PilotEdge Forums

Hello, PE folks!

My first topic is here.

I have since taken my first lesson and, just today, my second lesson. Today's lesson had me do most of the radio work which got thumbs up from my CFI. Even though I've only done a few flights on here, I know those helped out. Now that I will be doing radio work, I will fly more here -- I recreate my lesson flights in sims to go over the lesson in my head. I didn't want to worry about radio work with that process until I was doing it in RL.

My first flight logged flight since 1989 was last week and my Dad rode along in the back playing Mr Photographer:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1575jhtfkq15t1a/ERXkj4XFW3

My only issue so far is that I am waiting for the lesson of "101 ways to pay for flight training" but I don't see it on the syllabus.

- Richard

How cool! Was that MYF by any chance?

The finances of flight training can be tricky, but if nothing else, you can use PE to help stay sharp between lessons.

Hi Keith,

Yes, that is MYF. We took off just as the marine layer was burning off last Saturday at 11am so there's still a bit of clouds and moisture in the air as you can see from the photos. We headed straight out over Torrey Pines then went up the coast to around Carlsbad (there's a photo or two of CRQ in the distance), did some straight + level flying, turns, climbs and descents, a little simulated engine out demo and a few 45-degree banked turns.

Heading back, we got some nice photos of the Del Mar Racetrack and the fair going on and La Jolla cove as we flew over Mt Soledad aiming for Mission Bay before lining up with 05 for the 45-downwind entrance to land on 28L. A quick base and we're on final still about 600+' AGL on short final with a steady crosswind from 230. I got a nice demonstration of idle power, full flaps and sinking on down. Despite flying in flight sim for years and having practiced landings every week, it was all a blur in real life. I still remember nothing between turning out on final and touching down!

Yesterday's landing was a straight-in approach since we went to a practice area behind San Miguel out in the eastern mountains. Afterwards, I told my CFI I'm not feeling very confident on how to control the plane during landings and he reminded me we haven't even started landing lessons yet. BAH! Yesterday's lesson was great, doing climbing and descending turns, playing with full flaps and trim and doing a full simulated engine out emergency and flaps-and-trim effects on go-arounds. At first, I couldn't tell how I was doing since he never said anything just try this... now turn and climb here... now idle... OK full throttle and climb to XYZ... later I realized it's because he didn't need to -- all this simming is paying off (and not blind simming, my father as a CFI has been giving me sim lessons here and there).

As helpful as sims are though there's no comparison to how wonderful being in the real sky is

Timmer wrote:
As helpful as sims are though there's no comparison to how wonderful being in the real sky is

I could not agree more with that last statement!

Thanks for the debrief, that was excellent.

This might sound odd, but I found my simming became much more focused and enjoyable once I started real world flying. You're spot on, it doesn't replicate the feeling of euphoria and the visceral thrill of flight, but suddenly, my simming took on a new level of importance and utility. I knew exactly what I wanted to practice, and was able to replay past lessons to polish up those skills and then work on the material for upcoming lessons.

You're right, though, nothing beats the feeling of operating the real aircraft in a variety of flight conditions. My favorites are entering the pattern at a brand new airport, and going in and out of all sorts of weather.

Definitely. I have been recreating my actual flights on the sim afterwards. It's great to walk through the flight and go over the same process multiple times.

Richard

First of all. Good luck on your training! I recently got into flight sim to supplement my RW instrument training. I had no idea how much fun it would be. Frankly, PE is a huge factor in making it seem "real" for me. It's a safe environment to make mistakes and learn from them. For example, I "transitioned" my flight sim from my trusty Saratoga to a Pilatus this past weekend and busted some airspace not being accustomed to the1800FPM climb rate. That would have been bad in the RW. Anyway, the flight sim was "instrumental" in earning my IR (bad pun intended).

As far as how to pay for flight training... You could try a money tree or the lottery, but neither worked for me. Yet!

Keep the posts and pictures coming!

Off to plan a RW solo IFR trip home from a Houston overnight business trip. The flight in early yesterday morning was fantastic. It was MVFR and I had to shoot a localizer approach in. The weather looks good today. Darn...

Hi Rob,

Thanks for your words of encouragement. That sounds similar to a story from my father. The one time he busted airspace in his flying career was when he took out a Piper Dakota (235hp) with two friends -- he was so impressed with the 1000+fpm climb on take-off. Never having to worry about the airspace above MYF at 4000ft in a 172 or 182, he didn't even think about it until Tower called him up and asked him to verify his altitude. My dad actually thought the Tower was just impressed with his climb, too, so proudly called back, "Just passing 4000!" Then, the dreaded, "Roger. I have a number for you to call..."

Luckily, he talked to tower later and my father humbly explained what happened and they just gave him a little verbal reminder about the 4000 floor of the airspace above MYF (this was before A, B, C, and D airspace rules). I guess if that's your only oops after 1,000 hrs civilian and who knows how much flight time in the Navy, I guess that's not too bad

Thanks for giving me some of your stories, too. Simulators and services like PE are definitely wonderful tech!