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#7 in a series on our visit to KidZania in Nishinomiya, Japan. Anthony's day so far: gas-station attendant, banking, construction, driver's ed, and journalism. Next it was time for a bit of flight training.

Kidzania's flight-training area also had a plane mockup for flight-attendant training, as well as for kids to take part as customers, giving the flight attendants people to train with...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/3.5, ISO 5000 — map & image data — nearby photos
Flight School

Anthony was interested in pilot training. That area of the “school” had six mock cockpits, so 12 kids could “train” at once...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/3.5, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Cockpit Simulator
with pilot hats waiting for kids

When it was time for a new group, the kids got flight jackets and the hair nets, but didn't get to put on the hats until after a minute or two of basic instruction.

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 70 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 5600 — map & image data — nearby photos
Ground School

Then it was time for some on-the-job flight training in a jumbo jet. Upon push back from the gate, they waved goodbye to the ground staff that apparently appeared on the video monitors of the flight simulator...

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/160 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Gate-Push-back Salutation

Then it was time to take off and fly....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 82 mm — ¹/200 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Concentration

As they flew, computer-generated rings of dots floated in air, which provided targets for the kids to aim at and fly through. You can sort of see one in the left-hand monitor of this next shot. (Since adults weren't allowed in the training area, and the lighting was totally ridiculous, it was a difficult stretch to get a reasonable picture.)

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 150 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 2200 — map & image data — nearby photos
Mid-Flight Maneuvers

Landing was on autopilot (they were still not totally experienced pilots, you know)....

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/250 sec, f/2.8, ISO 1400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Landing
the red text on the screen says “auto-pilot engaged”

Nikon D700 + Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 6400 — map & image data — nearby photos
Thumbs Up to the Flight-School Photographer

We later picked up the $10 copy of the photo they took, and it's not much better than the one above, except that it doesn't have the photographer and other kid in it. 🙂

Continued here...