Kind of Flying Solo

Flying the Mooney was such a great experience that I wanted more. This time I flew a Boeing 747 simulator. All I really know is that it's a huge airplane. If I remember this correctly the airplane itself weighs 300,000 pounds, when it's topped off with fuel it's now 600,000 pounds, and with cargo it's about 900,000 pounds. Keeping that in mind when flying this airplane it was a lot harder to move the controls. Luckily I didn't have to worry about adjusting any knobs, my copilot did that, but trying to keep an 1/8 of an inch box in the middle of two cross hairs is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. The simulator moved around realistically with a very complicated hydraulic system. It had ample energy being pumped into the machine to make it run. The cockpit was pulled from a pre-existing Boeing 747 and rewired to fit into the simulator. The outside view is pulled from Google earth. And there you have a very sophisticated and very expensive simulator. Pilots are trained on it and have to pass a test before they are allowed to get into a real airplane. An interesting fact that I learned is that pilots put on autopilot as soon as they take off and can land with it. What an easy job right? But since this is the new normal for young students learning to fly they don't have that much experience flying the plane manually. Basically they suck at flying. On the other hand it's becoming harder for older pilots to fly because all the new planes are installed with advanced touch screen technology. Flying is completely safe. Besides that my favorite part was the night time flying it looked like star wars.

Dave Milne (left) was my copilot, Serge Cote my dad, and Robert Keegan (right) ran the simulator.

Outside of the simulator.

The extensive hydraulic system and electronic hookups underneath the simulator.

All of the blue boxes run the system for the simulator.

Entering the cockpit.

Behind the pilot seat, the person who sits here is the flight engineer. He watches and controls fuel, pneumatics, electric, hydraulics, and auxiliary power.

View from my seat.