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hi i'm mike massimino we've been

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following along with the astronauts who

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are going to fly the next shuttle

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mission to the international space

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station

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what you are about to see is the crew

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practicing for their mission the team

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that is responsible for training them

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and get a sense of what it's like to fly

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the shuttle this is sts 131 behind the

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scenes

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all right

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so fellas can you talk for a minute or

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do you want to just get out of the

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airplane we did this is kind of historic

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here right because uh i don't know about

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historic i think it is because here you

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have this airplane

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gonna fly now yeah which is a very

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special airplane it is it's a modified

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gulfstream business jet right and it's

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got a shuttle cockpit on the left side

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uh it's got a shell cockpit on the left

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side and it's got a

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regular golf stream cockpit in the right

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all right and uh but the perp the reason

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i'm saying this is somewhat historic

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it's not many of these flights are left

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because we've only got a few flights

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left right we practice these a lot you

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know we

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do uh like for uh

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for for a shuttle pilot to fly in the

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shuttle you have to have 500 practice

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approaches 500 and for a commander yeah

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jim says 500 at least i barely made it

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really yeah

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you have to have a thousand yeah with

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that how many do you have about 50 100

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and you've got about 500.

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approaches okay

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but now there's the airplane out there

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and we're doing this at night because

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you're going to land at night

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maybe all right maybe maybe okay yeah so

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we're doing this at night so no one else

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can see no we're doing this that night

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because you might because you might land

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in this okay and so you're gonna fly you

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know you're not gonna land with this

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airplane all right you're not going to

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land with this airplane right jim no no

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the gulf stream is uh is a simulator all

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right so we fly down to

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it's a lot smaller in the shuttle all

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right we take it down on approach to the

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eye height of the shuttle so i think

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it's about 12 feet off the ground for

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the gulf stream all right then we go

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around we'll do about 10 practice

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landings

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uh per one session

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practice approaches because you don't

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actually touch down right because

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because that's where that's where the

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characteristics that's where the

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characteristics end is that what it is

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so uh of the flying i mean they want you

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to get the same eye point

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okay all right the touchdown that would

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be a picture that wouldn't be right i

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got it so you take it as far as you can

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to simulate what the shuttle's gonna do

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for you so it tells you when you hit

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wheels down it has a radar altimeter it

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knows exactly how high you are above the

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ground all right

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and this is like your bread and one of

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your pieces of bread and butter for you

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hello sir

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hello

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okay terry because i know you want to be

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scared by everything jax is about to do

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to it i hear it's kind of shaky

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when he fly no not at all terry what are

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you going to do here

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i am

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my job is the flight sim engineer and i

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essentially provide

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similar calls to decks that he hopes to

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get from his private okay and other than

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that i take the blame for all that he's

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not happy with and i've had him for all

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that he's happy with all right so you're

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there to help him learn you know get

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better and keep his proficiency

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absolutely he's probably pretty darn

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good right now he's just trying to keep

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his skills

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up

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cracking

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okay

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doors windows and door switches they're

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stop area is on system is checked aoan

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radar is in standby

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mike you ready ready

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how you doing mass good

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sorry it was so dark yeah what are you

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gonna do you can't control the darkness

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so it happens at night yeah it gets dark

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out

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get them on the ice cream

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all right this i don't even know about

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what's this about they don't tell

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mission specialists and stuff this is

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pilot stuff jim and i have an ongoing

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bed what's that and uh you know we have

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a target touchdown airspeed okay and uh

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you know our target touchdown air speed

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is 200 knots 2009 i don't want to land

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fast so my ongoing bet with jim you know

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since he's got to learn to do that

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exactly what we're going to do in case

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for some reason my stick doesn't work or

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i'm sick or whatever's going to be

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so our target is 200 knots so our bet is

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you know you got to get

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on or just below 200 if you go over

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you're you'll lose it's like the price

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you're out well so i was two knots fast

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i landed at 202 knots

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instead of 200 and jim landed at 198

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instead of 200. so delta so i think

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all right so second night in a row he's

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gotten guys and you're buying i am all

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right i got to buy him a little dove bar

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you know

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that's about it that's okay it's so it's

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the principle of the thing yeah he'll

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get it out of there he'll get it out of

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the freezer for you yes how's

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that all right

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all right so steve we're in the shuttle

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training aircraft yeah we were in here

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last night but we couldn't see anything

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you know why

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because it was dark it's like in a cave

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yeah but now it's light out so we can

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see a little bit better do you have a

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minute to explain the airplane or you

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got to uh get ready to go well i do

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because we're waiting on another

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airplane take off so we have steve nagle

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here former shuttle commander now okay

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so training aircraft uh instructor go

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ahead okay uh from here over on this

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airplane on the right side is the

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gulfstream cockpit where the gulfstream

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controls where the instructor flies the

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airplane from to set it up for the

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simulation runs from this point over is

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a partial recreation of the shuttle

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cockpit

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with the displays the med's displays

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like the shuttle has heads-up display

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very similar to the shuttle a hand

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controller and selected switches so it's

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a partial recreation of the shuttle

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cockpit what you really need for the

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landing pad

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so the astronaut sits where terry is

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sitting right now for the simulation

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hello

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the instructor boss is where i'm sitting

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and where you're sitting is where the

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flight simulation engineer sits where

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terry sits when we're doing sims

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and controls this panel that interfaces

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with the computers in the back that is

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the simulation okay

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so when we're flying the airplane as a

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sim

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you know for the starting point of the

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dive put it in this configuration in

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which we use that switch right there to

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lower the main landing gear for drag we

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use that switch to deploy the thruster

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versions because we do fly with trusted

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versus deployed to create the same drag

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in this airplane the shuttle has

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and then these three switches

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respectively turn on the autopilot the

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auto throttle and the sim

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so once i've done all those five

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switches

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then that stick is now active and flying

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the airplane so i tap the astro on the

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leg that person takes the airplane and

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flies it and from that point on through

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a simulated touchdown it flies the same

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trajectory as the shuttle would from 35

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000 feet down to a simulated landing and

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it has the same response or handling

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quality to the shuttle so this simulates

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the shuttle it's rc is a regular

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airplane but it's all the things you

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mentioned make it fly just like the

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shuttle now you've one of the few people

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in the world that have actually

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landed a space shuttle a couple times

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right yeah and how well does this

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prepare you for doing what what you did

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when you were landing the spaceship so

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well you know these things have paid for

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themselves many times over in my opinion

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over the

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course of the shuttle program uh because

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it is such an authentic good simulation

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the visual scene is perfect because it's

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real yeah it's not a computer-generated

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scene you fly through the real weather

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conditions the real winds and so uh by

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the time a commander has about a

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thousand approaches to one of these

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airplanes not to mention how many

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approaches that that person has in the

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ground-based simulator you know the sms

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there well and the bms out in the west

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coast they're well prepared to land the

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shuttle so it's been been a very good

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simulator uh the only place where it

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might break down a little bit is in

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turbulent air when it gets real bumpy

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this airplane reacts a lot for the

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turbulence more so than the shuttle rush

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and then it degrades a bit but it's

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still an awfully good simulator all

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right what's going on with the airplane

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now what are we gonna do what's uh hurry

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at home uh we're taking you some folks

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home so right so we can use it as a

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regular airplane it's a regular airplane

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for this so as soon as we get going

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watch 2 38 we're waiting for them to get

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going in case they break we can take

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them home yeah and then we'll crank up

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and fly home we could go non-stop the

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t-38s need to stop for gas and

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stronghold maybe they'll take us

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is