17. Pilot a Plane (simulation)
I flew a 737 … (sort of).
The simulator at Global Flight Adventures in Canton, MA, makes you feel like you’re really in the cockpit of a 737NG, the predecessor to the 737 Max 8 (the plane that was recently grounded around the world due to crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia). You’ve probably flown in a 737NG, as Boeing has produced and delivered almost 7,000 of them.
With Josh, my flight instructor
Global Flight Adventure’s website says that in their simulator, “every knob, switch, gauge, and lever works just like in the real aircraft,” and it’s true. My instructor, Josh, spent a long time explaining each control. Please don’t quiz me - there are SO many of them - but the reassuring take-away for nervous flyers is the redundancy in the systems, and the redundancy to the redundancy. Everything has a back-up or two or four.
The simulator mimics real flying amazingly well. While you don’t feel the airplane bumping and shaking like the real thing, you can easily suspend disbelief and think you’re taking off, turning, and landing.
My daughter, home on spring break, joined me as videographer (the video quality isn’t great because the simulator room is dark). Here I am in the captain’s seat, taking off:
The only thing missing is the earphones connecting me to Air Traffic Control. Josh says it takes a long time to understand all the ground-control-to-pilot jargon.
And here I am banking:
After we flew around eastern Massachusetts for a while, over Provincetown and back towards Boston, Josh asked me where I wanted to land. I remembered hearing that Denver offers pilots a bit more challenge in landing than some other airports because of its short runway.
Josh pushed a few buttons and everything went black for a few minutes, then the Colorado landscape and the Denver airport showed up outside the window. Sure enough, the short runway required me to put the air brakes on “max.”
Here’s what the landing looked like:
Because pilots have to focus so much on their dashboards, keeping the little dot representing the plane in the crosshairs on their screens, flying seems a lot like playing a video game. Still, you can put it on auto-pilot and enjoy the amazing views.
With all the instruction about each control, my lesson lasted an hour; however, I had purchased a twenty-minute experience and that’s about how long we were “in the air.” If I had splurged and gone for 40 minutes or an hour, I would have been able to fly through all kinds of weather and other obstacles.
For my first time at the controls, though, I felt satisfied with sunny skies and smooth sailing.
I came away with a renewed respect for pilots and all they have to learn and understand. This would make a fun (and educational) gift for any aviation buffs in your life. Me? I glad I did it, but am hanging up my wings. Off to the next adventure …
Global Flight Adventures, 609 Neponset Street, Suite 2, Canton, MA: $89 for a 20-minute flight simulation experience (I had a Groupon, so paid $60.80, plus $4.15 tax); 40 minutes for $159; 60 minutes for $242, or 80 minutes for $299.
