Full Flightsimulator Boeing 737, almost a reward after those weeks of hard working. But on the other hand just a part of the training program. Although the sim is not from the latest generation and it's visual system is only capable of showing nightconditions the realism and feel is amazing!

The first 5 sessions were with Mr. Le Jeune a retired Belgian pilot who is an instructor for 44 years and has more than 30.000 hrs. He even owned his own company and instructed people from the Belgian Royal House. During those sessions we trained all kinds of situations including minor malfunctions, engine failures, fires, surges during take off, climb and cruise. We practiced emergency descent and an on ground evacuation. We get those malfunctions and emergencies because it requires the maximum of crew coordination. One pilot keeps flying while the other deals with the problem via procedures and continuously informs the pilot flying and visa versa.

Normally an MCC doesn't have an exam, but NLS has her own unofficial exam at the 6th session. Our examiner was Mr. Helsloot. An 737 instructor with good knowledge of KLM's procedures since he also trained a part of the crews flying the 737 at KLM today. The first session Sebastiaan was PF and I PNF. The second session we swept roles as usual. I had to fly a local training flight at EHRD (Rotterdam). First we had a RTO (Rejected Take Off) due to an engine failure around 110 kts, which went well. After the second attempt we had a bus off after passing 80 kts on which we continued the take off. After solving the problem we made a manual ILS approach at EHRD followed by a manual go-around at the minima's. After consulting about the weather we decided to divert to EHAM (Amsterdam). During the diversion we got an engine fire which resulted in an 1 engine out manual ILS approach manual landing at EHAM. This last landing was a very nice one...important when you finish something :-P

The session was ended by a debriefing where we discussed how we could have done things differently and even better. Most of the things were minor but can be improved as always. If you stop improving you are going backwards. He was satisfied by our performance and the overall result was that we both passed with an S+