Flight Experience-- Queenstown, New Zealand ( Sim Video)

[Guest gremel]

Just got back from a 16 day trip to N.Z. with my wife and had the opportunity to have a go in their "Flight Experience" fixed base 737NG-800 simulator in Queenstown, NZ. They had just opened the place 30 hours before and I happened to be the 7th person to do it.I could only get 30 minutes, so I decided to skip the b s and had them line me up on rwy 23 for takeoff. I did a touch & go and a full landing on the infamous Rwy 05. It's pretty scary since your wingtips are pretty close to the mountains on both sides before you line up down the river onto Rwy 05 which sits at least 100 ft above the water. The airport ID is NZQN if you want to try it.Anyways, they gave me a DVD and the whole thing cost me about $ 140.00 NZD for the 1/2 hour with the DVD included in the price. The price was actually around $ 94.00 USD.Well worth it, and the sim was awesome. I personally think that "Engravity" will have a real 'hit' on their hands if they come out with a half-way decent Yoke & Rudder system with the PMDG folks.Anyways, here is a little video clip that my wife shot sitting behind me in the jumpseat. Keep in mind, that the whole thing was manual with no autopilot at all. Takes the fun out of flying this approach and was very limited in time to do a 'touch & go' and a 'full stop' landing in 1/2 hour.I guess is if you had $ 600M bucks floating around, you could get this setup in your own 9X12 room. The scenery was beyond description. Better than a full motion sim. I could hardly believe it myself. Don't know if the Flight Experience flightsim is available in the States, but if it is, you ought to give it a go...There website is: flightexperience.co.nzEnjoy it along with my other 8 episodes on the real full motion simulator at Atlanta.http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=21...729192580&hl=enRegards,jack

[markadeane 272]

G'day Jack,Hope you enjoyed your trip round NZ, not a bad country if I may say so. :-)I'm lucky enough to be an instructor at the Wellington flight experience location and it's good to see people are enjoying the sims, having a fixed base simulator at my disposal is certainly not the worst thing that has ever happened to me!Currently the sims are only located around New Zealand but in time there is an expectation that some sites will open up in Australia and the UK. As for the US, I certainly hope so, time will tell!For any NZ'ers out there, you owe yourself a go in the sim, especially if you're an owner of the PMDG 737NG packages, you'll feel right at home.For those outside of NZ, if you're ever coming through here on holiday, by all means drop me a line and we'll arrange a session!Cheers,Mark Adeane