Flying a 727 Airline Flight Simulator!

                             

This is an incredible story!  Years ago I got to fly a TWA flight simulator, and did takeoffs and landings for three hours!  Do I look happy?  The grin says it all!  The way it happened was that we had a new visitor at one of our astronomy meetings.  He was a friend of a member.  After the meetings we used to go to a diner for coffee and dessert.  I got talking with Lou and it turns out he was a "Check Airman" for TWA which meant he flew with pilots to evaluate them.  And he also did stints as a simulator instructor!  When he found out I was a pilot he asked if I would like to fly a simulator some time.  I immediately said "Yes!" but never dreaming it would happen.  He called and said to drive down to a hangar at JFK.  An instructor for flight engineers was working with two new flight engineers, but someone had to fly the plane so the engineers could work through emergencies.  So since he was not training pilots or first officers, he said that basically all he did was fly arountd while the instructor failed systems and the engineers had to run checklists. So after we "took off" he said "the airplane is yours. Go anywhere you want.  The really nice thing was that when the engineer training was over, we stayed in the simulator and he let me do takeoffs and landings at LaGuardia airport!  Simulated, of course! 

This is a photograph of the TWA full motion simulator.  What that means is that the cockpit is up in the air in the building and is supported by hydraulic activators, moves with the inputs that are put in by the flight controls.  If I pulled back on the wheel the whole sim pointed it's nose in the air.  If I pushed foraward on the wheel and turned left, the sim pointed down and tilted left!  It was so realistic that it was not funny!  And of course for this kid, fascinated my whole life by airplanes, it was the dream of a lifetime.  What an incredlbly generous gift Lou gave to me on that night!