33 minutes ago, paulyg123 said:

You know what would be cool: if I can get an ATC in with me. He/she can give me taxi, departure etc instructions along the way.   I will do a complete flight from KJFK to KBOS, cold dark cockpit -start-up taxi etc.   I'll take off heavy then magically dump fuel for landing.  I'll set weather at 1/2 mile visibility with 10 kt cross winds and shoot into KBOS ILS4R.

That will take 1 hour.  Then I'll do some fun approaches like KJFK 13L, and a couple of ILS approaches.   That will fill the 2 hours.

Try the Parkway visual for the 13's.  Lots of fun!!

Yep, I plan on Parkway 13L.  I need a co-pilot.

2 hours ago, paulyg123 said:

Yep, I plan on Parkway 13L.  I need a co-pilot.

No you don’t!  Pilot incapacitation scenario!  Have to train for it!  But we usually have a cruiser with us so it irrelevant. But you on the other hand - give it a try

On 11/21/2017 at 3:27 PM, paulyg123 said:

FYI, I usually schedule the time on the weekend or in the evening.  Real Pilots have the sim Mon-Friday 8 am - 5 pm.  So I go after hours - It works out better for all.  I will schedule Tuesday Feb 20th at 6-8 pm.  (right outside KMIA)

I wish that were true! I’ve had sim slots ranging from 6am-noon on a weekday to a midnight-6am (includes pre- and post-briefings) on a Sunday. This job doesn’t know the difference between day or night, weekday or weekend.

Surprisingly though it was just my luck during Captain upgrade last month that I had a 7am-1pm slot. That’s about as humane as it gets at this job! 

11 minutes ago, swood721 said:

I wish that were true! I’ve had sim slots ranging from 6am-noon on a weekday to a midnight-6am (includes pre- and post-briefings) on a Sunday. This job doesn’t know the difference between day or night, weekday or weekend.

Surprisingly though it was just my luck during Captain upgrade last month that I had a 7am-1pm slot. That’s about as humane as it gets at this job! 

I was JUST reading what paulyg123 said about "real pilots" having sim Monday to Friday 08:00-17:00 and I started to laugh.  I cant even remember a time when I - a "real pilot" had sim at a normal - let alone decent time!!!  Maybe that was back when I was flying the MD-80 for a now defunct Canadian low cost carrier!  As swood721 said - The job doesn't know the difference between day or night or weekday or weekend!  But hey - what do we know!!  Congrats on the upgrade!

For those who are living in EU, I'm planning to try the Lufthansa Flight Training (ProFlight) on these aircrafts : 

Long haul aircrafts (Airbus A350, Boeing 747-400, 747-800, 777)

This is Advanced Team Package of 799 €*.

Please anyone interested, contact me via PM. Thanks

More Info:

https://www.proflight.com/en/erlebnisfluege/advanced-level.php#anchor_ae9f34ad_Accordion-1-Advanced---Team

Quote

 

Number of participants: max 3 (your own handpicked crew)

Briefing: 45 Min.

Total flying time: 60 Min.

Debriefing: 15 Min.

 

 

 

 

 

Well since this is for fun, I would never want to take a prime slot and I usually ask off hours.  I know the scheduler.  She relegates me to those hours anyway.  The facility is definitely quiet at off peak times.  All the class rooms are dead empty, parking lot empty.  I usually see pilots from overseas there during the evenings.  But, I'll take what ever they give me.

On 11/22/2017 at 10:29 PM, AirCanada235 said:

I was JUST reading what paulyg123 said about "real pilots" having sim Monday to Friday 08:00-17:00 and I started to laugh.  I cant even remember a time when I - a "real pilot" had sim at a normal - let alone decent time!!!  Maybe that was back when I was flying the MD-80 for a now defunct Canadian low cost carrier!  As swood721 said - The job doesn't know the difference between day or night or weekday or weekend!  But hey - what do we know!!  Congrats on the upgrade!

Thanks very much! I told my wife it’s finally nice to be the boss for a change. :)

As a follow up to this post:

I completed my 2 hours in the 777 full motion simulator.  Unfortunately, the instructor was a wise guy and did listen to my requests.  He simply could not believe that I was not a pilot and sitting in a 777 simulator.  I tried to explain to him I have  PMDG 777 on P3D.  I could see he had no comprehension of it.  He said, you have the overhead panels too?  He couldn't believe how quickly i flew through the check lists, FMC and how well I taxied the plane.  Stuff we all picked up on our PMDG planes.

I started out at KJFK at gate - cold dark cockpit.  I asked for 3/4 Mile visibility and 400 ft ceilings.  We took off 13L and did the Canarsie Climb.  At 10000 we slewed to 10 miles out KBOS 4,000 ft.

I hand flew the approach and was hoping to see the runway at 400 ft.  So at 400, 300, minimums I see nothing - so bad Pauly Pilot continued to 100-75  feet and I finally saw the runway.  I did stick a real good landing.  The instructor was very impressed.  But then wise guy instructor decided to throw a few curve balls.  I cleared the weather and did loop at JFK.  On approach I noticed I was drifting right, then I saw the dope had a 40 KT crosswind.  I was up for the challenge and flew it perfectly (until about 2000 ft - he announced possible wind shear).  I told him, NO WIND SHEAR scenarios please - don't do it I want to continue with this 40 kt crosswind landing.  Well, I was dead on until about 200-100 ft when I got the WIND SHEAR alert and got slammed into the ground.  My first crash!!!  I was mad at him. So we re-did the loop and the dope forgot to turn off the wind shear, and I crashed again.  I was fuming.

He did give me an extra 1/2 hour which I did the KJFK 13L Canarsie Parkway approach twice.  We couldn't get auto throttles to work, the instructor was baffled and said it was a sim malfunction.  So I manually controlled the speed on this difficult approach.  I did this approach on my PMDG 777 over 100 times and was well prepared and stuck both landings.  Again the instructor was impressed.  Finally to kill off the time we did a few KSFO take offs and landings.  I was surprised he could not get me KEWR and KOAK as I wanted to do KEWR to KJFK and KOAK to KSFO.  I am not sure if the sim did not have it, or he did not know how to get it.

As I learned years ago, if you master a PMDG plane, you can certainly handle a full motion simulator.  And the graphics in FSX and P3D blow away anything the $17 simulator has.  I actually enjoyed taxing more than flying, especially pulling into the gate.   I would have been fine taxing for 1 full hour and flying another hour.

I will do this again next year.  Right seat is always open.

 

 

If I may ask, where was this? I did a quick google search but nothing came up for a Level D 777 sim in Miami. If I ever go down to Florida I'll be sure to book myself a couple hours as well. Sounds like you had a great experience!

Speaking of Level D sims, does anyone know of one within reasonable distance of central New Jersey. Preferably a 737, 777, or 747 sim because those are the PMDG aircraft I have experience with.

1 hour ago, HighFlier said:

If I may ask, where was this? I did a quick google search but nothing came up for a Level D 777 sim in Miami. If I ever go down to Florida I'll be sure to book myself a couple hours as well. Sounds like you had a great experience!

Speaking of Level D sims, does anyone know of one within reasonable distance of central New Jersey. Preferably a 737, 777, or 747 sim because those are the PMDG aircraft I have experience with.

Not sure if they have a 777, but Alteon in MIA is the Boeing facility down there. I know for sure they have a 767 but beyond that I can’t say. Probably the better part of the Boeing lineup though. 

1 hour ago, swood721 said:

Not sure if they have a 777, but Alteon in MIA is the Boeing facility down there. I know for sure they have a 767 but beyond that I can’t say. Probably the better part of the Boeing lineup though. 

I looked this place up, apparently it's renamed to Boeing Training & Flight Services now. It doesn't seem to me that it's meant for the general public though. Can any person call in and say they want to book a couple hours on one of the sims?

On 11/23/2017 at 12:27 AM, paulyg123 said:

You know what would be cool: if I can get an ATC in with me. He/she can give me taxi, departure etc instructions along the way.   I will do a complete flight from KJFK to KBOS, cold dark cockpit -start-up taxi etc.   I'll take off heavy then magically dump fuel for landing.  I'll set weather at 1/2 mile visibility with 10 kt cross winds and shoot into KBOS ILS4R.

That will take 1 hour.  Then I'll do some fun approaches like KJFK 13L, and a couple of ILS approaches.   That will fill the 2 hours.

I'd love to help you (I'm RW ATC) but I'm not back in the USA until May and then that would be Tampa, not Miami.  That actually might be fun.

Scott

On 11/17/2017 at 10:22 PM, paulyg123 said:

I am headed to Miami in mid-February and will book two hours in a 777 Level D full motion simulator.  I've done this many times and it is great to test out our skills we mastered on our PMDG 777 and apply them to a $17 million full motion 777 sim.

If you are real good in your PMDG 777 sim, you should have no problem landing this plane. 

If anyone wants to join me, let me know.  We can do 4 hours total:  2 hours each n the left seat flying and 2 hours in the right seat.  It is a bit costly,  $1000 per person - but it is a real thrill.

Did 30 minutes in a 747-200B there in 1997. I remember every minute of the experience to this day.