A Father Teaches His Son

Last night I got onto Skype with my Dad, who has been flying virtual airliners for well over a year or 2 by now and has even been flying for a virtual British Airways.  Needless to say his experience and knowledge about these planes and the procedures behind flying them are much greater than my own.  Using Skype though he was able to show me his computer monitor and walk me through almost every inch of flying an airliner from La Guardia International airport in New York City, to Reagan International in Washington DC.  He talked me through every procedure he would go through on a routine flight, and most importantly taught me how to use the Air Traffic Control and ILS system.
Everyone that just read that is probably thinking "What the hell is he on about?"  Well to break it down...


Air Traffic Control is basically a large group of people in control towers that stay in touch with the pilot over the radio, and most importantly tell you where to go during takeoff and landing, making sure you don't fly into other jets.


ILS System on the other hand is system built into the plane that allows it to connect to a radio signature from every different runway.  Using it during your approach to the runway while landing will line your plane up with
 the runway perfectly so that you only have to take control at the last and most crucial portion...touching down.

I tried my own flight today by using a program my Dad also showed me called VRoute which uses the actual flight plans that airlines use to different destinations all over the globe.  I put in the origin and destination for a flight that I take to visit my grandparents in Massachusetts (the picture above shows the flight path) and voila!  I can follow the exact same flight path that I take in the real world.  The flight was amazing, and landing has become a whole lot easier, and a whole lot harder on account of the fact that I have to grow accustomed to the new instruments and working with the people in air traffic control.  I have put up images of the flight over on right bar which are connected to my Picasa  account which will be posting all screen shots I take, whether they're related to a post or not, so keep an eye out for more popping up all the time.