Geremy Britton
01-03-2010, 02:26 PM
Hi all,
Just arrived back from christmas holiday over in spain, and despite the rater sobering cold hitting me back in the UK now. I should have certainly prepared myself from the 19 degrees in the morning to arriving in back in the uk to temperatures of just 1 degree and heavy snow fall yesterday evening. :shock:
Nevertheless i was pleased to have a look at the flightdeck on my return. Upon request, the captain allowed me to enter the flightdeck after parking at the gate and have a chat. Although there is a wealth of images of the interior all over it's always great to have a look inside the real airworthy plane once in a while. The aircraft i travelled on was the 737-800 (NG) which was only a few months old so in tip top condition. It was a night flight so whilst systems inside the cockpit were still running the captain demonstrated a few things including the 'christmas tree test' also known as the light test which lights everything up in the cockpit which was great. I also had a sit in the captains seat whilst at the gate and lightly moved the control column and throttles. This allowed me to compare to my poldragonet USB throttle. The resistance on the real thing is considerably more than the USB type. I do not know if this has been addressed by any other TQ vendors. As i see the obvious problem is if there is resistance, the gears for the a/t are going to burn out or struggle to work/overhloaded for our sim TQ's. It's an interesting dilemma. :o
The captain was very pleasant and welcoming; i just wanted to pass on such a fantastic experience to all of you. It was great to see a functional airliner as obviously the 737-800 is, on the whole, still in service.
Sometimes the best things in life don't cost anything. Remember that. :)
He also said he used to fly the B757, 767 but these are fizzling out in terms of use. I suppose this is down to all the new technology such as the A380 and the dreamliner 787.
A happy new year to all of you, and hope you all had a lovelly christmas.
Just arrived back from christmas holiday over in spain, and despite the rater sobering cold hitting me back in the UK now. I should have certainly prepared myself from the 19 degrees in the morning to arriving in back in the uk to temperatures of just 1 degree and heavy snow fall yesterday evening. :shock:
Nevertheless i was pleased to have a look at the flightdeck on my return. Upon request, the captain allowed me to enter the flightdeck after parking at the gate and have a chat. Although there is a wealth of images of the interior all over it's always great to have a look inside the real airworthy plane once in a while. The aircraft i travelled on was the 737-800 (NG) which was only a few months old so in tip top condition. It was a night flight so whilst systems inside the cockpit were still running the captain demonstrated a few things including the 'christmas tree test' also known as the light test which lights everything up in the cockpit which was great. I also had a sit in the captains seat whilst at the gate and lightly moved the control column and throttles. This allowed me to compare to my poldragonet USB throttle. The resistance on the real thing is considerably more than the USB type. I do not know if this has been addressed by any other TQ vendors. As i see the obvious problem is if there is resistance, the gears for the a/t are going to burn out or struggle to work/overhloaded for our sim TQ's. It's an interesting dilemma. :o
The captain was very pleasant and welcoming; i just wanted to pass on such a fantastic experience to all of you. It was great to see a functional airliner as obviously the 737-800 is, on the whole, still in service.
Sometimes the best things in life don't cost anything. Remember that. :)
He also said he used to fly the B757, 767 but these are fizzling out in terms of use. I suppose this is down to all the new technology such as the A380 and the dreamliner 787.
A happy new year to all of you, and hope you all had a lovelly christmas.