I am thinking of getting one of the BA flight slim experiences as a joint birthday treat for myself and volcanolady - has anyone on the forum done this? Any top tips?! I notice that there is very little (read: none) availability for the B777 which is a shame, that's the type I wanted to try, being the newest. I guess BA are busy training real customers!
Yes. I have done it on a number of occasions, both with and without the BA pilots on board. The 777 is worth waiting for if you can be patient ! Slots on the 777 are not as rare as the Airbus slots, which are like gold dust (and not available to the general unwashed masses off-the-street) ! If a 747 is available, that's not a bad substitute for a 777.
Top tip would be to book a long a session as you can afford. A short session will go incredibly quickly, particularly if you've got no prior flying experience and hence will have a lot of hand-holding ( I fortunately had prior experience so was able to get down to business).
Other than that, if you've got no prior experience, pay attention to the pre-flight briefing .... you want to maximise your time in the sim and not waste time having them to repeat stuff they already told you.
Finally, if there is stuff you know you want to experience, make a short list and have a chat with your BA pilot before you get in the sim so that he/she can plan and try to fit it in for you. One "cool" thing you should ask to do is a CAT III Autoland.... ;-)
Since you are on an "experience", you don't have navigation or communications to worry about, you only have to worry about the aviation aspect of flying. One of the main things to remember there is you need to "stay ahead of the aircraft". Given that you are not in a flight training situation, just on an "experience" event such as this if you feel you are falling behind, take advantage of the fact that you are in a simulator that is quick to reset.... and get the scenario reset and try again.... earlier rather than later... because the later you leave it, the less time you have to try again !
Oh....one more thing VolcanoMan..... if you spend your spare time on a PC flight simulator (or intend to "prepare" yourself using one).... forget it. Chalk and cheese. A PC sim will bear no resemblance.
Last edited by Short Final; Dec 16, 12 at 12:57 pm..
I did it about a year or so again. A slightly surreal experience. Not really set up for the general public. Not exactly sure what I was expecting, but there is no real associated "experience". Flew down to LHR then had to make my own way to the training centre (taxi driver had no idea where it was. I think you can get a crew bus but didnt fancy that.
Arrived at centre and again not really sure where to go (it was a saturday) so not many people about. Eventually found a security PortaKabin. After numerous phonecalls, I was told to wait in the street. Eventually a charming retired Captain appeared and took me and my friend through to a small classroom. Rather than being treated like a special occassion, it was more like "why on earth have you chosen to do this".
Anyway we were scheduled on the 757. It was being used by El Al pilots which ran over time into our time slot, we were then ushered on and shown around. The simulator then failed twice and had to be rebooted (which took 30 mins).
Decided to split the remaining time between me and my friend which was probably too short. We got a little extra time because of all the delays at the end, but we had to curtail this as we had a flight to catch. Because of the rush, the Captain drove us back to T5 which was a nice touch.
Great to get a shot on a real life simulator, but it was far from the "experience" that i was expecting, especially for the money paid. There were lots of simulators lying empty so I wasnt sure why there wasnt availability on other aircraft, presumably its trainer dependent too. Did enjoy it but it could be made so much better.
Well, not sure how much you need to pay to be in a simulator for that. Surely it's pretty much "sit back and keep an eye on things"?
I assumed the original poster had no prior flying experience and so would be approaching the event as an average passenger.
Therefore I suggested the CATIII Autoland off the top of my head as one example to show what these aircraft are capable of, and it is something that your average passenger would probably find "cool". Some people don't even realise the aircraft can do that.
Added to that, its quick to setup and demo, so won't eat up too much time.
Sure I could have said something silly like .... "try a hand-flown wet crosswind landing at limits on one engine with some gusts and windshear thrown in for good measure" or "try your hand at a BA38 style emergency" ..... but if the original poster had no prior flying experience that would be a waste of time, especially if they are only going to have the minimum 15-30 minutes in the sim then wasting time on things they're not capable of without substantial hand-holding by a BA pilot is throwing money down the pan (no point asking the assigned BA pilot to demonstrate it either, because you're only eating into your own time !).
Last edited by Short Final; Dec 16, 12 at 1:22 pm..
Programs: MUCCI x 3, BA Silver + Accor, Amex, Waitrose & Harris Teeter.
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I'm just waiting to win one from the BA Advent Calendar.
Done a fair few Sim runs in the past - Hunter, Lightning, Hawk, Tornado. And loads of ATC Sim time, including weeks at the NATS Evaluation Unit doing trials! .
I won't mention MS Flight Sim... Oops.
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Thanks short final (et al) for the detailed feedback, sounds excellent. I guess I will do the 747 as backup and cross fingers that the 777 opens up. I actually held (some years ago) a PPL so I am hoping the general handling will at least come back and be of use! I was planning on doing the 3 hour program too - want to do some circuits, a short-ish flight or two, and maybe some night simulations (something I never did as a VFR pilot!).
The appetite is whetted... and is likely to be the week after the Manchester DO and Concorde tour (hoping I can go) so fingers crossed. I wonder if they'd stamp my old log book???
night simulations (something I never did as a VFR pilot!)
Night stuff is a good thing to do in a sim ..... as high-resolution external graphics are not one of the things you get included in your multi-million pound simulator, so day VFR is pretty basic.
If you want to do some circuits and night (or day) VFR approaches, get them to set you up somewhere "interesting" rather than LHR after the first circuit or two. After the demise of Kai Tak (I believe it's firmly deleted from the sim database these days), there are not many places left that are so extreme, but there are a few spots that have either short-ish runways or tricky noise abatement profiles.
Don't forget to check the training screens to see how stable your approaches were ! ;-) (they'll probably show you anyway as part of the experience)
Last edited by Short Final; Dec 16, 12 at 2:07 pm..
Programs: MUCCI x 3, BA Silver + Accor, Amex, Waitrose & Harris Teeter.
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OK - Simulator 'war story'.
I was working on achieving the provision of a Visual ATC Simulator for Local Control Training at the RAF Central Air Traffic School. CGI and all that good stuff. Techie colleague and I were exploring what everyone else was doing, which involved everything from the French Mil ATC school with aircraft on sticks mounted on a model railway to the Australians' CGI system (dammit, we had to go and see that).
Anywaaaay … one day we went to Farnborough (IIRC) where they had some super cockpit CGI test rigs. Cracking. Basic ockpit, brilliant imagery … but no motion. Oh, so here come the disturbed eustachian tubes, when the visual inputs didn't correlate to the motion that wasn't there. My colleague lasted about 4 minutes before leaving the Lab to be air-sick!
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Last edited by T8191; Dec 17, 12 at 2:11 am..
Reason: poop punctuation
Haha! I recon uncle T is everyone's favorite "oldie Ft'er" by now
That trip to Oz must have been hell...
Myself, I'll see if I can keep up with the Sim, I suspect they can program it to be 1000% cleverer than me (not hard!). I'll try and think of some interesting approaches, too... I think NCL (keeping it local) is a short runway, even. Would they have that loaded in to the 747 sim though???
Would they have that loaded in to the 747 sim though???
A quick lazy Google search revealed a FlyerTalk thread saying that as part of the celebrations for the 75th Anniversary of Newcastle Airport, BA operated BA1326 LHR-NCL and BA1327 NCL-LHR on a Boeing 747-400.
(FlyerTalk thread full of people having wet dreams about it can be found here)
So it can be done.
Glad I didn't have to look up the charts for NCL.
They are apparently quite rare sights at NCL....same search revealed the following quote from an airport spokesman "There's been a few that have come through over the years but you'd be lucky to see one more than once every two or three years".
Last edited by Short Final; Dec 16, 12 at 2:46 pm..
I am thinking of getting one of the BA flight slim experiences as a joint birthday treat for myself and volcanolady - has anyone on the forum done this? Any top tips?! I notice that there is very little (read: none) availability for the B777 which is a shame, that's the type I wanted to try, being the newest. I guess BA are busy training real customers!
Programs: Virgin Flying Club Red, Emirates Skywards Blue, BA Executive Club Bronze, Amex BA
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Short Final
Oh....one more thing VolcanoMan..... if you spend your spare time on a PC flight simulator (or intend to "prepare" yourself using one).... forget it. Chalk and cheese. A PC sim will bear no resemblance.
I have had a few 100 hours on the FSX PMDG 737. Know the checklists, procedures, ILS and FMC. Will that help in the simulator?
Programs: MUCCI x 3, BA Silver + Accor, Amex, Waitrose & Harris Teeter.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GodAtum
I have had a few 100 hours on the FSX PMDG 737. Know the checklists, procedures, ILS and FMC. Will that help in the simulator?
With apologies to Short Final, IMO the answer is a conditional "Yes". At the very least you know where things are located and what they look like, instead of scanning the cockpit trying to find them. However, nothing in FSX will replicate the motion or the feel of the controls.
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