About 25 years ago, before my brother became a pilot for Southwest Airlines, he was a “check pilot” for the commuter airline that he flew for. The company leased blocks of time on multi-million dollar simulators not far from where we live and he gave other pilots refresher training focussing on emergency procedures. One night, he had some cancellations so he invited my dad and I up to see what he did. The simulators looked identical to the insides of the cockpits of the planes the airline had. They had hydraulics and sound that moved it around that made it feel very real inside. My dad got motion sickness after my brother started up the simulation of flying through turbulent conditions.
My wife and I started out hang gliding, but have had two airplanes for the last 25 years. The one is a “tail dragger” so landings can be a little challenging depending on the conditions, but the other plane has “tricycle gear” and it is almost like driving a car around that you steer with your feet. It is very easy to taxi around, land and take off. Steering with your feet becomes second nature very quickly especially if you were a kid who built your own downhill rolling “cars”.
