At 09:29 AM 8/23/98 -0400, you wrote: >After a dozen years not flying, MS FS98 saved me hundreds of dollars >in getting my navigational, cross-country, and flight planning skills back. > >I re-learned how to intercept a VOR, how to fly the course, how to look for >land-marks, and how to deal with winds. > >It is a very useful program, not the same as a commercial IFR simulator, >better in some ways, less useful in others. > >Greg
Greg, What you and numerous others seem fixated on is electronic flight. My own brother tells me the same thing. The problem is a simulator does nothing to really sharpen your navigational skills. You are confusing chasing needles and following a controllers directions with the ability to navigate. You navigate with a sectional in you lap with one finger on it, the other hand on the yoke and your eyes outside the cockpit looking at the sky for changes in weather, looking for landmarks and enjoying the view. When I learned to fly my instructor was a rather wise old bird who very thoughtfully inoped the nav radios on my first solo X-country. As a result of his method of teaching I was quite comfortable when after a 6 year layoff from flying I was able to get from Charlotte where I bought 41 Charlie to Dallas with nothing more than the sectional, compass and my watch. It's surprising to me how many pilots I talk to think that was a really big deal and wouldn't have done it themselves. Don't get me wrong, for instrument work I think a good simulator is great, but if you are doing it to keep current in something like a Coupe you are wasting your time. No simulator you can afford will help your skills flying VFR in something like a coupe. There is little or no real feel to the controls and there is no third dimension, which is the element in VFR you really have as the difference between driving a car and flying a plane. Once again thanks to my old instructor I feel no apprehension of flying a long X-Country as long as I have the basics, sectional, compass, and watch, neither do I feel any apprehension of flying without any instruments. He use to regularly blank the entire panel on me, and I do mean the entire panel with the exception of the compass, oil pressure and temp gauges. Not a big deal, just listen to your engine, the wind and look outside the cockpit. To me that is what flying is all about. To this day I rarely look at my airspeed on final, I know how the plane should feel and what sounds I should hear. I can routinely put it down within 20 feet of my desired touchdown spot. The altimeter for most of my flying is just there for getting into the pattern at the right altitude. Most of my non X-country flying is below 3,000 agl so an altimeter is just not that big a deal.Sure I fell into the higher, faster and more bells and whistles trap, had a Mooney 201 with RNAV, HSI the whole shooting match but my love of flying brought me to the Coupe where I got to be a real pilot again. For me flying should be an adventure and a challenge, don't confuse this with unsafe or risky and above all else each flight should teach you something more about you aircraft and flying. I know there are going to be many of you who disagree with me on this but it is after all my opinion and it works for me, we each have skill sets which are important to them and each of us have areas of weakness, if following you VOR or GPS are areas which give you trouble then a flight simulator is good for that. If navigation is a weak area then get out your sectional and go back to basics and a simulator will not do that. If you are having problems with landings then again get into the cockpit, a simulator will not simulate the 3rd dimension nor the sight picture and sounds, the feel will not be correct. If you can't afford 5-6 gallons of fuel to sharpen your skills then you probably should limit yourself to virtual flight. It's one thing when you have to rent a plane the costs are a factor but not when you own something as cheap to operate as a coupe. As for bad weather, well my attitude is that's a good time to practice. When I started in on my instrument ticket I called my instructor (my old instructor had retired a year before) on a rainy cruddy day and said lets go. He confessed he had never actually flown in real weather and was not comfortable with it. I fired him, hung up and found someone who was. I take flying seriously but I only do it for fun, I take nothing for granted. Dave
<<attachment: winmail.dat>>
