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Air Canada’s A320 Simulator at Pearson Airport
By Captain Dav1d 1996-09-18
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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.
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