By Mark D. Weiss When our $35/day rental car turned out to be a 2000 Jaguar, I knew I was having a good day. When I talked our way into the enormous control tower at Denver International Airport (DIA), I knew I was having a great day. When I landed a Boeing 777-300 from the right seat, successfully avoided four windshear warnings, and avoided two mid-air collisions, I knew that I was having a day that I would never forget. The amazing part is that it all occurred in a 6 hour period between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m.! How is that possible?? Three easy steps:
Before I start with all the details of this adventure, let me say one thing... Go do it! If you have the money right now, Go do it! If you don't have the money, save up and Go do it! It was the most amazing experience of my life. When you go, make sure that you bring a fellow aviation enthusiast. It makes a big difference when you are trying to land a B-777 for the first time, and your flying buddy (sim or real) is sitting right there with you.
I have been a private pilot for four years. I have been a sim-pilot for 14 years. I have been an airline pilot (in my mind) for as long as I can remember! My flying buddy, Leo Rodriguez, has had his private certificate a little bit longer than me, but the rest of his flying bio reads the same. When I found out about United's "Pilot For a Day" program, it was a no-brainer. I have always wanted to fly in a real full motion simulator. When I told Leo about it, he was just as excited.
The first step was getting in contact with United Airlines. The person we needed to speak with was Dawn Thompson. She was wonderful. She arranged for the sim time, the instructor, and made our hotel reservations. She also arranged for the surprise gift that was waiting for us at the hotel. You will just have to go to Denver to find out what it was!
I can tell you are getting anxious to hear the fun part, so here it is! We flew into Denver on a B-767 (no 777 service from Tampa), late Friday night. We were scheduled to meet our instructor, Tim Ball, at 7 a.m. Saturday, in the lobby of the UAL flight training center. At exactly 7 a.m., Tim arrived. We all chatted for a few minutes to get acquainted. Tim is our age (36) and flew DC-10s before becoming a pilot on the mighty "triple seven." After flying the 777 for a while, he was picked to become an instructor. (How can I get that job!!) We spent the next hour touring the facility, slowly making our way to our simulator. On the way we sat in an Airbus A320 sim, a B-757 sim, and the big one, a 747-400 'Level D' sim. Just sitting in those sims was amazing—we couldn't wait to fly one!
The time had come. We arrived at the B-777-300 simulator #3. Tim jumped in and set the plane, with the engines running, on the taxiway at LAX. Leo and I then entered this huge box and saw the cockpit lit up, the incredible visuals, and the two empty pilot and co-pilot seats! Being that we had the sim for two hours, Leo and I would each get an hour in the left seat, and an hour in the right seat. Due to the results of a coin toss three weeks earlier, Leo sat in the left seat first.
After getting situated in those big seats, with four seat belt attachments, Tim gave us a few minutes of instruction on taxiing and take-off. We were going to take off on RWY24 at LAX. After a fairly good "position and hold" the moment of truth was upon us. Leo pushed the two throttles forward and engaged the TOGA autothrottle buttons. The mighty engines roared to life, and we started moving. When I say moving, we were moving! I called V1, then VR and Leo slowly pulled back on the yoke to a climb pitch of 15 degrees. According to Tim, this should take about six seconds. After achieving positive rate of climb, Leo called for "gear-up." I pulled up the gear handle, and we heard the sound of the gear retracting. What a thrill. We just took off in a Boeing 777! On the way up to altitude, Tim put in some mild to moderate chop. Oh yes, it was choppy!
After flying around for a while, it was time to land. This was the real test, and Leo was in the left seat! We lined up on a 12 mile final, for LOC RWY 27 in San Diego. We then heard the words we were waiting to hear…"UNITED 777 HEAVY... YOU ARE CLEARED TO LAND" We set the autothrottle for 148kts, set gear down, armed the spoilers and set flaps 30. The runway was approaching quickly, and Leo was doing a great job on the approach. At fifty feet above the runway, we heard the familiar sound of the plane calling "FIFTY". Leo prepared to flare. At thirty feet, Leo gently pulled the nose from a 2.5 degree pitch to a 4.5-5 degree pitch and held it there. The mighty bird touched down on runway 27! The speedbrakes deployed, and Leo engaged the thrust reversers. It was as real a landing as any we ever experienced.
Next it was my turn. The pressure was on. Would I be able to land like Leo did, or would I miss the runway completely. A look of horror came over my face as Tim told me to try and land from the right seat. "The right seat?" No way. I have never landed a Cessna from the right seat, how could I land this monster aircraft. Well, there was no turning back now. I, too, was soon flying the LOC approach to RWY 27 in San Diego. Soon after passing over the Laurel travel building, I crossed the threshold of the runway. I patiently waited for the "FIFTY" to bellow out of the speakers. The next thing I heard was the sound of a hard, but successful landing. As I engaged the thrust reversers, Tim apologized for accidentally turning off the warning speakers. I didn't care. After all, I just landed a "triple seven"!
After a few more take offs and landings, Tim was ready to show us the "good stuff"! As Tim was pointing out the TCAS display and multiple aircraft in the area, Leo and I became fixated on the red collision alert indicator, and the cockpit annunciator advising "TRAFFIC TRAFFIC". Tim suggested that we might want to look out the window and take some evasive action. At the moment we saw the other plane, about 1/4 mile ahead of us, coming straight for us, the cockpit annunciator advised "DESCEND... DESCEND." We narrowly missed the oncoming plane, but we were thrown into a stall while trying to recover from being in the other plane's jet wash. We did recover, and received a "GOOD JOB" from Tim. Although, on the cockpit video tape, it a clearly looks like Leo and I both ducked our heads, we would never admit to that!
Our time was drawing to a close, and Tim decided to give us some relaxing windshear experience on take-off and landing. All I can say, is that I hope I never encounter windshear in real life. It was bumpy, and difficult to control the airplane. We each did one on take-off and one on landing. By then, our two hours had gone by. A flight crew was ready to take a check-ride. We wished them "good-luck" and let them know that we left the seats very warm for them!!!
Thanks to Tim, we were able to see and do all the things that we wanted to. The experience was better than we had expected. If you ever had a dream of flying an airliner, this program is for you. Check out the "Pilot For a Day" at the UAL Flight Training web-site.
As Leo and I were driving away in our 2000 Jaguar, we reminisced about our day as 777 pilots. We owe many thanks to UAL, Dawn Thompson, and especially Tim Ball. As the sun set on this picture-perfect day, we decided that in exactly one year from now, we would return to Denver and hear the words "UNITED 747 HEAVY, YOU ARE CLEARED TO LAND!"
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