Hi Ben,>Ru-roh, sounds like we might have a ringer here. 
Don't think you have to worry. Beginners luck!
>So what was it like? How far did you get/long did you fly?
It was really cool to fly the Wright Flyer there at Miramar. I tried it at the Ford Booth in the early morning while you were getting some of your interviews. Tried to talk Vic into giving the Flyer a try later on in the day too, but by then the air-conditioned booth was very crowded and there was a long line waiting to try the Flyer.
They had FS2004 setup with the cockpit view on the computer screen. Behind that was a mock-up of the center part of the Wright Flyer, with a wing to climb onto and lay down in the pilot position, and a partial upper wing overhead. The control bar for pitch control was out in front and you reached forward to control it. The Bank/Yaw control was accomplished by lying down in position between a bracket that stuck up on either side of the body. The person running the Sim pushed the vertical bars in close so they were snug along my sides. The way I fit into the contraption the bars were on either side at about my hip level, just behind the waist. There was also a place to brace your feet behind you.
Pitch control was as expected. Bank/Yaw control was accomplished by pushing with the hips in the opposite direction that the wing was heading. So if the upper wing started to tip down to the left, I moved my hips to the right enough to compensate.
Have no idea how long I flew, but can give a pretty good approximation of how far I got. (They did not have Lat-Long coordinates on screen so I can't give you an exact position) Took off and flew straight along the course, levelling off pretty quick to stay low and in the ground effect. Flew past all four markers, I think the last one is at 852 ft if I am remembering right. Continued flying as straight as I could past some houses. Had some very hairy moments very gingerly banking around a couple of trees and finally brought the Flyer down on purpose to a gentle landing on the sand within easy sight of the Atlantic shoreline. I think there was one sparse row of houses between me and the water when the Flyer came to a stop.
Flying the Flyer required quite a lot of hip movement back and forth at times, very tricky to control and prevent the wing from dropping too close to the ground to the left or the right.
It was a Blast and I won't soon forget it!
Regards,
Melo
PL965 Spitfire pilot,
Glendale, CA
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