DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. - This plane was going to be way harder to land than I'd thought. I was trying to ease down a Douglas C-47, a model known as "Skytrain," one of the veteran fliers of D-Day and later the Berlin airlift, carrying cargo and paratroopers and towing gliders.

I was not used to the various gadgets. I was jerky on the yoke - it looks suspiciously like an automobile steering wheel, but instead of taking you right, left or straight ahead, it sweeps the plane's nose up or down. And more.

Which I can't exactly explain. Because I can't fly an airplane.

That's why I was more than happy to fly only the virtual thing. I sat at the controls of the super-cool simulator at the Air Mobility Command Museum on the edge of Dover Air Force Base. God may be my copilot, but for now, Hal Sellars was my guide. He does all the graphics for the museum's exhibits, and he sometimes mentors folks at the simulator, which can fly 300 different planes in all sorts of conditions. Just say what you want.

When Sellars is on duty at the machine, he's the flight instructor, the operator of the simulated planes' landing gears and the other, more complicated controls.

And all you have to do is sit in the pilot's seat and, well, learn quickly. "You want to keep the wings level," he cautions during my landing and reminds me what he'd just said five minutes back, about how to do that. You can watch the big high-def screen as you land - the view is of the plane's rear as it works its way over to and then (you hope) onto the runway, where you bring it in with (you hope) a nice, smooth halt.

It's a kick - I had the sense of being, if not in the cockpit of an actual plane, somehow in control of it. (Real-life sound effects help.) And the runway is, in fact, a virtual re-creation of a Dover Air Force Base runway just outside the museum.

What's more, the plane I was flying - I mean the genuine plane - sat only feet behind me, one of 27 aircraft inside the hangar and on an airfield out back.

A 28th plane came in August - a KC-135 Stratotanker that's more than 50 years old and one of a very few aircraft to arrive at the museum using its own power. The plane, essentially a flying gas station that carried passengers and cargo and refueled other planes, was in service at its last home, McGuire Air Force Base at Fort Dix, only a month before its retirement here.

Now, some of the more than 125 Air Force veterans who aid the museum in many ways will move into action as a restoration team, giving the plane a once-over to ready it for display.

"Two generals, five colonels and a whole boatload of chief master sergeants will come in and work on an airplane," says Mike Leister, the proud director of the Air Mobility Command Museum, who adds that he has the best job in the military. "Pilots come in and want to help restore - some of them never knew about the mechanics, and now they want to."

Of the 60,000 visitors the museum expects this year, many - perhaps 30 percent, Leister says - "will go into an airplane for the first time ever." Two of the military planes are open for inspection weekdays and as many as 14 on weekends.

The museum's permanent exhibits are no-nonsense in an old-fashioned museum way: What you see is what you get, with no bells and whistles, just informative labeling that describes pictures, dioramas and artifacts. But what you see is often impressive: the insides of aircraft engines; a display about the Berlin airlift that highlights one of the Air Force's finest modern moments and, indeed, is an emblem of humanitarianism; a Korean War display and an explanation of airborne refueling - among the museum's major focuses.

"Imagine," one Air Force vet explained to two women who were tracking the exhibit's depiction of refueling, "you're on a highway and you come up beside a car doing 55 and you get exactly in that driver's blind spot and you stay there to refuel. Only you're in the air." And you're approaching the other plane with a 10-foot boom of gasoline.

"I'm twice retired and a volunteer here because it's fun," said Terry Anderson, 62, whose last flight was in 1984. He retired 20 years ago, then worked for the Department of Education before retiring again.

On one of my two visits, Anderson was showing people airplanes, explaining what particular planes did and in which conflicts, and generally preparing people for their simulator flights. "We have a 10-year-old limit on the simulator," he says. "You have to be able to touch the rudder pedals - that's essential."

As he spoke, Carolyn Bottomley, of Parkesburg in Chester County, examined a cockpit that her son, Andrew, 15, and several buddies were climbing into. ("Really cool," he said.) "We were at Cape Henlopen, at the beach, and on our way back, so we stopped in," his mom said. In summertime, the free-admission museum, just off the U.S. 113 throughway to the beaches, gets many of its visitors en route to or from the shore.

The hangar housing the museum started out as a research facility for secret rocket development during World War II, then was home to various fighter squadrons until it was restored in the '90s, placed on the National Register of Historic Places and turned into the Air Mobility Command Museum.

The museum has two simulators, but the one with two copilot seats - a complex-looking affair - has been out of order for many months while technicians overhaul its computer system, and probably won't be back in service soon. The other simulator, attractive because it lets single users be coached one-on-one by volunteers who are often experienced pilots, is challenging enough.

Kevin Kelly, of Stevensville, Md., was flying a simulated PT-17, the first plane that student pilots flew solo during World War II - "a forgiving plane," said Anderson, "as far as landing." "Uh-oh," Kelly said as he came down on the runway a bit hard. In the end, he did fine.

So did I, by the way, at least on my first try. I landed . . . cautiously is the way to say it, and maybe even hesitantly - not necessarily a good strategy. But I came to an even stop, and a few spectators oohed with approval. On a second try, though, when I touched down, the dust rose, the grass seemed to rip under my wheels, and that smooth runway tarmac looked empty and lonely - sitting just beside my plane. And, yes, we are out of space for any further details.

Piloting the Air Force Museum

The Air Mobility Command Museum at Dover Air Force Base is at 1301 Heritage Rd., Dover, just off Delaware Route 9, and one-half mile from the intersection of Route 9 and U.S. 113. It's about a two-hour ride south of Philadelphia. The museum is free, and open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. Information: 302-677-5938 or www.amcmusuem.org.

The flight simulator. If you're planning to try out the museum's flight simulator, be aware that it closes at 3:30 p.m. each day - a half-hour before museum closing time. Also, call ahead to see that it's not being shut down earlier. The museum is host to occasional retirement and other ceremonies, and on those days, museum officials close down the simulator for the events.

Other Dover attractions. Biggs Museum of American Art, 406 Federal St., 302-674-2111, www.biggsmuseum.org. Paintings, furniture, silver, sculpture and more from colonial days to the 20th century. The museum is on the second and third floors of the same building housing the Delaware Visitors Center. Free. 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 1:30-4:30 p.m. Sundays.

Johnson Victrola Museum, Museum Square, 375 S. New St., 302-739-4266 (Delaware Visitors Center), history.delaware.gov/museums/jvm/jvm_main.shtml. A tribute to Delaware native Eldridge Reeves Johnson, who founded the Victor Talking Machine Co. in 1901, including recordings, phonographs, memorabilia. Free and open the first Saturday of each month, 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Dover Downs Hotel and Casino, 1131 N. DuPont Highway, 1-800-711-5882, www.doverdowns.com. Gambling, harness racing from late October through April, restaurants, entertainment, racing simulcasts.

- Howard Shapiro

Contact staff writer Howard Shapiro at 215-854-5727 or hshapiro@phillynews.com.