Thanks to my son, I had a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fly a full motion simulator at the United Airlines Flight Training Center in Denver yesterday. I flew to Denver to watch my new-hire son (after 15+ years in the regional airlines) receive his United Airlines Wings. After the ceremony, he took me on a tour of the United Airlines Campus. It was mighty impressive. Just by chance, we ran into one of my son’s long-time friends who is currently a sim instructor for the Boeing 737-800. He had a brief break in his training schedule, so invited us to fly the simulator for about 30 minutes. I got to do one takeoff and two landings. This video shows me in the left seat, making my first landing. The approach to landing began 5 miles out, while the video begins about 1 mile from the touch down zone (the skid-mark area) on runway 17R at DIA. You will hear a voice call-out begin at 50 feet above the runway and count-down in 10 foot increments from there. The approach speed was 150 knots (172 MPH).
