European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 23, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Learning to Flythe Airbus i by Leah Larkin travel writer t had All the signs of being a Normal smooth Landing. Suddenly the Pilot noticed a truck pulling out on the runway directly in his path. What happened next was not a crash and Burn scene. The Pilot managed to get the plane Back up into the air in time to avoid a collision. But even if he had crashed there would have been no loss of life not even any damage. The Pilot was real. The air plane was not. It was a simulator the kind of plane used to train pilots. It turns and moves like a real plane. It s got All the motions. It s More sophisticated than other simulators. You can even hear the engines  Bob Moffitt. A second officer supervisor with Eastern airlines was talking about the Airbus simulator he had been training on. He and 10 other Eastern flight Craw members were learning All about the Airbus a new wide bodied european made Jet. Eastern has purchased 23 of the planes and has four already in operation. The training took place at the Frankfurt Airport on an Airbus simulator owned by Lufthansa. The German National airline also has simulators of a 747, 737, 727 and 707 there. Don t get the idea a simulator is a Complete replica of a real plane parked on a runway somewhere. All this was happening inside a building. The simulator is the cockpit Only but in every Way authentic. It sits on a complicated mass of wires and valves in a huge two Story room. A Hydraulic system allows it to move realistically while computers Are programmed to give the Crew the sensations of flight. Runway lights Flash past during Takeoff. As the plane Eastern airlines Bob w training with the Airbus Simula accelerates then lifts off the ground you fed you feel you Are airborne. There Are so Many things you can do can t do training in real planes. You can do id flame out with a Complete shut Down. You out plete electrical Black out. For safety s Sake a that in a real plane during practice. At i want to said Phil Ingoglia a second with  Are not new in Pilot training if getting better said Moffitt who termed the Lator  the Lufthansa simulators even present computer images that parallel the View fron in other words from his cockpit window the images projected on a screen that moves he makes with the simulator. If he files up into a Cloud Mast be my he is Landing at an Airport surrounded by i one of Lufthansa s aircraft simulators Al Frankfurt. Page 14 the stars and stripes instruments everywhere in the cockpit of this Oil