Page 16 - Volume 11 Number 1

in order to effectively learn, humans have five needs, the second most important is safety. A person needs to feel safe from danger to effectively learn. When you are barreling down a 4,000­foot runway at gross weight, with low ceilings and visibility in a mountainous area and the left engine quits, doesn’t auto feather and you are at 95 knots with the nose wheel just off the ground ... would you feel safer in a full­motion simulator or in the actual airplane?
Getting Recurrent
Earlier this year, I decided to go to CAE for a King Air 200 upgrade recurrent course. The experience rekindled some great memories and revealed that my skills were a little rusty. CAE’s professional program helped me blow the cobwebs out, re­strengthen my skills and give me the confidence that a professional pilot requires to do the job well when “Murphy’s Law” rears its ugly head.
The five­day course started on a Monday morning in a well­appointed classroom of their massive complex with a great view of DFW. I glanced around the room to see eight other pilots in my class from various companies. My instructor, Steven Kopankis, has an extensive background in professional aviation, but I knew immediately I wouldn’t be learning just from Steven, but the entire class and their experiences would
The cockpit procedures training room that allows pilots to go through the motions of exercising memory items.
be a plethora of information. Throughout the week, this belief came to fruition as we all shared operating procedures and “things” each student had seen in the King Air 200 throughout our respective careers. This environment was very helpful to the learning process, and Steven was very knowledgeable and genuinely cares that his students are learning.
After spending a full day in the classroom on Monday, Tuesday yielded another wealth of information and systems review. Although class ran until 6:00 p.m., no one minded because of the great interaction amongst the
students with the class syllabus and objectives. It was time well spent. In addition to spending time in the simulator, CAE has a CPT (cockpit procedures training) room. This was an extremely beneficial venue to visit and go through the motions of exercising your memory items. The redundancy reinforced the muscle memory that is required to respond correctly, and effectively, in the simulator during emergencies.
CAE’s full motion King Air 200 simulator is unbelievably realistic; these are multi­million dollar ma­ chines on massive hydraulic actu­ ators. The moment you cross the catwalk and enter the simulator, you feel like you’ve stepped into the real thing. As I sat down in the left seat, I immediately felt like I was sitting in the cockpit again. Once I got through my expanded check­ list and the aircraft (simulator) was started, I conducted the run­up, got my departure and taxi clearance, and was ready to have some fun and learn (remember Maslow’s theory? I felt safe.). In addition to being a safe learning environment, the simulator
14 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JANUARY 2017