You Can Fly The Heavy Metal

By Mark Robinson

It was stated, quite rightly, that it takes a great deal of training to "stay ahead" of a real airliner throughout a normal flight, but there are certain situations within the envelope of such a flight where I maintain that it is quite easy to make the aircraft do what you want. If the airliner is a modern fly-by-wire one, then the task of keeping it in the air and pointing it where you wish to go becomes even easier, especially if you have a basic knowledge of theory of flight dynamics and a smattering of experience in reading and understanding cockpit gauges.

My point is that if a person was to take over the controls of an airliner once that aircraft is a few hundred feet of the ground in a stable, possibly climbing and accelerating clean (gear and flaps retracted) condition, then thanks to the technology of fly-by-wire, and the person's limited "training", the person would be able to fly the plane almost anywhere. This argument is only really valid for VFR, but it would be quite possible for someone (God forbid) to do a controlled flight into an obstruction, as has been all too graphically demonstrated in recent events.

To lend some credence to my point I'll briefly recount two of my real world experiences. I was at Woodford (UK) air show some years ago now. British Airways had a company stand within which was set up a B737 simulator. The sim did not have full, multi axis movement, but it did have a complete instrument panel (some gauges inoperative), a large back-projected panoramic screen and proper pedals and flying controls. The seat was a "rumble" type which transmitted noise and vibration for things such as gear and flap movement. No it wasn't FS98 tarted up! I would know. Anyway the "plane" was lined up on a generic runway ready for takeoff. After rotation, I called for gear up at the appropriate moment when positive rate of climb was achieved. The BA chap seemed slightly surprised and said "When do you want the job?" I jokingly said "where do I sign?". I actually managed a successful curving descent and approach to another runway, with a bit of talkdown from the BA rep. My ego was well and truly massaged after that!

The other experience was whilst I was employed at British Aerospace at Warton. I spent some time as a rig test engineer for Tornado GR4. We had a full avionic rig set up, complete with pilot and navigator's "cockpits". The seats were from Office World rather than Martin Baker. The pilot's cockpit had working throttles and joystick though no rudders as it was more of a procedural sim for the weapons systems. There was no screen; if you looked through the HUD all you could see was the wall of the building. However, the information on the HUD complied with a real world flight model - the "aircraft" would stall or go like a bat out of hell depending on your inputs. The numbers were as per real world. One of the test navigators confirmed this to me as I was "flying" him towards the run-in point for a bombing run. I have to say that it was so easy to fly the numbers presented in the HUD, changing headings and speeds. What it implied to me is that the Tornado is a real pussycat once she's AIRBORNE and EN-ROUTE. The hardest part was overcorrection on the throttles.

Lastly, a little paragraph on VA's (oh no! they all say). I've recently joined a VA and it is indeed fun. The flights are as real as you want them to be with a small commitment of two hours per month. There doesn't have to be any online flights, but the emphasis is on enjoyment of the hobby. Yes, the filing of PIREPS is done on the "honor" system, but to me, saying I've flown 2546 hours (just as an example) so I can call myself a Senior Capt. or whatever does not ring true if I haven't actually done those hours. I mean there is no REAL payslip, no REAL accolade, so why even remotely think of cheating? Nothing to gain is there? On the flipside, there is nothing REAL to lose either. However, to me, looking at the flight schedule and flying from airport to airport, country to country gives slightly more purpose to my sim flying, especially when I have to go and get hold of the aerodrome charts for a particular airport. I have started to use FS98 more than I used to (my PC doesn't have the horsepower to do FS2000 justice). The only other occasion I was simming in this way was with ATP, another enjoyable piece of software. The world is a large place and you can fly ANYWHERE within the sim world. This can be slightly daunting: "Where shall I fly today?" "Hmm...too many places, can't decide" "Which plane?" "Go and play 1nsane instead!" See what I mean?

No doubt this should generate an emotional response, but, hey, isn't that what the Op-Ed is for?

Good Landings!

Mark Robinson
reaper28i@ntlworld.com

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