Here is a home study simulator course for those who still hunger for the romance and adventure of airline flying.

 

That “Romance and Adventure” will all come back to you if you follow the steps of this “practice trip” at home:

 

1. Stay out of bed all night.

 

2. Sit in your most uncomfortable chair, in a closet, for nine or ten hours facing a four foot wide panoramic photo of a flight deck.

 

3. Have two or three noisy vacuum cleaners on high, out of sight but within hearing distance and operating throughout the night. If a vacuum cleaner fails, do the appropriate restart checklist.

 

4. Halfway through your nocturnal simulator course, arrange for a bright spotlight to shine directly into your face for two or three hours, simulating flying an eastbound flight into the sunrise.

 

5. Have bland overcooked food served on a tray midway through the night.

 

6. Have cold cups of coffee delivered from time to time. Ask your spouse to slam the door frequently.

 

7. At the time when you must heed nature’s call, force yourself to stand outside the bathroom door for at least ten minutes, transferring your weight from leg to leg, easing the discomfort. Don’t forget to wear your hat.

 

8. Leave the closet after the prescribed nine or ten hours, turn on your sprinklers and stand out in the cold and “rain” for twenty minutes, simulating the wait for the crew car.

 

9. Head for your bedroom, wet and with your suitcase and flight bag. Stand outside the door till your wife gets up and leaves, simulating the wait while the maid makes up the hotel room.

 

10. When your spouse inquires, “Just what in the hell have you been doing?” just say, “Recalling the allure of all night flying to romantic places.” as you collapse into bed.

I visually imagined all the steps in my head and still can't stop laughing. BIG thank you

Excellent!

 

As a passenger one time (twice a year for four years on TWA) from JFK to Cairo, which was an overnight flight of 9 hours, I remember one time a baby crying quite a bit all night long.  So, I had not got much sleep.  As the Sun was coming up, I remember looking out the window to see the tip of Africa (Alexandria) coming into view through the haze, when suddenly the plane began descending at a pretty good clip ala roller coaster ride style.  The pilot came on and "GOOOOOOOD Morning, we have begun our descent into Cairo!"

 

I still fly that flight overnight and whenever I can I get up and check the systems to see how things are going and then  try to get back to sleep.  The next day I have to get up early to start the descent and land.  Needless to say I am pretty tired that day and just want to nap.

Also, remember that such an approach to flying is not, IIUC, permitted under the terms of the Prepar3d (aka "P3D") EULA, but rather under the terms of the "PE3D" EULA !

 

GaryGB

Great stuff....     :lol:    

 

Doug

Wobbie your post is almost a word-for-word rendition of a write-up that appeared in the Jet Careers website, but which has been circulated widely.  Great minds think alike.

 

Truth be told,  I would imagine that life as a long-haul airline or cargo pilot could be one of stupefying boredom, interrupted only when approaches and landings occur, or when storms liven up the cruise, increasing the pucker factor.

 

As much as I love flight simulation, I find long distance air travel VERY boring, as a passenger, so it is a good thing that I never went into aviation as a career for that reason.  Other considerations in the same vein would be polluted bleed air in the cabin, and of course the much closer proximity of airliners to the harmful solar radiation present at the upper flight levels, all of which I imagine could shave a few years off the normal lifespan of crew members.

 

Perhaps due to my low threshold for boredom, my flight sim sessions never last more than a couple of hours at a stretch, and I never reach cruise altitude, concentrating exclusively on takeoffs, approaches and landings in very short flights, lasting fifteen minutes or less on average.

I found this, without any credit, from a daily flightsimming/real flight notice I get daily.

I do apologise for not giving credit where credit is due.

I would add "Drink heavily (a watered-down version of your favorite cocktail) while paying two or three times the normal price".