Instrument Proficiency Check

Redbird SD1000 AATD

Today I was going to get checked out in the C172 w/G1000 that is down at Rainier Flight in Renton, WA.  I’m not a huge fan of the C172, however it is easily one of the nicest aircraft around and I know that since it is nice my wife “might” actually come fly in it with me.  Ever since we sold the Cirrus, both my wife and I have gotten pretty spoiled in what is out there to fly.  This is the closest thing that I can find that kind of fits the bill, so I booked the plane three weeks ago (earliest I could get in it), so that I might be able to get her up in it someday.  Unfortunately the weather was typical crap for this time of year with 500’ OC and mist.  Great day for flying IMC, but unfortunately KRNT doesn’t have any approaches low enough to get back in to (800’ for non WAAS, and 600’ w/WAAS).  Since the weather was solid IMC, it wasn’t a great day for doing a check ride either.  So instead, I asked Jack if we could do some instrument work in the Simulator instead and he said no problem.

The simulator at Rainier Flight is an Advanced Aviation Training Device (AATD), Redbird SD1000.  This is a non-motion unit that has a reconfigurable cockpit and for our purposes my instructor set it up for the G1000 C172.  My goal here was three-fold.  One, I really wanted to try out the Redbird and see how well it worked.  Two, I wanted to reacquaint myself to the G1000, since I hadn’t flown one in about four years,  and three, I wanted to get some IFR practice in and make use of the time.  Since this simulator is a certified AATD and my instructor is a CFII, the time spent in the simulator is log-able for IFR training.  Excellent!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since this was the first time using this simulator, I wanted to experiment a bit, so I took off from KRNT and flew to KPAE.  Yes, you could “magic move” the plane, but I wanted to see how it felt and get a good feel for the simulator.  I have heard many people complain about the simulator being too sensitive and unrealistic, and I found that it wasn’t bad at all.  It may be a bit sensitive, but nothing outrageous and the system as a whole worked pretty well.  I will say there are some quirks with the programming of the G1000 that are not correct and the knobs are too sensitive with minimal feel, but if you take your time and pay attention it works fine for the most part.  Some functions like bringing up a “direct to” function, does not auto-populate with “K”, which isn’t very realistic, but overall the functions were pretty good.  The KAP 150 autopilot also doesn’t like to hold its altitude, and if you don’t stop the vertical speed rate at “0”, it will blow through the assigned or set altitude.  That was more annoying than anything and it actually hand flies pretty well when you use the trim wheel.

We started off with a published hold at EYWOK for the ILS Y RWY 16R into Paine Field, then shot the ILS.  I screwed up the missed (failed to brief and UNDERSTAND) the procedure, but then unscrewed myself and went back into the hold again.  The second time I shot the approach, I hoped to better fly the missed procedure, but screwed it up a little the second time too (I was a little rusty ;-) ), but salvaged it.  The third approach was an RNAV (GPS) Y RWY 16R.  This approach went fine no issues and we started to wrap it up since we thought there was someone waiting on the sim.  I landed the sim and Jack check the schedule and the sim was not booked after all. 

Since the sim was open, Jack asked me again about my currency and said that if I had the time, we could do some partial panel work and unusual attitude discuss and he would write me off for an Instrument Proficiency Check (IPC).  AWESOME!  I wasn’t planning on this, but it works for me, so I took off again and this time shot the RNAV (GPS) RWY 34L.  Since Jack killed my PFD, I was working crossways off the MFD with other issues and proceeded to shoot the approach.  We had some good discussion about scenarios, whether or not to declare an emergency and other topics and in the process, I noticed the approach didn’t sequence to the next waypoint (RARYO to USDAW).  Not a huge deal, I thought maybe in my talking I forgot to activate the approach.  I went in and activated the approach and the system reset the approach and expected me to go back to RARYO (IAF).  WRONG.  At this point, I declared missed, and came back around for another try.  One option Jack told me was that I could have just punched in vectors to final, and it would have populated the entire approach.  Good idea, just didn’t think of it.  Second time around, I flew the approach with no issues.

Once we finished we had some discussions about unusual attitudes and the IPC was complete.  I wasn’t aware that you could even do it in a simulator, but according to FAA regulation you can.  Obviously as a simulations guy, I had a blast since I love the idea of training in the sim.  You have the ability to do so much that you are really only limited by your imagination as to what you can do.  Next step for me is to get up and fly.  Although my skills are still ok, I definitely need to spend a little time doing some VOR work.  At least now I can fly again in IMC, I just have to find a plane that I’m comfortable in before I go fly it in actual IMC.  Good stuff and I will definitely spend some more time in the sim in the future!