Ron,
Can you remember where the Mall was located?
Ron,
Can you remember where the Mall was located?
I think they had a full motion simulator at the Dimond Mall in Anchorage, Alaska about ten years ago.
Minneapolis, I think. Wasn't the Mall of America, though.Originally Posted by Stuart_M
Ron Wanttaja
Malls are pretty much dying all over the country, the whole arcade thing reaches the same audience we're trying to attract so who wants to fool around with a boring flight sim when you can get into a jet fighter cockpit and play shoot'em up at an arcade? Or, just stay home, grab a coke, and play all kinds of video games on-line!
Thats the challenge we have to face today!
Joe
I have a better idea. Invite a young person to go flying with you. Everyone paints the generation with a pretty broad brush. Not every youth has only interest in video games. Find out where your local Civil Air Patrol or Air Cadet squadron is. 90% of the kids would leap at the chance to go flying with you.
I think that if a flight school wanted to drum up some new business, setting up a display in the mall with a piper cub or similar sitting there, a computer with FSX and someone there to answer questions would be a great idea. Let the people sit in the plane or play with the simulator while being given some basic info on flight training. It would generate a whole lot of interest and probably at least a number of introductory flights.
Keith
With the trend of local airports becoming unfriendly, unwelcoming places you might have something there. The biggest problem could be cost. Flight schools tend to have a low profit margin and mall rentals usually aren't cheap. Maybe the landlord could be enticed to lower the rent with some discounted flight time or something. What's really needed is a "ditch the electronics and do something real" trend among the young. The country needs another hippy movement. Bill, I did use the flight simulator in the Dimond mall once. I remember in the 70's there was a pilot shop in the Penny's mall (before it became the Fifth Avenue Mall) that had a few ATC 610 desktop simulators you could rent. For better or worse, flight simulation has come a long way. Sorry about my lack of paragraphs, for some reason my return key doesn't work on this site...Louis
Hi Lewis,
Alaska is sort of the center of the world for aviation. Almost everybody is a pilot. We even had a pilot ground school in high school.
I had ground school in high school also. It was a nice deal as it was an automatic "A" for the class if you passed the FAA Private written. I passed with a whopping 73%! I went to Dimond HS, and had Mr. Mohwinkle for a teacher, 75-76 school year. I wonder now if that class is still offered and how popular it is...Louis
I doubt they have ground school in high school anymore. There is a school in Seattle called Aviation High School.
My teacher was Mr. James at Chugiak High School (around '72). Later I built a business at Birchwood Airport and maintained his Cessna.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote