(1996-Sep-18: Another in a series of flying adventures by Captain Dav1d. Licensed since July 1994, David has already accumulated more than 500 pilot-in-command hours, and has added a number of endorsements to his license, including a night rating. His aircraft, a Piper Cherokee 180, is based at Buttonville airport.)

COPA 32, based at Toronto’s City Centre (Island) airport is a well-established club with plenty of activities for the members. This report covers our tour of the simulators at Air Canada’s facility at Pearson Airport. We were told that if time and space permitted, we’d all be given a chance to fly the simulator. We were booked into the B767 simulator for 1000h local time on a cold, rainy Saturday morning in September.

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We arrived, all ten of us in our own vehicles, right at 1000h. Nobody wanted to be late, because once we were inside, there would be no-one to open the normally locked outside door. None of the members had ever been in a "real life" simulator before, but almost everyone had flown PC simulators. The casual conversation slowly veered toward virtual reality, and we wondered just how real this simulator could possibly be.

We were greeted by Tony Corke, from Air Canada, who began to explain what were going to see, and do, in the next two hours. A quick walkaround in the simulator building would be followed by our adventure inside the simulator, and then we’d have a short question and answer period. After briefing us on the agenda, Tony had some good news and some bad news. The bad news was that the B767 simulator was booked, so we wouldn’t be able to fly it. The good news was that he had rebooked us into the Airbus 320 simulator! Not only is the A320 a newer airplane, with fly-by-wire and glass cockpit, but the A320 simulator is one of the most advanced ones that Air Canada owns. No one was disappointed with this combination of good/bad news.

The tour began with Tony describing the different rooms that housed all of the simulators. There are many simulators in this building, including some that are for airplanes that Air Canada no longer flies, such as the B727. These simulators are still in use, because other airlines rent time in them to keep their pilots current. In fact, Tony was proud of the fact that most of the simulators are busy 24 hours a day ("...some visiting pilots are working on a different time zone...").

We walked through the computer room, with its "blinking lights" and "spinning tape drives". It looked like an "old-style" computer room, although there were some newer PC’s and other peripherals. (For those of you who know old-style computers, I recognized an LA320 DECwriter paper terminal!)

The simulators themselves are generally located in individual rooms, although some of the simulators are paired two to a room. In the room adjoining one of the big computer rooms we saw three simulators: two were the standard cockpit simulators, and one was a "cabin door" simulator. It looked like a ten foot section of fuselage, with a standard passenger pressure door. Apparently, Transport Canada requires Flight Attendants to practice emergency door procedures.

We were soon ushered into the number 2 Airbus A320 simulator. It was just as I’d imagined it. From the outside it looked like a shuttlecraft from the Starship Enterprise, except that it was mounted on hydraulics which held it over 10 feet in the air. The front half was shaped like the nose of the A320, and the back half was square. In the middle of the back was a door, which was accessible only by a gangplank, which lifted like a drawbridge during simulations. At this moment, the gangplank was down, the simulator door was open, and the anticipation was mounting.

As we approached, we were met by Paul Mackie, the guy who runs the simulator. Although he didn’t call himself "Mr. A320", he did tell us that he is responsible for maintaining this simulator, including fixing the hydraulics, the computer program, the graphics, anomalies in the controls, and generally everything else as well. He told us that he probably has more hours in an A320 than any "real A320 pilot" out there. He led us into the simulator, and Tony left us in Paul’s capable hands.

The A320 is one of the new generation of fly-by-wire aircraft. Control yokes have been replaced by joysticks, and there are no mechanical linkages between the joystick and the ailerons or elevators. The joystick is no harder to move during a steep dive than it is under straight and level conditions. Unfortunately, there is no feedback either. In fact, only the rudder pedals and the trim wheel are mechanically linked. The throttles are still dual levers situated on the console between the two seats, but they drive potentiometers which in turn increase the thrust of the jets; they do not mechanically control anything.

The instrumentation is also new generation stuff. There are six "glass cockpit" screens, capable of being individually configured to display status instruments, navigational information, weather briefings, radar scans, or other pertinent information. There are only a few "old style" gauges: an attitude indicator, and an altimeter.

Paul first sat in the jump seat behind the captain’s chair, to setup the simulation, then he climbed into the coveted left seat. One of the club members quickly jumped into the right seat, both jump seats became occupied immediately, then the rest of us found kneeling space between the jump seats or standing space at the back. There was room for all of us inside the box, but not enough restraints. Paul cautioned us to hold on to whatever we could because the simulation would be quite real. "Yeah, right" I thought.

Paul said he would take us for a short early evening "fam flight" through New York City, and then we’d get our chance to fly out of Pearson. The simulation began with the sound of the A320 engines spooling up, as the graphics coalesced to reveal our aircraft sitting on the button of La Guardia’s longest runway... ... ...

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When he popped off the parking brake, the plane lurched forward almost imperceptibly - just enough to be noticed. He explained that since it takes time for the jet engines to reach takeoff thrust, he first had to push them halfway, then "firewall" them. As we rolled down the runway, the increasing acceleration pushed us farther into our seats, until, at take-off speed, all 150,000 pounds of aircraft, passengers, fuel and cargo became airborne.

As we banked over Shea Stadium, Paul rolled right to show us the brightly lit field, empty at this time: there was no ball game tonight. We seemed rather low for a flight over a built-up area, but rather than mention something like that to a seasoned pilot, we all simply giggled in amazement.

With no time for a recovery, we suddenly found ourselves heading for downtown Manhattan. The twin towers of the World Trade Center taunted us like the upright goalposts of a football stadium. Paul accelerated towards them, and casually remarked "Hold on, this is gonna be fun!" With just enough time for the 90-degree roll left, he knife-edged between them with Bond-like precision. Neither building was touched, but I’m sure we scared the office workers who thought it might be a good night to work late.

Then, Paul asked us if we’d ever toured Fifth Avenue at better than 250knots. Of course, no-one had, so he brought us down to 35 feet radar altitude for the scenic tour. The A320’s alert system kept saying "35 feet, 35 feet", but Paul kept punching the Alarm Cancel button. Thirty-five feet radar altitude equates to about 2 feet of ground clearance. Paul wanted to prove to us exactly what that meant, so he pushed the stick slightly forward, and the wheels touched the pavement momentarily. Not even a touch-and-go really, more like a brief bounce on the pavement. No pedestrians were looking, so we got away without having our tail number reported to the authorities.

Now, well within the heart of downtown New York, Paul aimed for the tops of the buildings, pulling up at the last minute, just clearing the elevators shafts and antennae on the tops of the tallest buildings. New York City isn’t that big at 250 knots, and we quickly found ourselves in the Harbor. The clearance below the Manhattan bridge looked smaller than our A320’s almost 40-foot height, but Paul snuck us underneath without a scratch.

Of course, the most prominent feature of the New York City Harbor is the Statue of Liberty. Paul smirked in his now familiar way, and told us to "hold on, this part might get a bit rough". Miss Liberty smiled as we approached, then suddenly, her face appeared to register horror as we sheared off her head. I cringed just before the moment of impact, but our warp shields held, and we didn’t even register the impact.

Feeling that we had had enough, Paul banked the jet back toward La Guardia. With one final trick up his sleeve, he lined up on the approach, and accelerated to 310knots, well above the normal landing speed. Then, we touched down near the button, and he started to apply the reverse thrusters. The far end of the 7000 foot runway was coming at us too fast, and the deceleration of the aircraft popped us way out of our seats. We used more than 6900 feet of the runway, and blew out two tires. Then, we all began to breathe again.

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When the interior lights came on, and the windshield went blank, our single communal sigh immediately begat laughter. Uncontrollable laughter. Then applause at Paul’s flying skills; performance actually. After a few moments to regain control of our senses, we began discussing exactly how many regulations had been broken. Then, we were ready to take turns sitting left seat in this bird.

While Paul was setting up the next trip, we asked him a million questions. Here are a few:

Why was the New York trip done at dusk? Most of the A320 simulator training is done at dusk because that’s the optimal setting for the graphics. It can be adjusted for bright daylight down to pitch black night, but dusk seems to be the most realistic.

Weather conditions? What weather conditions? The A320 simulator can present the pilot with any weather conditions, usually based on real-life conditions encountered by pilots. Most of the simulations that are taught, including weather, engine and instrument failures, traffic avoidance, and navigational tests, are gleaned from real-life situations.

Does the simulator have the same limits as the real aircraft? Yes, the aircraft’s computers are programmed to prevent the pilot from pushing the aircraft beyond the limits of its structural or aerodynamic limits.

What can it do once the limits are removed? Well, the A320 can do snap rolls. Unfortunately, the aircraft accelerates during each roll, so after two or three rolls, it becomes impossible to stop the roll.

Can a recovered Flight Data Recorder be used to drive the simulator? Not really. Current FDRs only record about 30 channels of information, which is insufficient to run the simulator. However, the information from the FDR could be used to setup the simulator, and then it would be left to run, hopefully replaying similar circumstances. Some of the newer FDRs can record about 100 channels of information, and these are being tested in simulators in the United States, and possibly elsewhere.

How many hours in the simulator (versus hours in the real aircraft) does it take to transition to a real A320? All of them. Pilots do all of their training in the simulator, including their check ride. Their first flight in a real A320 includes passengers and cargo. And a check pilot. But training in the real thing is far too expensive, and the simulator is so real, there’s no need to fly the real thing until you’re ready to generate revenue for the airline.

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We’re sitting on the button of 06 right at Lester B. Pearson International Airport. Paul is now sitting in the right seat, and one of the COPA 32 members is sitting left seat. All the rest of us are again kneeling between the jump seats, or standing at the back of the flight deck. We’ve learned to hang on and brace for anything, especially now that a non-endorsed pilot is in command.

Paul tells the pilot to pop the parking brakes, and push the throttles part way forward. When the A320 started to move, he told the pilot to shove them full forward. Pearson’s 9500 runway disappeared quickly below us, and a soft bank to the right revealed the CN Tower at the south edge of the city. Every one of the pilots have flown "orbits of the CN Tower", so that’s where we headed. The first pilot established us in a clockwise orbit at 3900 feet at 200 knots, then exited the City Center control zone to the east. After a few minutes of flying, Paul pushed the "freeze" button on the simulator, and the next pilot climbed into the captain’s chair.

When my turn came, I wanted to do orbits of the CN Tower, but we were headed eastbound. I asked about a steep turn, and Paul simply said "Go ahead", so I did. I looked left and right (in a much abbreviated HASEL check) and pushed the stick to the left. A smooth 45 degree bank quickly got us back to facing the city. I’ve done hundreds of orbits of that tower, but none of them at 4000 feet, and none of them at 250 knots.

After a single orbit, I decided to head west towards Hamilton. I asked Paul about the TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System), and before I knew it he had programmed, and verbally announced, "two bogeys, 12 o’clock, 5 miles, interception 1 minute 40 seconds". One of the glass cockpit screens became a radar scope, flashing red, and clearly indicating the inbound track of the two approaching aircraft. The screen directly in front of me reacted by suggesting, with green and red cues, that a climb of at least 300 feet per minute would permit sufficient clearance above the other "blips". I obeyed by pulling the joystick back far enough to push the vertical speed indicator into the green zone. I kept a close watch on the instruments, but I kept peeking out the window to get a visual on the other traffic. I only saw one of them, but we passed both with no conflict. The instruments went back to their normal displays.

Someone at the back asked Paul about the engines on the A320, and suddenly, I lost my left engine. The right wing, with the jet still functioning, started to climb. In a mechanically linked system, I’d have to fight to keep the plane level, but with the fly-by-wire joystick, I still only needed two fingers’ worth of pressure to push the stick to the right to achieve level flight. Paul restarted the left engine, and my turn in the chair ended.

One of the other pilots wanted to try a touch-and-go at Toronto City Center (Island) airport, and Paul was willing to let him do it. As we approached runway 08, the radar altimeter kept saying "260 feet, 260 feet": our distance above the water. He porpoised it down through the glideslope, but decided to abort when the aircraft became too unwieldy at slow speeds and low altitude.

At this point, one of the pilots began to feel like she needed to get back on the ground fast, so Paul punched the freeze button just as we were banking around the CN Tower. We hung at a 15 degree angle of bank, about 2000 feet above the harbor, in suspended animation. A single button leveled the simulator, opened the back door, and lowered the gangplank. She wobbled out, holding both railings, and then another button closed the door, lifted the gangplank, and put us right back into position. Paul asked if we were ready to resume, and then punched the unfreeze. We immediately continued the bank around the tower.

Each pilot tried something different: stalls which cause the whole aircraft to buffet and the audible alarm to say "too slow, too slow"; maximum rate of climb; steep turns; shifted center of gravity, etc.

The last pilot decided to take us back to Pearson, for an exciting but uneventful landing.

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The tour of the facilities ended with a quick visit to the Boeing 747 simulator. It’s an older airplane, and an older simulator. The age of the simulator was hard to determine, but the age of the B747 clearly showed in the old-style gauges and instruments. As opposed to the A320’s all glass cockpit with two gauges, the B747 is all gauges, with only two screens (for navigation only). We couldn’t all fit comfortably into the B747 simulator, so it was a short visit. But Tony did point out that the left seat of the B747 is still the most prestigious, and highest paid, in the Air Canada hierarchy.

We all thanked Tony and Paul again, as I pulled out my log book and entered 0.1 hours of multi-engine time. In the comments section I added "TCAS and Failed Left Engine", and had it authorized by Paul Mackie.

But I won’t need the log entry to remember this trip.