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High flight on solid ground – Metro US

High flight on solid ground

I flew a plane from Vancouver to Squamish, B.C. yesterday and I only crashed once.

Well, it was a flight simulator but it was so realistic that my motion sickness kicked in more than once, though I managed to escape the cockpit without getting sick.

However, I did crash land in Squamish, but that’s a whole other story.

My flight instructor at The Air Academy Henry Emson was patient and helpful when teaching me how to fly a (virtual) plane, but gave me the chance to recover from the first crash and land safely in Calgary after spinning around in the air a few times.

It’s a $500,000 virtual teaching tool but Calgarians can purchase a one-hour flight session for friends or loved ones — or themselves — and experience all the stresses and the fun of flying a plane.

“People get a real kick out of it, men, women everyone. I think sometimes the women like it even more,” Emson said of the experience.

“You know, people fly inside of planes all the time but they don’t really know what goes on in the cockpit and this is just a completely realistic simulation of that.”

And I agree. The sights, the sounds and the movements all put me right in the cockpit of a plane flying over Vancouver Island. It was an unforgettable experience.