Jump to content

More hours in "ground school" than actual flying!


Recommended Posts

I don't know about you guys, but I've been spending tons of time learning about a great many things to do with flying in this fine piece of software. I've found that I enjoy the experience a lot more when I know what I'm doing (I hope!).

 

I owe thanks not only to this forum and website in general, but also to Filbert Flies, Squirrel and Corporate Dad Pilot videos. I actually sat through the entire 2-hour tutorial by Filbert in learning how to fly the Working Title mod of the CJ4. I actually have yet to fly it, but I've been spending a lot of time just learning the Pro Line 21 system.

 

I'm still in "ground school" mode as I continue to learn about VNAV and other functions on this aircraft (it actually works in this sim). I've just recently learned how to use SimBrief as the FMS system in the CJ4 will automatically recall your flight plan with just your pilot ID #.

 

I get the feeling that the CJ4 will be my primary choice of aircraft for a long time to come as it's currently considered the gold standard for being as close to realistic as possible thanks to Working Title (well, the *free* gold standard anyway, I understand Aerosoft's CRJ is incredible, but I have no interest in it, just private jets).

 

Are there any other "ground" material I should learn about to further enhance my experience? There's so many!

Ryzen 5 5600x / NVIDIA 3060 Ti Founder's Edition / ASRock B450M Steel Legend Motherboard / 2TB Inland Premium TLC NVMe SSD / 32GB DDR4-3200 RAM / Monitor: Monoprice Zero-G 35" UWQHD (3440x1440 Ultrawide)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I literally am in ground school, en route to earning my private pilot's license in real life. I've also taken a couple of in-person flight lessons, though I've put a pause on that while I finish ground school and pass my written exam. This week I completed the coursework, so now I am studying because I want to maximize my exam score to as high as I can muster (the pass grade is 70%, my practice scores are in the high 80s).

 

Having done all this has given me a new appreciation for many of the nuances of MSFS, and for flight simming in general. Primarily, I appreciate now the importance of flying under visual flight rules that is fundamental to learning how to fly. This is not something I had much of an interest in when I was a simmer-only, because I became overly reliant on staring at my instruments and learning how to use high tech navigation aids.

 

There are tons of free materials out there depending on which specific aviation topics you want to dive into further out of general interest. When doing my coursework, I noticed that my ability to answer FAA questions about aerodynamics concepts was pretty weak, even though the FAA requires a very minimal understanding of aerodynamics. So I stumbled upon this excellent lecture by an MIT professor of aerodynamics (she is also a pilot btw, prefers Cessna 172s) in which she provided a slightly turbo-charged overview of the subject to dig in just a little deeper, aimed at pilots in training:

 

Intel Core i7 10700KF (8-Core 5.1GHz Turbo Boost), RTX 3070 8GB, 32GB Dual Channel at 3200MHz, 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. Monitor: Samsung C49RG9x. VR: Oculus Quest 2.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Intel Core i7 10700KF (8-Core 5.1GHz Turbo Boost), RTX 3070 8GB, 32GB Dual Channel at 3200MHz, 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD. Monitor: Samsung C49RG9x. VR: Oculus Quest 2.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Wow...bookmarked! This is super cool, should give plenty of material for simming as realistically as possible!

Ryzen 5 5600x / NVIDIA 3060 Ti Founder's Edition / ASRock B450M Steel Legend Motherboard / 2TB Inland Premium TLC NVMe SSD / 32GB DDR4-3200 RAM / Monitor: Monoprice Zero-G 35" UWQHD (3440x1440 Ultrawide)
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

I just sampled some of the lectures, and it looks as if there's a lot of good info there, pretty well done, as you might expect from an MIT class. These are recorded lectures done in front of an actual groundschool class (actually, a 3-day workshop) and, though there's a lot that most simmers don't need (most can sure USE the info), it can sure enhance your simming experience and WILL teach you a LOT -- recommended.

 

Note that this is just one of MIT's Open Courseware videos (and other material there, too). By going up the "link" chain you will find they have similar courses on physics, archeology, biology, math and many others -- neat stuff.

 

Thanks for the link, Neil.

 

Larry N.

As Skylab would say:

Remember: Aviation is NOT an exact Science!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...