Budget Flight Simulator

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…

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!

As I write this blog, I am reminded that many persons who start their flight experience in front of a PC have a very good chance of becoming real pilots, even if it doesn’t happen until years later. I got my private pilot’s license years after sitting in front of a PC for my first sim flight. I am currently sitting in my room in front of a “PC cockpit” purchased on a budget. I had been collecting new add-on software (i.e. scenery – airports/vegetation/city landscapes/water/clouds, weather, aircraft, virtual passengers, virtual ground crew) over the past 5 years.

I earned a myriad of new things about technology, history, and weather. I have flown to virtually every corner of the world in real time, with real weather downloaded from the internet. I got to become familiar with new airports that I had never flown into before. This experience was enhanced by acquiring add-on software that was modeled after the airports in exact and brilliant detail.

I enjoyed medium haul flights between Seattle-Tacoma airport (courtesy of FlyTampa software) and Phoenix Intl. (courtesy of Flight Scenery/ Flight Zone); and flights between Miami Intl. (courtesy of FlyTampa) and Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau, Bahamas (courtesy of Imagimesim) as captain of a Boeing 757-200 (courtesy of Captain Sim), all the while maintaining contact with the Control Towers and Centers en route.

I’ve flown long haul flights between Logan Intl . in Boston to Dubai Intl. in the United Arab Emirates (both airport sceneries courtesy of FlyTampa), as pilot in command of a Boeing 747-400 (courtesy of PMDG). These flights brought an enormous sense of accomplishment after I had spent time planning and executing my virtual trips.

Real pilots can practice a flight for an upcoming real world flight to become familiar with the navigation and airspace procedures for that trip. He can also become familiar with a new airport.

While simming will not literally get you off the ground and into the air, it can teach the sim pilot a lot about the natural sciences such as physics and geography. It can also teach you a lot about proper navigational planning and time management.