From corporate days out to an individual treat, flight simulators are a thrilling option for anyone who wants the buzz of steering a plane without the responsibility of passengers. Felicity Cousins takes control.
There is a scene in most airborne disaster films when both pilots eat some dodgy food and the flight attendant shouts out: “Is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?” I had always wondered whether, if no one jumped into the cockpit, I would be able to do anything to help save the day; I had always imagined I wouldn’t. But one cold December morning, I found myself at the GCAT Flight Academy on an industrial estate just outside Gatwick airport, with Senior First Officer Mark Richards, a pilot for GB Airways, teaching me how to fly.
Mark has been flying for six years and is one of 16 pilots who also works for Virtual Aviation, which offers both pilots and members of the public flying time in the simulators. Virtual Aviation is the only company to offer this to the public in the UK and operates 18 Airbus and Boeing full-motion flight simulators, including one at Manchester, one at Luton, three at Gatwick and two at Heathrow.
These aren’t just any kind of computer simulator – you certainly wouldn’t find anything like them at an amusement arcade (although one airline fanatic in the US recently built one in his bedroom). These are big beautiful beasts, two storeys high, on bending hydraulic legs, and they cost around £10 million. They look like something out of Star Wars and they can realistically recreate every situation a commercial pilot is likely to come across.
I was booked in for a one-hour exclusive flight simulator experience. I was about to learn how to fly a Boeing 737 (of the type favoured by GB Airways, Ryanair and Easyjet), and before jumping into the cockpit Mark briefed me on the controls.
I am not a nervous flyer and have always been quite prepared to put my life in the hands of experts, but at this point I began to feel uncomfortable. I was suddenly concerned that I wouldn’t be able to remember what all the dials did. “What happens if I crash it?” I ask. Mark laughs: “It just goes black.” Of course, it is called virtual aviation for a reason.
There is the vertical speed indicator, which measures how much you are rising or falling per second in hundreds of feet, and the artificial horizon, and the throttle and the flaps on the wings (explained by Mark with a simple but effective sketch
on the whiteboard).
In a last-ditch attempt to gain more time on solid ground I bombard Mark with questions: Do you have to have perfect vision to be a pilot? “No, if you wear glasses or contact lenses then you just take a spare set with you.” What is your favourite area to fly over? “The Alps.” How do you become a Captain from a Senior First Officer? “More flying hours.” How fast are you going when you land? “Around 160 miles an hour.”
Mark warns me that the steering is sensitive and adds that women are often better at this part than men. Above 10,000ft planes fly at around 340 knots (400 miles an hour) and below 10,000ft at about 250 knots an hour. Mark says: “Some people make big movements but you have to remember how fast you are going. You wouldn’t take an articulated lorry around Silverstone.”
After half an hour it is time to fly. The simulators are in operation 24 hours a day all year round, so we pass the people who were flying before us. There are three of them and they are all smiling. The simulators are busier in the winter months as airlines train their pilots for the peak summer schedules and Mark says he also has a lot of company red-letter days, mostly groups who fly for 20 minutes each at a time and then watch their colleagues. He says it is always good fun and the only complaints he gets are that the time seems to pass by too fast.
Inside is an exact replica of a cockpit for a Boeing 737. It looks smaller than I had imagined (or remembered from childhood visits) and out of the window (a wraparound digital screen) is a runway and a line of lights drawing us into the darkness. As the “Captain” I sit on the left, and Mark settles in next to me.
The next step is to decide where to fly. The computer behind my seat can be programmed to fly to cities and airports all over the world in daytime, at night, in bright sunshine, snow-storms or severe turbulence. Pilots spend four hours a day for three weeks in these simulators with every conceivable weather condition thrown at them. They are prepared for every eventuality and this process is repeated every six months.
Mark goes easy on me. We take off from Gatwick in daylight. I push the throttle forward to start the plane moving and amazingly it feels as if we are on a runway, bumping along, taxiing into position. When on the ground the plane is steered with foot pedals and the idea is to stay in the middle of the runway.
When we reach take-off speed Mark counts me down and I slowly pull the steering column towards my lap until we reach 10 degrees on the artificial horizon. The digital ground slips away and we are pushed back into our seats. After a few seconds I am allowed to take the plane higher, to 15 degrees (not earlier because otherwise you would knock the tail off as you took off). Mark is encouraging and we cruise for a while, clicking the steering column to adjust the trim on the tail so that some of the weight is taken off as the plane finds its airspace.
Only having an hour, we quickly take in south Wales and the south coast before returning for our landing at Gatwick. This was the difficult part: aiming for the runway while trying to keep the plane dropping at 700ft a second. Mark says its easy if you just glance between the runway and the dials because then you only have to make small adjustments.
As we come in to land I pull back on the steering column and we touch down. It’s a completely smooth landing. I am so exhilarated by this that I forget to steer with my feet and end up on the left hand side of the runway by the grass. Mark says we’ve paid for the whole width of it so we should try to use it… I am intrigued to know what it would have really felt like if that had been a real plane and Mark laughs again: “That is what it would have felt like. This is as real as you can get.”
Next it is Las Vegas, in a snow-storm. The clouds are so thick and the lightning so terrifying that I can’t see the runway. We try to use the manual dials but my steering is appalling and we stop mid-air, frozen in time, while we change the computer settings to give a clear view of the desert city. I was concentrating so much on lining up the plane with the runway that I didn’t notice we were heading for the ground at 160 miles an hour at an angle akin to an Olympic diver. At the last moment I pull back and we land roughly, making use of the whole runway this time by wildly swinging from one side to the other. We come to a halt and Mark looks impressed – to be alive.
Suddenly it is all over. How can one hour pass so quickly? It feels as if we had stepped into a time machine and it popped us out a second later. I don’t want to get out of my Captain’s seat; but there are three more people waiting outside for their turn to fly the world from the safety of a pod near Gatwick airport.
VIRTUAL AVIATION
A one-hour exclusive flight simulator experience costs £599, while a one-hour shared flight experience is priced at £249 per person for up to three people (each has 20 minutes at the controls and watches the others for the remaining 40 minutes). Two and four-hour experiences are also available. See virtualaviation.co.uk or call +44 (0)870 350 0747 (£5 discount for online bookings).
