Landing a plane in the height of a force 11 storm sounds impossible – well, virtually.
But for one aircraft enthusiast, a virtual landing at Guernsey Airport was exactly how he spent time during Storm Goretti.
Originally from St Peter Port, Steve Richer (53) now works as a project officer for the NHS in Fife, Scotland.
However that doesn’t stop him regularly flying back to the Channel Islands as a pilot for Virtual Aurigny, a digital version of the island’s airline that exists within Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Steve told Express the latest technology allows pilots to fly into real airports with live weather that’s “95% accurate”, as well as a team of volunteer virtual air traffic controllers.
He’s normally pretty calm in the e-cockpit, but the “very challenging” conditions on Thursday night made “my heart rate rise and made my palms and forehead sweaty”.
“I had to remember to breathe, it’s so easy to forget,” he said.
However, despite the strong winds – with gusts well over 100mph – he was able to safely land his digital ATR 72-600 – an electronic copy of a real Aurigny plane, G-PBOT, complete with the correct paintwork.
“It was pretty scary,” he explained, “but even though the gusts were strong there wasn’t much of a crosswind, so that made it more manageable.”
The plane did stop “surprisingly” quickly, though, when he landed, pulling to a stop after only about 100 metres because of the strong headwind.
Blown off the runway
Thursday night wasn’t the first time he’d attempted a Channel Islands landing during a storm.
Steve explained that during Storm Ciarán he flew an Aurigny Trislander – which the airline operated until 2017 – from Guernsey to Jersey.
However his touch down wasn’t quite as smooth that time. He landed the plane, but was then blown by strong crosswinds off the runway onto the surrounding grass.
But how realistic is flying in a simulator compared to the real thing?
Realistic experience
Steve isn’t a pilot, but did fly a glider and took flying lessons as a teenager. However, he had to give it up for financial and health reasons.
But according to Steve’s friend Bradley – a captain for a major airline who started his career with Aurigny – modern simulators are “incredibly realistic”.
“Bradley was staying with me and gave it a try – he was very impressed,” Steve said.
While the simulator has accurate paintwork and live weather, Steve said there is one area where the virtual world makes things easier than reality.
“The planes never break down – you never get an ATR going ‘tech’,” he said, “So you never have to deal with angry customers.”
We knew it sounded too good to be real!