So there I was yesterday, making breakfast and looking forward to nothing more exciting than pruning the boston fern when I heard the rumble of an aircraft taking off. Not unusual; my apartment is right under the approach to Rwy 34 of Edmonton City airport.
The roar grew louder, and the thought went through my head: 'My God - those are Merlins!' If you've never heard the roar of a Merlin - let alone four of them - trust me, you never forget the sound.
There was only one airplane this could possibly be. I rushed to the window and looked out; just in time to see the tail of the Canadian Warplane Heritage's Mk.X Avro Lancaster pass over!
's what you get for not watching the news - I never knew the thing was even coming here!
(There are currently 2 Lancs still flying in the world. The other one's in England.)
Well - a lovely day, I'm feeling good so after my omelette I headed out for the airport - even in my current condition (which is much better, BTW; I don't need the cane for short walks any more) just a short jaunt.
And there she was; sparkling in the sunlight.
Actually; sparkling is entirely the wrong word. Lancs are certainly beautiful, but in a menacing, tough kind of way. Her black matte camouflage sucks up the light; she wasn't made to be pretty. So...
There she was, hulking in the sunlight.
Yah - that's better.
At least in a small way, I know this airplane intimately - I remember her when she was being restored in Hamilton years and years ago. Both I and my Dad were members of CWH for years. While I've seen her at airshows, the last time I was this close to her was when I was in Hamilton qualifying on the Harvard. Then, she was missing her wings, had no engines (except #2 which has just been mounted) or empennage and was covered here and there in green primer. She was at the 'You don't expect this pile of scrap to ever fly?' stage of restoration.
Anyhoo; the lineup to crawl through her went right around the hangar - people were waiting hors to get a peek inside. I decided against it; I've already been inside her (admittedly, it's not quite as impressive when the flight deck is sitting on wooden trestles) and there was another aircraft to look at anyway:
Oooooo..... Dunno why, but I really like the 737. Maybe small by airliner standards, it's still a whopping big chunk of metal to take to the air. Unlike modern aircraft, the thing seems to have a real character. Of course, since I fly it all the time in MFS, there's a certain attraction there too.
This particular 737 is still pretty much operational, though it'll likely never fly again. The engines are run once a week; all systems are checked over and that's it - it'd take a couple million bucks - John (the pilot showing it off) told me - to get her safely in the air.
It was open to peek inside. I wound up chatting with John - a retired pilot in his '70's - shamelessly banking on my family's name (my Dad is virtually a houshold name in Canadian aviation) to get a closer look at the flight deck.
After a lovely long conversation, I got my wish and managed to get myself into the flight deck. After the obligatory photo, he slid into the copilot's seat and began going through the startup checklist with me. (Touching and pointing to controls only - this is a live aircraft.)
The obligatory photo:
This is cetainly not the first flight deck I've been on; though it's the first of a live jet airliner I've ever sat in. (Plenty of hours in the greenhouse of a C-130 and a few similar aircraft)
I was a bit surprised at how compact it was. Not small; there's plenty of leg and stretch room even for me at 6'4" but certainly tight; there's a lot of stuff in there. It took a bit of effort to winkle my legs around the pedestal into the footwell. All controls are comfortable to reach and close at hand; even the highest switches on the overhead were well within reach; much easier than I expected.
The control panels are, of course, far more crowded than the FSX model suggests. As usual, I experienced a moment of bewilderment staring at the overhead - (keep in mind the most advanced aircraft I've ever flown R/L is a Navajo) everything on the sim would fit into perhaps a quarter of the real thing - but the confusion resolved itself fairly quickly. Everything in the Boeing's flight deck is very logically and easily laid out. No the bewilderment came next; when John slid into the right hand seat.
Trust me on this: there's a big difference between a pilot with 950 hours on a variety of GA aircraft and one with 30,000 hours in type.
He started to lose me somewhere around 'APU Air Bleed off'...or some such. I spent more time hunting 'round the overhead muttering things like 'A/O DISC circuit breaker...A/O DISC circuit breaker...A/O DISC circuit breaker...A/O DISC circuit breaker...A/O DISC circuit breaker...Uhhh....' than I did actually following the checklist.Anyhoo; the fifteen minutes or so were tons of fun. Afterwords; I'd had a bit too much sun so headed home for dinner and a nice cocktail.
The Boston fern never did get pruned either.
Wow - what a fun day. Now I just need to find an FSX 737 with an all-analog control panel.
Cheers!
