This is the first part of this lesson series, and as such it is imperative to warn you: If you are not EXTREMELY confident in your basic flying skills, advanced techniques, are not instrument and multi-engine rated, you are NOT ready to begin flying these planes. They are the largest, most complex aircraft existing today, they do not handle like your normal piston-engined four-seater Piper Cherokee or Cessna Skyhawk, they require you to learn how to fly all over again. Everything about flying a jet, including the ground-spent planning time, requires precision far greater than in your standard propeller-driven leisure aircraft. As such, I have decided to begin the lessons talking about the old jets and how to fly them. Why, you might ask? Because: as I would answer, to fly the 747-200, for example, you actually need to know how everything works. Modern jets have computerized the flight engineer, and as such, less and less pilots are actually learning how an air conditioning pack works, or why the pitot tube is such a vital probe. This is what I am here to teach, and hopefully you are here to learn.

As I said before, jets are not flown the same way as your Cessna. There are many reasons for this:

A: The plane is A LOT larger than your Cessna, you are dealing with many tons of aluminum and plexiglass, fuel, and humanity. This, along with the engine being completely different (and a lot more complex), means you will ALWAYS be flying at least twice as fast as your Cessna Skyhawk can.

B: Air Traffic Control plays a vital part in both types of plane, but there are certain other rules a jet must follow, everything from takeoff to landing requires a lot more interaction with the controller in the tower, and as air travel is now such a popular travel method these days, you will need to cooperate with the hundreds of other airline jets with the same aims as you.

C: Despite the popular belief I have noticed on this forum, flying one of these requires an extremely involved pilot, you will find, once you've broken the barrier of the "lazy-boy autopilot," that without this system, flying your jet would become incredibly stressful, and I am not talking about the 3+ hours you will spend tweaking away at your yoke. The autopilot is the saving grace that allows you to perform everything else you need to do, (managing speed and altitude and letting the autopilot actually fly you there, managing fuel, navigation, communication, and keeping the lunches of the 8 tons of humanity behind you in their stomaches.) A jet requires dedication not because they are boring to fly, but because of how much you must manage at a given time.

There is more, but I'll talk more about differences in the actual lessons. In the meantime, you should now know what to expect.

This is going to be fun, and educational. I don't fly tubes very often, because I know that I'm not doing it realistically. I have enough exposure to real, jet pilots to get the basics...but I've never dedicated myself to doing it realistically. Heck.. I got my hands full flying a C172 realistically (and I fly REAL ones, pretty regularly).

Before I even fire up the sim.. I decide on my "mission" (i.e... how many people are flying with me.. where we're going and how much baggage we'll have)...and then go about it just like I would for real. I check and double check weather (deciding on whether or not to file IFR, where my fuel stops will need to be, etc.). It's a pretty involved process (and keeps me on my pilot-toes).. but flying jets, is that type of mindset, squared and on steriods.. Half of succesfully negotiating one of those monsters full of souls any distance, is done on the ground, before even climbing into the cockpit.

The one area where I really need practice, is planning the route to be filed (since every commercial jet flight is IFR), and getting the whole mission clear in my head before firing up engine 1...

I'm really looking forward to these threads...  

Charlie wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2008 at 8:21am:


They teach modesty at Cranwell now

Matt

I'm probably not ready for this because I only know the basics of flying single and double props.

beaky wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2008 at 5:07pm:


To be fair, a lot of people go straight onto jets via nothing bigger than a Piper Seneca/Seminole and a simulator type rating. In my experience the biggest I'd flown before the Funbus was only a standard B200 King Air.

Whilst i have never flown a bit jet RW, but i fly for a VA and as such fly jets in the sim almost daily, as realistically as possible in FS, using vatsim often as well, i'm sure i will learn some neat little tricks from this series as well. I know my proccedures become rather slack at times, due to repetitiveness and the "know it all" attitude that you get after flying them so often. Going to watch this series with interest.

My criticism aside, it should be a good resource for a lot of new simmers who got into it because they want to fly the airliners... and those of us who rarely do so.

The main reason that I started these threads is because of those "Instant Airline Captains." I have had plenty of time in FS with the single-engined props, twin-engined props, etc, I know what I'm doing, I have broke the code, as you would say.

Now, back to the purpose, Instant Airlne Captains do not know the basics of flying, I do, that's why I'm here, and that is why I am starting with the basics all over again, as well as explaining how the systems work so you have a better understanding of how these planes work (and I have just finished the thread on basic flying techniques so you know a bit on how to fly these planes).

Do note, however, that we are not yet ready to try a first flight yet, as I have yet to talk about how to manage that incredible engine power, and how the swept wings work so differently from a straight wing. Whenever we reach a point where we know enough to try something, I will let you know.

BTW: The strategy for starting now is easy referral to Brett's PPL in case one does not yet know what I am talking about, and we will be starting in the cockpit of an ERJ-145 for all checkrides. We must first get that ATP license out of the way.

Brett: once you get the details of shared-cockpit checkrides, I'd like to be able to do the same for the ATP license and jet checkouts.

beaky wrote on Jan 2^nd, 2008 at 7:15pm:


I find it a little surprising too, but then again, I suppose it all boils down to money. If you can do an IR in a piston Seneca or Seminole for example, then the school aren't going to have anything like a King Air in their fleet if they can help it.

I probably had about 70hrs combined on the King Air and its simulator, and then probably 25-30hrs in the VC10 sim before flying the real thing, so the real "leap" is done in the synthetic environment.

beaky wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2008 at 10:17pm:


Not very many, but increasing all the time.
beaky wrote on Jan 3^rd, 2008 at 10:17pm:


Yes, and that is where the sim helps out a lot. In my earlier flying training there was a lot of emphasis on being able to "keep ahead of the aeroplane", particularly when flying low-level, or leading a formation - thinking well ahead.

What I've noticed with a big jet, aside from the obvious handling differences, is the need to be way way ahead, planning far further ahead, such as briefing times for the descent for example. A lot more energy management comes into play too, and anticipation; with the jets you have to think a few seconds ahead with power changes, as it takes a few seconds for the to spool up; on a piston single you may start levelling off 100-200ft from the required level, in a jet, you start the mechanics of it 1000-2000ft from the desired level. After a while though it all becomes natural...


...I hope!