A380: How it feels to fly the record-breaking superjumbo (with a little help from a state-of-the-art £10m simulator) Daily Mail's Ray Massey takes the helm of BA's Airbus A380 simulator British Airways start flights with the plane to Los Angeles in October In the unlikely event - as they say in safety briefings - that the entire flight crew of the new £250million double-decker Airbus A380 superjumbo were to be struck down by a dodgy prawn, then I'm your man. When that call goes up "Can anyone here fly this plane?," I am fairly confident after spending a couple of hours in British Airways" £10million scarily lifelike simulator at their London Heathrow Airport base that I might just have a fighting chance of a decent stab at it. And believe me, this looks, feels and performs just like the real deal - so much so that if you're not a good flier and prone to airsickness, you may even feel a bit queasy at some of the more energetic manoeuvres. Ray Massey (left) takes the helm of the superjumbo A380 simulator, guided by BA's Richard Frewer For my "cabin doors to manual" moment I was under the wise and watchful gaze of BA's senior development engineer Richard Frewer who is putting the world's favourite airline's own pilots through their paces on this very machine before their first of 12 A380s is delivered in July. before entering service in October. BA's inaugural flight and regular service will be the "red carpet" Hollywood route to Los Angeles - or "LAX" to use the aviation jargon, which British screen star Gemma Arterton launched earlier this year. So what better place for my first try out. I have been in the cockpit of an A380 before - most notably for an hour or so with an Airbus test pilot team over the Gobi desert on an early Airbus "proving flight" between Hong Kong and Frankfurt. But never before at the controls. And I am truly an untrained amateur. So here's the scene. I am sitting with safety straps on in a straight backed supportive pilot's seat inside the vast cockpit of this leviathan of the skies with - in the real world anyway - nearly 500 passengers behind me. Actress Gemma Arterton launched British Airways' 'Red Carpet Route' to LA earlier this year The A380 flight simulator is designed to mimic the movements of the plane in flight BA will start Airbus A380 flights to Los Angeles in October The Airbus A380 is a double-decker plane with room for 469 passengers I am looking out through the wraparound cockpit window at the freakily lifelike but entirely computer-generated runway and control tower of Los Angeles International airport. Immediately in front, behind and above me is a vast array of illuminated buttons, lights, switches and controls. It makes the flight deck of the Starship Enterprise look like a piece of cake. To my left is arguably the most important piece of kit on this fly-by-wire plane - the joystick. It's not child's play. But I'd wager many children who irritate their parents by spending hours on their computer games with a force-feedback joystick would be better placed than many adults when it comes to being prepared for what happens next. We're set up for take-off, so Richard instructs me push forward on the power. We rumble along the runway picking up speed as I wait to hit the magic 130knots. Stay calm. Concentrate. As Richard reads out "135" I ease back on the joystick and the rumble retreats as we gently but powerfully take to the skies. We're airborne. As we ascend for a minute or so and then level out the noise of the engines recedes and I take in the scene below. A lovely day, great views of LA and the coast. I take a lazy arc around the Hollywood Hills, then down to Santa Monica to wave at the "Baywatch" branch of my Massey clan relatives. A light touch is needed to keep the plane from flapping all over the place from over-corrections. You're a chauffeur not a jet fighter pilot. Experience of driving supercars and their speed-sensitive steering may help, however, to reduce the risk of the plane "boating" back and forth. What goes up must come down so landing was next. Sweaty palms time. 'Your life will be safe in my hands': The Daily Mail's Ray Massey is confident his simulator experience means he could man a plane in an emergency Richard helpfully provided all the settings. I had to guide it in keeping to the glide path, keeping it straight, and keeping it high - or low - enough. Eyes on the landing lights. Half red and half white is the ideal. A bit too far to the left and a tilt on the tiller. Steady as she goes. Nose up a bit. As you get closer the ground rushes up: three, two, one, a little clunk - hardly an angel's footsteps - but we're down. Relief and joy all round. For my next flight it was a night-time take off from New York's JFK and an evening's birds" eye cruise around the skyscrapers of Manhattan - slightly disconcerting initially given the memories of the 9-11 tragedy. But once into my stride a loop past the Empire State building, the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge was fun. This time though the landing wasn't. With an evil glint Richard programmed in some turbulence and a bit of cross-wind, just to test my mettle. I even had a couple of minutes white-out fog and cloud to try it on instruments only. As I vectored in and battled with the wind, my respect for real plots grew enormously. I landed. The plane did land back in the Big Apple, but let's just say "touchdown" doesn't really cover it and I would not like to have been a passenger. Bear in mind this is not a static activity. This cockpit is inside a giant pod - a bit like the shuttle craft on Star Trek - held up on powerful hydraulics which react exactly to programed to conditions and to your flying. It really is rock'n"roll. Get it wrong and it bucks like a bronco. During the session we also simulated what in aviation is benignly termed a "loss of separation" - or to you and me "a near miss. Bad enough the sight of another plane shooting across your vision. The automated "TCAS" collision avoidance system kicks in telling you "Descend, descend, descend." Actually it is so clever that the rival planes communicate electronically so that each is instructed to take opposing avoiding action that keeps them apart. The simulator is the latest of 16 which BA uses to train its pilots on all Boeing and Airbus planes in its fleet. This is the only A380 simulator and is not yet open to the public. But the others are available for private and corporate hire in a variety of packages at rates from £399 for an hour or £1,197 for three hours at www.ebaft.com. Curiously that's about the same cost as a real long-haul return flight to the West Coast. Ray Massey took the simulated A380 on flights from Los Angeles and New York's JFK airports BA is already taking superjumbo bookings for A380 flights from London Heathrow to Los Angeles from October 15 starting at £499 return in economy and £1,900 in Club World business. There are 469 seats in total of which 14 are first class "upstairs." Actress Gemma Arterton said: 'It's very exciting that A380 will be flying to Los Angeles. I think the red carpet route will be very popular. BA chief executive Keith Williams said: 'The A380 is a great aircraft that has been developed with huge amounts of British engineering ingenuity. London and los Angeles are two world-leading cities and we are proud to be the first airline to connect them with the A380. Flights to Hong Kong begin in mid November from £599 return in economy. Another thing to consider. It takes 18 months and £100,000 to train a commercial airline pilot from scratch, that's once he or she passes the strict entry criteria, including no colour blindness. To make captain will take up to 12 years, and on some long-haul flights between 15 and 20. So back to my dodgy prawn in the cockpit scenario. What, I asked my tutor Richard, in the worst case "unlikely event" is the one button on this vast cockpit dashboard that I should press if I really needed to get out of trouble? He pointed to a small yellow illuminated button at the centre. Press that. That's the autopilot. It'll even land the plane for you," he said. See, I told you you'd be safe in my hands. Each Airbus A380 costs £250million, while the simulator alone is worth £10million