G-BPEC
27th Aug 2001, 13:48
Recently, I spent a fantastic hour and a half on a DC-10 simulator at GECAT at Heathrow, courtesy of the WHSmith "Amazing Adventures" experiences, which I was given as a present last Christmas. What follows is a brief description of a non-pilot's experience in there, for anyone who is interested.
So, after a nice complimentary cup of coffee in the reception area at GECAT, we were shown to the sim by the instructor, where she would give us our pre-flight briefing. I couldn't believe how big the sim was, I have to admit to being a tad scared at that point :D. We were signed in in the sim "logbook" and the door was opened.
As we stepped inside, I was volounteered to go first by the other 2 members of my group, which was.. errm.. nice. I was strapped in, and the instructor gave me a brief run through of the controls (I actually already knew much of what she was telling me... FS2000 isnt totally useless you know ;)). With that, she told me to advance the throttle levers forward to the orange pointer, and release the parking break. Oh My God. I have never experienced a feeling like it. 140 knots, and I pulled the coloumn back, put the gear up, and we were on our way. One thing I was surprised at is how much you have to pull the control coloum to get it to do what you want, until you trim (the art of which I had a little trouble grasping ;)) . The instructor handled the speed, and I flew a left circuit to join the Canarsie approach at New York, following the strobes in. On finals, the throttles were pulled back, and I tried to concentrate on keeping the PAPI's showing 2 red 2 whites. One thing I found was that you have to look at about 300 things at once. Touchdown was a little firm (700FPM.. ouch!) and I selected reverse thrust when the nose wheel was down, slowing us nicely down to anbout 60 knots, when I used the toe brakes.
This was repeated by 3 more landings, one visually, one having to capture the glideslope and one where I was allowed to handle the throttles myself.
Needless to say the 30 minutes flew (pun) by, and it was one of the best 30 minutes of my life. One of the other mambers of my group crashed onto the runway... "thrown about" isnt really the word, is it!!
On disembarking, the instructor siad that I had a good feel for the controls, and said that she was very impressed. She also urged me to pursue flying as a career (something which I had already decided to do).
All in all, a fantastic experience which I am so glad to have had. It has reaffirmed my ambition to be a pilot, and hopefully it won't be too long before I am landing for real :)
Hope you enjoyed reading this, I know it's a bit unusual, but I thought some of you might be interested.
Cheers
G-BPEC
So, after a nice complimentary cup of coffee in the reception area at GECAT, we were shown to the sim by the instructor, where she would give us our pre-flight briefing. I couldn't believe how big the sim was, I have to admit to being a tad scared at that point :D. We were signed in in the sim "logbook" and the door was opened.
As we stepped inside, I was volounteered to go first by the other 2 members of my group, which was.. errm.. nice. I was strapped in, and the instructor gave me a brief run through of the controls (I actually already knew much of what she was telling me... FS2000 isnt totally useless you know ;)). With that, she told me to advance the throttle levers forward to the orange pointer, and release the parking break. Oh My God. I have never experienced a feeling like it. 140 knots, and I pulled the coloumn back, put the gear up, and we were on our way. One thing I was surprised at is how much you have to pull the control coloum to get it to do what you want, until you trim (the art of which I had a little trouble grasping ;)) . The instructor handled the speed, and I flew a left circuit to join the Canarsie approach at New York, following the strobes in. On finals, the throttles were pulled back, and I tried to concentrate on keeping the PAPI's showing 2 red 2 whites. One thing I found was that you have to look at about 300 things at once. Touchdown was a little firm (700FPM.. ouch!) and I selected reverse thrust when the nose wheel was down, slowing us nicely down to anbout 60 knots, when I used the toe brakes.
This was repeated by 3 more landings, one visually, one having to capture the glideslope and one where I was allowed to handle the throttles myself.
Needless to say the 30 minutes flew (pun) by, and it was one of the best 30 minutes of my life. One of the other mambers of my group crashed onto the runway... "thrown about" isnt really the word, is it!!
On disembarking, the instructor siad that I had a good feel for the controls, and said that she was very impressed. She also urged me to pursue flying as a career (something which I had already decided to do).
All in all, a fantastic experience which I am so glad to have had. It has reaffirmed my ambition to be a pilot, and hopefully it won't be too long before I am landing for real :)
Hope you enjoyed reading this, I know it's a bit unusual, but I thought some of you might be interested.
Cheers
G-BPEC