Flight simulator

At the beginning of the unit, I found a few options for free flight simulators (limited ones, of course, that you can use on your home computer) online. I downloaded one of them, but honestly, when I tried to read through the lengthy .pdf of instructions, I thought we'd never be able to use it. I couldn't even figure out what keys you were supposed to push to take off! But, I told the boys if they could figure it out, they could use it.

Of course, they figured it out. It took them many days of trial and error and watching online tutorials, but first they were saying, "I did it! I took off!" and then, "I figured out how to turn on autopilot!" and then "I landed without crashing!" and then "I found another airport!" and then "I tried landing on an aircraft carrier!" I was amazed. They downloaded a bunch of other planes and scenery packs, so they're always flying some new thing, too—the Wright Flyer or the SR-71 Blackbird—or the Follow-me car (they are very silly). It's been really fun for them. We don't have a joystick or anything, but apparently there are enough ways to use the keyboard that they can still make it work.

Flight simulators are pretty amazing, actually. We watched this video that shows clips of how they've looked since they were first used, and it's unbelievable how far they have come! The ones real pilots use now are almost indistinguishable from reality. I would love to go in one of those someday.

Anyway, the program they use is called Flight Gear, and you can download it (and learn more about it) here: http://www.flightgear.org/.

I like all the different views you can switch between---there's more than just the cockpit view

Wing view

A short video of Sebby taking off

Commercial Aircraft

Ever since the boys got interested in planes, they've been pointing them out in the sky all the time (we live right on the flight path toward the airport). At first I didn't believe they could actually tell what kind of planes they were seeing from the ground, but after a while I was forced to accept that indeed, they could. I asked them to tell me how to identify the different types of commercial aircraft, and they came up with this sheet (Seb drew the various engine configurations, and I wrote down what they told me was significant about each plane).

Of course, there are many more planes than this, but this lists all the ones we commonly see around here, around with a few others of their favorites. As you can see, they thought the best way to organize them was by how many engines each plane had, and where they were located. (I confess, though, even with this sheet I have a hard time knowing what I'm seeing in the sky! Maybe my eyes are not as sharp as theirs.)

On one of the days, we drove up to the Salt Lake Airport to do some planespotting. We found some good areas to watch the runways, but unfortunately went at a time when there were not many flights going out or coming in. We plan to go back sometime soon at a busier time of day! (We read somewhere that evenings from 4-7 is a pretty busy time.) Still, we had fun looking at the parts of the airport we rarely see, and getting up close to things like the runway lights.

Here's a place where the aviation firefighters practice. I like this blackened fuselage they use for (presumably?) putting out fires and evacuating people and so forth.

Goldie was just happy to be there

Runway approach lights

We watched several documentaries about Commercial Airplanes we are interested in. (My great-uncle, recently deceased, worked for Boeing for years and years. I remember loving to hear all his stories when I was younger, and I think my brothers even got to go in their flight simulator once. I wish we had had him around to teach us during this unit!)

This one about the Airbus A380 (Ky's favorite plane) has one of the guys from "Top Gear" in it. We liked it and it was very entertaining (sort of like "Mythbusters" or something), although Abe did comment afterwards that if he never heard about another Mongol Bow, it would be too soon for him!

I don't know where I was in the year 2000, but apparently I missed the huge news about the Concorde crash in France. Or maybe I heard about it and just didn't care. Anyway, I thought this documentary (one of several shows on this disc; we didn't watch the others) about the Concorde was FASCINATING. I looked up a bunch more articles about it afterwards. I really love the Concorde and I wish they would revive commercial supersonic flight! This article suggests that Airbus might be doing just that. I hope they win out over the stupid regulations and ill-informed environmental naysayers.

This video is about the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Abe loves these. It's such a modern-looking plane. I'd like to fly on one.

This video is about airplane crashes. I was slightly worried that it would be scary or disturbing, but my children are so fascinated with such things! And it wasn't scary. It did a good job of showing all the safety precautions that are in place, and how they are improving all the time.

This one is cool—it shows the strip-down and overhaul of a Boeing 747. I can't believe all the intricate systems that are checked and re-checked, mostly by hand, in one of these huge airplanes!

Biggest airplane in the world: the Antonov AN225. It's just amazing that this thing even flies! (This one is Malachi's OTHER favorite.)

Piloting an Airplane and Air Traffic Control (Aviation Careers)

I had never thought much about Air Traffic Control, but now that we've talked about it, I can't stop thinking about it—about all the things that are involved with the radar tracking of planes all over the country (world), all the time. It's kind of overwhelming. This packet about Air Traffic Control was awesome. Lots of interesting information you never thought to wonder about. We had fun looking for some of the things we learned about (not just the control towers, but the other radar towers and relay stations, etc.) when we went to the airport.

We liked learning about the instruments used to fly an airplane. When you look into the cockpit of a commercial plane, it's so overwhelming! (Seb has this poster in his room, of a 747 cockpit—so many buttons!) But there are really just six basic instruments that can tell a pilot what he needs to know. We had this poster up on our homeschool bulletin board which shows them all, and how to read them.

For more on those instruments and controls, this site is great. It has TONS of stuff about learning to fly—for real pilots (or people wanting to actually start their training)—but also for children who are interested. Here's a worksheet to test your knowledge of the gauges and controls. There are lots of more worksheets and pages about every conceivable aspect of flying planes. Such a good site.

My children really like the phonetic alphabet. We all tried to memorize it. You can sound much better when playing airplane if you refer to yourself as "Bravo Zulu Six-Niner-Niner."

This is a kind of funny list of terms airlines use (you'll never be able to STOP noticing them saying, "At this time, we DO hope you have a wonderful afternoon" again).

And here is a list of more essential aviation jargon!