get to do a full motion simulator

I am wondering if anyone in the community has done a full motion flight simulator. My kids got me a 90 minute flight in a full motion 737-NG simulator. I am looking forward to do this in the next few months - need to wait until April - May. I have 180 days according to the certificate.

 

https://dream.aero/

 

Check out the website, looks pretty fricking awesome.

 

Hobbitrocks.

About 25 years or so ago, I had a friend at work who had a good friend at the Air Force Base near where we lived. He invited me to join him one day to go to the Base during our lunch hour and fly their full motion KC135 (basically a Boeing 707 converted to an air to air refueler) flight simulator. It was fantastic! We lost track of time and were there for 2 hours flying this thing. Got in huge trouble with our boss when we finally got back to work but it was well worth it. I would do it all over again if I had the chance. We even got to get extremely close to Air Force One 747 (and I mean EXTREMELY close) which happened to be there that day also as the President was visiting. We weren't allowed to go inside it, though. It was heavily guarded, naturally. But was still exciting to see up close.

I am wondering if anyone in the community has done a full motion flight simulator. My kids got me a 90 minute flight in a full motion 737-NG simulator. I am looking forward to do this in the next few months - need to wait until April - May. I have 180 days according to the certificate.

 

https://dream.aero/

 

Check out the website, looks pretty fricking awesome.

 

Hobbitrocks.

 

I have done a full IFR flight. with limited-viz landing, also in a 737 NG simulator. From Burgess Hill as I recall, but can't remember the simulator school - A gift from a retired-pilot relative. £500 or thereabouts.

I didn't know there was so much I didn't know, but inspired me to get my Instrument Rating IRL ...

Almost 20 years ago, a neighbor was an instructor for United, so he got 3 of us in the neighborhood a chance to experience a 757/767 sim for a couple of hours. It was a superb experience. It was actually pretty easy to fly, but one would need a huge amount of study and practice to master all the systems on board, not to mention emergency procedures.

 

The other two guys were not pilots, but did OK with some verbal assistance. A real surprise came, though, while I was on final for my first (and only, as it turned out) landing -- she locked up. I mean quite literally, not only did all motion stop, but even the flight controls were frozen tight, reminiscent of the typical MS flight sim of the time, which crashed a lot.

 

But it was a fantastic experience, with all the sounds and all the motions indistinguishable from the real thing, until the crash that is.

 

So I expect you'll have a blast. It'll let you know what a REAL sim is like. :):cool::pilot:

Edited February 15, 2022 by lnuss

Yes, I've spent a bit of time in full motion simulators, hundreds of hours in fact, and they were all "fun" even though they were keeping score! But that is to be expected in a 38 year career as a professional pilot. As it happens, though, I actually had an hour in this simulator that I suspect you are going to - Dream Aero in Montgomery County Maryland. I wrote a piece about it here at Flightsim.com a few years ago. (https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/content.php?20343-Dream-Aero-USA)

 

You will enjoy it, be certain of that. It looks exactly like a 737-800 on the inside, and the wrap around visual is outstanding. It runs on the commercial version of XPlane, at least when I was there, and with but a few exceptions flies very well. I never flew the 737 IRL. but I did spend 10 years on the 727, which flies pretty much the same, and on that basis it seems realistic except for the fact that when I flew it, it had a detent-like notch at the neutral point of the aileron travel of the yoke. Real airplanes do not have a detent at neutral, and it is bothersome in the sim. Particularly in roll, what is needed is smooth small control pressures, and the detent requires some effort to overcome, thus you may end up in a pilot-induced-oscillation in the roll axis, at least until you get used to it.

 

The pitch trim is also a bit more sensitive and difficult to get exactly right than the 727 airplane was. And, I presume, the 737. But with a few minutes of "flying" you can get yourself used to these quirks. Actually, if you have never flown a real airliner, you may be better off than a real pilot, since you have no preconceived notions!

 

Have a ball, and write about it for the rest of us! And if Lamyl is your instructor, please give him my regards.

 

Tony Vallillo

Yep! My first I posted about here waaay back circa 2003, flying a CRJ-200 sim at Delta's Connection training campus at Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson. I got many hours in that. Then more recently the same pilot back then, a training captain, got me in a E-170 sim for Jet Blue where he is also a training captain now.

 

I will say that be prepared for that full motion (Level D) sim because it is not like what you may expect being in a seat motionless for years in front of a tiny computer screen! You will instantly feel the inertia from takeoff to banks and turns to landing reverse thrust rollout. And if you land hard, that massive sim will jerk you around like in the real thing as well. Also expect older graphics like from say the FS2004 days at 1080p - a reminder that airline pilots aren't in these things for the ground sight seeing eye candy.

 

Also hopefully you get to check out the drop down HUD for landing, as that will really add a 4th dimension to your flying, specifically if your "instructor" sets you up for a CAT-III approach to minimums like he did with me in the E-170. It is like no other experience, and make sure you get all kinds of photos as you will be quickly overwhelmed by the realism and full scale working cockpit!

Edited February 15, 2022 by N069NT

I have quite a few hours in 737 Level D's and a couple of hours with the 767 and 747. And I gotta tell ya...you're going to love it. One thing you might want to consider is deciding what you want to do before you get there. Takeoffs and touch-and goes? What airport(s)? Maybe even a short IFR with a CAT III landing (KSJC-KSFO is a really good one). Here's what you can look forward to: