Amazing stuff this morning. Thanks to Christoph Hausel (“The Hauslinger”), a friend of mine who runs Germany’s leading PR-agency in the internet space Element C, I drove up to some unassuming hall which reads “Lufthansa Flight Training” adjacent to Munich Airport.
We were greeted by Michael Langer (left in the suit, Christoph on the right (no suit ;-)). Usually Captain Michael Langer, who just yesterday returned from Johannesburg commanding a Lufthansa Airbus A380.
In his second life he’s an instructor for Lufthansa pilots who are regularly training in the simulator especially all types of odds like system failures. On the way to the flight simulators, we came across high-tech cabin simulators where especially cabin crew receives training for emergencies. (All the pictures, by the way, are here on this Flickr-set).
And, here they are, the flight simulators, priced around EUR 12 mn each, established on four hydraulic double legs which allow for three-dimensional movements. So far the theory.
Yet the practise, admittedly, exceeded all the expectations I ever had in theory how real and realistic the sensation effectively would be. After getting seated and briefed in a couple of basics, Michael “placed” us on Runway 26R of Munich Airport and told me to apply full throttle. The Airbus A330 started to move, we felt both the bumping effect of the runway and the acceleration being squeezed into our seats. (How it’s done: The cabin of the simulator banks backwards, however as the eyes see the horizon still straight, the equilibrium organ “believes” that there is a an acceleration happening in the plane.)
At 140 knots I rotated the nose with the Airbus-typical joystick on my left and kept a pitch of 12 degrees and the plane took off smoothly. Commanding “gear up”, Christoph pushed the lever up, we accelerated further, retracted the flaps, climbed out to 6,000 feet, levelled off and continued to fly in southerly direction towards Austria. The spheric impression of three dimensional space looking out of the six window feels close to flying really through the Southern Bavaria.
At some point Captain Michael (the real one, in his simulator command console sitting right behind us) changed the weather to “passing through thunderstorm”. Suddenly, we were in the clouds, and we got shaken to the point of slight motion sickness.
Next and all of a sudden, sky was blue again and we were set on the final approach to Nice Airport in France. See the two illuminated lines through the window, we were supposed to land on the right one after crossing the bay and overflying a cruise ship (chicks in bikinis on the upper deck to be imagined ;-)
The first time, I screwed up as the inertia of such a huge plane – unlike the small propeller planes I usually fly – tends to build up when applying too much impact on the rudders. hence making the aircraft difficult to control. At least I saved our lives with a go-around …
Second attempt was easier as Michael set the approach speed automated to 150 knots, I did not have to bother about the power, so I just focused on the flight director on the navigation panel. 50 ft above ground which get announced by an automated voice, I set the power to zero, the automated voice commanded “retard, retard”. (Yes, I know, it’s me). I slightly lifted the nose applying back-pressure on the stick. My touch down was quite hard, though. And again, amazing simulation hot thoroughly we could feel the bumper through our spines.
Approach number three, fully manual, was really a good one, despite strong cross-wind from the right which Michael added. With getting some feeling for the inertial of that huge beast, I basically forgot that I was flying an Airbus, and just did a visual approach as I would do in my little VFR-flying: Keeping the direction of plane towards the centre line and controlling the descend rate with the power. Shortly before touch-down I pushed the left rudder to align the axis of the plane with the centreline and lifting the nose a bit up. The bird just smoothly sat down, I pulled the reverser power up, we again physically felt the deceleration. Finally, I applied the brakes before the plane came to an organized standstill on the middle of the runway 04 of Nice Airport.
Overall, a once in a lifetime experience, also thanks to Michael who is not only a phenomenal aviator, but also a cool guy who doesn’t miss out on a good joke.
By the way, in case you are interested in going through the same experience, just drop me an e-mail under rene.seifert {at} gmail.com and I’ll be happy to connect you to him.
Comments (9)
Feeds