Airplane Simulator

This weekend was another holiday weekend...they seem to have a lot of holidays here! We were invited by some Korean friends to go with them to Seoul to Asiana airlines and ride a flight simulator. The kids, especially James, were very excited about this!!!

We were right out by the runway, the closest we'll probably ever get in order to watch, feel, and hear the jets overhead unless we become airport personnel! Once inside, the kids were shown the simulators - and had a hard time imagining that it was going to feel just like an airplane inside them.

Our three with 2 other kids that went along...Jenny and JayJay. Needless to say, it becomes quite the pun that their names all start with "J" when we're together! Jenny is a year younger than Jesse & Joy and JayJay is a year younger than James...not that you'd know that by looking at them! They're AmeriAsians and their father is tall. They were born in Korea, spent the last 3 years in Florida, and then recently moved back to Korea. They speak both languages well. The second picture is inside the simulator. We went in 2 groups. This picture shows the computer used to simulate everything possible that the pilot may encounter in a flight. The instructor gave John & James some thunderstorms & turbulence. John really loved that...NOT!!!

Seated and ready to go!!! John gave up his seat to Jesse halfway through. James finally and reluctantly gave up his seat to Joy for the landing - but unfortunately we did not get a picture of her sitting there. You'll notice the windows just look blank. It actually lit up like a computer screen with scenes of the runway, then the clouds, the trees & water below, and moved around to make it seem just like it would in an aircraft. It just didn't show up on the camera. We crashed twice into another airplane, stalled mid-air twice as the instructor reset it after the crashes(that was weird!), barely missed a third crash (we had to climb up steeply to miss it) and then landed safely! The miracles of a simulator! Actually I was disappointed that the simulator didn't even shudder or anything upon impact in the accidents.

James living his lifelong dream!!! He said later, "Mommy, that just made my dream seem real. Like I could really become a real pilot someday." I guess we'll see what his future holds! This was the kid who at 3 years old begged his mommy to read to him straight out of Private Pilot. We'd gotten the subscription for him to look at the pictures, but that wasn't enough for him. I seriously have no clue how much he understood, but he would listen for as long as I could read to him. However, those 2 accidents were under his flying, so he has some practicing to do!!!

"After simulator" pictures. Fun time...Big smiles! Asiana has all types of flight simulators. We were told that pilots must come here annually to be tested. It costs 50,000won (roughly 50 bucks) an hour and they must "rent" the simulator in 4 hour blocks. He said that pilots need 50 hours of training. But I'm not sure if that is initially or annually. Anyway, we got in for free since the father of one of our friends works there.