I did it!

[aventura]

Finally, after many weeks of bad weather, I got a chance to do a discovery flight from KFRG!
Beautiful day, busy sky, including a blimp there for the PGA tournament at Bethpage.

You can watch the video of the whole flight, from my POV, here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_conti ... uhYupUQR_4

The quality is not great, but I am glad I recorded it.

Here are my impressions:

First , even though I am afraid of heights, this was not scary at all. On the contrary, it was exhilarating and exciting, but it also felt very safe.
The cockpit of the 172 felt smaller than I expected, and the controls had much more resistance. The graphics was also much better than XP11

Overall I found flying the real thing quite easier than flying the simulator. In particular holding a desired altitude and heading is much, much easier. Thanks to Pilotedge, I had no troubles following the ATC-pilot exchanges, and I think I impressed my instructor with my knowledge of airspace and instrumental procedure. The preflight and the run up were identical to what I am used to with the simulator, and the G1000 was also very similar to what we have in the virtual world. The instructor even showed me a power off stall, which in the end felt much less 'violent' than I expected.

In summary, one of the greatest experience I have ever had, and I strongly recommend it to anyone. I only wish I had the money and the time to do the whole private pilot training. Maybe one day.

[FDXDave]

Congrats!. I had the same impressions on my first flight in a 172. That cockpit is way smaller. It really makes you realize how important weight management is. But that's awesome. I'm the same way when it comes to getting my ppl. So i have an instructor that takes me up like 4 times a year. I told him I'm not about the curriculum so he just lets me do my thing. But for sure keep a log. Every hour counts. You may end up with a ppl betore you know. 40 hours can go by pretty fast. Ofcoarse i can't pass a medical. So my primary home is PE. That's where i put most of my finances into. My armchair cockpit. : )
Thanks for sharing. Reminded me of a nice time i had.
Dave

[RogerW]

Congrats!

I know exactly what you mean about the heights thing. I too am deathly afraid of heights, to the point of my legs get queezy when I see something on tv even, but sitting in that 172 I felt quite safe.