Old Dog Training

To contact us Click HERE

Position: The School House

It's that time of year again... The best and brightest of the Training Department/Flight Standards are trying to teach this Old Dog new tricks. Some of the classroom/simulator instructors are compadres of mine from the earlier days of political incorrectness. The days when Line pilots were really, really bad... Not just sort of bad, like today.

Probably should change the subject...

High altitude stalls...


Kansas stretches before us with little puffy cumulus clouds far beneath. Visibility is unlimited as the sun sets in our six. This is the most amazing simulator I have ever seen... Enhanced A320. It looks and feels like the real thing. The co-pilot is a thirty something ex-US Army rotor head. I have flown with him on the Line three times. He is one of the best pilots at the airline, especially under pressure. Of course, I would never tell him that... Goes against the grain; might harm my reputation.

The sim instructor says,"OK captain, show me a power-off stall, straight ahead, minimum altitude loss during recovery and no secondary stalls."

Stalling an airliner at 37,000 feet... Does it get any better than this? I think not; I love this stuff!

Auto-pilot OFF/ flight directors OFF/ auto-thrust OFF/ normal flight control laws OFF... Watch this!

Thrust levers back to the idle stops and Fi-Fi starts slowing from Mach .79... My heart rate increases from the realism of the simulator. I tell myself it's a sim.


Ease the stick back to maintain altitude... The airspeed pointer passes into the cautionary low energy zone. Down it goes into the solid red danger zone. She is still flying but not much longer; stick is almost against the rear stop.

The wings start to rumble at 180 knots indicated as the ultra-thin air begins to shear away from the top surface, and then the whole airframe buffets... Here we go!

Fi-Fi's digital voice is frantic, scared, "Stall, stall, stall, stall!" It gets your attention.

The aircraft starts to fall toward Kansas dirt, nose oscillating a few degrees above and below the horizon, wings still level. I push the stick forward and force the nose sharply down to break the stalled condition. The terrified digital voice goes quiet as the speed trend arrow shoots toward the top of the instrument case. I can feel the wings load up; we are flying again. Ease the thrust levers forward and watch the fuel flows increase... Not too much thrust or the low slung engines will force the nose up and a secondary stall will be entered. Got to get a lot of airspeed here before I can relax.

Out of the red-your-dead zone and quickly thru the low energy yellow into the green. Set thrust levers at 75%, four degrees pitch on the Star Trek artificial horizon (for level flight) and we are back in business. What a great stick and rudder aircraft! Altitude loss: 2,000 feet... Yeah Baby!

Not bad for an Old Dog.

"That was very nice captain. OK, right seat... Your turn."

Life on the Line (simulated) continues...