My "go" on a DC-10 simulator
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 77
Likes: 0
From: near EGCC/EGCD, England
My "go" on a DC-10 simulator
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
. 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
. 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
Joined: Apr 2000
Posts: 438
Likes: 3
From: South of YSSY
Well done, G-BPEC! I have a soft spot for the old "Diesel-10", wouldn't mind a try myself but unlikely as I'm half a world away and there are no DC-10 sims in Oz that I know of.
Good luck with the flying career.
Good luck with the flying career.
Joined: Sep 1999
Posts: 95
Likes: 0
From: Yorkshire
G BPEC,
Well done mate! I have been looking at these packages in WHSmiths for a while, could you chose which sim you wanted to go in or was that already selected before you got there?? Did you feel that 30mins was long enough?? because i know that Vitual Aviation do sim rides but they cost a fortune £500+ for an hour i think and thats done at cranebank in the BA sims.
Cheers
Well done mate! I have been looking at these packages in WHSmiths for a while, could you chose which sim you wanted to go in or was that already selected before you got there?? Did you feel that 30mins was long enough?? because i know that Vitual Aviation do sim rides but they cost a fortune £500+ for an hour i think and thats done at cranebank in the BA sims.
Cheers
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 77
Likes: 0
From: near EGCC/EGCD, England
Si,
Once you get the booklet thing that comes with the package, it gives you a choice of locations, and it also tells you that typically you will be flying a DC-10 or MD-83 sim, and you will typically take off and land from Gatwick. I actually took off and landed from New York, so that bit was wrong. I wasn't given a choice as to which sim I could go on, I was literally just taken to the DC-10 simulator. You are supposed to get 20 minutes, so I was lucky to get 30 actually I think that it was long enough to do what I wanted to do, which was to get some impression of the handling, and take off and land the thing.
Hope that helps
G-BPEC
Once you get the booklet thing that comes with the package, it gives you a choice of locations, and it also tells you that typically you will be flying a DC-10 or MD-83 sim, and you will typically take off and land from Gatwick. I actually took off and landed from New York, so that bit was wrong. I wasn't given a choice as to which sim I could go on, I was literally just taken to the DC-10 simulator. You are supposed to get 20 minutes, so I was lucky to get 30 actually
I think that it was long enough to do what I wanted to do, which was to get some impression of the handling, and take off and land the thing.Hope that helps
G-BPEC
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Joined: Dec 1997
Aviation Qualifications: ATPL
Posts: 4,929
Likes: 6
From: Suffolk UK
I think it's General Electric Company Aviation Training. As for contact details, you'll have to try directory enquiries! Sorry, but I don't have a number. The Crawley outfit is on Fleming Way, Manor Royal, Crawley RH10 (opposite Virgin's HQ).
