Saab340Pilot--Thanks for the post. Congratulations on making it to the major league.
I think flight sim is a great outlet for wannabee frustration.
Unrelated to flight sim really- but on a flight from IAD to MDW one time I was on a DC9 taxiing to our rwy. My girlfriend and I decided to request a back seat behind the wings and next to the engines to get some pictures. As we taxied out I was looking into the front of the engine and wondering why the fwd turbine wasnt rotating. I thought "oh boy".
Is this normal?", I thought. I just decided that we were taxiing with engine no. 2 until we get to our holding position to conserve gas, then warm up no.1 and go. Well there wasn't any delay. We rounded the rwy and all the ponies started singing. Thrust felt good and we were rotatin. I decided I didnt know everything about jet engines. That turbine looking thing didnt move for the whole flight. Must not be a turbine I thought, maybe an air diffuser of some sort. I'm glad I didnt run to the flight deck.
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Rotate, Please!
http://bigjets.tripod.com/flightline/