Earn your (virtual) four stripes when you captain this flight simulator in Derbyshire! Just north of Mansfield and over the border into Derbyshire is where you’ll find this professional Boeing 737-800 flight simulator.
And although you might only be a virtual airline pilot it is all very very realistic. The flight deck is just like a real Boeing cockpit and with the full 220 degree wrap around screen and High Definition graphic software you’ll believe you are actually there sitting on stand at somewhere like London’s Heathrow Airport.
The simulator itself might not move but for the aviation geeks amongst you this realistic flight simulator has motorised throttle and moving trim wheels fully functioning PFDs (that’s Primary Flight Displays) hydraulics electrics APU (that’s the Auxiliary Power Unit) bleed air oxygen and pressurisation systems. Oh and then there’s the fully working FMC (Flight Management Computer) and MCP (that’s the autopilot). Who’d have thought an airline pilot’s life would be filled with so many three-letter acronyms to remember before they’ve even flown anywhere?
Indeed stepping up to the flight deck and into the left hand captain’s seat if you ever thought pilot’s had a easy life with their feet up whilst the autopilot did all the hard work think again. As the precious cargo of passengers are boarding the captain and first officer are busy doing route briefings entering the data into the Flight Management Computer and executing a pre-flight checklist.
What we love about these simulated flight sessions in Derbyshire is that on the longer experiences you will follow those airline Standard Operating Procedures (yes you guessed it – SOPs!). That means you get to do all those critical checks and controls before you ‘take off’ and again when you have completed your landing checks and given the cabin crew the ‘doors to arrival and crosscheck’ command. You get a complete insight into what a typical ‘day at the office for a Boeing driver’ involves.
Of course if you want an atypical day in the life of a pilot this flight simulator in Derbyshire can be programmed to replicate scenarios such as a series of air pockets (that’s turbulence to you and us) flying in a holding stack awaiting clearance to land or even an in-fight emergency and divert to the nearest airport. It doesn’t happen very often but it’s all in a day’s work for a (virtual) airline pilot!
