Andrew Lentvorski wrote: > Are you *sure*? Yep.
> One of the more fascinating parts was the discussion about making some > of the instruments *less accurate* so that they better reflected what > those instruments would do *in reality*. Instruments are very easy to render accurately and are not the problem. > There were quite a lot of complaints from people who were using it as a > game as it has gained increasing measures of realism (read: touchier > aerodynamics and less accurate cockpit information). That only makes it a more challenging game. I am not sure what you could mean by "toucher aerodynamics". The aerodynamics of any decently designed airplane are never the problem. Airplanes with touchy aerodynamics don't get certified. They are all easy to fly as far as just manipulation of the controls and making it go where you want are required. The difficulties in flying are pilot judgement (by the the greatest factor) and knowing the systems and procedures by heart. Navigation and radio communication, etc. > Obviously, it has limitations. But, as I understand it, there are quite > a few people working on the code who really do understand flight and > flight simulators. I also believe that there are a couple of commercial > companies who have licensed the code and made products with it. I am sure they do understand flight and flight simulators. But if you believe it will help you learn anything other than reading instruments (one of the most trivial skills to learn anyhow) you are fooling yourself. If it were a useful flight simulator it would teach you how to fly an airplane, right? If I were to go get my 737 type rating right now it would cost me around $10,000 and would consist of 97 hours of ground school and 15 hours of simulator time. And only one hour of real airplane time and that is during the checkride when I actually prove I can fly the plane. With a real simulator it is possible to learn how to fly an airplane. Could you fly your flightsim of choice for however long you want and then meet me at the airport to demonstrate what you have learned? As a person who used to be really into flightsims who then went on to get a pilot certificate I look back on how naive I was with embarassment. Here is something I once wrote on slashdot about this: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=83189&cid=7284710 I just talked to the FlightGear guys on IRC and they seem to think that it would not be possible given todays state of the art graphics to fly a few hundred miles over unfamiliar territory using nothing but a sectional chart and reference to the ground. That is the most basic skill a beginning pilot learns. If flightsims still can't do that even with their great graphics what good are they? Then throw in real world stress of sweating your ass off (most small planes don't have a/c but cabin class twins and up do), lots of noise, g-forces, disorientation in terms of vertigo or getting lost if your navigation falters, turbulence, staying out of class B airspace or flying your flight plan (if IFR), while listening for your callsign on the radio and responding to controllers, and you find that PC flightsims are still games when compared with a real flying situation, which is what they presumably try to simulate. :) I've never really written a detailed account of an actual typical training flight before so just for those of you who have never been in a cockpit let me show you what is involved with actual flying. I was going to write this up for my blog anyway so I may as well include it here: My friend Alex owns a nice Turbo 182RG and is working on getting his instrument rating and wanted to see how someone with a little real-world IFR experience flies instruments so on November 1st, 2005 he asked me to fly his plane while he sat in the right (copilot) seat and observed. His plane is a really nice setup with Garmin 530 GPS and radio stack, Sandal HSI, recently redone interior, etc. So yesterday afternoon I arrived at the airplane at 3:15pm. Alex had already called the weather briefer on the phone for preflight weather info (which tells about weather conditions, temporary flight restrictions, and other useful things a pilot is required to know before they take off), and done the preflight inspection of the airplane. So we loaded up our stuff (flight bags with charts, manuals, handheld radio, extra batteries, flashlights, etc.) then we plugged in our headsets and strapped ourselves in. Next we got out our checklists. Once I had run the engine start checklist and had the engine idling I dial up the ATIS weather frequency which provides a recording of current weather conditions which is continuously updated by controllers. I take note of the weather and of the phonetic alphabet letter designation given to that particular recording. This letter is needed to inform the ground controllers that I have the latest info before I depart. It happened to be Quebec (Q) and it was perfect San Diego weather. I called up ground control and asked for a tower enroute clearance (IFR clearance but no IFR flight plan filed) and then a taxi clearance. It goes like this: Me: "Montgomery ground, Skylane 7-5-7-Romeo-Yankee is a Cessna 182RG slash golf request tower enroute to Oceanside Airport." As I am saying the above the controller is punching it into the computer. MYF Ground: "757RY, clearance on request." Then we wait. The ATC system has to ensure a slot free of other aircraft ss cleared for us all the way to Oceanside. A minute passes then they say: MYF Ground: "757RY I have your clearance advise ready to copy." Me: "757RY ready to copy." MYF Ground: "757RY cleared to Oceanside airport via left turn heading 270 radar vectors Oceanside VOR climb to 3000 expect 4000 10 minutes after takeoff contact socal approach on 119.6 squawk 5225." Then I have to read it back to make sure we are all clear on what I am going to do: Me: "757RY is cleared to Oceanside airport via left turn heading 270 radar vectors Oceanside VOR climb to 3000 expect 4000 10 minutes after takeoff contact socal approach on 119.6 squawk 5225." MYF Ground: "757RY readback is correct advise tower you are IFR." Then we request our taxi clearance: Me: "Montgomery ground 757RY at Coast Hangars taxi IFR with Quebec" MYF Ground: "757RY taxi runway 28 Right via Golf, Hotel, Alpha." And again I read back: Me: "Taxi 28R via Golf, Hotel, Alpha. 757RY." Then I release the brakes, ease the throttle forward a little, and we are rolling. I taxi via the prescribed route using my feet on the rudder pedals to steer the airplane to runway 28R where we pull off to the side of the taxiway into the runup area. Run some more checklists and make sure all instruments are set properly for the departure. This means making sure the barometric pressure from the ATIS weather is input in the Kollsman window on the altimeter, directional gyro is aligned with magnetic compass, AI is erect, etc. etc. I punch 5225 into the transponder and make sure tower frequency is tuned into the radio and that SoCal's 119.6 is on the standby so with one button push I am talking to ATC when Montgomery tower hands me off. Various other things are checked and then we call the tower: Me: "Montgomery Tower Skylane 757RY holding short of 28R ready for IFR release." MYF Tower: "Skylane 757RY awaiting release." then I wait again. Tower has to wait until there is a break in the landing traffic and until there is nobody in the departure area of the airport. I am on an IFR clearance which means I could be flying into clouds where I can't see anyone or anything so they have to wait for other aircraft to clear the area and ensure they can maintain a clear spot for me all the way to my destination. A few minutes pass and I hear: MYF Tower: "Skylane 757RY, cleared for takeoff 28R." Me: "Cleared for takeoff 28R, 757RY." I then taxi out onto the runway while simultaneously doing my "lights, camera, action" checklist which consists of turning on the landing light and strobe lights if necessary, switching the transponder from standby to Mode C (responding to radar pings and transmitting our altitide), and action is mixture rich, prop forward, throttle full. The plane accelerates swiftly down the runway as I use the rudder pedals to keep us on the centerline. The huge engine up front produces quite a bit of torque and wants to pull the plane left into the grass. At 60kts I gently start pulling back until the nose rotates and the wheels break free from the ground. I have to apply quite a bit of pressure to the right rudder pedal to keep the airplane flying straight due to the torque of the engine. Clearing the end of the runway I move the landing gear handle into the UP position and watch as the green light goes amber and hear the sound of the electrical pump pumping the hydraulic fluid which pulls the wheels into the airplane. By now we have accelerated to 80 kts. While turning 10 degrees to the left for our departure heading of 270 I do the after takeoff checklist: retract the 10 degrees of flaps we had set for takeoff and trim the airplane to climb at 88 kts which is Vy or best rate of climb speed and gear up (which I had already done). Safely off the ground and established in a climb I run the climb checklist (power at 2500 rpm, prop at 2500, cowl flaps open for extra cooling) and I put on the foggles. Also known as a hood. It is a device which prevents me from being able to see outside the airplane. So the flight is conducted solely by reference to the instruments, no cheating. For the next hour I will fly the airplane without outside visual reference through a number of complicated procedures. This is done to simulate flying in clouds. MYF Tower: "757RY contact Socal Approach on 119.6" Me: "Going to Socal 757RY." I push the button to flip frequencies. There is a lot of traffic on the SoCal frequency. Frequency congestion is a huge problem in aviation which degrades safety with no fix in sight. We still use AM radios with each channel occupying a huge swath of spectrum compared to what is used today for similar purposes. I have actually heard kids playing on the frequencies and jamming and all sorts of things. It really irks me that I have far superior technology in my pocket in the form of a cell phone. So I wait for a gap in the pilots and controllers conversations and then chime in, hoping that someone else isn't doing the same thing such that we end up transmitting at the same time and nobody can understand anything (at which point we both back off and wait a random amount of time for silence and start transmitting again, just like ethernet!). Me: "SoCal Approach Skylane 757RY one thousand two hundred climbing three thousand." SoCal: "Skylane 757RY fly heading three zero zero vectors Victor 23." Me: "300 757RY." We go through a couple more heading changes and then he has me intercepting V-23 which I can identify by tuning my VOR receiver to OCN VOR which is 115.3 and then dialing 326 heading into the top of the omni-bearing selector (OBS) on the VOR and then flying left or right as appropriate to keep the needle centered. We got vectors from MYF to intercept V-23 to OCN. Once established on V-23 I asked for the VOR-A approach to OKB which would terminate in a missed approach. I then brief the approach by reviewing my instrument approach plate which is a piece of paper with the procedures for doing the approach noting how to fly the approach, the MDA (minimum descent altitude) and the missed approach procedure (what to do if you fly the approach in the clouds and get to the MDA but still can't see the airport). You approach OCN VOR from the south and you have to cross over it at 2500. You cannot go direct to the airport because there is no radio beacon or anything on the airport to allow you to know its position. In a VOR approach everything is done with reference to the VOR since it is the only thing we can tell for sure where it is. But the airport is south-east of the VOR so it would be behind you and to the right as you cross over the VOR from the south. And the airport is only 3.4 miles from the VOR. You can't really make such a tight descending right hand turn in actual IFR conditions and expect to be able to find the airport so you first turn left to a heading of 270, fly for one minute (Airplanes flying in instrument conditions are required to have a clock onboard for this purpose), then make a 180 degree plus 30 degrees (310 degrees total) left turn to intercept the 090 radial to OCN. This is known as a procedure turn. SoCal clears us for the VOR approach. As we fly the procedure turn at 2500 I am slowly bringing back the throttle bleeding of airspeed. Socal tells us to switch to advisory frequency (a frequency used by pilots to communicate at OCN airport which has no tower) and then get back to them once we are flying the missed approach procedure. On the inbound leg once at 130kts I drop the gear and 10 degrees of flaps. Flying over the VOR at 90kts I simultaneously start a timer, drop full flaps, turn right to a heading of 096, set the OBS on the VOR to 096 so I can tell that I am on the right track and make corrections as necessary, and push the nose down to descend at 90kts and re-trim the airplane. There is no way to know when you have arrived over the airport in cloudy conditions. This is why we start the timer. The approach procedure for the VOR-A approach to OCN says that at 90kts it should take two minutes and sixteen seconds to travel the 3.4 miles and arrive over the airport and that you should descend down to 1140 feet (But no lower!) by this time. We announce our position and intentions on the advisory frequency. Approaching the airport we do our pre landing checklist. I always use the CBGUMPS mnemonic: Cowl flaps (closed), boost pump (not necessary in this airplane), gas (on fullest tank), undercarriage (down with a green light), prop (full forward/high rpm), seatbelts (on), switches (landing lights on), touching each item as I recite the mnemonic. Then I refer to the paper checklist once more. When 2:16 has elapsed and we are at 1140 feet we would have hopefully broken out of the clouds. Alex confirms that we are right over the airport. If we were actually out of the clouds and intended to land we would then enter the traffic pattern and land the airplane. But our intention is to do the missed approach procedure as if it was really bad weather and we still could not see the airport and to go somewhere else. So upon hitting the MDA over the airport I go full power (being careful not to let the turbo overboost the engine), retract the gear, retract the flaps, open the cowl flaps (for extra cooling since the engine will be working hard climbing at full power), and initiate the missed approach procedure which is as follows: Climbing left turn to 4000' via 030 degree heading and outbound on OCN VOR R-083 to Vista Intersection/D9.3 and hold. So I turn us left to 030 degrees (we were flying 096 degrees to the airport) and begin a climb to 4000'. I adjust the OBS on the VOR to 083 so the needle will center when we are on that radial. Just before the needle centers I turn us to 083 and during the turn the needle centers such that we roll out right on the 083 radial heading for Vista intersection (which is the intersection of the 083 radial from OCN and the 344 radial from the Mission Bay VOR). We reach 4000 on our way to Vista so I level off and re-trim the airplane. I tune the second VOR to Mission Bay (117.8) and 344 degree radial so I can identify Vista intersection when the controller comes on and gives us a vector (heading) to fly: 090 at 4000. Then they vector us onto our next approach which is the ILS at Palomar. I've already gone on for quite a while here so I think you get the idea. and summarize the rest of the flight: The ILS to Palomar is a totally different kind of approach with its own procedures. It can actually get you down to a much lower altitude right over the approach end of the runway so it is more likely to get you safely on the ground during bad weather. After the ILS at Palomar we went missed again for the VOR at Brown which is roughly similar to the VOR approach at Oceanside except you do not need a procedure turn (it is more straight-in although you are not aligned with the runway after the MDA so you have to fly the pattern) and you don't have to descend quite so fast. It does go right through the flight path for arrivals to Lindbergh though so we got a nice up close look at the belly of a 737 passing over us. After the VOR at Brown we went missed again for the ILS back to Montgomery. Only at this point do the foggles come off. I have now practically circumscribed all of San Diego county without looking outside the airplane. At Montgomery I then did 4 touch and go's before finally landing and pulling off the runway. We got another taxi clearance to the fuel pumps to refuel the plane and another back to the hangar to put the airplane away. Total flight time was an hour and a half. For all three approaches plus the touch and go's. One of the hardest parts of learning to fly is learning to think fast. You have to learn all of the procedures by heart so that it comes naturally. During this flight I was constantly talking on the radio, reconfiguring the airplane, running checklists, and changing heading/altitude/airspeed, all while trying to maintain situational awareness (where I am, what is going on, etc) without being able to see outside. A big problem pilots can have is "getting behind the airplane". They always say don't let the airplane go anywhere your brain hasn't already been 15 minutes earlier and that is pretty good advice. As you fly faster and faster airplanes (A Cessna 152 cruises along at just a little over 100kts, the airplane I flew today cruises at 150kts and sometimes I fly quite a bit faster) this problem becomes even greater. It had been a while since I had done this kind of flight and I could tell I was a little rusty. I try to fly once a week and really stay up to speed on this stuff. There is a very good reason why the government requires pilots to stay current to fly. For VFR daytime you need 3 takeoffs and landings in the preceding 90 days (14CFR61.57). For VFR night you need 3 full-stop takeoffs and landings (touch and go's don't count) at night. For IFR pilots this means you have to do 6 approaches including holding procedures, intercepting and tacking courses, within the previous 6 months. I consider these minimal and train at least twice as often. But I don't really mind the training because it is fun! I am always looking for people to share the flying experience with so if you ever want to go up just drop me a line. -- Tracy R Reed http://copilotconsulting.com -- [email protected] http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
