft has full instrumentation on the right side, it's not as complete or as integrated as the left side. So it was a bit more work. The autopilot was also randomly disengaging too (not caused by the instructor), which was creating some confusion and difficulty. I was vectored for the JFK VOR/DME RWY 22L, and flew it "okay". Since the autopilot was randomly disengaging, I just turned it off. Notice below there is no plot of my ground track for this one!

Then it was my turn in the left seat again.

By this time we had been in the sim about 4 hours (yes we got a break halfway) so I was getting a little tired. But we started off at Teterboro, NJ with the Teterboro Two Departure, a departure that is known for having pilots bust the 2000 foot initial altitude. It doesn't take long to get there! But with the two of us we managed just fine.

Tereboro Two Departure

Cleared up to 10,000 suddenly the right engine gave up on us as we were passing 6000. We told ATC we were leveling off to work the problem. Shut it down and then restarted it. This is something I have done in twin-engine piston aircraft reasonably often, but it's so much less work with a two-person crew! It was really a non-event. Resumed climbing to 10,000.

Then we worked into some steep turns and stalls again, and I am happy to say they went great! Of course, the fact that I had just practiced them 2 hours earlier helped a lot. Back to the JFK VOR for the full VOR RWY 4L, circle to runway 31. I had the benefit here of having seen it during my partner's flying, so I knew what to expect. We even did a turn in holding at the FAF. Descending, broke out of the clouds , turned right to circle to 31, and pulled off a decent landing.

KJFK VOR RWY 4L

My partner got his turn for the right seat takeoff, approach and landing, then I took back the airplane to fly the KJFK RNAV (GPS) RWY 4R using the UNS-1 FMS. Functionally pretty much the same as a Garmin 430 without all the features. LNAV-only, no LPV, so leveled off at MDA and fortunately saw the runway.

And then we peeled ourselves out of there and ate lunch.

Back tomorrow at 6:30 AM!