Oh my god, I’m so excited.........
Discussion
I have just been asked by a good friend who is a training captain for a major airline if I’m free later this evening have a play for 4 hours on an A320 simulator...........
Just the two of us and I he can program it to do whatever I like - not sure what we’re going to do but I’m like a little child at Christmas.........I can’t bloody wait
Just the two of us and I he can program it to do whatever I like - not sure what we’re going to do but I’m like a little child at Christmas.........I can’t bloody wait
Well..............
4 hours of serious playing
Lots of take off’s/landings in fine, wet, windy, snowy weather, in day and night etc
Bird strikes, engine failure in flight, on take off
Stalls at various heights to show what the aircraft is capable of.
A few circuits in and out of various difficult airports around Europe.
All sorts of experiences and wow........just wow.
The sim doesn’t have NY so we had to simulate a bird strike at 3000ft from Nice and returned (and crashed!) for the Sully experience.
I’ve been in many cockpits however the amount of work being done not only flying but programming is frankly astonishing - quick but there’s a lot of it.
There must have been 15 sims in the building, A320’s, various private jets, an A340 & a 747
4 hours of serious playing
Lots of take off’s/landings in fine, wet, windy, snowy weather, in day and night etc
Bird strikes, engine failure in flight, on take off
Stalls at various heights to show what the aircraft is capable of.
A few circuits in and out of various difficult airports around Europe.
All sorts of experiences and wow........just wow.
The sim doesn’t have NY so we had to simulate a bird strike at 3000ft from Nice and returned (and crashed!) for the Sully experience.
I’ve been in many cockpits however the amount of work being done not only flying but programming is frankly astonishing - quick but there’s a lot of it.
There must have been 15 sims in the building, A320’s, various private jets, an A340 & a 747
Edited by HoHoHo on Friday 8th December 09:50
silverfoxcc said:
I weigh 15 stone,can you smuggle me in there in a suitcase...LOTS of money will change hands!!!
Enjoy yourself. i really envy you ,in the nicest way
Full report and vids ( if poss) mandatory
Sadly the experience was overnight last night!Enjoy yourself. i really envy you ,in the nicest way
Full report and vids ( if poss) mandatory
I've had some limited experience and found the 'flying' relatively easy. It's the failures, alarms and the procedure that gets your pulse going. Engine fails, check lists etc. and the best option it appears is to keep calm and carry on taking your time to sort the situation.
HoHoHo said:
I’ve been in a non-moving 737-800 sim previously for 45 minutes but this is the ‘real deal’
I bought myself a Groupon for an hour in a non-moving 737-800 last month. It was brilliant. You're right about the amount of programming - we spent about half the time setting up the route on the flight computer etc. Once we got going, the flight I did from Glasgow to Aldergrove seemed to pass in a couple of minutes (I know it's only really about 20-30 mins in the air). The thing I found hardest was doing a visual cross-wind landing - you find yourself trying to line up with the runway while you're being blown sideways. Once I'd got my head round that, it wasn't too tricky.What did you find was the biggest difference between the 737 & A320? The sim operator/first officer said I was being too gentle with the controls & that the 737 needs a bit more of a shove on the yoke vs more measured inputs on the sidestick of the Airbus.
Either way - I'm seriously jealous!
alangla said:
HoHoHo said:
I’ve been in a non-moving 737-800 sim previously for 45 minutes but this is the ‘real deal’
I bought myself a Groupon for an hour in a non-moving 737-800 last month. It was brilliant. You're right about the amount of programming - we spent about half the time setting up the route on the flight computer etc. Once we got going, the flight I did from Glasgow to Aldergrove seemed to pass in a couple of minutes (I know it's only really about 20-30 mins in the air). The thing I found hardest was doing a visual cross-wind landing - you find yourself trying to line up with the runway while you're being blown sideways. Once I'd got my head round that, it wasn't too tricky.What did you find was the biggest difference between the 737 & A320? The sim operator/first officer said I was being too gentle with the controls & that the 737 needs a bit more of a shove on the yoke vs more measured inputs on the sidestick of the Airbus.
Either way - I'm seriously jealous!
With regard to movement of the sim I was amazed with the realism - aside from taxiing which made me feel quite
It's an odd feeling and totally disorientating. Stalling was amazing and we even completed two rolls Still buzzing!
HoHoHo said:
The main difference is the yoke - 737 has a traditional one but the A320 has a joystick. The joystick is very sensitive and when landing requires really small inputs otherwise you go all over the place. You don;t also have a visual reference of where the yoke is. You can move it one way slightly and then it re-centres where of course a Boeing will show what the flight controls are doing.
And naff all interconnection 'feel' between 'side-sticks' either, as could be seen as a culprit of the AF447 crash off Brazil.aeropilot said:
HoHoHo said:
The main difference is the yoke - 737 has a traditional one but the A320 has a joystick. The joystick is very sensitive and when landing requires really small inputs otherwise you go all over the place. You don;t also have a visual reference of where the yoke is. You can move it one way slightly and then it re-centres where of course a Boeing will show what the flight controls are doing.
And naff all interconnection 'feel' between 'side-sticks' either, as could be seen as a culprit of the AF447 crash off Brazil.Amazing with all the alarms a simple push of the joystick and throttle up would apparently have go them out of trouble rather than pulling back frantically.
Mate of mine is a BA pilot and got me on the 737 Sim at Heathrow a few years back, was incredible fun.
His full bore takeoff from Gatwick, fly under the footbridge and land again as a fast as possible challenge was impressive.
Engine failure on Takeoff was far less dramatic than I thought.
I thought steering the f
ker on the ground with the side wheel thing and keeping it straight/vaguely near the runway and not on the grass was harder than flying the thing! 
Glad you had fun OP.
His full bore takeoff from Gatwick, fly under the footbridge and land again as a fast as possible challenge was impressive.
Engine failure on Takeoff was far less dramatic than I thought.
I thought steering the f
ker on the ground with the side wheel thing and keeping it straight/vaguely near the runway and not on the grass was harder than flying the thing! Glad you had fun OP.
TIGA84 said:
Mate of mine is a BA pilot and got me on the 737 Sim at Heathrow a few years back, was incredible fun.
His full bore takeoff from Gatwick, fly under the footbridge and land again as a fast as possible challenge was impressive.
Engine failure on Takeoff was far less dramatic than I thought.
I thought steering the fker on the ground with the side wheel thing and keeping it straight/vaguely near the runway and not on the grass was harder than flying the thing!
Glad you had fun OP.
Did the Gatwick take off and fly under the bridge excercise as well!His full bore takeoff from Gatwick, fly under the footbridge and land again as a fast as possible challenge was impressive.
Engine failure on Takeoff was far less dramatic than I thought.
I thought steering the f
ker on the ground with the side wheel thing and keeping it straight/vaguely near the runway and not on the grass was harder than flying the thing! Glad you had fun OP.
Well, my mate did slightly better than me, 4ft off the ground and straight under, I didn’t do quite so well
my ex-father in law used to be a pilot for Cathay Pacific and then Virgin Atlantic.
When he was still out in HK he managed to get me in a 747 simulator for a couple of hours.
This was back in the 90's so a lot less sophisticated than today, but still able to program landing at Kai-Tak airport at night in the fog, and I think snowing as well, I crashed and wiped out most of the airport.
Perhaps it was just as well I didn't join the Navy to fly helichoppers
When he was still out in HK he managed to get me in a 747 simulator for a couple of hours.
This was back in the 90's so a lot less sophisticated than today, but still able to program landing at Kai-Tak airport at night in the fog, and I think snowing as well, I crashed and wiped out most of the airport.
Perhaps it was just as well I didn't join the Navy to fly helichoppers
While I was in college back in 2000 I did a week of work experience at RAF Wittering. I was given a couple of hours in the Harrier flight sim on the Tuesday evening.
I will never forget that experience. Thankfully I had done a little bit of flying with the RAF cadets and had some serious enthusiasm for PC based flight simulators so I was actually able to fly the Harrier sim and enjoy my time in the seat.
I will never forget that experience. Thankfully I had done a little bit of flying with the RAF cadets and had some serious enthusiasm for PC based flight simulators so I was actually able to fly the Harrier sim and enjoy my time in the seat.
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