Flying A 737

Enjoyed Flying a 737
As a friend e-mailed me,"in a simulator, I hope!"

I am doing more tourist things this trip. There are two flight simulators in Mississauga, ufly and Threshold Aviation. Reading lots of TripAdvisor reviews, I decided to go to Threshold that had a fathers day special (for a few weeks), and I didn't have to prove I was a father!

The flight deck is from a 737-800 that was retired after the "9/11" attack at NY Trade Center since the tail number included "911" My great trainer was Mickey. I had never used any flight sim programs but amazed how complicated the flight deck is when I peak in on airplanes and a few YouTube videos. I would think some things could be more automated vs. all the dials to adjust speed, heading getting VOR info and then the stick as well as zillions of switches to flip pre-flight. How you start a turbine engine since no wind to shoot through when stationary using the APC to start wind flow wait for specific parameters to turn on the air/fuel mixtures etc. A somewhat complicated process to start each engine.

Also all the info you have to enter in the flight management system, weight including passengers and baggage, fuel requirements, etc. Balancing the fuel between the two engines and the crossover tank? for reserve. All very complex for a non-pilot but instructor was great having me do everything.
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On take off after v2 distracted since no longer see ground out the window just sky so have to quickly look at the panel to see if ascending right and level until level off and see the horizon and the ground again.

I flew from YYZ to a military airport with a long runway in Niagara NY. You see everything as if real out of actually windows used. Over the Lake and line up with that distance tiny looking runway way out there. He had a laser pointer when I lost visual of it. The tendency for me was to over correct steering since such a massive plane behind me isn't like steering a car. You have to think kind of 3 dimensionally since as you turn (bank) you have to keep the speed up (nose up), and I had warning alarms going off a few times I was in too steep a bank.

I made an excellent smooth approach into NY (forgot name of the airfield) but over-steered the rudders once on the ground - have to get used to steering with feet once on the ground and forward thing with toes to break - although also had auto break switch on. Fortunately, the runway was wide but could not keep it on the center line after hitting the ground.

I was thinking after the landing, gee we have to fly back to Toronto - kind of forgetting we were in the building in Toronto (Mississauga). Was very realistic and the actual flight deck of the retired 737.

Real pilot training is in simulators where you have the motion of the plane moving vs this stationary simulator. As a friend said a real one would be too risky for us non-pilots getting motion sickness if you banked too much etc.

I highly recommended it if you're so inclined.

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