Being an airline passenger today is like jetting back to childhood: You're told only what someone thinks you should know.
But I am an anxious flier, not a toddler. I begin to wonder if, despite stringent security, it might be possible to see how air travel works, to see what it's like up front.
Denver-based
It is an early spring day near Denver International Airport. Tim Cavender, head of flight training for the airline, leads me to a hangar full of space capsules propped up on fat hydraulic legs. These are black box simulators, I am told: All of the details inside - every knob, every switch - are actual parts used in the cockpit of an Airbus A320 jet.
I can pick the airport to be programmed in for simulated takeoff, along with the weather and the time of day. New York's LaGuardia at dusk is what I want - and there is the terminal in high-definition color right in front of me. What is that? It's a simulated ground crew waving cones. Time to pull back from the gate.
In seconds I am taxiing, trying to get used to the "stick" pilots steer with. It is super sensitive and I have to work it using only my left hand. We are wobbling, lurching: I run one wheel of the plane into a directional sign.
Just as the simulated control tower clears me for takeoff, there are flakes of snow. We see a fork of TV lightning and stereo thunder blasts vibrate my seat.
The flakes mushroom into a blizzard and I look to Tim for guidance. He points to the engine levers, so reluctantly, I push them back. We reach "decision" speed (where there is not enough runway left to stop) the second that Cavender tells me our number two engine is out.
"What should I do?" I shout. "Take off," says Cavender blandly. Despite the wobbling, the sense of dragging, the Airbus is lifting off the tarmac. Somehow we are up there, sailing into simulated New York sky.
Now I am ready for the real thing. I pack my bags for Hamburg, home of one of the two big plants where Airbuses are built. The morning of our flight back is drizzly and cold. Along with the Frontier crew, I get up in the dark and ride a bus to Finkenwerder Airfield to meet our plane.
