As someone who can't drive a car, it might have seemed a bit ambitious of me to try to fly an aeroplane. But I wasn't placing any lives at risk - not even my own - when I sat in the captain's seat of a Boeing 737 cockpit. I was alongside First Officer Nick Walsh, the real-life licensed pilot of a 20-seat Metroliner and one of the pilots at Jet Flight Simulator Canberra, getting ready for a 30-minute flight (longer times are available).
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There are about 22,000 airports to choose from as takeoff and landing points - New York and Hong Kong are popular choices - but I selected O'Hare, since I was born in Chicago and have flown into and out of the Windy City several times since. Nick ran me through the control panel and the various levers and pedals that would enable our plane to take off, fly around and land - with any luck, safe and sound.
Then it was time for take-off. While the cabin isn't pressurised and lacks the bumps and motion associated with real aeroplanes, the darkness, size and immersiveness of the screens certainly capture much of the feeling you might expect from flying. Nick says airline pilots who have tried it rate it about 90 per cent for realism and some people have experienced motion sickness when the plane banks and dives (even though the simulator's graphics are not photorealistic).
The take-off seemed to go fairly smoothly, the plane taxiing down the runway, picking up speed and ascending under my control with Nick providing calm and patient guidance (and some surreptitious assistance). Once the plane was airborne and steady, we experimented a little with different weather conditions including storms and snow (the latter looked rather like the jump into hyperspace in Star Wars) and tried out the automatic pilot, as well as enjoying the view (we were flying at about 5000 feet, but a real plane of that size would be flying about 30,000 feet higher).
When it came time to head back, things got trickier as finesse was required. Nick helped me find the runway using the compass but actually getting onto it was much harder. He dealt with getting the wheels and flaps down while I attempted to steer the plane into position and get it safely on to the ground. Unfortunately, I missed and ended up landing on the grass next to the runway. Still, I did manage to land the plane without crashing it or colliding with anything on the ground; whether Nick was sneakily helping me, I don't know. I'm also presuming I was on the easiest setting (and certainly the weather conditions were the calmest they could be) but it could have been worse for a first flight. Nick rather generously said I would get 4/10. If I was more Ted Striker in Flying High! (Airplane!) than the title character in Sully, well, that's only to be expected.
The Verdict: It was a lot of fun in, at times, a slightly nerve-racking way. Nick said I would do a better job of landing with a couple of hours' practice.
Details: Jet Flight Simulator Canberra is upstairs at Unit 5, 4 Ipswich Street, Fyshwick. For more information and bookings phone 0438 834 026 or visit jetflightsimulatorcanberra.com.au.
