Thoughts on y first PilotEdge Experience... Thanks all!

[RonCraighead]

I’m a 200 hour real-world VFR pilot.

As happens some times in life, either for reasons of time or money, that I can’t do a lot of flying. Usually money. Orville and Wilbur’s first law of aerodynamics is that Money keeps airplanes aloft.

Last time this happened, I kept my mind engaged by studying for the Advanced Ground Instructor rating. Once again in the same boat, I again set my sights on the Instrument Ground Instructor exam.

While studying for my AGI reinforced quite a few concepts that are useful in every day flying, the IGI was a little abstract for me without some experience to reference.

My VFR flying is mostly fair weather fun. I use the GPS to mostly avoid the Bravo pitfalls here in San Diego, and haven’t used VORs much… I usually get really lazy and use the iPad most of the time for a GPS. I’m probably not alone.

I fully intend to get my Instrument rating, once I get a couple kids out of the house and gainfully employed. I’d like to teach eventually on the side as well.

With goals like that, I’m unsatisfied with my level of aeronautical knowledge. Obviously with only 200 hours, I don’t fly enough to learn… 40 hours a year is just enough to stay safe.

I found myself looking for ways to learn without the ‘money meter’ spinning on the airplane. Simulators have been of limited use, especially for primary flight training. There is no risk or penalty for barreling through Bravo airspace, no need to communicate, and visual references aren’t quite what they are in real life. I also found the controls touchy and difficult to be smooth with.

In comes Pilotedge. I saw some potential to help me train while on the ground, but frankly wasn’t expecting too much. I don’t like the way simulators ‘Fly’, but decided to give it a try. If the ATC experience was good enough to justify the effort, maybe I could learn to fly a sim reasonably well.

I put X-plane on my laptop, an aging dell latitude with 6Gb of memory I have a Logitech 3d stick, and a cheap headset. . It was slow and clunky. Then, just for grins, I put the Steam version of FS-X on. With both cranked down to minimum detail, MSFS worked MUCH better. (Granted, I didn’t invest any time tweaking X-Plane).

I wrestled a little with getting the PE client running, but after a half hour I was on line, trying to figure out how to
tune my radios in the sim.
I had some false starts in the ATC system. Not because of the system, but because I needed to get used to flying the sim while awkwardly clicking on radios! A second screen was helpful… Breaking off the radio stack and using a top down view to see where I popped up on a new airport made things more seamless. I started to get less frustrated, and have more fun!

Even as a real world pilot and military service member who uses radios all the time, I found the ‘radio’ in PE a little intimidating. Maybe because the sim was so foreign. I got back in the saddle quickly though, only getting one chuckle from a VERY patient controller.
I found that the Garmin 500 is much like the 430 I have experience with,. Not having the iPad as a crutch, I’m actually getting more familiar with the interface!

I like flying the Mooney… It’s more stable than the 172. I can use the autopilot to minimize frustration, and it takes less time to complete a flight. I got my high performance endorsement recently, but need to build the habits for my complex endorsement.
I find the training for the rating system helpful. My fiancé is interested in getting rated when funds allow. The hope is that flying with me, as well as flying on the sim on PilotEdge, will minimize her training time.

In primary flight training, I can see the Flight Simulater\PilotEdge combination helping in several ways. While I AM getting used to flying the sim, I don’t think that stick and rudder skills are among them. However, if used the right way, the value of PE can be huge. For example:

Avionics and aircraft systems – The cockpit is a terrible classroom, and a classroom makes for a poor training aircraft. It’s said that because of the sensory overload in the cockpit, a student retains about 30% of what happens during a flight lesson. New students can be over stimulated by the airport and cockpit environment. The more a student knows before beginning flight training, and before an individual lesson, the more comfortable they will be, and they will retain more in flight.

The sim, as well as the PE environment are great for getting students accustomed to the ‘buttonology’ of aviation, and de-mystify the seemingly complex panel. It does this in a pressure free environment, one item at a time. Without spending over $150 per hour for the lesson. I got my sport pilot rating before my private, and ended up logging over 50 hours in SportCruisers with nice glass cockpit\GPS\Autopilot systems. Not until I took a trip to Vegas did I really mess with the avionics much… That’s not really part of the rating. The 430s were just used to put a pretty GPS picture on the screen. If a student (and we’re ALL students!) choses a sim aircraft with an avionics setup similar to their training aircraft, it can be incredibly helpful for the student.

Common com panel and radio setups can be mastered, instruments learned and auto pilots tinkered with. Many of these things get a quick mention in training, but don’t get truly absorbed till later. The sim\PE can make them second nature, which they should be, before your checkride.
Navigation and Communication – Aviate, navigate, communicate, in that order. Communication should become second nature to a pilot. The more comfortable you are with communicating, the fewer brain cycles it takes away from flying the airplane. Radio anxiety can stumble many students. It’s not just what to say. It’s learning what to say in the context of a flight.

Radio, GPS, and IFR navigation, charts, A\F Directories… Can all be learned in PilotEdge. The great thing about PE is it takes communication and navigation, and puts it in the CONTEXT of a flight. This is HUGE.

If a student would do this one time per week, going through the ratings in PE, and beyond, they would be head and shoulders above most student pilots. Especially if they completed the first five or so before they started actually flying. They could then focus more on actually flying the airplane once they got up there.

I’m going to spend some time with my girl and my son in the PE environment, and see how it works. Then hook up with a student or two of a CFI friend, and see how that goes. I’ll follow up with what I learn.

Until then, I’ll see you in the system!

Cheers,
Ron

[stevekirks]

Hey Keith, print this up as a brochure and airdrop it onto flight schools!

Ron, well written and inspiring. I've started my PPL training and wondered if I should focus on sport pilot first since I'm most likely to daytime VFR fly most of the time.

Welcome to the addiction! Now, buy a helicopter for the sim and meet us at 46CA!

[RonCraighead]

Thanks!

I actually soloed in Cherokees, stopped flying for a while, then transitioned to Sport planes because I was so close to finish the requirements.
I regretted it. Sport planes are tougher to land, so it made me a better pilot, but…. If you want endorsements for controlled airspace, etc, it takes almost as much time as Private. I can’t find anywhere to rent sport planes these days, so I HAD to upgrade to private.
Should have stuck with PPL, I eventually wanted to fly with more passengers anyhow. While ANY flying is worthwhile, I didn’t save any time or money. Both checkrides were a challenge (I actually busted the first one, long story)
Anyway, figure out if you like Cherokees or Cessnas more, and get rated in one of those. Just my two cents.
Ron

[HRutila]

If I could get even one of my students to plug their sim into PE I would be a much happier instructor. I'm about to force one of them to do it .

[Ryan B]

Thanks for your writeup. My BFR has long since lapsed but I still fly on PE thinking I'll someday get back into it.

I'm especially jealous of the pilots when I'm at work - looking out and all those beauties from inside the tower cab can be frustrating.

Still whatever sim you decide to use, there's tons and tons of addons (aircraft, scenery, and avionics) that might interest you.

If you're using MSFS I'd consider Reality XP's GNS430W or 530W. It can be a 2d popup or, in some addons, it will fit right into the virtual cockpit. If you're running on an older computer (like I think you mentioned), 2D popups would be the way to go. Anyway the RXP versions work exactly like the real world units. The cherokee I got my ppl in had a 430. I wish I used flight sim more in those days - and I wish PE was around too!

[Kerbo]

Great write up Ron, thanks for sharing!