Take-off for Dubai

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Tonight's first music is Beethoven's Piano Concerto #5. I grew attached to this piece back in the late '70s when we would all try to assemble a puzzle on the coffee table while stoned on pot. It was a fascinating and hilarious experience.

CNN did an interesting piece on Dubai recently, which prompted me to fire up Flight Simulator 2004. Since my last Flight (to Phuket?) more than a year ago I apparently forgot most of the keyboard commands, so I had to relearn them. But the experience was well worth the effort, as I finally took off from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia heading for Dubai.

Strangely, ATC could not be contacted when I was ready for take-off. There I was at the active runway ready to taxi into position for take-off and something was wrong: when I attempted to call the tower the game suggested that I call ground control, and when I attempted to contact ground control the game suggested that I call the tower.

After bouncing back and fourth several times I decided, 'Screw ATC I'm gonna take off.' I then taxied my B-737 onto the active runway and smoothly advanced the throttles to full power. The airplane responded with normal acceleration, and we soon reached 'rotation speed.' I pulled back on the yoke (in my case a joystick (eheh)) and the nose of the airplane rose to about 15 degrees. In seconds we were airborne.