Experiences at Summit
Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 2:38 pm
The best part of the Summit was undoubtedly seeing the reactions of people who were "getting it" for the first time.
PE staff members have been immersed in online flying in one form or another for years now, so while PE certainly takes it to the next level, with commercial-grade service and presence, the fundamental concept is not new to us.
The same is not true for the GA community, though, even those involved in flight training on a daily basis. The vast majority of people were being introduced to the idea of flying with other pilots, and real ATC for the very first time, and they....were....floored.
One gentleman was LITERALLY lost for words for a full 5 minutes after getting out of the sim. He almost started getting emotional for a while there! He finally gathered himself and then said, "this should be mandatory in every single flight school in the country...I just feel like I got out of an airplane."
When asked what he specifically meant by that, the gushing continued, saying that the additional workload of maintaining situational awareness, talking on the radio, looking for other traffic, and working out his sequence resulted in an experience that used all the parts of his brain that uses in a real world flight, and NEVER in a sim. It literally transformed the experience for him.
A lot of people echoed the same sentiment, to varying degrees of course, but none quite like the fellow above.
Another young lady joined us for a ride in the sim after saying that she was thinking of taking flying lessons sometime in the new year. She new _nothing_ about airplanes, how they flew, or how to fly them. Not being a CFI, I did my best to relay the basics, keep it simple, told her what we'd be doing (takeoff, turn left, head to the Queen Mary, do some turns, then come back to Long Beach to land), and then we were off.
She was a natural and thoroughly enjoyed the ride, doing all of the flying starting after the crosswind turn, and continuing until we were on a 1/2 mile final for 25L back at Long Beach. She even managed to follow traffic on the downwind, and turned base as that aircraft passed our left wing. The crowning achievement was banging out her first radio call (after a few dry runs) for taxi back to the ramp. Her smile was priceless when she got the instructions to return to the ramp. She was watching for traffic (and finding plenty of it) throughout the flight, it was amazing to see.
Finishing up, it was clear that people instantly realized that it wasn't a 'game'. Once they heard real voices on the radio, it was "go time," and they started treating it like a real airplane. There were very few "what do I do next? How do I do this?" questions. The combination of the sim with wraparound views (wing to wing and beyond), the presence of other traffic, and realistic ATC was enough for people to truly slip into "airplane" mode, way beyond traditional "sim" mode, and at that point, it was just like flying an airplane.
Thanks to Steve for sprinting out to Radio Shack to buy a pair of speakers on day 1 so that we could project the radio and intercom audio for a few feet behind the sim. The crowd pretty much tripled the moment those speakers were switched on. We'll be taking it to the next level at future shows with a fully amplified setup with speaker stands. We'll also have appropriate signage that explains exactly what people were seeing.
Btw, Eugene's name was mentioned more times than I can recall. Everyone got a real kick out of seeing another plane being flown by someone on the other side of the planet.
It was awesome to behold. We can't wait for more people to try it.
Controllers/pilots, feel free to spill!
PE staff members have been immersed in online flying in one form or another for years now, so while PE certainly takes it to the next level, with commercial-grade service and presence, the fundamental concept is not new to us.
The same is not true for the GA community, though, even those involved in flight training on a daily basis. The vast majority of people were being introduced to the idea of flying with other pilots, and real ATC for the very first time, and they....were....floored.
One gentleman was LITERALLY lost for words for a full 5 minutes after getting out of the sim. He almost started getting emotional for a while there! He finally gathered himself and then said, "this should be mandatory in every single flight school in the country...I just feel like I got out of an airplane."
When asked what he specifically meant by that, the gushing continued, saying that the additional workload of maintaining situational awareness, talking on the radio, looking for other traffic, and working out his sequence resulted in an experience that used all the parts of his brain that uses in a real world flight, and NEVER in a sim. It literally transformed the experience for him.
A lot of people echoed the same sentiment, to varying degrees of course, but none quite like the fellow above.
Another young lady joined us for a ride in the sim after saying that she was thinking of taking flying lessons sometime in the new year. She new _nothing_ about airplanes, how they flew, or how to fly them. Not being a CFI, I did my best to relay the basics, keep it simple, told her what we'd be doing (takeoff, turn left, head to the Queen Mary, do some turns, then come back to Long Beach to land), and then we were off.
She was a natural and thoroughly enjoyed the ride, doing all of the flying starting after the crosswind turn, and continuing until we were on a 1/2 mile final for 25L back at Long Beach. She even managed to follow traffic on the downwind, and turned base as that aircraft passed our left wing. The crowning achievement was banging out her first radio call (after a few dry runs) for taxi back to the ramp. Her smile was priceless when she got the instructions to return to the ramp. She was watching for traffic (and finding plenty of it) throughout the flight, it was amazing to see.
Finishing up, it was clear that people instantly realized that it wasn't a 'game'. Once they heard real voices on the radio, it was "go time," and they started treating it like a real airplane. There were very few "what do I do next? How do I do this?" questions. The combination of the sim with wraparound views (wing to wing and beyond), the presence of other traffic, and realistic ATC was enough for people to truly slip into "airplane" mode, way beyond traditional "sim" mode, and at that point, it was just like flying an airplane.
Thanks to Steve for sprinting out to Radio Shack to buy a pair of speakers on day 1 so that we could project the radio and intercom audio for a few feet behind the sim. The crowd pretty much tripled the moment those speakers were switched on. We'll be taking it to the next level at future shows with a fully amplified setup with speaker stands. We'll also have appropriate signage that explains exactly what people were seeing.
Btw, Eugene's name was mentioned more times than I can recall. Everyone got a real kick out of seeing another plane being flown by someone on the other side of the planet.
It was awesome to behold. We can't wait for more people to try it.
Controllers/pilots, feel free to spill!
