My flight experience

[Jimmy]

Last week Alister took me for a flight in the christchurch flight experiance sim, heres me in the captians seat (pity I only noticed the captians hat hanging up behind me after this was taken )....



I was given the choice were to fly so decided NZCH-NZWN would fill the hour just perfectly, so we jumped in the sim and programed the fmc for a route along V393, and set the cold fronts weather theme (these sims don't have internet conectios for real world weather) so a rwy 29 departure.

We then had push back (no shift-p here, a neat little button on the overhead!) then the short taxi from gate 4 (I think thats what it was) to rwy 29,taxiing was certianly alot differant than twisting the joystick! Takeoff was rather tricky as were ever jimmy gos bad fps go with him! yes even the flight experaince sim with all its multipule computers manged to make me feal at home with a stutery low fps So we got airborne and my handy FO raised the gear (on my command ) and I also noticed he raised the flaps at the right time, now thats neat!

I chose FL230 so we cruised along for a wee while examining the scenery below, chating, and briefing on the approach procedure. The rwy 16 star with CC transistion, then began descent and flew over the straight. Approaching wellington looked great with real nz, and the photoreal didn't blur much eathier. My short finals was a little, messy, with a 10knot wind at our 8o'clock (or somewere in that direction). I found that trying to go straight visualy is quite hard with the three displays and the way everythign is angled, alot differant to fs with one monitor when trying to go straight! I think the major problem was the trim setting, but we made it down safely just a little hard, always good to wake the pax up after such a nice smooth flight.

Then we taxied up and shut down, right on time!

Was a really fun "experiance", thanks alister
James

[JonARNZ]

Good one james, thanks for the report and photo, sounds heaps of fun.

[AlisterC]

You are most welcome James! It's great to fly with someone who knows what they are doing You flew like a real Captain! Absolutely fantastic in other words and I was very impressed with your skill and knowledge, especially for a first time with yoke and pedals.
Sorry the picture is so dark!

[Charl]

It's great to fly with someone who knows what they are doing You flew like a real Captain! Absolutely fantastic in other words and I was very impressed with your skill and knowledge, especially for a first time with yoke and pedals. 

Cap'n Jimmy alright, where'd you learn to talk that talk, James??
Sounds like a great experience, and the instructor sounds pretty pleased with you too!

[ZK-Brock]

Cool James

[Ian Warren]

James! Almost REAL! only thing missing IS the passengers in the back!

[AlisterC]

Everyone in the mall could see what he was doing on the tv outside, do they count Ian?

[Ian Warren]

Only if u see them all with ANZ airsick bags , Not a bad thought Alister

[ardypilot]

Awesome bro- I only did a half hour session in the Auckland one but I still know its great fun!

even the flight experaince sim with all its multipule computers manged to make me feal at home with a stutery low fps

Really? It was smooth as in the Auckland one- no addon scenery (as far as I could tell) apart from the REAL NZ Auckland photoreal- did they have a Christchurch airport addon installed or something?

Also, did you use ILS for landing in Welly or take a visual appoach?

[Jimmy]

  Everyone in the mall could see what he was doing on the tv outside

well lets not exsagerate, its a rather small screen, maby only a few people saw (well, lets hope so hehe).

did they have a Christchurch airport addon installed or something?

Yeah the christchurch/canturbury scenery from nzscenery.com, and we all know what that can be like on perforamce. Looked like someone had put all the sliders on max too witch proably didn't help

did you use ILS for landing in Welly or take a visual appoach?

ILS as alister said its not much of a vfr aircraft (especaily if your not rather tall, that panel is very large to see over!)

[ZK-Brock]

Yeah, I would think most people that know how to do an ILS would do it on their first try, a visual approach can be a bit harder, especially in welly!

So did the instructor ask you how much you knew about aeroplanes before you started?

[AlisterC]

We also put on heaps of weather, and the sim had been on since 9am in the morning (we flew at 7pm). The "building storms" theme might have been a bit hard on the poor FS computer It's very smooth on our normal flights as we don't put customers who can't fly through such rough weather

[ZK-Brock]

The sim computers aren't "restarted" after every flight?

[Jimmy]

The "building storms" theme might have been a bit hard on the poor FS computer

I think we set coldfronts, it was gana be storms but I changed ma mind hehe those thunder storms always look a little unrealistic, a big massive electrical storm that covers the whole planet haha

yeah the cold fronts theme is prety demading, could have been worse thow. vatsim real world weather

So did the instructor ask you how much you knew about aeroplanes before you started?

na he didn't need to, once I started tapping away into the fmc I think he decided explanations of how to fly wern't nessecery

The sim computers aren't "restarted" after every flight?

nope, from what I saw just a load up of a saved flight file and into the next flight

[scon]

Cool I live in Auckland howiever I did the one in Christchurch and I aso did -NZCH - NZWN (T'n'G) - NZCH

[AlisterC]

The sim computers aren't "restarted" after every flight?

Takes too long. Plus no doubt we'd rather show people between flights the sim up and running, than all cold and dark with "windows xp" on the PFD and Engine displays

[HardCorePawn]

Cool I live in Auckland howiever I did the one in Christchurch and I aso did -NZCH - NZWN (T'n'G) - NZCH

I hear a rumour that they are planning on putting one (a Flight Experience) into the new 'Entertainment' Stage 3 development at Sylvia Park.

Seems a bit odd with the one at Botany Town Centre 'just around the corner'...

I might go along for a look-see once I get around to learning the heavy metal and all that goes along with it (FMC programming, more than one engine )