OT - (Emirates) Aviation Experience in London
 

Maror Boris Johnson opened the Emirates Aviation Experience in London last week:
http://www.aviation-experience.com/

As it is only a couple of tube stops from home for me I may have a look - entrance fee seems very reasonable (is it effectively an advert for Emirates?!) and even the simulator price seems pretty good!

Has anyone else been yet?

More here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emira...xperience.html

Is this actually run by Emirates or TFL?

As admission is only £3 do they not accept Oyster like they do with the cable car?

Seems good value for 30mins in a simulator

I like that the opinion on that thread is that it would be better if BA ran it :)

I happened to be looking at the website last night as I am down in London in early August and fancied going along. Unfortunately the £3 entrance fee does not include the simulator which is £45/£35 extra. I will probably go along, and post my review on here afterwards.

Entrance:
Adults: £3.00
Children: £1.50

Simulator Experiences (30 minutes):
Airbus A380 simulator: £45.00
Boeing B777 simulator: £45.00
Early bird simulator (0800 - 1000 everyday): £35.00

Whoops - sorry, missed that one :eek:

Edit: I now see that it was in the Emirates forum, which I don't read - I thought it would be of more interest to those in London who may be more likely to fly BA (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :D)

Seems to me it's aimed at people who never see the inside of an aircraft.

I agree, I think it is meant to be a bit populist and not designed specifically for the FT geeks likes us. I am not expecting it to be a hardcore flight simulator experience, but hopefully it will be interesting nevertheless.

As mentioned before, I am down in London in two weeks time anyway, so I have now booked my ticket for the Emirates Aviation Experience on Sunday 11 August for 9am, and a 30 minute 777 simulator session at 9.15am (cost £3 entrance + £35 simulator). Seems like the simulator is for one person per 30 minute slot.

I will take photos and post a mini trip report if anyone is interested.

I was at the Emirates Aviation Experience this morning. I was staying fairly close by so was able to go early having pre-booked the entrance ticket (£3) and a 30 minute session in the 777 simulator (£35 as off-peak).

The aviation experience is right next door to the Greenwich terminal for the Emirates Air-line.

Exterior of the aviation experience.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-e...0/VQ5A4010.JPG

Once in you get a wristband tage which activates various things throughout. The main room you go in to has the lego RR Trent engine, some table top touchscreen tournaround games, a 3D simulation of an A380 in flight, an interactive aerodynamics game where you can design your own wing, and a large videoscreen showing the turnaround of an A380.

RR lego engine, very impressive.
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-j...0/VQ5A4014.JPG
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-O...0/VQ5A4015.JPG

Large screen showing A380 turnaround.
https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-k...0/VQ5A4017.JPG

There is also a mock-up Y seating area where you can watch a few short videos on subjects like cabin crew, how flying affects our bodies, and how the ICE system works. May be novel for some to experience Y seating in itself :p (although I think the pitch was a bit better than you would actually get on the plane)
https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-M...0/VQ5A4016.JPG

There is a gift shop and cafe at the back on the ground floor.

There is also an A380 cockpit/nose:
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-E...0/VQ5A4019.JPG

You go through the green door to go and see a video following a bag through the baggage system at DXB.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-l...0/VQ5A4013.JPG

To get to the sims you go through the red door and up the stairs. There are a few A380 and 777 simulators. I went on a 777 simualtor. The instructor is not a pilot, and he quickly went through the controls. The only things that work on the cockpit are the throttle (inc. reversers), yoke, rudders, brakes, and gear. The primary and navigation displays work but you can't adjust anything on them. There is a speedbrake lever and a flaps lever, but neither work. All the buttons shown are just graphics, there are no working buttons.

Sorry, didn't take a picture myself, so have a look at this link for someone elses photos.

You start by selecting a landing or takeoff from LHR or DXB. I did a takeoff from LHR from runway 27L, and did a left turn to bring the plane over London. The instructor realised I did very roughly know what I was doing so suggested I try landing at LCY - yes I know in a 777 you can't really. Anyway, I knew where LCY was so tried it, expect I landed short and too fast (no speedbrakes remember so difficult to keep the speed down on the sharp descent.

I reset and had a go at landing at LHR - which was fine. Then did another take-off from LHR and went for a landing at LCY again. This time landed late and too fast so couldn't stop by the end of the runway. That brought me to the end of the session, but the instructor said that he had managed to land an A380 at LCY. It wasn't busy on Sunday morning so there was no one on one of the A380 sims, so he offered to show me. I sat in teh first officer's seat, and he took off from LHR and tried landing at LCY from both approaches. He managed to do it. Anyway he took off from LCY, did a very tight turn and lined it up and let me have a go on the A380. This time I kept the speed down, avoided canary wharf, and got it down. After heavy braking and reverse thrust I managed to stop it about 10m short of the end of the runway.

So basically it does feel like a very sophisticated home simulator, kind of fsx but sat in a simplified cockpit. It is not equivalent to a full simulator, and there is no motion. However, if you accept these limitations it is actually very enjoyable. The 30 minutes went very quickly, and I was lucky to have another 10 minutes or so on the A380. I will go again sometime. At the off-peak price of £35 it is reasonable value for money, but £45 for normal hours is a bit more difficult to justify.

Thanks for the update - sounds like it is worth a visit (especially as I live 2 tube stops away!). Given that I don't know much about flying a plane I'll probably stick to my X-box versions of the simulators though :D

Thanks. I would recommend trying one of the sims. It is really not too hard. I was speaking to one of the staff after and he was saying they simplified the sim so it would be easy to use for a first time user. It's also nice to sit in something that feels like a cockpit with a large display in front of you.

Went again first thing this morning for another go on the simulators. Booked 777 simulator for £35, but because of problems getting the simulator going I ended up doing about 1h 15 minutes split between the 777 and A380. Great fun. The guy supervising was really nice as well. I tried another LCY landind and tried to cross the controls in order to descend steeply and keep the speed down - seemed to work.

I have looked at the proper simulators at BAFT I was wondering if there was any chance of an FT do for an afternoon with a group of us there? Does anyone know someone there who might be able to agree to something like this? Is this something that has been done before?

How cool would it be to have an FT'er in the right and left hand seat on a 777? Do 777s have a champagne glass holder? :p

I went last week and would recommend it for a fun 30 mins or so in the exhibition (it's not huge but then again it's only 3 quid).

The flight simulator (45 pounds for 30 mins) was my highlight. You need to book in advance. I also noticed at the ticket desk that they offer an early bird price of 35 pounds for 30 mins from 8am - 10am.

The simulators aren't as realistic as you would get in a full flight sim or even some of the fixed 737 simulators they have in places like Westfield London. However, it's good fun for a little bit of a spin.

You get 30 mins and you can swap around with your friends if you wish. The guy running the show is pretty friendly. There are only two airports, London (LHR) and Dubai. I just did the advanced landings. The stormy weather didn't really seem to work (I was looking for the hardest setting). It may have been simplified a lot for novices as I landed perfectly (but I play a lot of flight sim games) while my friend who doesn't struggled to get off the ground. I guess they have to find a middle ground somewhere.

All in all I'd say a fun thing to do if you're passing the O2 / North Greenwich.

We went on a Sunday morning at 11.30am and we more or less had the place to ourselves.