It is a bit late on Thursday evening, Deb and I just finished putting the weekend stuff on Kintala. This should be mostly a work weekend; fixing leaks, finding engine noises, putting up the new topping lift. We hope to get a little sailing in as well but we will just let the weekend unfold as it will. It is good to be back on board.
Recurrent training went as expected, though the underlying thought that this might be my last rodeo cast an odd light on the week. If this was my last go-around I managed it without crashing the sim; though I did put a few simulated dings in it. That scenario started with an all engines failure on a night cross country and at 25,000 feet, with an extended glide to the closest suitable runway we could find (Jonseboro in this case). With no hydraulics and a rapidly depleted battery there were no flaps, no boards, no brakes, no TRs, and we had to do a manual gear extension. We thumped it down on a runway but using the emergency braking system resulted in a blown tire, the simulated jet coming to a rest just a few feet short of the end of the simulated runway. Interesting. My new co-driver got the hardest sim session with his all engines inoperative game starting just a couple of thousand feet up after a departure. Against all odds he got it turned around and back down on a runway, though to make it to concrete he had to leave the wheels up and slide into a simulated belly-flopper of a landing. The box makes ugly noises when it detects such an event, but also determined the impact was survivable - the whole reason for the exercise.
The real jet is still in maintenance with a to-do list to rival Kintala's. So far there is no word as to when we can go back to flying the real thing. That's how I managed to squeeze out an extra day for working on the boat. The carp are still this evening, (must be below their minimum operating temperature out there) the heater is much quieter than the a/c, and the V-berth is calling my name. It is good to be home.
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