20 of the Gold Awardees in World Class Arena Elite Competition 2007 continued with the second day of the Flying Simulation Training Course on 22 September at Cyber-i. This two-day course was offered by The Cyberport Institute of Hong Kong, The University of Hong Kong (Cyber-i).
The second day lesson began with some more theories. Students were told how runways were numbered. Then students continued their practice in making turns while keeping at 2,500 feet in the Brisbane sky in the flying simulation. It was not as easy as it seemed to bank the airplane to a required angle, turn to a direction precisely while maintaining its height.
The greatest thrill known to man isn't flying-it's landing. The students knew what it meant when they attempted to land the aeroplane at Brisbane International Airport. Although some of the work was already done by the computer leaving the student only to glide down from 500 feet, landing finished off much faster and there was little room for errors for a safe touch-down. Students had to align the aeroplane with the runway on the screen, lower the flaps at the right time and control the speed and the height together. All those controls had to be done correctly in a matter of less than a minute. While maintaining the descending, students held their breath to pull the aeroplane's noise up a little bit in the final seconds for it to land safely on its main wheels. It was a relief and deserved a round of applause for students who made the landing properly and braked the aeroplane - something which takes any real pilots a hundred times of practices to make it right the first time and every time for each flying mission.
The Question and Answer session brought out the last part of this flying training. Students made the best of the opportunity for answers which questions might have hanged in their mind every time they were traveling on an aeroplane.
In a little bit more than a century from the first successful aeroplane invented by the Wright Brothers to now big nations can fly astronauts to the space, could another 50 years bring people to space trips as easy as we are now traveling on a aeroplane to overseas? This is one inspiration in this course for young high achievers to think about which was stated in the beginning by the instructor. Set ourselves a broader and farther vision and work hard towards it is the way to make more dreams come true. For students who may think about being a pilot in the future after this course, the instructor had already stated what it takes to be a pilot, and like any profession, what are pros and cons making flying as a lifetime profession.
