A Little Sleep Deprivation Goes A Long Way

Full time job. Family. FOS and Commercial Multi Engine add-on. Trying to close on a mortgage. There are a lot of balls in the air right now. The is no one but myself to blame.

FOS schedule this week: Jet simulator 6a-10a, class 10-Noon and 1-3. Instructor brief 3-4. Each day there is at least one test. So far this week, we've been tested on about 25% of the immediate actions, Part 121 instrument regulations and CRJ-200 limitations. Immediate Actions must be memorized verbatim. There are 30 immediate action items for the CRJ-200. Each one has from 3 to 10 steps. The ones in red have been memorized and tested so far.

1. Passenger Evacuation
2. Loss of All AC Power
3. Aileron System Jammed
4. Elevator System Jammed
5. Rudder System Jammed
6. STAB Trim Runaway
7. Brake OVHT Msg
8. MLD (main landing gear) BAY OVHT Msg
9. During Landing - Excessive Asymmetry or Loss of Braking
10. Configuration Warning
11. Engine Hot Start
12. Interrupted Start
13. No Lightoff
14. N2 Stagnation
15. NO STARTER CUTOUT Msg or Engine Starter Fails to Cutout
16. Rejected Takeoff
17. L or R ENG Fire Msg or Severe Engine Damage (In Flight)
18. L or R ENG Fire Msg or Severe Engine Damage (On Ground)
19. L or R JETPIPE OVHT Msg
20. Post Shutdown Engine Tailpipe Fire
21. Double Engine Failure
22. L or R REV UNLOCKED Msg
23. Uncommanded Acceleration or ENGINE OVERSPEED Msg
24. Flight Compartment Smoke Removal Procedure
25. Air-Conditioning Smoke
26. Electrical Smoke or Fire
27. SMOKE CARGO Msg
28. CABIN ALT Msg or Emergency Descent Procedure
29. APU FIRE Msg
30. Ditching or Forced Landing Imminent

The fun part of FOS training is the sim time. Of course there are many things to memorize there:

1. SAFETY CHECK
2. ORIGINATING CHECK/FLOW
3. COPILOT
4. TAKEOFF BRIEF
5. BEFORE START CHECK
6. CLEARED TO START CHECK
7. AFTER START CHECK/FLOW
8. FLAPS (20) TAXI CHECK/FLOW
9. BEFORE TAKEOFF CHECK/FLOW
10. CLIMB CHECK
11. APPROACH BRIEF
12. IN RANGE CHECK
13. 10,000 FOOT CHECK
14. BEFORE LANDING CHECK/FLOW
15. AFTER LANDING CHECK
16. SHUT DOWN CHECK/FLOW
17. TERMINATING CHECK

Some of the items are silent checks, some are Pilot, some are CoPilot and some are challenge & response items. All must be memorized. Where will it all fit? My brain is like a computer running Windows 95 with a full hard drive.

One thing's for sure, instrument currency isn't an issue. I have logged a ton of approaches, holds and intercepts. ILS Cat II down to minimums, Localizers, back-course, LDA, RNAV and VOR approaches galore. It's exceptionally fun to hand fly a precision approach. Vref is usually around 140kts and about 50 kts faster than anything I'm used to flying!

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As I learn more there will hopefully be time to blog about information on the CRJ.

Spare time is at a very big premium and sleep even more so. I've been averaging 5 hours every night. There's just too much information in my head. My wife say's I've been doing approach briefs in my sleep. She puts up with a lot!