RENTON — As pilot Gregg Pointon guides a Boeing Co. 787 toward the runway, he triggers a warning signal in the cockpit.
“Bank angle warning. Bank angle warning,” drones a digital voice from the flight deck.
Pointon eases back, so that the plane isn’t making a turn at more than a 30 degree angle as the runway comes into view. As Seattle-Tacoma International Airport — complete with terminals, hangars and other planes — comes into view.
But Pointon isn’t taking one of Boeing’s flight test 787s out for a spin around the Puget Sound area. Instead, he’s sitting inside a flight simulator in Renton. Flight simulators like the one Pointon uses are an integral part of the training for pilots with customers of the new Dreamliner.
Buying a new aircraft model, like the 787, isn’t like buying a new car. It takes model-specific training — for airline pilots, flight attendants and maintenance workers — to operate Boeing’s all-new, mostly composite jet.
As technology has improved so has Boeing’s training methods. No longer do pilots or mechanics receive gigantic manuals on how to fly or repair a new aircraft.
“It’s all about no paper,” said Sherry Carbary, Boeing vice president of commercial aviation flight services.
Ultimately, Boeing’s goal is to make training, and operating 787s, easier for its airline customers. For instance, taking a commercial pilot out of service to train is a costly element of adding an all-new jet to a carrier’s fleet. However, Boeing’s digital and Web-based system allows pilots to complete initial training without having to drop everything and physically come to Seattle.
“Overall, our goal is to save customers time and money,” Carbary said.
After completing computer-based training, pilots spend about 18 hours in a flight training device that’s a step down from a full simulator. The device is more mobile and less expensive — a significant step for carriers that like to train their own pilots on new aircraft.
Eventually, pilots spend time in a full 787 simulator like the one Pointon demonstrated to the media Thursday. Boeing has simulators not only in Seattle but in four other locations worldwide. A pilot can be trained to fly a 787 in five to 20 days, based on which aircraft the pilot already operates.
The fuel-efficient jet has more than 800 unfilled orders from airlines that need to train their personnel to fly and operate their new planes.
Already Boeing has worked with several airlines — including launch customer All Nippon Airways as well Japan Airlines and Chile’s LAN, who will receive the earliest deliveries on various training. As soon as Boeing 787s are flying commercially, airline mechanics need to train on how to fix the airplanes should a problem occur.
Although Boeing is still clearing some of the long-term maintenance and repair procedures with the Federal Aviation Administration, the company has determined that an airline will need about 326 tools to maintain a 787 jet over its lifetime. About one-third of those will be required initially, said Mike Fleming, director of 787 services and support. But a 787 mechanic’s most important tool will be a laptop loaded with the information needed to keep a Dreamliner in the air.
In fact, Boeing’s 787 maintenance program also is Web-based and takes about five weeks to complete. Mechanics learn to fix problems with Boeing’s new jet through a virtual program that re-creates the airplane on the computer screen.
“When people finish this class, they know how to troubleshoot on the airplane,” said Jeff Haber, manager of 787 maintenance training.
In some ways, that’s a lot of what Pointon says that pilots learn in the 787 simulator. For most pilots, the challenge will be adapting to a digital flight deck that allows the operator to see more information on additional displays. Having that information more readily accessible and visible should allow for safer operation of the 787.
After Boeing’s 787 pilot training, Pointon got to take up the third 787 flight test airplane this summer.
“I felt extremely prepared to fly that plane,” he said.
Take a flight on the 787
Watch video of a takeoff and landing from Boeing’s 787 flight simulator at tinyurl.com/Herald787FlightSim.
Coming Monday
Learn more about the services side of the Boeing Co. in Monday’s business section of The Herald.
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