On a recent trip to Dubai, hipmunk got the chance to tour the Emirates Crew Training College. It’s where I learned that unlocking-the-bathroom-from-the-outside-trick.
Thanks to Daniel Romaniuk & Emirates Airline, we got a fantastic tour of not just the training facility, but also got to fly an Airbus A380, the largest passenger airplane in the world. OK, it was just a simulator (c’mon, these things cost over $300,000,000 each) but it was still pretty fantastic. Steve Huffman, hipmunk co-founder, has a pilot’s license, but wasn’t available for a trip to the UAE, so I had the honor.
I didn’t get the landing right on the first try (this was a bit different from the Cessna I used to pilot in Microsoft Flight Simulator 5) but that’s just yet another reason why I’m not a pilot. Feeling the entire cockpit convincingly shift with every thrust and turn was quite a thrill. Thought it felt like a fantastic video game for me; the pilots training on it rely on having as realistic an experience as possible.
At one point I did in fact try shutting off all the engines in an effort to make an emergency landing. It did not end well. Hollywood has lied to me yet again.
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