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We made it back. Was it fun? Uhh, yeah it was. Just a few highlights…

The Drive - Nice, long, and hot. It was pretty cool having a GPS, though, as we did make a wrong turn and it was helpful to try to find our way back to the LA freeway. Of course, having a V8 meant we didn’t pass most gas stations, and with the cost of fuel in Los Angeles (we saw a few stations that had 2.40 for the cheap stuff!), it was costly. But at least we were comfortable.
The Flight Simulator - What can I say about this? Well, it was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. We arrived an hour before our flight in the simulator was scheduled, so our pilot showed us around the training center, and the different stages of training that they do for pilots getting their type rating in whatever plane they’re training for. It just starts with some CBT’s (computer-based training), then some cockpit procedure training, with a mock-up of the cockpit. Then it moves to a simulator that doesn’t move or have displays for outside, then finally, to the full scale simulator.

We did the 717-200 simulator, which is a pretty advanced aircraft. I was the pilot, while Cassie was my co-pilot.

We started out at a gate at LAX, and after push back, I taxied the plane out to the runway; which was a weird feeling. We felt every little ‘bump’ in the taxiway, and it was a challenge to keep the plane lined up with the taxi line. It actually handled pretty well. Once we were lined up on the runway, we turned on the auto-throttles, and we were airborne. After takeoff, we turned on the autopilot, took some pictures, and put in a heading to do a landing back at LAX. I did a ‘touch-and-go’ landing at LAX, then Cassie took the controls. We then switched to a landing at Honolulu. Cassie did an amazing job on keeping the plane under control, but you can tell she was concentrating quite hard on keeping it in line. After a perfect landing, we decided to do some ‘canyon-flying’ through the mountains. The plane didn’t like that too much, though, as it’s proximity alarms were going off as we were very close to the mountains.

After that, I wanted to try a landing at San Francisco, which was great. The trainer setup a 777 taking off on a runway right next to the one we were landing on. Once it was airborne, he ’stopped’ the 777 in midair, and we caught up to it.

The other highlights were rolling the plane over SF bay, and doing a flyby of the Golden Gate bridge.

It was only an hour, but it was one of the coolest things I’ve done.

Disneyland - Well, what can I say? It was Disneyland! I did end up riding The Tower of Terror, and have to say, it was quite fun.

I’ll be posting the pictures shortly.

For now, it’s back to the real world, and work.

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