Flying the Maddog - MD-83 Simulator

How does an aircraft fly that’s called Mad Dog? Just a small example: Aviation staff members at Zurich Airport know a very distinctive story about this particular airplane:

Tower:
Alitalia 194 - taxi to rwy 28, hold short

AZ194:
Ahhh, yes, taxi to rwy 28

Tower:
AZ194, cleared for take-off

AZ194:
Ahhh, two minutes, need preflight (checks)
30 seconds later:

Tower:
Alitalia 194, YOU ARE CLEARED FOR TAKE OFF NOW.

AZ194:
Ehmmm, yes, yes, take off in two minutes
…In the mean time: Rwy16 was blocked by a B737 with a flat tire, Rwy14 was overloaded, so Tower decided to take a Delta B767 from Cincinnati in on Rwy28. Its crew was exhausted after 8 hours in the cockpit…
Tower
Alitalia 194, expedite take-off, we have Delta 767 final on 28 2 miles!

AZ194:
Ahhh, we need 30 more seconds...

DL104:
Hey Spaghetti, take-off or I'll fuck you from behind!
Alitalia 194 took off like a rocket...

It’s not reported if this really happened. But still it’s a funny story. By the way: The MD-80 series has very powerful engines, so 'taking off like a rocket' is nothing special for these birds.

About a month ago I had the chance to fly such a plane at and around Zurich Airport. Well, not the real plane, but we rented a full-motion simulator at Swiss Aviation Training Center (SAT) in Zurich-Kloten. This simulator is the device they train the real pilots with. It’s basically a real MD-83 cockpit that’s mounted on a very powerful hydraulic platform. Through the windows the pilots can see the environment moving around. Of course, since the emphasis of the device is to train procedures, the graphics visible through the windows are not very good.

Here are my pictures:

Pilot in command:

Take-off:

Inflight:

Landing:

Sorry for the bad quality of the images. Obviously I wasn't able to take teh pictures myself, also it's very dark in the simulator (no windows) and the hydraulic-plattform keeps the whole thing rocking.

I had the chance to fly an Airbus A330 about 2 years ago, also at SAT. But since an Airbus is more or less a flying computer the difference to the Flight Simulator 2004 on my pc isn’t too big. But the MD83 really gets you working: No computer is helping you keeping the plane airborne. No TV-screens are providing all vital flight data at a glance. All ‘steam-gauges’, and pulling the yoke moves oil through 150 meters of hydraulic tubes. This bird really gets you working. You need to stem all your weight into the brakes to get the plane to stop at the end of the runway – even with full reverse thrust. Pulling the yoke to rotate the plane at take-off almost lifts you off the seat. There is no servo-system like in every average car today. I can only laugh at these silly movies where a child as the only survivor lands such a plane – or even a bigger one – since a 10 year old couldn’t even move the yoke or even reach the pedals…