I am looking to organise a session at the BAFT simulators at Heathrow. We have been recommended to use the 747-400 simulators and they have the latest virtual systems on them apparently. This will be a repeat of the outing we did last year in October.

Previous Trip Reports for the 747-400 Simulators

• My TR from last year’s outing here.
• GodAtum has tried them and did a report here.

Cost
Each simulator holds 4 people and one instructor. The total cost of a 4 hour session in one simulator would be £1,700, and this would give around 45-60 minutes of time per person on the controls – although we would rotate during the session so this would be split in to a number of smaller time chunks.

As we are charged per simulator generally a group in multiples of 4 would be ideal, with cost per person being £425.

If we only had three people for example we would still have to pay £1,700 so the cost per person increases to £567 per person, although we would each get a bit more time at the controls. If we end up with 5 or 6 though it may well make sense to go to 1 simulator to reduce the cost and have say 45/50 minutes each per simulator.

Basically once we confirm numbers we can make a choice if we don't have a multiple of 4, although a multiple of 4 would be ideal.

Payment
Once the date is confirmed and booked each person would pay their share directly to BAFT, this is likely to be around August when payment is due. It would be non-refundable so if you don't show you would unfortunately not get your money back, but this stops those that do show all of a sudden having to cover any no-show's share. If you do commit and pay and find in a few months you can't make it one option may be to see if a friend, work colleague, or other FT'er can come and take your place and they can pay you directly for your share which you have already paid to BAFT.

I will ensure that we are absolutely not going to be in a situation on the day where I am asking those that have come along to dip in to their pockets to cover any additional cost. Sorry this seems a bit harsh, but I don't think anyone wants to turn up finding instead of £3,400 divided by 8 it is suddenly only divided by 6.

Dates & Times
Unfortunately weekends are not possible for a group booking, so the options are weekdays and the time slots available would be 0700-1100, 1100-1500, 1500-1900, or 1900-2300. My own preference would be a Friday and probably 1900-2300 as (coming from the regions) I would only need to take half a day off work and wouldn't have to worry about getting back for working the next day. For those in London or around the South East you could come in the evening and there would be no need for any holiday being used.

If we booked for a date within 3 months it would be difficult so choose what we wanted due to availability. However, beyond 3 months is much better and we should be able to book our choice of date & time. In order to do this we need to book by the end of May at the latest.

The date selected is:

• Friday 2 October 1900-2300 - KARFA, FastTrak2Elite, flatlander, matthandy, GDOCP, 12939, Jagboi 7

Standby - csutter, KARFA+1, patentlyobvious, BoeBus, v2837v

We will be booking two 747 simulators for the evening, one for 3 and the other for 4:

Group of 3 -flatlander, KARFA, 12939 - to pay £566.67 each
Group of 4 - FastTrak2Elite, matthandy, GDOCP, Jagboi - to pay £425 each

Location
The BAFT site and simulators are located just outside the Eastern perimeter of Heathrow. More details here.

This year the simulators are all gradually being moved from Cranebank to another facility closer to the Engineering Base at Heathrow. 4 flight simulators have already moved and the whole project will be completed in November of this year. The result of this is if we end up taking one simulator, it would probably be at Cranebank. However, if we ended up taking two simulators, they would probably be in the new facility which is at the Engineering Base near Hatton Cross tube station.