Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Simulator

Tuesday Eric arranged for me to get a tour of the flight simulator which he's "flying" everyday. The program manager, Pete, and Eric showed me what there is to see at FlightSafety International.



I really enjoyed to get an insight on what Eric is doing. Here's the simulator from the outside. It's sitting on spider-y, hydraulic legs that move the cabin/cockpit up and down giving the pilots on the inside a more realistic flight experience. In the picture the cockpit is on the left. 4 screens, in the bubbly looking part, show what the pilots would see when they look out of the windows. This thing is huge!!!



Here Pete opens the door to the simulator. One has to walk across a little bridge to get inside. The bridge removes itself once the cabin is "loaded".



Once inside you first see the instructors "station" with computers, etc. to the left before you get into the cockpit (which was taken from a retired real aircraft):



We all sat down- I sat in the pilot's seat!!!!!! Eric sat in the co-pilot's and Pete in the instructor's seat. He used the computer to put us on the runway at Dothan airport. From here on Eric took over!!!! He did a take off, then Pete used the computer to put us at the Washigton/Dulles airport so we could see the memorials and Potomac river. After flying around a bit Eric performed a beautiful but a bit wobbly landing.

This what you see when you look out front (the instructor can change the weather conditions or make the aircraft malfunction, etc. from his station at any given time):









Although the tour was only about 45 minutes long I really enjoyed it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

What a great opportunity for you to "fly" with Eric and to see what he is doing everyday. So glad you had the chance. Travel safe and keep in touch. Safe travels and hugs from Ohio.