Budget Flight Simulator

Pilots and Instructors alike have always given Microsoft Flight Simulator high praises for it’s instructional value. Many high time pilots swear by it and credit it with helping them to transition through the IFR phase of flight training.

I am currently at the beginning of my Instrument Flight Training. I have opted to use the Jeppesen Training System. My flight instructor swears by it. I will use it extensively in ground training, but I will definitely get some quality time in with my trusted Flight Sim Yoke and Pedals… and FS9! In fact, I considered myself a low time IFR pilot during most of my Private Pilot training (I had a fairly difficult time learning to sufficiently rely on my outside visual surroundings/ queues instead of the “instrument dashboard” in front of me during flights).

I recently purchased the new CH Product Eclipse Yoke ( I must confess, the new bells and whistles on the thing did peek my curiosity), to use along with my CH Pedals. I also intend to complete the Rod Machado Virtual Instrument Flight School Series as well. Some former pilot friends of mine (non-Flight Sim users) noted that the instrument phase of their flight training was the most difficult of the entire program. I am betting that the practical part of this phase will be much easier for me! Thanks in no small part to Microsoft Flight Simulator…

I look forward to night flying!

This is a topic I don’t come across about very much through general blogs. In addition, there is very little reliable independent information out there that one can review to properly determine the best flight school environment for his personal training. Moreover, school visits are recommended, but more often than not, the environment presented is often hyped. The person at the front door is trying his/her best to present a climate consistent with the glossy images on the brochures and the websites.

I have accumulated 80 hours of flight time. I went through 3 flight schools before I found my fit. I started in a Part 141 training program with the first school. I finished in a Part 61 school. I was able to find the right instructor – and a personally satisfactory flight school curriculum (apart from the mandated FAA certified program) to complete my Private Pilot’s program. I was informed by my SEVENTH and final flight instructor (he had also been an FAA pilot examiner earlier in his career) that many people discontinue their training because of the aggravation associated with student/ instructor incompatibility, poor student/ instructor scheduling; the stick and carrot approach adopted by many US flight schools in their flight training programs, and questionable lessons pricing practices. Interestingly, an administrator at a school I had visited told me that he knew of an individual with a PhD. who had accumulated over 250 hours of flight time before she was proficient enough to qualify for her PRIVATE PILOT license! He reasoned that she was over analytical in everything that she did. This led to difficulties on her part in grasping the peculiarities of flight dynamics, and understanding the “building blocks” within the various stages of training.

I would beg to differ in my personal analysis – it appears to me that people with her personality type are the most vulnerable individuals to the pervasively deceptive training practices that can be observed at many flight training schools. This individual, unfortunately, became a natural gold mint for her instructors and the schools, even as she was striving (through sheer self determination) to balance personal training safety issues with the proficient skills necessary  to be a competent pilot.

I had another friend whose personality type was a bit different. He had been working part time on his private pilots license for well over 20 years. He had had to frequently curtail his training to address personal family issues. There were also bouts of underemployment. I met him at the second flight school I had attended.

Through personal experience, he had become hip to the schemes and tactics used by some schools to prolong the training programs of student pilots in order to allow the young instructors to accumulate more flight time themselves (many of them aspire to become airline pilots – in the shortest time possible); and to enable the school to “safeguard” their profit margins over the short term. He spotted this practice at the school and called the owners out on it. As a result, he was ostracized by the school’s administrators and labeled a difficult student. Consequently, no instructors wanted to fly with him (there were always scheduling conflict). He left the school after 3 weeks. He had invested about $1,000 by then. I might also add that I met another individual at this school who had spent $30,000 on his private pilot’s license alone! He obtained his commercial pilots license about 2 years later… only God knows what he had spent in total!

I will expand on my experiences in later blogs, and offer some suggestions…

I am an avid simmer by heart. I enjoy taking time after a long day at work to put in a few flight hours as a relaxing activity. I work at a financial institution where every hour has to be accounted for! In addition, I don’t get to travel as much as I would like to because of my job position set up, but the opportunities for vicarious travel abound with Microsoft Flight Simulator. The experience becomes greatly enhanced when the perfect add-on sceneries are included. I think I know my way around the Seattle-Tacoma Intl., and Portland International airports pretty well now – even though I have never flown into any of them in real life.  I am now familiar with the South Florida coast line and the Islands of The Bahamas. This makes my real flight trips between South Florida and the Caribbean that much more exciting as I can pinpoint exactly where I am at any given time. Of course if the cloud cover makes a VFR flight difficult, the default Garmin GPS always comes in handy!

My introduction to the world of Flight Simulation came back in 2003 (yes, I am still new relative to the other folks I know on some of the forums out there). I purchased a spanking new copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 (the first edition to include AI aircraft and ATC communications). My goal was to become a real certified Pilot so I decided to become acclimated to the peculiarities of aircraft handling before I dealt with the real thing.

I also purchased a pair of headphones with an attached mouthpiece, a Flight Yoke and Rudder Pedals (courtesy of CH Products) and optimized my stereo sound system for surround sound. It felt like a religious experience even from early on! I then went on sites like Avsim and Posky to download add-on aircraft. I then experimented with sound file replacement so that the airplanes sounded like the real thing!

I learned later on that even though I could now be considered a hardcore simmer, there were folks out there with far more impressive software AND hardware! I saw a couple of uploads of images of Simulators with multiple monitors to simulate 3D views of the outside cockpit environment, and stacks of manually workable flight instruments! I began to feel rather inadequate with my single monitor and my yoke and pedals! I could only look around outside the cockpit as far as the hat switch on my yoke would allow!

I noticed some issues arising as I transitioned from Flight Sim to the real thing…

There was the real issue of my constant tendency to become fixated inside the cockpit. Whilst learning to land in a real airplane with an instructor, I also had to unlearn some potentially dangerous habits I had picked up in teaching myself to land using the Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Flight simulators can be fun and exiting as a basic learning tool, but I am still out when it comes to analyzing them for the danger they could present in terms of developing flying habits that could prove difficult to undue once you decide to fly in the real world.

There are all sorts of aircraft out there for basic flight training. A new model (or in some cases an entirely new design) seems to come out every other year! The more famous manufacturers include Cessna, Piper and Cirrus (at least on the American side). Other countries are developing and flying trainers as well but the American models are still the most popular worldwide.

I started my Private training in the Piper Warrior II – the Cherokee - back in 2005. It was a dated bird (a model built back in the early 80s) but a sturdy and well kept one! To date, my smoothest landing was in that model! It was a greaser! Moreover, I currently have over 80 hours total flight time (I am still a novice in aviation terms!).

I started flying the Cessnas earlier this year. I have flown the 172SP (the latest design in Cessna’s relentless pursuit of Skyhawk perfection) and the Cessna 172N (a 1977 model with that bothersome carburetor heat valve!).

I was flying out over a training area in the 172SP back in February with an instructor, listening to the radio exchange between the other pilots in the area. There were about six other airplanes maneuvering out there in different pockets (crowded airspace)! You can learn a lot about different types of training aircraft by just listening to the chatter! I learned early on that there were Cirrus, a Piper Seminole, a Piper Cherokee and another Cessna 172 in my immediate airspace.

The exchange between the flight instructors of the Cherokee and the Cessna, which seemed friendly at first, got progressively testy as they argued over which training aircraft was better, or more student-user friendly. Cooler heads prevailed only after some chiding from the pilots of the Cirrus and the Seminole. The Seminole pilot even jokingly (though I was not fully convinced) suggested that he would report the incident to the tower on the way in if he could get their tail numbers!

That incident (though irresponsible on the part of the instructors involved because their respective students lost valuable flight time – and money – as a result) gave me cause for reflection. I could compare both models quite easily because of personal experience.

I can say that I liked the Piper for its handling characteristics on the ground and its tendency to forgive less than perfect landings (my instructor at that time was not a real asset to me in terms of my landing training). My only serious gripe with the airplane involved the fuel tank configuration. I kept an alarm stopwatch handy to remind me not to run my tanks dry.

I like the Cessna 172 for its over-the-dashboard visibility and the great visibility of the landscape from the air. Landing was always a challenge (there are very few instructors who can truly teach you how to land a Skyhawk!).

I know that the opinions about Pilots who have flown both models would vary, but I think I have covered the most popular ones!