Reply #39: Here is some info from the 911 commission:

[Kingshakabobo]

I don't think these guys were using the ww2 vintage mechanical simulators I used in high school. These were serious professional flight schools. I know the instructors weren't impressed but altimeter setting is basic stuff and their use of it is HARDLY a "smoking gun."

Question: What is your opinion on the so called "fancy maneuver"? It appears to me that he used that go around to bleed off 6000ft in altitude and set up an approach.


http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch7.htm


In early 2001, he started training on a Boeing 737 simulator at Pan Am International Flight Academy in Mesa. An instructor there found his work well below standard and discouraged him from continuing. Again, Hanjour persevered; he completed the initial training by the end of March 2001

....

The three pilots in Florida continued with their training. Atta and Shehhi finished up at Huffman and earned their instrument certificates from the FAA in November. In mid-December 2000, they passed their commercial pilot tests and received their licenses. They then began training to fly large jets on a flight simulator. At about the same time, Jarrah began simulator training, also in Florida but at a different center. By the end of 2000, less than six months after their arrival, the three pilots on the East Coast were simulating flights on large jets.65