Hello again

[MLeavy737]

Hi all, just wanted to stop by and say hello. Kinda been out of the sim loop for a little while now and lost track of where my old friends hang out. I had the chance to vist SimRan737 and fly his awesome sim the other day and he introduced me to this site. Glad he did because it seems like the place to be.
I can see how much progress many people have made and i must say the sims look awesome. Now that im settled with the new job at CAL Im looking forward to getting back into simming again and chatting with you all.. Talk soon.

Mike Leavy
www.737BBJ2sim.com

[Joe Cygan]

Hi Mike,
Great to hear from you!

Is that you sitting in a 737, congrats!

Joe

[Westozy]

Hey welcome back Mike, I was wondering what happened to you. You can see here that my toy has grown a lot!

Gwyn

[Tomlin]

Mike, what a pleasant surprise to see you man! I knew that you were about to interview and/or take a line position with (CO?) last time we spoke.

Anyhow, things are really smokin' hot over here at MC.org and it's good to have real world pilots hanging around. Hope you get a chance to contribute some in the future, and hopefully get back to work on your own flight deck project.

Take care,

[MLeavy737]

Yeah i think last time i posted i was either going for the interview or starting training.

The interview went excellent and im not sure if i mentioned or not however i had brought pictures of my sim project with me and the interview panel loved it! That killed about 10 min or so out of a 40min interview. Actually on the way out the door one of the guys on the panel made a joke about selling my sim to Continental for a good price if i was hired.. lol. I said we'll talk about that after im hired, while i said to myself "yeah right, im not selling this".

Training was alot of fun and pretty intense. Alot of stuff in a short time. Most of the flight training was done in FTD's while only the last 4 sim sessions were done in the Full Flight Sim. The FTD's were pretty neat and they were really just like our sims except they were all real parts with no visuals. They really didnt even fly that good come to think of it however they were really just meant for learning procedures.

So in school i actually had a choice of 757 or 737. I took the 737 because of the better schedule and shorter reserve time. Only downside was having to learn basically 5 different airplanes all with slightly different procedures. its funny flying the line because you can fly 1 leg in a old round dial 737-300 and the next leg in a brand new 737-900ER. Big difference.

Anyhow enough of the babble.. Its nice to see everyone again and im having alot of fun looking at the awesome progress you have all made. I actually went a little backwards in my project and completely dismantled it getting ready to move to Houston TX hopefully within the next few months. Any simmers from there btw?? Also i wound up trading a bunch of major parts with a good friend of mine in NY which will allow me to rebuild my sim in TX and do things a little different.

Hopefully i can share some experiences with you all and offer some help/advise with your 737 projects now that im actually flying them.

Mike Leavy
www.737BBJ2sim.com

[dnoize]

hi Mike,

Good to hear from you again.

Looking forward to see the new progress on your sim.

Stef

[Trevor Hale]

Hey Mike,

Welcome Back.

Looking forward to seeing more of you here. If you like, feel free to post some pictures in the Gallery.

Trev

[Matt Olieman]

Hey Mike, Congratulations!!!!! and thanks for coming back, now we know what happened to you :) :) You've had your head up in the clouds :) :) :)

[MLeavy737]

Thanks guys, good to hear from you all again!

Hey Trevor, i have about 3000 hours in the Falcon 50 along with a bunch of tech manuals that i no longer need. Let me know if you need any help with your 900 project.

Mike Leavy

[Matt Olieman]

He'll gladly give you his address, where you can send those manuals... LOL :)

[Trevor Hale]

Thanks guys, good to hear from you all again!

Hey Trevor, i have about 3000 hours in the Falcon 50 along with a bunch of tech manuals that i no longer need. Let me know if you need any help with your 900 project.

Mike Leavy

I appreciate the offer Mike. Thanks!

However The company I work for has a 50 and a 900B, I happen to have the full 900EX Manuals already but thanks fort the offer.

If you come across a spare airplane though, I would be interested :)

Trev

[Tracy Hale]

If you come across a spare airplane though, I would be interested :)

Trev

:shock: :lol:

[Tomlin]

Hey Mike, good to have you around again and Im sure that everyone building the 737 will start killing ya with questions now that they know you fly the real bird!

Take care and good luck with the move and all...

[MLeavy737]

Sure i welcome the questions. I just hope i can answer some of them. Bunch of builders here know more about 737's than alot of line pilots :)

[Tomlin]

Sure i welcome the questions. I just hope i can answer some of them. Bunch of builders here know more about 737's than alot of line pilots :)

Isnt that strange how we builders get caught up in all the non-important stuff!?! :-)

I found that I was aware of a thing or two about the Learjet 45 when I got to sit in a real one a while back, that the crew did not know (or remember). We should realize though that even though we often know so much about an aircraft and all it's many systems and intricacies, it doesnt mean we could hop in and fly it correctly without killing ourselves...;-] It also goes to show that sometimes we get too caught up in things that really dont affect the over-all sim itself too...

[MLeavy737]

That is an excellent point Tomlin. I must say i'm guilty of doing the same thing myself. Spending hours and hours cleaning up those side panels or trims painting them to perfection etc. Fact is when i get in the real one to fly i dont even notice any of the things im spending hours on trying to recreate in the sim. Some of the older airplanes like the 737-300's are old and worn out in the cockpit. When i fly at work the last thing on my mind is chipped paint. I guess the 170+ people in the back add a different element to the thought process :)

Mike Leavy

[dcutugno]

Sure i welcome the questions. I just hope i can answer some of them. Bunch of builders here know more about 737's than alot of line pilots :)

Hi Mike, i have to if you can explain in detail the APU Switch, 'cause i bought a real one that have solenoid.

It is Spring loaded to Centre(ON) position, so when the solenoid must be activated? and when i want to shut it down i have to held it by hand in off position until apu is off?

I wish you can clarify that.
Thank you!

[MLeavy737]

dcutugno,
Are you sure its an APU switch? The real APU switch does not have a solenoid. Real simple.. 3 positions on the switch. (OFF,ON,START) the switch is only spring loaded to ON from the START position. When you want to start the APU, pull the switch to unlock from its detent and go to the START postion for a few sec or so the release the switch. Like i said the switch is spring loaded to the ON position from START so it will snap back to ON pos and stay there. When you want to shut down the APU. Pull the switch to unlock from its detent and place in OFF position. You dont have to hold the switch in the OFF postion to shut down the APU. Just place it in OFF and it will stay there.

Hope that helped a little.

Mike Leavy

[dcutugno]

Thank you Mike, it was sold by NIC at Hist.air.soc. here is the switch http://www.angelfire.com/il2/aphs/ap.jpg

and here is a video:
http://www.angelfire.com/il2/aphs/FilmAPU.wmv