Hi Huneybees,
"This is your Captain, Huney speaking. Welcome on board SilkAir's Boeing 737-800 to Seattle. It's 2pm on Friday 7th February 2014 and it's a pleasure to have you on my first flight ~"
Yipee! I got to fly a plane around Seattle all thanks to SilkAir and my wonderful guidance pilot. As part of its 25th Anniversary, SilkAir will be marking a new chapter in its history with a 25-hour flight with its first Boeing 737-800 jet. The new narrow-body aircraft will depart from Seattle on Feb 9, and arrive in Singapore at 11.45am on Feb 12 via Honolulu, Majuro and Guam.
To commemorate that, 150 SilkAir fans took turns through the night to virtually deliver a SilkAir Boeing 737-800 aircraft from February 7 to 8. Over the course of 25 hours, participants were given the unique opportunity to virtually fly the Boeing 737-800 simulator from the Renton factory in Seattle to Singapore, right from the Captain’s seat. Emulating the aircraft’s actual delivery flight path, the simulation included stop-overs at three destinations including Honolulu, Majuro and Guam, with participants working in pairs to take on the piloting of an assigned portion of the route.
I was one of the fans who got the chance to hop on a stimulation ride, doing a route around the Seattle station with The Flight Experience Stimulator located at Singapore Flyer. It is a fixed base device based on the Boeing 737-800, allowing participants the most realistic experience of flying SilkAir’s first Boeing aircraft. Used for actual pilot training, the model includes a fully enclosed, scale cockpit accurately representing the avionics, systems and controls of the plane as well as unique High Definition wrap-around Visual System that includes highly detailed scenery of the routes.
It was amazing to finally step into the cockpit after so much travelling on planes, and stepping into a pilot's shoes was not an easy feat. Other than holding onto the steering wheel, there were times I had to keep my eyes peeled on the monitors, whilst checking out the situation outside the plane. It was as though each eye had to move in different directions!
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| Landing Gear down... |
My experience was just a little part of the whole event and to mark the finale, the event culminated with Mr. Leslie Thng, Chief Executive SilkAir and Dr. Dinesh Keskar, Vice President, Asia Pacific & India Sales for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, taking the helm during the final hour. Witnessed by a crowd of close to 200, the Boeing 737-800 descended against the familiar backdrop of the Changi Airport control tower and was smoothly landed on the runways of Changi Airport at 11am.
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Mr. Leslie Thng, Chief Executive, SilkAir and Dr. Dinesh Keskar, VP, Asia Pacific & India Sales for Boeing Commercial Airplanes took over the captain
's duties during the final leg of the simulation event
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If you want to give the SilkAir’s first Boeing 737-800 aircraft a tour, you will be happy to know that it is making its appearance in Singapore on 14 February at the Singapore Airshow 2014. As part of its 25th anniversary celebrations, it will feature a specially designed livery to commemorate the occasion. SilkAir will also be rewarding its customers with special promotional deals.
Later this month, 250,000 tickets will be made available at special rates for customers in Singapore and across the region. More details will be made available soon and stay posted on silkair.com and http://www.facebook.com/SilkAir.
And if you would like to be a pilot for the day, you can hop on over to The Flight Experience located within the Singapore Flyer. More details can be found http://flightexperience.com.sg/
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