YEAR 4 pupils from South Tawton Primary School recently got to experience what it feels like to fly a Boeing 737-800 aircraft during a fun-filled morning at the newly launched Virtual Jet Centre located at the Xpressway Business Park in Chudleigh. The Virtual Jet Centre offers 'Fear of Flying' courses, family experience days and pilot and cabin crew training from its state-of-the-art centre, which opened its doors in May, 2014. Ceri Hoggins, Year 4 teacher at South Tawton School, said: 'The children work towards gaining points for good behaviour throughout the term, points they are able to 'cash' in against special experiences. 'This time, the class opted to visit the Virtual Jet Centre, which was really exciting as we knew this would be a truly unique and fun experience for the children, while also threading through some educational elements too. 'It was really well organised, so massive thanks to the team for providing such a wonderful morning.' Clare Hopper, a parent of Llachlann, who attended the day, said: 'It is great that the children have been given the opportunity to see how maths can be applied in the working world and in a job that looks really fun. 'Captain Andy Wilkins, the founder of the centre, was great at explaining to the children about the importance of maths and how it can lead to cool jobs such as being a pilot jetting around the world. 'The children were particularly impressed hearing about all of the well-known and famous people the pilots had flown around the globe.' Children were able to enjoy activities at the Virtual Jet Centre, including experiencing life as cabin crew, with students pretending to be passengers, getting to grips with flight technology in the purpose-built deck of fixed flight simulators and then, the real highlight of the day – testing their newly learned skills in the flight simulator. The children were asked to take part in a small competition, whereby they were invited to try their best to keep the simulator at 15 degrees. John Arthur was named as overall winner. Andy Wilkins, founder of the Virtual Jet Centre and pilot, said: 'Five other pilots joined me on the day to help give, what we hope will be a really memorable day for all of the children involved. 'There were a number of budding pilots and we were impressed with how everyone kept their nerve when stepping into the cockpit — no mean feat as most adults say they find it a really nerve-wracking experience.' All children were awarded a Virtual Jet Centre badge as reward for taking part.
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