IRON MAIDEN vocalist Bruce Dickinson, who is a licensed commercial pilot, has set up a state-of the-art Boeing 737 flight simulator at London’s Heathrow Airport and is holding training sessions for members of the Iron Maiden Fan Club.

Footage from some of this month’s training sessions can now be seen below.

In a press release that was issued last month, Bruce commented, “I can’t wait to sit in the simulator with fans and share the buzz of what it is really like to fly a modern passenger jet such as Flight 666 and all the challenges that entails.”

Bruce Dickinson has a huge passion for flying — so much so that he is a commercial airline captain and a talented originator — devising an ingenious method of converting a Boeing 757 to allow him, the band, their crew and tons of equipment to tour three times around the world in their customised plane “Ed Force One”, call sign “Flight 666”.

Not content with just entertaining fans on the ground, Bruce then instigated a series of highly acclaimed “Bruce Air Flight 666” excursions, filling the plane with fans and personally flying them to and from various IRON MAIDEN concerts around Europe.

Dickinson told CNN.com in a 2007 interview, “Aviation’s been kicking around my family for as long as I can remember; my uncle was in the RAF. But I always thought I was too stupid. I was useless at maths and majored in history at university, so I thought history majors don’t become pilots, let alone rock stars. And then our drummer learned to fly so I said if a drummer can learn to fly then anyone can.”

He added, “I never dreamed I would end up flying an airliner. I ended up flying IRON MAIDEN around on tour in a little eight-seat, pressurized, twin-engine plane. Basically we were flying round all the world’s major airports, flew across the Atlantic and back, which was quite an adventure. At the end I thought I really want to fly something bigger, but I can’t afford it — I can’t buy my own 707. If I’m going to do that I have to get a job.”

On how the thrill of piloting a 757 compares to taking to the stage with MAIDEN:

“It’s a different kind of buzz. Obviously you aren’t leaping around the flight deck yelling and screaming, but you have to manage situations… Flying at 35,000 feet is an internal thing, really. Whereas 35,000 people, that’s just showing off.”

On whether he will be hanging up his leopard-skin spandex forever:

“I could never contemplate giving up music. I have to say I’ve always been interested in planes, the only difference is I started to fly the darn things 15 years ago. I don’t see why I should give up either of them. People say ‘Why do you need a second job?’ I say ‘Why do you need to breathe?'”

Source: Blabbermouth.net