Hello All

Hello everyone! Well, I suppose I should introduce myself: My name is Ben and I live in Hereford. I'm (just about) 16 years of age and go to the Bishop of Hereford's Bluecoat School. I will be coming to Hereford Sixth Form in September where I will be studying Computing, Business, Physics and Politics. My main hobby is flying! I am currently training towards my PPL (Private Pilots License) and have 15.5 hours logged in a Cessna 152. I will be taking my Air Law exam very soon and that means that I will also be going solo in the near future!
So, what I want to talk about today is more to do with flying but there is a huge element of tech involved.

On the weekend I did something quite amazing: I flew in a Boeing 737-300 Classic "ZFT" simulator. (ZFT stands for Zero Flight Training. This means that the pilots do all of their type training in the simulator, and don’t actually fly the real thing until they have passengers (or cargo) in the back!) The simulator itself costs around £20milion and so it is very similar in price to the real aircraft, but considering the amount of training that goes on in this sim, it doesn’t surprise me!

I signed up for a shared "Future Pilot Program" flight with Virtual Aviation (www.virtualaviation.com) which included half an hour of briefing, two hours in the sim with three other people (so 30mins on the controls) and then another half hour de-brief. This package in total cost £450 ish - which, to be honest, I thought was a great deal!

I arrived at BMI, London Heathrow at 11:45 bang on time but was told that I was over an hour early. After much confusion the nice people told me that there was a mix-up and I had actually been upgraded to a singular course, which meant I would get only one hour in the sim, however I would have the controls for that full hour! This course was worth £650 ish and I was being upgraded free of charge!

I had just sat down and started to make myself comfy whilst waiting for my turn when one of the pilots approached me. He said that, because I had been upgraded, there was actually space on the course I was originally meant to be on! He then said that, because I was so early, it would be fine for me to go on both courses!

In total I ended up flying a massive £1100 worth in the sim and paid only £450! Now that’s a bargain by anyone’s standards!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the simulator at BMI and I would strongly recommend it to any other pilot, or aircraft enthusiast! The 737 is a real man's aircraft and requires you to be quite physical at times. She was generally a joy to fly, and a huge difference from my usual C152s!

Thanks,
Ben Bishop