Sim ride!!!!!!

If you didn't manage to work this out from the post's title, today was my first OFFICIAL sim ride! ARGGHHHH!!!!! Right. All out of my system now. After a long day slaving away over Aircraft General Knowledge the Ashurst group were booked in for a session on the Boeing 737 700 fixed based sim. This basically means it doesn't move, but your body genuinely doesn't agree with this when you're doing a 30 degree turn. We were at EGKK (Gatwick) and each did a circuit.

I took off from runway 26L and climbed to 3000ft, where we 'had a play' with aircraft trimming, which is definitely an art! After a few sharp turns and doing my very best to maintain 3000ft, I descended to 2000ft and the flaps were extended. Before I knew it I could see the runway, the gear was down and locked, flaps set 30 and using the ILS to guide me down 'smoothly' landed back onto runway 26L; not on the grass, not on the M23, actually on the runway centreline. Result! As I was the last to 'fly', I helped the instructor shut down the aircraft by flicking a few switches and of course, accidentally, flipped the seatbelt off sign. Totally by accident, of course.

Basically I had a blast. It is fantastic to get a go in the sims, as it helps remind me exactly why I am here and that I am going to be flying these massive pressurised tubes through the air not too far along in the future. I'm loving CTC and have made lots of new friends, which really helps lower the stress of the workload we have (which is crazy). Plenty of banter flying around - and there is without doubt a battle between Northerners and Southerners (I mean, who actually eats chips, cheese and gravy? Oh and John/Dan, the afternoon meal is lunch, not dinner.) Bring on more ground school!