Emirates Aviation Experience, London

Terrontress

I went to Emirates Aviation Experience yesterday and felt it was lacking in a few areas. It was £3 per person to enter and £45 (€55) to use the A380 sim.

Firstly, the Experience itself. Upon going in there is a half scale Lego model of a RR Trent engine, some facts about it, an explanation of the theory of propulsion, all of which is great.

There is also an interactive display about wings where you can alter a wing and see how the wind flow changes lift. Quite cool.

Next, there is a baggage demonstration in a little room with 180 degree screens and a moving floor. It shows a bag being checked in and all it goes through until it gets to the plane, then shows it being offloaded.

Then there is an Economy seat mockup. I had read about it and thought I would be able to try the IFE, but you can't. It's simply three videos. As I sat down, I realised it had nothing in common with the interior of an A380. The seats don't recline, the tables don't work, the gaming controls don't pop out.

Finally, for your £3, you get to go in to a replica of an A380 cockpit for a photo. Nothing moves, all switches are blank.

Then I did the £45 A380 Flightsim. Firstly, upon getting in, it's apparent that this is again an entire mockup. In fact, I was thinking back to photos of the A380, with the keyboard and the trackpad, and it is not very realistic.

Your £45 gets you 30 minutes, enough to take off and land from LHR and do the same from DXB. The screens are good. The only controls are the throttles, all together, no ability to change one engine independently, the flight control, the landing gear and the foot rudder controls. I know that the uninitiated, like myself, hasn't got the capacity to do more than that, but I would have liked something a bit more realistic.

It's essentially a flight sim with a good attitude indicator, navigation.

I think the people taking you through the flight could be working in the café their next shift, not aviation people at all.

I think you would be better to spend your money on the 737 Sim in T2 on the way out to London rather than this.

Lapin

£3 is a small price to pay for an 'attraction' in London these days and wouldn't put me off going for a look out of curiosity. Sod paying £45 to sit in a mock up of a flight sim though. The location out in North Greenwich seems like bait to attract people on to Emirates other little toy out that direction.

The cable car to nowhere.

Terrontress

Lapin wrote: »

£3 is a small price to pay for an 'attraction' in London these days and wouldn't put me off going for a look out of curiosity. Sod paying £45 to sit in a mock up of a flight sim though. The location out in North Greenwich seems like bait to attract people on to Emirates other little toy out that direction.

The cable car to nowhere.

Yeah, £3 isn't too much, as long as it is viewed in the context of keeping kids quiet for 30 minutes. It's all good for Emirates to build their brand.

man98

I used the Emirates Cable Car over London last year but unfortunately the place was shut when I got there. I would've said they'd put it in Heathrow, but as the above poster said, brand building .

Lapin

BAA opened a visitors centre following the closure of the sadly missed viewing area on the roof Heathrow's old Terminal 2 in the early 2000s for what they described as security and access reasons.

It was situated in an office building off the Bath Road overlooking Runway 27R. There was an exhibition covering various aspects of the day to day life of airport's operations and a lot of wall chart type history with colourful diagrams and the like.

There were some low tech interactive things with flashy lights and a very basic mock up flight deck of a 747 which you could sit into and watch the final approach into LHR played on a loop in the windscreen every couple of minutes, complete with aircraft sound effects and ATC commentary.

Upstairs on a mezzanine floor was a small coffee shop and an indoor viewing area for spotters.

It was all free but didn't last too long. Apart from being poorly advertised, it was put in place as a hurried after thought to accommodate the spotters that once occupied the now closed T2 roof and Queen's Building before that.

There was little or no consultation with any of the many aircraft enthusiasts and their clubs who packed the old viewing areas every week. The new facility behind glass at the visitors centre only commanded a view over part of the north runway and wasn't suitable for regular aircraft spotting given Heathrow's runway rotation policy. Being indoors also meant it was difficult to hear the aircraft.

The place closed within a year or two as the spotters voted with their feet and decamped to places like Myrtle Avenue and the entrance to the airport's staff car park near Hatton Cross tube station, (both close to the threshold to Runway 27L and as close as non passengers can get to view aircraft at the airport now without drawing the attention of the police).

There is a covered viewing stand in the car park of the old visitors centre now but its a fairly souless place. Despite overlooking the worlds busiest airport, you can't get as much as a cup of tea anywhere nearby.

Meanwhile, a mile or so down the road is a handy hour killer if you ever find yourself with time on your hands between connections at LHR. The British Airways Heritage Collection is situated in the airline's impressive Waterside HQ near the village of Longford.

It lacks the bells and whistles associated with most museums nowadays and is just as enjoyable as a result. However, addmssion is by prior arrangement only, so I waited until I was passing through Heathrow with friends before going as I didn't like the idea of being shown around on my own. I needn't have worried. There were quite a few others booked in on the same time we were allocated. The friendly guides are former BA staff and know their stuff inside out and warm towards aviation enthusiasts. There is a gift shop and you can even sit down and have a cup of tea there in comfort !

A good review of the exhibits here with details on how to get in. For anyone interested in the history of BA, or even just getting into Waterside for a gawk, its worth a spin if you have time to spare. There are free buses from all 5 terminals and Hatton Cross tube.