Boeing Sim - English eccentricity at its finest
 

Just saw this (admittedly on the Daily Fail) and thought it was too fabulous not to share :)

An excerpt:

"A man who was forced to give up his dreams of becoming a pilot has spent 15 years building a replica cockpit in his bedroom.
John Davis, 54, forked out a staggering £20,000 constructing the life-sized Boeing 747-400 simulator at his home in Coventry."

Bravo Mr Davis! :D

Bet he gets cheap holiday flights!

Damn, and my friends thought that I was crazy when I spent a fraction of that money to get my PPL! Good for him :) I still love the old 744. My pet name for it, if the moderators will allow me to say it here is "Fat Bitch". Now now don't take offence to that. She isn't exactly small.

Wonderful ...... this is the best bit :

The only 'pet' name for the B747-400 is: "The Queen of the Skies", she is the only one and nothing else flying today even comes close. The next contender for that title has yet to be built. :)

With the 747-8 in service now, wouldn't that make the -400 the Queen Mother? :O

As the -400 burns more fuel it should be Drag Queen.

I beg to differ. "The Queen of the Skies" belonged to the VC10

IIRC I seem to remember a feature on Blue Peter back in the 70's about two teenagers who built a basic sim or cockpit in one of their bedrooms. Switches were made out of the caps from toothpaste tubes. I think they both wanted to be pilots so I wonder what happened to them?

The B-17 is by far Boeings best creation. She knew how to take a good beating - like a true woman :}

But when an Oriental (real pilot) does it it's touted as indication of malevolent intent.

Weird, our media.

Wonder if an estate agent would include the sim when valuing the house.

I'm proud to fly an aircraft from the same stable as the B-17. The Asiana accident also showed that Boeing still make seriously tough aircraft.

The whole 747 series has been called "Queen Of the Skies" since the -100 the -8 get's the name as well. Though I have heard "El Ocho" from my Freight Dog buddies down in Miami.

He wears his pilot uniform when he plays it...er.....flys.
No wonder the ladies enjoy it!! :8

In an American flight magazine round about 1960 there was a photo of
a modified Cadillac . The owner had bought from salvage the front end of a 649 Connie. He then fitted as much of the instrumentation and controls as he could possible cram into the Caddie so that there was no sign at all of the original dash let alone something as banal as a steering wheel.

No piddling little suction cap steering wheel for his kids when out for a drive with dad, occupying the right seat, as dad's copilot.

ahhh . .. . the puerile games people play to escape the serious business of life. Old mate Darrell used to say that the only diversion he could afford or justify from his job (manual labour) and his extensive reading of serious non-fiction was courtesy of his right hand.

There was an engineer in Cedar Rapids that built his own B737 simulator in his basement. Every year, he would take a weeks vacation and 'fly' it around the world with some mates.

As to the "Queen of the Skies", maybe, but anyone who has tried to put an empty B74 anything on a short runway in a crosswind has a couple other names for her. Same for anyone who has taken a -100 off of a balanced field at max weight. 44C out of DXB one day, and I am only here because we took off over the gulf. Two engines in the red. Lovely English lady comes on the blower, 'Connie I thought I told you climb?" We would love to, but this :mad::mad::mad::mad:. Anyway.