Damn thats stupidly cheap. My local (Newtownards) costs £80 for 30mins!
Going flying for the first time!
- Thread starter Kristoph
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Damn thats stupidly cheap. My local (Newtownards) costs £80 for 30mins!
Here's a vid (I've got a few more videos, take off and landing, and touch and go landing and one flying through clouds.):
By the way, I'm the guy with the dark hair. He's had a load of flying experience, and next year will be training in the Eurofighter I believe.
I'm 22 in December and he's just turned 22.
It's definitely something I feel glad about ticking off my list! I feel lucky to have a friend who'd pay for something like this out of his own pocket!
Next time we're going for the Isle of Wight, or somewhere of similar distance, and maybe put the plane in a spin apparently.
By the way, I'm the guy with the dark hair. He's had a load of flying experience, and next year will be training in the Eurofighter I believe.
I'm 22 in December and he's just turned 22.
It's definitely something I feel glad about ticking off my list! I feel lucky to have a friend who'd pay for something like this out of his own pocket!
Next time we're going for the Isle of Wight, or somewhere of similar distance, and maybe put the plane in a spin apparently.
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He looks about 15 and he has a Plane?
He hired it, although when we were leaving a guy offered to take him up flying in a half a million £ aircraft to see the red arrows from above in formation down in Bournemouth. We went for dinner instead lol.
Are you both flying or something, or is it locked to one side? I'm confused
There are two yokes. When one person moves one, the other one beside moves with it. Meaning, turn one yoke left, the other turns left also.
Ah cool. Any reason why there are two?
Well they are there for both pilots to be able to control the aircraft. Say for example if one of the pilots fainted or collapsed then the other pilot would quickly be able to take over.
Makes sense, thanks!
Well generally in small aircraft there are dual controls to allow for training. However as has been said in commercial aircraft there are dual controls for a number of reasons. If one pilot becomes unable to fly then the other can take over, also If the other controls break then there is a redundancy.
Took me this long to notice, but don't you fly the A320/321? Only noticed when i installed FSX that the A320 has a joystick style yoke rather than the two handle bar type that is common in most aircraft. Do you find it easier or harder to control with it? Just looks more tricky since you only use one hand (well i guess you probably would have used one hand anyway since your other would be used for the throttle, flaps etc on landings).
Well the Airbus is quite different in a number of ways to conventional aircraft! I've flown the 737NG as well so I can make quite a good comparison between them, The main issue is that the 737, even the latest one is based on a 1960s desgin and that really shows. The A320 series on the other hand were developed in the 1980s and benefits from the experience gained over the 20 years between the designs. The Airbus controls aren't actually linked to the control surfaces, it is a fully fly by wire aircraft. The 737 on the other hand has big steel cables from the cockpit to the flying controls (although they are also hydraulically actuated). The Airbus has a number of computers that processes the inputs from the pilots or autopilot and then translates this into control surface movement. It also has inbuilt protections, so no matter what the computers won't let the aircraft get into an unsafe position. An example of this is banking. It will let the pilot bank to up to 67 degrees but after that it will just keep the aircraft at that bank. It also has similar protections for pitch, speed etc.
As for the actual flying of the aircraft with the different controls (side-stick vs yoke) they aren't that different for the reason you state. Even on a Yoke you only use one hand (for the First Officer the right hand) and the other hand goes on the throttles. Flaps and gear selections are done by the other pilot when you are manually flying so thats not an issue.
As for the handling of them, well yes they are a little different as you can imagine. In the airbus you are flying through a computer interpretation as opposed to the 737s physical linkage. In the real world this doesn't really matter and you still fly the aircraft in exactly the same way.
Hope that helps, if was a little boring haha.
I find it pretty interesting. Ill be starting pilot training myself fairly soon, so ill gonna be asking this type of questions sooner or later!
Interesting about the bank angle. Do you mean that if you push the stick say completely to the right, the aircraft will not go any more than 67 degrees? Like if you needed to go-around, could you just push the stick to the left/right fully rather than lightly pushing it and having to monitor your angle? Could prove a bit uncomfortable to the passengers i guess if you quickly banked to the left/right though
I think what Blinkz is saying, is basically you set out to achieve a certain bank in order to get on a preferred trajectory, however whilst doing this should you exceed the limits of the aircraft, then the FMGC (Flight Management & Guidance Computer) will prevent you exceeding 67 Degrees either way. Biggest advantage of fly by wire was the reduction in weight meaning a reduction in fuel on long haul flights. The 747-400 is one of the greatest machines to fly on FS 2004 or FSX. Airbus tends to use a joystick approach whilst Boeing maintains a yoke. That not might be the case with the new 787 dream liner however.
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