FlyCRJ.com

Thanks for coming back! I hope you are finding this information on flying and on the CRJ 200 useful. Be sure to sign up for email updates or my RSS feed.

I respect your email privacy. You can unsubscribe at any time!

This is the second the part of my recurrent simulator proficiency check (PC) that I did. If you haven’t read the first part, CRJ-200 Recurrent Simulator Proficiency Check – Part 1, just click here.

As a recap, every six months I have to head to the CRJ-200 simulator at FlightSafety in Salt Lake City. This proficiency check (PC) was a little different than all my previous ones because this one was two days long instead on one day long. This new setup had an immediate benefit since the first day was a non-jeopardy training session, which means we could really blotch a maneuver and we would be retrained on it. It also benefited us because it gave us a chance to get comfortable with the simulator again, because the simulator doesn’t necessarily fly like the real airplane. Close but not quite.

On the first day, we did several maneuvers that we don’t normally do like high-altitude stalls, zero flap landings, and complex departure procedures in IMC weather with an engine-out at airports that have rising terrain and high-density altitudes. Good stuff!

Needless to say it was a good experience.

On day two though, we had the official PC.

At a minimum, doing a PC, we are required to comply with the Federal Aviation Regulations, FAR 121.439 (recent experience) and FAR 121.441 (proficiency checks), company procedures and operations, know the CRJ200 aircraft systems and fly to Airline Transport Practical Test Standards (PTS).

Read the rest of this entry »

How many jobs do you know that have what the airlines call “Proficiency Checks”?

A proficiency check for an airline captain, someone that flies passengers under Part 121, has to go to the simulator roughly every six months. It usually consists of two hours of briefings where you cover what your company would consider “hot” topics. Items of interest that other pilots, albeit mostly captains, are doing that are wrong, i.e., busting altitudes, landing with out clearance to land, etc. Then the checkairman covers their pet peeve like the electrical system or the hydraulic system or failure of the fire monitoring system. After this is done, and the necessary paper work is completed, you go to the simulator for a battery of situations that you never see in real life but always prepare for like engine failures at V1, hydraulic anomalies, upset recovery, and windshear encounters. Then there are the single engine approaches, non-precision approaches, and the ever present go-around. The funny thing is that they always start with steep turns and departure stalls. In real life you never get close or experience any of these situations, but the amazing thing is that eventually, after you start doing these things each and every six months, it becomes ingrained in your subconscious. The steps you need to take are automatic. In fact, you don’t even realize you are doing them most the time. All the mystery of it is gone and it is just “your job.”

How many other jobs do you know that do this type of thing? Doctors, like many other professions, get constant training, but how many jobs do you know that, you are constantly evaluated and on which your career can rest? Anyway, I’m glad that I have to go to simulator training often. As an airline pilot, you are responsible for hundreds of lives, thousands of dollars worth in luggage, and don’t forget the airplane that is worth millions of dollars—I would rather be prepared!

To Your Flying Success…

Jeffrey

P.S. OK, it is no joke that the airlines are raising the price of tickets, so you owe it to yourself to search for the best options available when you travel. Priceline is still the way to save you money. Name Your Own Price & Save up to 30% on Rental Cars!