The One Where Day Five Enters the Jet Sim
Today was my first sim session at FlightSafety, and my slot was at night—so I basically had the whole day free. I hit the gym at the early hours, did some light studying for the ATP written, and met up with George in my room and reviewed the Falcon 900EX panels and checklists, hoping to feel slightly less clueless once we actually stepped into the simulator.
We arrived at the facility about an hour early, and it was my first time seeing these full-motion simulators up close. Photos really don’t do justice to how massive they are in person. The building itself is huge, but FlightSafety keeps everything so organized and spotless. Had to pick up some merch now that we only have two days left here, so I went with one of their polo shirts—part of the whole “looking the part” routine, I suppose.Also, really glad that I last second remembered to bring a half-zip. The sim bay is pretty chilly, which is understandable that all the heavy machinery needs to stay cool.
Our instructor is a retired Army and Southwest pilot. He was super patient and treated us like the total jet newbies that we are. He also tried to tie in our company’s policies and procedures where possible, mentioning how the Falcon’s FMS and handling characteristics are somewhat similar to the E-Jets we’ll eventually fly. If we get lucky, he might even show us the E175 sim tomorrow.
George "volunteered" (more like voluntold) to go first as the pilot flying, so I was the pilot monitoring for the first two and a half hours. He nailed his landings (they looked impressive good to me) and ran through various maneuvers. When we swapped, I finally got my hands on the controls. Despite watching everything George did, it still felt totally different once I was in the captain’s seat. The sim itself was more realistic than I expected—not perfect, but enough that the FAA counts it like real flight time, so that’s good enough for me.
We covered low-visibility taxi, takeoffs, landings, aborted takeoffs, windshear scenarios, TCAS, and stall recovery. Taxiing was a challenge at first because the Falcon relies on a tiller, and this particular sim has a big dead spot in the center. Once you push past that, it swings hard. Took me a bit to get the hang of it, but I managed in the end.
Takeoffs were straightforward, but landings were another story. Coming from single-engine props where approach speeds hover around 60 knots, flying final at around 139 knots in the Falcon was an eye-opener. We were instructed to keep the power in until about 20 feet above the runway. Because of that extra speed, I instinctively started flaring too abruptly, so that’s something I need to work on. After touchdown, the reverse thrust on the No. 2 engine has a slight delay, which is a safety design—nothing too tricky, just something to be aware of. By the time we slowed to taxi speed, it was back to the tiller again. It’s definitely a lot to juggle if you’re not used to it.
We also did some hand-flown ILS approaches with the flight director and tried out a HUD landing. The autopilot handled pitch and roll while I worked the throttles, and we ended up just a foot or two off the centerline. Not bad! The instructor mentioned the HUD on a 737 can land within 18 inches of center, which is impressive. We even tackled a gnarly windshear takeoff; focusing about 95% on the attitude indicator helped, because the quick glance outside revealed we were skimming treetops—yikes. Luckily, we made it.
All in all, it was a fantastic experience. The automation is reassuring, and the fact that it’s similar to the E-Jets is a big confidence boost. Tomorrow night, we’ll be back at it—hopefully getting into single-engine approaches and high-altitude maneuvers. In the meantime, I’ll keep studying for the ATP written. So far, I’m really enjoying this new challenge and can’t wait to see what’s next.