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Flying the Real Boeing 777-200
A glorious moment as Bob Klemm and I prepare for our 2 hours ahead, commanding the mighty Boeing 777-200 Level D simulator at FSI, Seattle. This rig costs just over 50 million dollars, and we're not looking forward to flying it, as you can see :)
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Getting into the simulator cab, I immediately had the feeling it was like getting into my monitor with the 777 in FS2000. But I also had the feeling it wasn't. What a grand office! It was large and spacious, tapered in the front, like a 747, but much bigger. You knew it would be big, just from looking at the nose of a real 777. Moving the seats forward and side to side is done from electric chairs, like in a fancy car. It gets you up close and personal to the panel and offers a great view outside. The view outside is great, nicely illuminated and bright, showing the parking areas, ramps, jetways, vehicles and more. Not a great deal of detail - in fact much more sparse than many add-on sceneries have for detail. You can not look directly up, down or to the side. You will look outside the range of the video displays. You can not look back towards your wing, no matter how far back you crane your neck. You'll be seeing a black world, blurry and magnified. So, you really need to lean forward up to the glass. It is real glass however. A foot thick I was told by our instructor (retired 747 captain). A foot thick! That's why the flight deck is so quiet. Drat! I guess I have been running my FS2000 far too loud.
The engines were already running to save time but I didn't know it. I saw them showing rpm on the glass tube. Behind the whine of cooling fans and avionics, I think I could hear them. Boy, a lot different than in flightsim. I was going to be carefully monitoring the sounds here, so I could take home what I remember and try to recreate them.
I had requested some basic hand flying and wanted to do some "simple" takeoffs and landings for my hour. My friend Bob Klemm was with me and I figured "Mr. Autopilot" would be playing with the toys during his hour, while I am watching, so figured I would go for some hands on fun for now. I wanted to pretend I was the only one in the plane, and didn't want help from the instructor. Bob selected flaps 5 for takeoff at the Moses Lake Washington training runway we were sitting on. Moses Lake is out in the flatlands and desert of eastern Washington. With a giant runway, I figured this would be a great place to start. Placing the flaps requires some lever squeezing, pulling up and over a gate and a placing the lever into a slot. It makes a "clack" sound when pulling up and placing the flap lever into place. The flaps could be seen moving on the display, slowly to 5. No sound. Hmmm again. Why is there a can-opener sound in FS? Our instructor told us we were cleared for takeoff, left pattern, 1500 feet. Bob reached up and "ding donged" the seatbelt signs (a real thrill for him) and punched in the buttons for the exterior lights. We were ready to go. I was in command of this mammoth new 777, with 90,000 lb air-gulping powerplants. Would it fly like FS2000? That's why I was here.
With my left hand on the yoke and my right hand on the throttles, I slowly pushed them up. They needed a light to moderate push. Not as hard as one might think. The engines spooled up in lag, a few seconds behind my initial push up. I watched them to see that I got to about 90% N1. The sounds!
eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
The engines began their mighty roar! It was not like a deep growl. It was like an electric toothbrush!
eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Was heard at takeoff thrust, quietly coming from the rear cabin. Not loud at all. But I could feel the acceleration! Wow! Even at this heavy weight we were at (max landing weight). As we gained momentum with the engines sounding like some distant, muffled, electric motor, the rush of air around me and ground rumble could be heard getting louder. V1, VR. Time for action. Somewhere around 148 kts I pulled back. The amount of strength required to pull was - moderate. That's all I can say. Heavy, firm but not much more than pulling maybe 15 pounds of force. The nose steadily rose. I looked immediately at the AH. I got the nose to about 12 degrees and trimmed down with the electric trim rocker on the yoke. Bob took up the gear. Much like in some sounds from FS, I heard and felt in the floor, rumbling, vibrating, clumping and banging. It took about 15 seconds I'd say. As speed rose rapidly to around 190 or so, the captain called "flaps 1". Bob clackety clacked the lever to 1. Then "flaps up, reduce for climb power". Flaps up, power back to about 65% or so, just guessing. I saw I was already at 2500 feet or so. Lowering the nose was smooth. The rush of air was faint but now drowning out the engines which were much quieter at lower rpm. It was a sensation of floating in the sky. I yanked the yoke to the left, and began a steady crosswind turn. Nice. Steady. I had the vertical speed right at 0. Speed crept to 240 kts. I pulled back the power a touch. The airspeed tape shows "trend". Whatever I set the power to, an arrow would be drawn on the vertical tape, to show where at this current attitude, speed would go to, given the power setting! So nice! Turning was easy. Smooth, responsive and moderately heavy on the controls. Again, nothing more than moving a Cessna yoke, with a 10 pound weight attached perhaps. Or moving a gallon of milk up and down in your hand. On the downwind I concluded, yes, it was very much like FS. Not the motion, or super sound that washes over you, up, down, to the side and in the back of you. But the actual numbers, technique and performance reaction of the airplane, was close to FS2000's 777. Even better, the new PSS 777 for FS2000 - but that was not out when I did this sim in May.
Looking at the scenery around me at 2500 feet was blah. Green, rolling terrain, but nothing special. Instead I watched the runway out my left as I sped downwind. Okay, time to slow and get ready for landing. Power back. Pull up a bit, keep vertical speed at 0. Speed down to under 210 now... flaps 1. Slight pitch up did occur! Speed 200, flaps 5. Instructor said I could start my base here at lower the gear. Bob took the handle and placed it down. More rumbling, clumping, thumping and banging from below. Some gear rush sound could be heard, just like a gear rumbling wav file or gauge! Wow. Turning base, descending, power at idle, speed slowing to 170 or so. Hmm, vertical speed was not much. I really did need power at idle in this slippery jumbo! Flaps to 10 then 15 "clackety clack. clackety clack". She was so steady and easy to fly. Speed was going down to 160. Flaps 20. I banked left and onto final. About 7 miles out. Steady. Easy. Really easy. Any flightsimmer of heavies would say the same exact thing! Flaps 25 and holding there. Speed back to 140. Vertical speed around 1000 fpm. I added power up to hold a visual descent patch. This was up to maybe 50% or so, I really don't remember, but it was not as much as I would have thought, especially at this weight. But I wasn't dragging it in either. Oh yea, I'll arm the spoilers. I found the handle. Moving it was so easy. Loose and not very tight, it just pulled right back to a slight detent for arming. Just like in FS! I thought the spoiler handle would be tough. Don't know why.
Well, I will try to make a greaser. Over the threshold at about 2 degrees of pitch, sink rate dwindling down to 300 fpm as I pulled the nose up a tad, let speed go to about 130, and eased off the power at between 50 and 30 feet. Just held the nose up. Again, trimmed, not much pulling force at all. Clump! A cushy feeling of struts far behind me taking the blow. Soft. Smooth. A faint rumbling from behind and underneath me. Then vooooooooooooopppppppppppp as the spoiler handle moved itself in about three seconds to full deploy. We were down. I lowered the nose firmly to the ground. tttthhhhuuuuuuddddddddd Runway vibration was slight, but noticeable. Now, I grabbed the reverser handles, figuring they'd be stiff and hard to pull. Not at all. Light and almost cheap feeling, they pulled right back and up, against a springy tension I could feel. All the way to the stops, I watched the rpm rise steadily, heard and felt a deep roaring from behind me, and watched my speed drop quickly! 110, 100, 90, 80, 70...then I started to ease forward the reverse handles, letting the springs drive them back forward.... 60 kts, roaring quieting now. At 50, I came out of idle. It did take a while for the rpms to wind up to full reverse, about 65% N1. It took longer than I would have thought for them to spool up. By the time they were at full, in a second or two it was time to come back to idle reverse. Now it's time for the brakes. Having not used them before, I didn't know how much tension would be needed. I mashed them. WOAH!! We tilted violently forward at 40 kts, I heard the wheels making this loud, and deep sssssqqquuuuuuuaaaaaaaaaaaccccccccccckkkkkkkk sssssssssqqqquuuuuuuaaaaaaaacccccckkkkkkkkkkk sound below me! We came to an instant stop, nose mashing forward, then rising up and down again! Whew! In fact the brakes were on so hard, the nose wheel had turned slightly left for some reason, and we were aiming about 30 degrees left of centerline! The entire tilting forward, was almost nauseating. When you look down steeply at the runway, it's kind of blurry and magified, making you woozy. Now, I wish FS had those heavy braking sounds. Gosh darn it!
Next he reset the machine to do a dusk takeoff around the pattern at BFI, runway 31L. The lighting was cool. Pinkish sky, some puffy cloud formations. The interior was bathed in some cool overhead lights, with nice panel illumination. The instructor dimmed the lighting so we could see better outside. He hit the "storm light" button on the overhead, which darkened it all inside, only leaving the instrumentation backlit. This kills all normal house lights, and lets you see what you need to. I imagine it's called storm lights, because during a lightning storm, you hit the button, flooding the cockpit with light, to lessen the shock you'll get from temporary blindness from lightning outside.
Lined up for departure I pushed the throttles up for another pattern. This time I wheeled her around for a downwind, 34L at KSEA! Just the same flying as the one I described above, except that I enjoyed the view of some cool night ground lighting. The lighting was similar to FLY!, but even more sparse. Most of this heavily populated area we were traveling over was dark, undetailed and blah. Wow! Really simple scenery for even around KSEA. I guess they wanted to keep the high detail for the ramp. Going through a few clouds was a blast. Fades to dark gray inside, and a wispy transition out of them. The clouds were very similar to FLY! as well. I made another cushy landing at SEA, runway 34L. This time, I let Bob engage the autobrakes. At a level of "2", upon touchdown at 125 kts, the braking kicks in. You can feel it in your seat. It grabs! The nose tends to drop on its own more. At a nose wheel touchdown of about 100, I engaged the reversers. Now we were down to 80 already. Time to come out of reverse. 70, 60, 50, 40. You come to a stop fast. But unlike Flightsim, much smoother! At 40, I tap the brakes myself, and the autobrake switch flips off. I am much more tender on my feet, and bring her to a rest with much less forward tilt and no brakes groaning under me!
I was finding flying the 777 so enjoyable and "easy" that I told the instructor I wanted a challenge. I was set for takeoff and asked him to kindly give me some "surprises", whatever he thought would be fun. He said, "I'll give a surprise, don't worry". All set for takeoff, we roared down the runway. Rotation. Gear up. Flaps up as scheduled. BOOM. BOOM. What's going on? Bob said the right engine's acting up. Boom. You could hear a muffled boom or bang, and the right engine was surging each time. Compressor stalls I think. Well, from when I was riding jumpseat in one of the other guy's flights (Todd Legon), he too had compressor stalls. The instructor told him just to reduce power on the offending engine till it stopped. So I remembered that and just brought back the power on the right engine until the banging stopped. It worked! Now, I had about 50% less thrust on the right, so just used minor control corrections to keep the airplane flying steady. Then, I can't remember what exactly happened. Either the right engine overheated or quit. I think we had to shut it down. It was simple as pulling the fuel knob to cutoff. Whatever it was, with the engine gone now, I had one throttle and one GE90 out there to work with. Not a problem! By the time I was on base and turning final, the flaps were still only 15 and the drag was not much of an issue, so little power was needed until on closer final with the gear down. Flying on one engine was easy. Just as in any multi-engine, as long as you're using all your feet and hands to keep it straight as possible. A slight bank to the side of the good engine and a little opposite rudder, yielded a nice touchdown. Back with the reverser all the way to full, a slight pulling was noticed, but not too bad. I wanted to stop quickly anyways, so autobrakes was still at 2. Again, nothing too hard, but having recently trained in a multi-engine turboprop did help out to some extent. Also, I practice this thing on my flightsim at home a few times a year.
The next time around the pattern, I had both engines running again. However, I was going to get a visit from Mother Nature's rath, this time. Just after liftoff, I noticed the airspeed changing suddenly, the vertical speed going from at least 3000 fpm to down near 0 or 500 fpm negative. WOOP WOOP WINDSHEAR. WOOP WOOP WINDSHEAR. Aaah, just like a flightsim moment! Power to full! Pitch steady. Check sink rate. None. Holding nose as is. Waiting for a climb. We're going down! We lost 100 feet, then with the nose still held at about 5 or 10 degrees up, full power, gear up, flaps at 5 I believe, we started to climb. The turbulence was jarring, up and down in your seat, against the seatbelt. Wow! We blasted out. I blasted out of it. I was proud of myself (you would be too!). I noticed on the MFD, the wind barb going all over the place as well as the windspeed gusting up to 30 knots plus.
This time the downwind was smooth. On about an eight mile final, gear coming down, flaps to 20 then 25, speed back to about 160 and decreasing, I felt something funny. The aircraft shuddered a bit. Airspeed went from 155 to 130, then up to 170. Vertical speed dropped, then rose. Speed went from 150 to 120. Vertical speed dropped like a rock. I knew it. Windshear again. But this time, no windbarb on the display! No aural warning. Hehe. The instructor shut it off I bet! Power UP. Way to the wall. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr the engines hummed in the back. Speed up to 175, then down to 120. Falling down. Rocked against your seatbelt. Wow. Steady. Throttling like mad. Aim down, cut power when speed rose. Added it when it fell. Down on the visual glidepath. I just manhandled the big jet, and pretended it was all a flightsim. I was sweating. Wings rocking, speed jumping, vertical speed bouncing, down to 100 feet. I could see the ground speed changing out the window, looking down at the grass going by. 50, 30, power cut. Speed jumping, 150, 130, 140, 115. Clunk. vvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepppppppppppppppppp. Spoiler handle up. Nose down slowly. Max reverse. rrrrrrrrrroooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr. 80, 70, 60, reverse off. Whew. Manual brakes. I was exhausted. The best moment of my entire flying life. "You know, you did that as good as any of our triple seven pilots have done, congratulations" the voice of experience sitting in the instructor's chair said. He further explained he gave me a 77 knot windshear on final! Wow! He also said that profile was a killer in past accidents. I never had felt so good about my flying abilities before. No one had ever made me feel as good on a flight test.
I wanted to test the immense performance of an empty 777. I wanted to see how short field landings and takeoffs compared in real life to that of FS2000. Would this monster get airborne in less than 2000 feet? Would I be able to make an approach at less than 120 kts?
We taxied over to 31R at BFI. Well, that'll do. It's a scant over 3000 feet and 75 feet wide. I felt like I was towering over the runway, with the red end lights clearly, close by. No small planes nearby. I don't want to destroy them. We're at minimum weight. Looking at the chart, flaps 20, Vr was set for only 115. I knew it! There is a great plasma display on the MFD between the pilot's seats, that does automatically show the V-speeds. Oh, and I must say, it was sunset. The sky was purply-blue. Moving around at night, on the taxiway was a blast. Kthunk, Kthunk, you could feel every recessed lens in the pavement below the nose wheel. I got to switch on the taxi turnoff lights from the overhead panel. It floods the ground out from the nosegear at about 45 degree angles, to really illuminate the area you're turning on. It looked so beautiful. Just something no flightsim does at home yet. Now, the landing lights. Wow! The powerful floods on, we were ready to try a short field takeoff. Trim set exactly as called for. Not one unit off.
Brakes held, throttles pushed to the wall. The engines roaring quietly in the background. You know, you can hold the brakes on the 777 easily, even at full thrust! This was mind boggling, that I was holding back half a million pounds, with 180,000 lbs of thrust, with my two footsies. Feet off! The nose lurched up a degree. I was pushed into my chair. "60, 80, V1, ROTATE," we were at 115 already. I pulled rapidly up on the yoke. Ummmph. Nose up. We're airborne. VSI angling up rapidly to the limit (6000 fpm I think). Speed 140. Nose down. Gear Up. Flaps to 15. We're outta there! It can be done! We were off the runway just after halfway! What a powerhouse!
Around the pattern, then on final, we were back to our Vref of only 118. Full flaps. It handled great. Vertical speed was gentle. At 100 feet on the final to 31R, I eased back the power a bit. Speed back to 115. Sink rate wanted to go up. At 30 feet, power off. Touchdown at around 100. Autospoilers popping. Autobrakes were full this time and the nose started down right away. I could feel the brakes grabbing. I was being thrust rapidly forward in my seat without even engaging the reversers. Just for kicks I went to grab the reversers. Too late. We were already under 60. We were coming to a stop within 1000 feet of the end of the runway. Easily. Amazing! Meigs? No problem? Hot brakes? I would think so, but no blowouts. Heavy jets can land slow, short and quietly. But, do you think the passengers in back would like it? Neither would maintenance.
I used up my last few minutes, doing one touch and go pattern.
Well, my flight time was just about up. I had a blast! I was exhausted and was actually ready to sit back and enjoy the ride from the other seat. This way, I'd have more time to take in the sights etc., and judge Bob's flying (grin).
Bob flew great too. He did an actual departure out of MIA and climb towards Hong Kong. We had Hong Kong in the FMS. It was nice to build altitude and get up high. It was relaxing. But, I have to tell you, when over 20,000 feet, the simulator just goes to a green, solid ground. No detail at all. No scenery. Just sky and ground. Blue and Green. Not even FS4 quality! So don't complain about bland scenery in FLY! or FU3. Hehe. We set the autothrottles to hold an indicated airspeed of 320 until reaching the flight levels. Then a M.77 climb I believe. The 777 is fast, just like the 744. Cruise would be at M.845 or even higher.
After Bob's time skip and landing in Hong Kong, he got to do another. This time around, the instructor in me, the "trickster" I used to be came out. On the final, I took the cheap, plastic-like autobrake knob, and put it to off. Bob was expecting it to be on for landing. He came in fast, and slightly high. He rolled out on 13, just about 140 kts. He had to nose down a bit to get a sink rate. He forgot to cut power to idle. We touched down long, leaving the first few thousand feet behind us. He went to engage the reversers. They wound up, but he noticed the end approaching fast. 120...110....100.... but no brakes. I decided this was unfair, so took the autobrake knob and twisted to MAX. This was a bad idea. We were not slowing down, and at the same time, the aircraft starting bouncing sharply up and down. It was shaking. I had blown out all the tires! HOLD ON! We're going off the end. We thought we were going to. But the tire blowouts made the airplane nose left. Suddenly down to about 30 kts, we were turning rapidly to the left, now really fast, being swung in our seats! Wow! What's going on. Around and around! Now we're aiming down the runway we landed on, on 31! I thought Bob was turning us hard, or the nose wheel was bent. We pivoted thru about 260 degrees and stopped. Weird. Wait! We're now accelerating backwards! What's going on Bob?!!?! Oh geez! The engines are roaring! We still had full reverse! Now, we were plummeting off the side of the Hong Kong runway embankment backwards, into the water! Bob cut the reversers. Aaaaaggggghhhh. The nose tilted up 30 degrees. We rolled hard left. Violently into a complete 90 degree bank left. Then it came. Rolling more towards upside down, we were submerged into the water. BOOOOMMMMMM! Red screen. We were dead. Simulator out. It's all done.
So, you can reverse a 777 and drive backwards! Something too wild for me to ever even try in FS! But it can happen. We were laughing all the way to the grave too!
I felt awful for what I had done, to contribute to Bob's fatal crash. I bought him some Mexican food to make him feel better.
I brought home some great video of our flight sessions. The memory I have of it all is stronger than anything. The things I remember most about the experience of flying the giant 777, is the quietness of the engines, the sponginess of the reverser handles, the power of the brake pedals, and the moderate heaviness of the yoke. Since the release of Phoenix Simulations' 777 for FS2000, I now have to say, that complete package does a great job of capturing the real 777 far better than the default jet. You can read my review of that product here.
For anyone craving to fly the real thing. Do this. The instructor assured me, this was 100% the real thing, everything we did that day was real and we would be able to fly the real airplane just as well as we did in "the box". That was a great feeling. Spending $500 for an hour by yourself may not be worth it. Spending $500 for an hour, with someone else who has an hour after yours, is well worth it. That extra "free" hour, offers you the chance to observe, enjoy the scenery and really gawk at the wonder around you. Sitting in the 3rd jumpseat, is just as good. I hope you have enjoyed this story, as much as I have enjoyed reliving it!
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