Hey guys and gals. I just want to share my wonderfull experience in the full motion 737 NG simulator I had yesterday!All I can say is WOW!!!!! What an adrenaline rush when you sit behid the controls of this bird! Well, first of all, thanks to wonderful product form PMDG, I felt "right at home". What a great feeling when (almost) everything looks familiar and you know what to do, you go through the checklists, set up the overhead, FMC, flight instruments, etc.!I must say, _THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE_ from the PMDG bird (or any PC-based flight simulation for that matter) is the physics of the flight and the feeling. I mean despite relatively sophisticated flight dynamics engine in the PC simulator, there is no way in the world you could compare it to "the real thing". You simply can't feel the bird on the PC - period.It took me a couple of circuts to get used to it a little bit. One big thing is to properly trim the aircraft. Once it's in trim it feels (to me at least) a little bit more stable. And actually you have to apply quite a bit of pressure on the yoke as it feels "very heavy". And also it is very pitch-sensitive and feels unstable. Is it like this on the real bird?Also, during landing the bird had a tendency to roll wings back and forth and during my first landing I almost flipped her upside down, but managed to put her down (hard) and safely stop and the far end of the runway! (the instructor was very impressed)Also, during take off (no winds) it always had a tendency to roll wings after the initial rotation so I had to do some extensive lateral yoke movements to keep her climbing straight forward.Again, real NG drivers - any comments?So, to summarize, this is the greatest experience I've had in the long time and the PMDG team created a brilliant 737NG product (like noone knows that) :-)Cheers,Dmitriy.

Thanks for sharing, Dmitriy. I really would like to do this now myself. Have you flown any other aircraft RW? How did you get access to a 737-NG Simulator?- Neeraj.

There is a company on the West coast (Long Beach, CA) called Alteon training (a Boeing company) which advertised the sim rides for civilians for $150 an hour. For starters I booked 2 unforgetable hours. For some reason their web site is down today, so I can't provide you with a link.I've actually mentioned the PMDG and they said that folks form the PMDG team were there, taking pictures, sound recordings, etc. in the MD11 sim. for the upcomming MD11 package!Dmitriy.

... and the only RW flight time I had is few hours on the 172. It's not my thing - I like "the big iron" ;-)Dmitriy.

Dmitriy,Hope your sim instructor wasn't on a "power trip" or just having a "bad day" when he/she setup landing winds and or wind shear on final!I did most of our training for my type rating (737-300) in the same sim, and the first ride they let us "fly" the thing in normal (no wind, std pressure, no failures, etc) just to get used to it.Yes, MSFS cannot model the exact flight perf, (slugish roll commands at VREF) but you have the feel of what the "real" plane would feel like. (Pretty close to the real thing, but not quite....)But I'm sure PMDG will be able to model this too!!!!!!!Cheers,Gerry

Gerry,now that I think about it, there was a constant crosswind of 20 knots programmed for the duration of the session for both take offs and landings (we were doing circuts to 24R at LAX) May be that could explain the roll movements?Dmitriy.

20kt crosswind on your first ever 737 tryout? Nasty instructor. ;)http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/800driver.jpg

Well, yeah, I guess so :-) Next time I'll be more "agressive" and ask for "winds calm" ;-)Dmitriy.

He also did an engine failure at V1 on me (as a surprise), but then he helped me with a rudder and I was able to climb out and then did a single engine visual approach (with a 20kt crosswind)! Even though it was a rough landing, but we landed in one piece, nevertheless!Dmitriy.

You bet I will go there on my next trip. My question to you: anyone can walk in there and pay and get full-motion NG Sim? Did they check your ID?- Neeraj

To be honest with you, they didn't even check my ID, even though I brought my US passport with me. That surprised me a lot...They also have a full range of sims available: MD11, 777, MD80, 717, 747-400, 737-200 (classic), so one could choose.Dmitriy.

I am still uncomfortable with the security issues. We are not handeling it right as a nation .... *sigh* anyway. Nothing meant to you .. Dmitriy, but shouldn't we be checking?

>There is a company on the West coast (Long Beach, CA) called>Alteon training (a Boeing company) which advertised the sim>rides for civilians for $150 an hour. For starters I booked 2>unforgetable hours. For some reason their web site is down>today, so I can't provide you with a link.>>I've actually mentioned the PMDG and they said that folks form>the PMDG team were there, taking pictures, sound recordings,>etc. in the MD11 sim. for the upcomming MD11 package!>>Dmitriy.check this sitehttp://www.alteontraining.com/Best RegardsYves lefevre

>I am still uncomfortable with the security issues. We are not>handeling it right as a nation .... *sigh* anyway. Nothing>meant to you .. Dmitriy, but shouldn't we be checking?I know that simulators have been somewhat of a "hotbutton" issue since 9/11. With all due respect, however, I would suggest that the issue of strict background checks for civilian sim rides like this one, is more of an emotion-based overreaction than a serious security measure. As a commercial product, there is nothing secret about the operational details of an airliner. Moreover, training facilities such as the one mentioned above, exist all over the world. I would consider the security at airports to be a far more important concern.Keep in mind that these training centers are private facilities. They are not government institutions. Thus, I suspect that any ID checks that do occur are at the discretion of the owner of the facility. Perhaps I have missed something, but I am not aware of any specific legal requirements requireing ID chekcs for the use of professional flight simulators. Andrew

Dmitriy, Who was your instructor?Bill