>Alan,>>That's great man! I'm gonna get to try the same thing in June>on a 777 sim.WHAT IS THE RELEASE DATE OF PMDG 777?!? POST SCREENSHOTS!!!:((tongue firmly in cheek)-Lee Barberhttp://home.nc.rr.com/uniuniunium/dvasig.jpg

The reason for the acceleration difference might just be due to FS2004 ground friction, which is hugely inaccurate, and also accounts for the 40% N1 needed for taxi. I think the taxiway friction is too much, and runway friction too little. There is a modified friction DLL floating around (SIM1.dll) but I haven't been able to find a working link anywhere.Best Regards,Robin Bilgil

Hi Greg, glad you remembered my earlier article. Sadly my marriage ended last month after 20 years, but my love of flightsim continues. My 4 hour session was a sort of a try to get over my divorce sort of thing.Anyway, as I indicated in an earlier post anyone can book simulator time, but it does cost serious money, as stated above, with Qantas appx. $900 per hour.If you are interested I would suggest a min. of 2 hours - the time passes so quickly.You need Federal Police Clearance (for obvious reasons). Apart from that you can simply contact Qantas Flight Training @ Mascot.You will find that you will probably need to book several months ahead as again for obvious reasons they put real Qantas pilots before others.Is it worth it!? You bet it is! I'll post a longer report on the experience shortly.Regards, Alan

Hi Jose Luis, I don't know about you but I spend countless hours flying my PC. PMDG has allowed all of us to take it to new levels.I am too old now to ever contemplate a career flying the real thing, so the closest I will ever get is flying a level D simulator.When you walk into that simulator and your mouth goes dry at the prospect of having to put into practice what you "think" you have learned, it is something special, not forgetting you have a real life Qantas instructor beside you.Once the simulator door is closed and you are seated at the controls, your whole perspective changes. It is absolutely real. Qantas recently upgraded the graphics. There are "real" buttons and switches to push/pull, seats to be moved (not that simple!), but strangely thanks again the amazing PMDG software all is somewhat strangely familiar.Once you are settled and the instructor gives you take off clearance at that point in time nothing else matters. Check everything for one last time, advance the throttles (they are stiff), press TOGA, control the roll using rudders, etc. and suddenly you are flying this incredible machine.How different it is to actually call for gear up, flaps etc and not have to push F2 or whatever. We did multiple take offs and landing, practised emergencies, and even 2 "full" flights (admittedly having reached cruise we than fast forwarded to TOD).I don't know what more I can say. The whole experience is something special.I cannot thank Qantas enough.If you want any more info. please let me know.Regards, Alan

Thanks for your answer Alan.You say you spend countless hours flying your PC, well, I have also not counted how many I have spent myself, but I can assure you that they are never enough for me. It looks like you have touched a piece of heaven...and it must be something like that indeed.Just a question:Did you take any special, long or short, preparation for the event besides the common PMDG-747 flight experience?. I mean did you prepare a particular route from A to B or you entered the sim thinking: "let's see what happens and wait for what the instructor has to say"?Receive my congratulations and my healthy envy too.Jose Luis.

>Background: 7 years ago I posted an article at Flightsim.com>(sorry!) I keep hearing things like, "May be uploaded anywhere EXCEPT Flightsim.com," or "Must never be uploaded at Flightsim.com." I've never visited the site for fear of hate and isolation from the FS community but I don't have any idea of the reason for this "boycott" of Flightsim.com. What happen?Ryan GamurotLucky to live Hawai'ihttp://www.virtualpilots.org/signatures/vpa296.png

There is nothing wrong with flightsim.com.They often have some interesting articles and the like. They also have a number of fascinating articles about flights and experiences of a real-world 767 captain at American Airlines, Anthonly Vallillo. Really interesting and well-written stuff.

Hi Alan, Sorry to hear about the divorce, Well the Federal Police clearance,would not be a problem for me I served 10 years with the RAAF1979-1989. And back then I had to have a ASIO clearance done.But at the moment i could not justify spending $1800 dollarsfor the experience.I want to upgrade my computer when the patch is released forFSX.But it is something I will plan for in the future.Yes it something special going up in a simulator. I had a very brief session in the FA/18 hornet one, back in my RAAF days.Which got me interesting in flying.Well in simulators anyway.I will look forward to reading your longer report. When you do it.Thanks again Alan forthe imformation.And next time you are in Sydney let me know. Cheers Greg Sydney Australia

Just before Ansett Australia went bust I had the chance to fly an Ansett 767 simulator for free :) I called up Ansett public relations to ask about having a tour of the Melbourne maintenance facility. To cut a long story short I got the tour ( Just me and my brother ) and after looking over the maintenance facility and climbing in some jets the guy showing us around took us over to the simulators. As another guy was showing us in the 767 simulator he asked us if we wanted to spend an hour flying it as the next checkride test had been caned. So my brother and I each got to fly 3 circuits at YMML ( Melbourne Intl )

I was watching this video of Concorde:

(P.S. if anyone has a downloadable version, please send me a link) Anyway, I figured that since we're on the topic of full motion simulators, look at the end of the video. The scenes of the cockpit look like a Concorde Sim. Does BA or AF have one? Or HAD one as the case may be?Ryan GamurotLucky to live Hawai'ihttp://www.virtualpilots.org/signatures/vpa296.png

Not sure about AF, but I know BA had one at Bristol in the UK. It has now been dismantled.Still, I'd rather a 737NG or 744 any day - and they are certainly the most popular with our customers, along with the A320 and A330/A340.

The Air France Concorde simulator now owned by Airbus is situated in Toulouse. Both have been decommissioned, though the simulator in Toulouse is still intact. There are plans to restore both simulators.- Andrew

>The Air France Concorde simulator now owned by>Airbus is situated in Toulouse. Both have been decommissioned,>though the simulator in Toulouse is still intact. There are>plans to restore both simulators.I think a trip to the other side of the world is in order!Ryan GamurotLucky to live Hawai'ihttp://www.virtualpilots.org/signatures/vpa296.png

Ryan,Thanks for that link. it brought a big lump to my throat.

>Thanks for your answer Alan.>>You say you spend countless hours flying your PC, well, I have>also not counted how many I have spent myself, but I can>assure you that they are never enough for me. >>It looks like you have touched a piece of heaven...and it must>be something like that indeed.>>Just a question:>>Did you take any special, long or short, preparation for the>event besides the common PMDG-747 flight experience?. I mean>did you prepare a particular route from A to B or you entered>the sim thinking: "let's see what happens and wait for what>the instructor has to say"?>>Receive my congratulations and my healthy envy too.>>Jose Luis. Hello, Jose Luis, sorry for the delay in replying.Once you are in the sim you can select anything you want to do -airport, weather...After being set up initialy at Avalon, Victoria, Australia, we then moved on to Sydney, Bangkok, Singapore, and then back to Perth (my home city) with a variety of weather. I must admit that with cross-wind take-offs/landings I had to abort a few!!!The great thing is that within seconds of finishing one take off/landing you can be set up again anywhere in the world.With the 2 "flights" we did VMML-VSSY and WMKK-WSSS (as I said we did advance from TOC until TOD).Best wishes, Alan