The Fully Loaded Flight Sim

One day Matthew Sheil´s Boeing 747 is dodging houses on the approach into Hong Kong, the next it´s shaking like a baby´s rattle in a storm over the Atlantic. But Sheil does it all at a cruising altitude of about nine feet without ever leaving a Sydney, Australia, warehouse.

An amateur pilot who runs a trucking company, Sheil has spent eight years building a flight simulator that precisely mimics a 747 cockpit down to the last dial, knob and switch. And flying it may be better than the real thing. It´s got real-time weather, the preflight safety lecture (recorded), air-traffic control (live, from other sim users), even Qantas Airways food-but crashing is less fatal.

Sheil foraged parts from all over the world and enlisted dozens of hydraulics and electronics experts to construct the 10-foot-long, two-ton monster. But work continues. â€It´s like a painting,†he says. â€It´s never done.â€

The 747 Simulator

Cost: $230,000
Time: 10
Years

Brains: A rack of 13 computers runs the audio, motion and other systems, while DOS-based software and Microsoft Flight Simulator provide the flight data.

Visuals: A projector sits on a framework above the sim. Two 19-inch LCDs next to the windows provide left and right views.

Motion: A hydraulic motion system with its own pump room lets the pilot feel the bumps on the runway, the acceleration at takeoff, and the G-forces during turns.