GodAtum

Intro

For my Xmas present this year I bought myself a flight training session on a full-motion 747 simulator This was a 1 hour session on Xmas Eve morning at the British Airways Flight Training centre near Heathrow.

For photos and vidoes please see my blog: http://godatum.blogspot.co.uk/2013/1...ng-on-747.html

Getting There

Unfortunately as many of you might know there were severe storms in south England and all train services have been suspended. My planned journey to Feltham had o be scrapped and I quickly go on an X26 bus to Hatton Cross. A very unpleasant experience as the bus was packed and I had to stand for over an hour and a half. When I got to Hatton Cross it was a short 10 minutes walk to the BAFT centre.

Training Experience

Luckily I only arrived a little late and passed through reception to meet my training pilot for today, Fiona. I explained to her why I was interested in this and what I wanted to get out of today. The full-motion simulators are amazing and very expensive (over £10 million!).

Fiona gave a short safety briefing and we jumped right in. I began with something easy so i could get a feel for the controls as I am more used to the Airbus sidestick: a takeoff, circuit and landing at Heathrow.

This was then followed by a landing at Heathrow, the JFK Canarsie 13L approach, a JFK circuit and a low visibility approach.

Sitting in a full size 747 cockpit was an amazing experience. Funnily it was smaller then I imagined it to be! I was most surprised by how stiff the yoke and rudder pedals were. In flight it was very hard to keep the plane level as pushing back or forward on the yoke requires some strength even when trimmed, a lot different from my sidestick! And the brakes required a lot of force to push down, more so then I'm used to as I have mine quite loose. The 4 throttles were also quite a challenge as I have small hands!

Getting to fiddle around with the systems was great, especially the MCP and FMC. Fiona was surprised as I had a particular way I like to set up my cockpit On the circuits I like to input fixes in the FMC so I can have a better situational awareness of where I am in relation to the airport.

We also talked a lot about BA operating procedures like when to turn on the APU, when lights and seatbelts are turned on and manual landings.

My first landing was quite hard and not on the centreline but I quickly improved once I got used to the controls. The Canarsie landing was hard as it was quite difficult to judge where the runway was.

Fiona did comment I have picked up a few bad habits like looking at my instruments too much and not enough outside. She commented a lot of cadets place too much emphasis on chasing the magenta line.

In conclusion I had an amazing experience and learnt a lot, I wish I could have spent the whole day there! In the end we spent over 2 hours in the sim.

wordsew

That sounds like a very cool way to treat yourself.

KARFA

Wow, thanks for posting GodAtum. I really want to have a go as well at somepoint on the Cranebank simulators. Maybe some point in 2014.

I have been on the Emirates aviation experience simulators a few times near the O2 arena. They are not full motion, and there are only limited things you can change. Am due to go on a few 737 simulators in early 2014 - not full montion but fully fuctioning cockpit.

In fact I was actually thinking of floating something on the BAEC thread to see if we could have a few of us go down and have an afternoon on one. I will post something in the next few months.

GodAtum

Its definitely worth it, its £400 for 1 hour where 2 people can have a go. 3 hours in over £1000. The 737 sims are slightly cheaper. It's great have a real trainer teach you stuff, but you do have to be quite enthusiastic about flying to get most out of it.

Which 737 ones are you going to?

KARFA

I am going down to Virtual Aerospace near Northampton in February, and the one in the Westfield in London in April. I am very enthusiastic/geeky about flying. I am really looking forward to it, but will be doing some self training beforehand courtesy of youtube so I know at least a few things before I turn up.

My plan is to have some experience on 737s before I step up to a 747 at Cranebank.

EDIT: last time I was at teh Emirates simulators in Greenwich in October I was showing the guy there how to do a forward slip - was approaching LCY in an A380 as you do but as there are no speedbrakes on those sims no chance of losing speed as I descended.

ft101

Anything you could share with us here?

GodAtum

Ive been into simulator flying for quite a while and enjoy making it as realistic as possible. Ive been building an A320 cockpit at home and really wanted to experience a full motion sim. Also I have not had any formal flying tuition so this is as close as I can get to getting a type rating lol.

BA5E

Thanks for sharing your experience, what a great present to give yourself, and not terribly expensive, thought it would have been more than that, you i can see thoroughly enjoyed the time, albeit a rather bumpy landing, Fiona was good not to say too much but can imagine without the sound the response would have been quite a laugh, did you than go off for a glass of champagne to congratulate yourself on a good mornings work^

GodAtum

Lol you cant really here her chatting but she was giving me lots of tips and instructions. I would definitely love to go again, maybe with some BAEC forum members.

KARFA

Wow, thoroughly impressed you are building a cockpit at home. I presume you are on VATSIM? Sadly my PC isn't capable of running fsx or x-plane and i am lacking funds at the moment to buy a new one and set it up. I also think it would consume most of any free time I have. I do enjoy watching sim videos on YouTube though -mostly froogle and fsxgenius.

One things I noticed is that you are in the right hand seat. I have seen the same in other Cranebank trio reports. Must admit I would assume that you would be in the left seat with the instructor on the right.

I will float the idea of a baec outing to a simulator early in the new year. I think a smallish group (maybe 4) might be ideal. I think you are going to pit everyone else to shame though!

GodAtum

yeah I love flying at home, I'm a member of British Airways Virtual and fly on Vatsim. Love watching froogle and fsxgenius too!

All the instructor controls are on the right hand side behind her so its easier for her to reach behind to fiddle with the settings.

I would definitely be up for another trip there if funds allow Also when my sim is finished you are all welcome to come and have a go!