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Found 19 results

  1. Learn To Fly Here #5 | Visual Glideslope Indicators By thecorporatepilotdad Visual glideslope indicators are commonly used. VASIs (Visual Approach Slope Indicator) and PAPIs (Precision Approach Path Indicator) are the most common but some rare systems are also covered which includes the P-VASI (pulsating VASI) and TRCV (Tri-colorVASI). These visual approach glideslope indicators are normally visible up to 4 miles in the daytime and 10 miles at night and will provide obstacle clearance if the proper glide path is maintained. VASIs show if the aircraft is too high, too low, or on glide path. The PAPI shows above or below glide path, but also slightly high and slightly low. PAPIs are often found on runways with instrument approaches such as an ILS approach. This video shows how to find airport information using the Chart Supplement. The Chart Supplement is formerly known as the Airport Facility Directory and is a physical publication printed every 56days. Now, the information is available online on the FAA website. This video was made with Microsoft Flight Simulator and is for entertainment purposes only. Always consult applicable publications for real world applications concerning systems and limitations for specific aircraft. thecorporatepilotdad Youtube channel About The Author This video is produced by thecorporatepilotdad. He has been a FlightSim.Com member for close to twenty years and using Flight Simulator since back in the day of FS98 and FS2000. He is also a professional pilot with over 8000 hours of real world flight experience ranging from Cessna 152s to super-mid size business jets.
  2. Learn To Fly Here #4 | The Constant Speed Propeller By thecorporatepilotdad Learn To Fly Here Video #4. The constant speed propeller is explained but also illustrated while in flight with the help of some graphics that move as controls and power settings change. The propeller control lever directly changes the pitch of the propeller blades and this video shows what happens to the blades while inflight. This video talks about how the propeller works and how to use it correctly. This video also talks about different propeller types such as climb and cruise props. How to set the propeller control and the order of throttle, prop lever, and mixture is demonstrated as well as the order of operation for increasing power. High and low pitch stops can make a constant speed propeller act like a fixed pitch propeller. This video explains why. It also explains why an aircraft like the Cirrus SR22 has a constant speed propeller but NO PROP LEVER. This video was made with Microsoft Flight Simulator and is for entertainment purposes only. Always consult applicable publications for real world applications concerning systems and limitations for specific aircraft. thecorporatepilotdad Youtube channel About The Author This video is produced by thecorporatepilotdad. He has been a FlightSim.Com member for close to twenty years and using Flight Simulator since back in the day of FS98 and FS2000. He is also a professional pilot with over 8000 hours of real world flight experience ranging from Cessna 152s to super-mid size business jets.
  3. Learn To Fly Here #3 | How Flight Instruments Work | Required Equipment | Inop Equipment | FARs By thecorporatepilotdad What is a six pack? This video explains what a six pack is and how each of the primary flight instruments work. Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) are referenced to discuss which instruments and equipment are required for flight, as well as inoperative equipment and where to find the answer on what to do if something is broken to still legally fly an airplane. Microsoft Flight Simulator is used for the demonstration of this topic. This video is NOT meant to replace training from a qualified flight instructor. Video is for entertainment purposes but you may find it educational. The systems discussed include airspeed indicator, attitude indicator, altimeter, turn coordinator, directional gyro, vertical speed indicator, true airspeed, tachometer, navigation lights, and much more. For more information on flight instruments refer to: FAA Handbook Chapter 8: Flight Instruments thecorporatepilotdad Youtube channel About The Author This video is produced by thecorporatepilotdad. He has been a FlightSim.Com member for close to twenty years and using Flight Simulator since back in the day of FS98 and FS2000. He is also a professional pilot with over 8000 hours of real world flight experience ranging from Cessna 152s to super-mid size business jets.
  4. Learn To Fly Here #2 | Engine Starting | Propeller Safety | ACS | MSFS By thecorporatepilotdad As a professional pilot and former Certified Flight Instructor the following is a presentation of engine starting and some situations to consider before and after starting an aircraft engine. This video follows the Airman Certification Standards (ACS) as a guide and covers situations when engine starting would not be done and what steps need to be taken to safely start an engine considering surroundings, nearby personnel and passengers, wheel chocks, and much more. Microsoft Flight Simulator is used, but for demonstration purposes, real-life situations, checklists, and procedures are used in the video. A general Before Starting and Engine Starting checklist are followed with step by step descriptions for each step along with some aircraft limitations for the aircraft used in the video. A general demonstration of a stuck starter following the Airplane Flying Handbook is also shown. There is also a small discussion and example of an NTSB case study of an incident that occurred as a result of an aircraft not being ready for starting. Future videos in the Learn To Fly Here series will follow the FAA Airman Certification Standards for the Private Pilot Airplane license. thecorporatepilotdad Youtube channel About The Author This video is produced by thecorporatepilotdad. He has been a FlightSim.Com member for close to twenty years and using Flight Simulator since back in the day of FS98 and FS2000. He is also a professional pilot with over 8000 hours of real world flight experience ranging from Cessna 152s to super-mid size business jets.
  5. Learn To Fly Here #1 | Straight and Level | Climbs | Turns | Descent | Standard Rate Turns | MSFS By thecorporatepilotdad Learn To Fly Here - Episode 1. This is the 1st video in a series of learning to fly where we will start from the beginning and cover subject areas, maneuvers, and procedures a student pilot will learn on the path of getting a Private Pilot's License. FAA sources are used where possible. The basics of flight are covered. Lift, weight, thrust, and drag are illustrated along with two basic types of drag - parasite drag and induced drag. During straight and level flight proper techniques on how to trim an aircraft are shown. Visual cues to maintain straight and level flight are shown as well as indications that can be used when the aircraft is in a bank during turns. Climbs and descents are demonstrated along with proper techniques for each. Turns at various bank angles are demonstrated. Adverse yaw is described as well as why rudder is needed in a turn and why pilot's need to pull back on the yoke while turning without losing altitude. This is a demonstration of a flight I would have taught a student back when I was a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). The lessons are kept as realistic as possible and this video is in no way meant to replace the use of a qualified flight instructor. These are for entertainment and educational purposes only. thecorporatepilotdad Youtube channel About The Author This video is produced by thecorporatepilotdad. He has been a FlightSim.Com member for close to twenty years and using Flight Simulator since back in the day of FS98 and FS2000. He is also a professional pilot with over 8000 hours of real world flight experience ranging from Cessna 152s to super-mid size business jets.
  6. Learning To Fly -- Cross Country By Joe Zuzul Larry has cleared me for cross-country. After some weather delays (wind-snow-wind) we finally got to go up this morning. We hit the highlights, including both left and right turns around a point. (Of all things, my right hand turns around a point I consider my weak point). Afterward we went back to his home office and started to talk about cross country. We'll be going to two Class C airports. The idea is for me to get the most benefit going to the busiest nearby airports while Larry is with me. I now have a real slide-rule/dial flight computer and a real plotter (ruler with protractor). I'm starting to get the hang of the flight computer after several days. I'm amazed by all the things that can be done with it. Some of my new toys-- hey, what's that low-altitude en route chart doing in there! I had to do sort of a checkride to be cleared for cross-country. Larry said that the cross-country phase of flight training would put a whammy on my technical flying skills and he wanted to be sure I had things like turns around a point, the stalls, and the precision take-offs and landings down fairly well before he turned me loose cross-country. At his office, he'd shown me how to use the plotter and the flight computer. He called that a "Prayer Wheel." He showed me how to make a flight plan, gave me a primer on selecting checkpoints, the whole nine yards. He did the leg to the first Class C airport and sent me off with homework, to do the other two legs. It was so cool to have a real flight computer that I took it out and used it to compute time and distance a few days later while driving down the highway. Larry pointed out that might not be a good idea; in flight one can deviate off course a few degrees while doing calculations without running off the road. He said he didn't want to read in the paper that one of his students was found in a heap on the side of the road clutching a Prayer Wheel. A computer (like the one you're in front of now) is a great tool for planning cross country flights, especially if one has Flight Simulator. One day Larry commented to some other pilots during some "hangar talk" that I had an advantage because I could do my flights in flightsim first. But apart from using flightsim, just being able to go online was a great help. For example, there's a ton of information www.airnav.com about individual airports. I would get info from there and have it printed out, making sure to double check the information with valid charts, etc., before sticking the pages in my clipboard. Unsure about whether the little town on the sectional is more than just a couple crossroads? Check it out with Terraserver at http://terraserver-usa.com. You just have to be careful and realize some of these aerial photos can be somewhat dated. I found that mines and quarries and golf courses make pretty good visual checkpoints, and these could also be viewed with Terraserver. I used Mapquest and my Streets program to supplement highway maps. It's hard to find a better checkpoint than a golf course set between a major highway and a railroad track. Once I had my flight plan done i flew the flights in flightsim. The low-level detail of flightsim is amazing. If you read my other articles, you know I was flying a Cessna 150, so these flights were not going to be made at any great altitude. I think the highest I ever flew on any of the cross-country flights was 5500 feet. Not surprisingly, the airports in flightsim are where they are on the sectional. But most of even the little roads and creeks are about where they are supposed to be. So are the bodies of water and the radio towers. All but the biggest radio towers make lousy checkpoints for real day VFR flying. These are great checkpoints in flightsim, but in reality they are usually too narrow to be seen from any appreciable distance. On the other hand, flightsim doesn't do a very good job of depicting many little towns that can be used as checkpoints in reality. So, in flightsim, I traded off and used a radio tower for a checkpoint if it was near a little town that flightsim didn't depict. A quarry by a lake is good, too. We climbed to 4500 feet as we crossed the local VOR and turned to 210°. The block of clouds that had covered the horizon in that direction had completely gone. Later, we determined the visibility to be over 40 nm. Larry was a little disappointed by this. He said it was going to be too easy for me. 'You can see the checkpoints 20 miles away.' I had to crab slightly to the right to stay on course. Once the power was set and the plane was trimmed it was stable and I could basically fly the plane with my feet. I had a lapful. There was my clipboard with the flight plan, the sectional, folded to our present area, and the E6B computer. He had me calculate the time to the checkpoints and write in the ETA (in minutes after the hour) in a little box for that on the plan. After a couple of these we were able to determine our groundspeed. If we were a little early, he'd have me calculate the next checkpoint with a slightly faster groundspeed until our actual time agreed with the estimated. Larry had told me that the controllers at the second airport were a little full of themselves, probably because they were newer. It had only recently achieved Class C status. We were ID'ed a little ways out to another plane as possible traffic. Then when we got closer and contacted approach, the controller asked us if we had the transponder on (it was). Leroy said the guy knew we had our transponder on because of the prior traffic call. This controller immediately instructed us to contact the control tower even though we were still 16 nm out. The first thing that controller did was ask us if we'd already contacted approach. "That's an affirmative." We were handed off to a female controller who was a little busy but much more pleasant. We got a straight-in clearance. A C-130 was taking off, which we were able to see in the distance, a student doing touch and goes was re-routed to another runway, and another GA plane was coming in just a little before us. Larry had me land quite a bit down the runway so we wouldn't have to taxi a long way. When we were back and all done Larry asked for my certificate and endorsed me for solo cross country. I can't recall now if it was there or back at one of the stops where he said something about my earning his trust. I guess he trusts me enough to let me go up and away on my own. We talked a little more and then he had to get going. Frankly, I didn't want to leave. I could have flown another four hours I think. I stuck around a few minutes and bird-dogged the runway for Darryl, the FBO, who was in the back trying to get the runway lights to come on. "No, they're still not working," I'd call back to him. He gave up and went over to his trailer to call FSS to report the requisite NOTAM. So there I was, alone in the office. I gathered up my stuff and headed for home. We actually made three stops that day. A realtor in a town between that second airport and our home base needed Larry to take him up for some aerial pictures of some ranch that was for sale. It was a long day; we covered about 360 nm in a Cessna 150. It should also be noted that in flightsim there are no Darryls trying to get runway lights to work. I was still pumped after we were on the ground for good, but on the drive home fatigue began to set in. I slept like a baby that night. The solo cross country would be short relative to the dual we'd completed and I'd be over familiar terrain. In fact, my first stop would be at the airport of my home town just 30 or so miles from Larry's home base. But the wind was a bear that day. Larry even went up with me for a quick run around the pattern to make sure I could handle the crosswind. Then he turned me loose on the world (or at least a small part of it). What, me worry? You bet. My approach into my hometown airport was a total mess. I haven't yet developed a keen eye for spotting airports from a distance. I was nearly on top of it and was still above pattern altitude. This airport also has a little-used, very narrow and short runway that is not kept up too well. Larry had told me he thought it was still in use and to ask UNICOM if it were available. My first lesson of the day was to make sure the radio volume is turned up. I never heard any reply to my question, so I got onto downwind for runway 2, but mistakenly announced I was on downwind for runway 20. I was too high and too fast coming into final and decided to go around. While back in the pattern, I turned up the volume to hear UNICOM suggest the small runway, 31. So I left the pattern and re-entered on a downwind for 31. I don't know the width of this runway, but I bet in my younger days with a good run-up I could have jumped across it. I made a respectable landing and taxied in. After chatting with the FBO a bit, I was on my way with a nice short-field take-off, lifting off before this little runway crossed the main one. My house is south of town, which put it close to the course for the next leg. Unfortunately, I didn't figure out I'd flown right over it until I was about a quarter mile past it. I decided to stay under the clouds. I didn't want to be on top if they started to close up. There was some crosswind at the destination, but it wasn't so bad. The real problem was figuring out how to taxi to the FBO. There are no taxiways on this airport except for real close to the office. After looking at my notes for the airport, I announced I would back-taxi on runway 10. After chatting with the guys in there, having one sign my logbook, and taking a few pictures, it was time to go. Up ahead, the sky was darkening. It was getting later in the afternoon, and I couldn't tell if the clouds ahead only appeared scattered or broken, or if they were really a solid mass. To my left I could see a nearby airport was clear in case I needed to head there. It also seemed to be clear back east towards my hometown airport. The puffy clouds were becoming more frequent, and they were only slightly above now, so I dropped down away from them. These clouds were also a concern. As it turns out, they were only scattered. I could see the home base when I was still 20-25 nm out. I would be there well within my estimated time. After I announced position, someone radioed back that runway 36 was still in use, and that there was still a decent crosswind. As I entered downwind, another plane was just taking off. It turned out the other person who'd radioed me, though, was a pilot on the ground I'd met before leaving, with a hand-held radio. I came in well, good speed and slope, left wing down, right rudder, good flare, and touched down softly. 'Cessna 4-Sierra-Juliet, EXCELLENT landing.' Yee-haw! It never hurts to have an appreciative audience when things go well. It turned out that I had an attentive audience earlier when things weren't going so well. Mark, the pilot with the radio, said that he and Larry had listened on the hand-held to my little adventure over my hometown airport. Mark told me I'd done fine; I'd run up against some problems but I'd stuck with it, kept a clear head, and gotten the job done." The following day I took the written test. I had to drive an hour to take it at a nearby regional airport. Right before I arrived there was a special news bulletin on the radio about the Space Shuttle braking up over Texas. When I asked the people at the counter if they'd heard the news, they directed me to the pilot's lounge where a TV was tuned to CNN. I watched for a while in stunned silence, and then forced myself to leave and to try to block it from my mind for a couple hours if I could. I scored an 88 and passed the test, then returned home still stunned by tragedy. Larry tightened the screws a little with the next cross-country assignment. The first leg would be to a smaller airport with a VOR nearby, but on the second leg I would have to transition through Class D airspace to get to yet another Class D airport just beyond. It would be my first solo into ATC controlled airspace. "Columbia Radio, Cessna . . . Sierra Juliet, listening on 1-2-2 point 4." And listening, and listening. Nothing. I was trying to hail Flight Service to open my flight plan to the first airport. I couldn't hear any traffic when I switched to 122.8. Nor was any to be heard on 122.9, another common traffic advisory frequency. Do I turn around? Squawk 7600 for radio failure? I decided not to turn around, but maybe land at an airport not too far ahead I was using as a checkpoint. I checked to make sure the radio was set to speaker instead of headphone, and that the mike was plugged in. I tried hailing another FSS. Still nothing. Finally I heard traffic, and tried transmitting again. Again, nothing. I reminded myself to fly the plane first, and to keep aware of where I was and to look for traffic. OK, I thought, radio failures are built into 'the system.' But I was beginning to imagine Flight Service calling Larry to tell him they'd had no contact with me. I flicked the headphone/speaker switch back and forth. I reached under the dash and wiggled the mike jack and pressed it upward forcefully. And then there was that distinctive 'click' a jack makes when fully inserted. Someone who had used headphones in the plane had tried to replace the mike jack, close but no cigar. I mentally kicked myself. This has happened to me before. I once was in the air before realizing the speakers were off and the jack wasn't in, so I'd made this the first thing I checked when I first stuck my head into the cockpit on pre-flight. The jack had felt secure then, but obviously hadn't been. I opened my flight plan, breathed a sigh of relief, and began to enjoy the flight and the beautiful day. It was such a beautiful day that soon after departing the first airport, the buildings of the bigger town to the north that was home to the two Class D's were in view upon reaching 3000 feet. The checkpoints zoomed under me and it was time to call the first of the "twin towers." "I was cleared at or above 3000 feet. I could tell by watching and listening that it was busy there today. The controller had his hands full. I saw a Cheyenne arc around the airport, and some large cargo hauler or airliner making final. I descended to 3000 feet because I knew I wouldn't have much time to get down to pattern altitude for my destination once I cleared the airspace directly before me. Though I hadn't been requested to, I reported crossing the runway 13/31 centerline, a common practice through there, just to remind the controller I was still there. I was right over the end of runway 13. Just as I crossed, an Air National Guard KC-135 took off right under me! It was as gray as sharkskin, ambling into the air to my left and behind me as I passed safely above. I will never forgive myself for not thinking to grab my camera at that second! As Larry had warned, it soon was apparent I'd been forgotten, so I requested and received permission for a frequency change. I quickly dialed the next tower, as I was probably already in their airspace. I was cleared to land and given a choice of right or left patterns for runway 18, and further instructed to report midfield on downwind. By then the airport was somewhat to my left so I advised I'd make a lefty approach, turned in, began a quick descent to 1600 feet and reported as instructed. I saw that 18 had a considerable amount of displaced approach and cut the power at the end of downwind accordingly, coming around to make a decent landing." One of the twin towers. Right about here there ought to be a photo of the topside of a KC-135. That camera was just lying there in the right seat ready to shoot. Maybe I'll think of it next time! Upon my return Larry and I discussed the next cross country trip. This would be the one with the required leg of over 100 nm. He gave choices in each compass direction. The choice to the north would entail circumventing the Class B airspace around a major airport. As some of you know, a solo student pilot may not enter Class B airspace without prior dual instruction therein and an endorsement, which I did not have. The prospect of going around Class B airspace was intriguing, but I had another idea. One of my favorite airports in flightsim lie within the penumbra of that Class B airspace, its Class D crimping into the southeast edge of the Class B circle. It was the downtown GA airport servicing the same city as the Class B's "International." I'd seen it before from downtown buildings and had driven by it. And I'd flown in and out of it a zillion times in flightsim--it was one of my virtual home bases. Needless to say, I really wanted to really fly in there. Larry and I talked about how I might get in there. The idea was that I'd go first to the airport way up north on the far side of the Class B, the 100 nm leg, and then come back around south and east, staying under the outer ring of the Class B, and then pivoting back southwest to the Class D of the downtown airport. Larry said this would be unusual, but he thought I could do it. He told me to plan it and submit it to him. If he approved it, I could go. Here's another example of how a computer came in handy. I worked out the plan with the sectional and then opened flightsim and in turn FSNav. I lined out the plan in FSNav, took a screen shot, opened that in Paint and added some more information, and then emailed that to Larry along with an explanation. He replied with an approval, and I was going to an airport I'd longed dreamed of flying into. Not the FSNav shot I sent Larry, but it gives the general idea. The lady who gave me my so-called weather briefing was a bitch. I'd asked for an abbreviated briefing. She asked me what I wanted. I said information on precip, clouds, and wind. She said tersely, and I quote, "There isn't any." Leroy explained some weather specialists get upset when you ask for an abbreviated briefing, because they know you've gotten the weather from DUATS, and they're afraid automation may put them out of a job. I suppose being a bitch doesn't help one's job security either, though. There were no clouds or precip, but there was wind. There was a stiff northerly breeze and it was cold, damned cold. The engine barely started on the first crank. I took off and climbed quickly. I leveled off at 3500 feet even though I'd planned for 5500, because the air was clean. I saw a band of haze at what looked to be 4000-5000 and thought I'd stay under that. But then I recalled what Larry had said the day before about there being a temperature inversion and decided to climb on up. There was an inversion. The heating in this 150 is not the best in the world. It barely keeps up at 20°. At 5500 I could still see, could see even farther. A glance at the gauge showed the outside temp in the 40's, and it was comfortable inside the plane now." I reached the northern airport just fine. It was even colder up there. I stepped out of the airplane with my camera and, hands nearly shaking, tried to take some pictures of a line of C-130's in the Air Guard section of the airport. Nothing happened when I clicked the button. I went inside and bought some batteries. It still wouldn't work. I hit the "mode" button. Still nothing. Then I hit the button under the mode button, and listened in horror to the whir of the thing auto-rewinding half a roll of film. So, right about here there ought to be some pictures of a row of C-130's and a close-up aerial of some really tall (to me) buildings. "Larry had advised not to file a plan, but instead call the Class B approach control and advise them of my intentions, essentially to get flight following. I had to pick a pause in the action to call in. I was cleared through the Class B Airspace (which, being a student, I had no intention of entering) and told to squawk 0435. This guy was a real pro, and it was a real treat to listen to him juggling both airliners and GA planes buzzing around the busy airspace. He was quick, but willing to give info as requested. There seems to be a blur at the line between the formalistic side of radio talk and normal conversation. I'm starting to get the hang of that, too. At my pivot-point I turned southeast to southwest and began descending to 2500. The downtown area of the city lies on the south bank of a river. The airport is just across the river. As I drew nearer, the approach controller terminated radar service and had me contact my destination's tower. I was cleared for a right-hand pattern to runway 1. The tower soon came back on and told me to make that a wide pattern. There was some traffic she was spacing. "Four-Sierra-Juliet, I'll make it a wide one." Not exactly out of the flight manual, but enough to let her know I'd gotten it. The airport and buildings are fairly well depicted in flightsim. A right-hand pattern to runway 1 points you right at the heart of the downtown district. A wide right-hand pattern takes you clear around it. I got back on and asked the controller if she intended for me to go east and south of downtown. She wouldn't be able to see me too well back there, so I figured I better ask. She did. Oh, how I wanted a working camera there and then. This city doesn't have what I would call skyscrapers, but there's a stand of buildings in the 30-50 story range. As I circled around "behind" them, it seemed that I could reach out and touch one. As I turned to my extended base, I saw another plane on short final, and was cleared to land after that one. I glided over the river and touched down. There was a jet behind me and the controller had me step on it to get up to the taxiway and off the runway." From the 28th floor looking north towards downtown. Imagine a Cessna 150 flying a wide base leg from your right to left above and between here and those buildings. The airport is on the other side of the buildings on the left side of the picture. Landing at this airport was simply a dream come true. I couldn't believe my fantastic luck at being cleared around behind the big downtown buildings. I was elated. It was one of those moments one wants frozen in time. This was on a Sunday, so these buildings were all but empty. I tried to imagine flying such a pattern during a weekday, when there would have been an audience of sorts, and remembered myself gazing out of the windows of one those buildings wishing to someday fly into that downtown airport. Back home Larry listened patiently to the recounting of the day's flying. Eventually, as always, he shifted the focus to what lay ahead, what still needed to be done. We discussed the night flying requirements. I still needed to complete my simulated instrument flying under the hood. And then we would begin the end of the training, preparing for the checkride itself. These were things we needed to be talking about, but the shift in focus was short lived, for after we bid adieu and I was driving down the highway, in my mind I was still up in the air over the city, and still wondering what I'd done to that darned camera. Joe Zuzul jzzl@earthlink.net
  7. Learning To Fly--Conclusion By Joe Zuzul (29 December 2003) The cross-country was completed but there was still a long way to go on my road (Victor Airway?) to a Private Pilot's License. My instructor Larry had warned that cross-country flying would sap my skills for the finer things in life, like departure stalls and soft-field landings. Though I knew these maneuvers fairly well, they couldn't be ignored because they were part of the actual checkride. As always, Larry's prediction was borne out, and I had to practice these things again and did, both really flying and in Flightsim. We already went over those, though, and though I had to backtrack a little in the flight training I don't intend to here. There were three things Larry and I needed to work on. I had to finish my simulated instrument flying time under the hood. I had to begin and complete the night flying requirements. And then there was preparation for the checkride itself. In some ways this will be more like my second article in that it wasn't specifically related to Flightsim per se, but there will be a sprinkling of Flightsim references. Larry and I needed to decide whether to tackle the hood time or the night flying first. Larry's practice was to save the night flying until near the end. Of course, I wanted to fly at night next--who wouldn't when given a choice between that and flying around with that funny thing on your head? Larry didn't agree with the FFA requirements for night flying. On some things he thought the FFA requirements were unreasonably strict, but this wasn't one of those things. He didn't think night flying should be in the private pilot curriculum at all, instead agreeing with the military philosophy not to start night training until a pilot was more experienced. Larry pointed out that there are no night solo requirements. Larry in fact did give me a choice since he felt I was far enough along in the training, so we started on the night requirements. A little ways on the other side of this town is the home field. Larry and I were scheduled to fly last night. He'd emailed late last week to advise that due to some personal reasons he may not be able to go. The weather was supposed to get nasty, but some thunderstorms that were forecast never materialized. Larry called and said we'd be able to do it after all. The skies were fairly clear except for a light ground level haze. The moon was full. Preparation for night flying mandated some changes and additions to the preflight. I'd arrived before Larry and had turned on the hangar lights. He said that it was usually better to leave those off and to just use the flashlight. He reiterated what I'd learned studying for the written, to avoid exposure to any bright lights for a half hour before the flight. I needed the flashlight anyway to look in some places. And we obviously also had to check the plane's lights. He had me roll the plane onto the runway and stop so that I could look around and get a picture of how everything would look when we came back in to land. He told me to rotate at 55 instead of 50 to rule out any possibility of not having enough speed to get completely off and up. We climbed up to 3000 feet and just flew around some so I could get used to the new environment. He said flying at night was just like flying during the day--except you can't see anything. To the extent that one must rely more on instruments, it was like IFR flight. Obviously he was exaggerating when he said you couldn't see anything. The view was as beautiful as one could imagine. He said in some ways flying cross-country at night was easier because towns as landmarks were much easier to see. In fact, we could clearly see the lights of my hometown, nearly 30 nm to south. He said on some nights you could even see its airport's rotating beacon from that distance. Larry told me the airplane didn't know if it was day or night; it flew the same, and had me do some maneuvers to prove his point. Then he reached up and pulled the throttle back, reporting that we'd lost the engine. Of course, losing the engine at night is one of the worst things that can happen. He said that it would be likely that the only thing I'd be able to do would be a little last second dodging of wires, fences, or trees. He also showed me that you could trim the plane full up so that it glided down at the slowest possible speed. Larry then took over and did the first landing of the evening. Then it was my turn. Day or night, this is always a welcome sight. "Though the wind was fairly calm right at the surface, there was a little easterly crosswind a couple hundred feet up. We were using runway 18. Larry wanted a power-on landing, meaning 1500 RPM. He had me take the plane up into the pattern and I had to crab to the east on downwind. He wanted the turn to base done sharply so the wing wouldn't be dipped down and hiding the runway for long. I got the plane configured pretty well on final. He had me leave the landing light off and use the runway lights only. He told me not to get 'hypnotized.' He's had students over focus on the lights to the extent that they've forgotten to flare and he has had to pull up the nose at the last second. I cut the power as the green threshold lights disappeared under the nose, waited as the runway lights on either side began to rise a little, and pulled back into the flare. The technique of progressively pulling back into the yoke pressure is extremely important at night, because it's hard to tell exactly when the mains will hit. We touched down softly and rolled down the runway. I had trouble getting the plane stopped at mid-runway to turn off, and Larry reminded me there was no headwind. We ended up getting in five landings before calling it quits. The last one seemed to be going well but there was a surprising little thump when we hit. When I said, 'Jeez, Louise,' Larry told me it was still a good landing and reminded me that I can't expect to know exactly when the wheels will contact, and not to expect night landings to be greasers." There's also a requirement for a dual night cross-country flight to an airport at least 50 nm away. The airport Larry usually used was getting new runway lights installed and we weren't sure how long that would take. The only other realistic choice was to go to the airport in the "big city" where I'd gone on my last solo cross country. I was ecstatic. The trip was great, but mildly disappointing. It was cold and there was an awesome headwind on the return. Seeing a major city from the air at night is a sight to behold. But I suppose someone forgot to tell the managers of all those big downtown buildings that I was coming because they weren't all lit up like they are in Flightsim. In rural areas, the converse is true. In reality, at night, there are a surprising number of lights scattered across the landscape. In Flightsim, the landscape can be too devoid of lighting. This was my experience, even though I'd long ago installed the FlightsimWorld night textures. This was before the release of FS2004, but the new version isn't much better in this regard. Larry and I finished the night flying one evening after we'd already done a half hour of daylight dual. By then I only needed three more night take-offs and landings. On my last one, I forgot to turn on the landing light until we were just a few feet off the ground. I began to reach for the switch but figured it was too late and just brought the plane down the rest of the way. There was a thump at touchdown, but it wasn't too bad. Perhaps more notable than finishing the night requirements was the conversation Larry and I had when we were through that night. Suddenly, the traffic pattern altitude had been lowered eight feet. He told me he was going to start to get really nitpicky, and thenceforth he'd expect the pattern to be flown at exactly 800 feet AGL, 1692 feet as opposed to 1700. What does it mean when one's instructor gets so nitpicky that he says he wants an eight foot difference in the pattern? It means one is at the beginning of the end of the flight training. Larry had me under the hood doing unusual attitude recovery again today. This time he took control while I looked down and flew the plane up, down, this way and that, trying to fool my inner ear and get me generally confused. I tried not to pay any attention to what he was doing, but it's impossible not to notice some. The first time he had me look up I accidentally looked all the way up out of the airplane. The next time I looked up and we were actually nearly straight and level. I can't recall the third time but the fourth time we were in a powered dive. The Attitude Indicator was buried, the VSI showed 1500 fps descent, the ASI was in the yellow, and we were in a slight bank. I leveled the wings and killed the throttle, then slowly applied back pressure trying not to tear off the wings. The VSI wasn't coming up. Larry said to give it a little more back pressure and we began to level and soon began to climb. I had to get the nose back down to avoid a stall. I said I was afraid to pull back too hard. He told me to gradually apply back pressure until it started to level. You have to avoid G's, but ensure the plane does not go beyond the red (Vne). He also said the natural reaction was to yank the yoke back, and he was ready to block that if I'd done that. Afterward, he also told me that he often takes the student for a ride only to leave him or her back at straight and level. He said that is often very confusing as the student doesn't expect it and is set to take quick corrective action. He also said it tends to trip up the people who cheat and look. Unusual Attitude Recovery. A reader of my first article warned me about this. Unusual Attitude Recovery-such tame terminology. I suppose the FAA can't just call it "Topsy Turvy." Readers of my first article may recall I have a slight fear of heights, which was no problem during the flight training to this point. But in this phase of the training one is wearing the hood, and is told to look down at the floor while the airplane is being lead into who-knows-what attitude. I didn't think this would be a problem, but I was apprehensive. I had some idea of what might happen because earlier Larry had demonstrated spiral dive recovery, taught me to level the wings first because pulling back in a bank only tightens the spiral. As it turned out, this was possibly the most fun part of the training. Larry told me he was having a hard time "fooling my inner ear." He was trying to make me spatially disoriented, to give me the "leans," but as far as I know he never succeeded. Perhaps by letting go and not trying to remain oriented, I never became disoriented. The rub is that if ever in a real situation such as this, I will be trying to remain oriented, trying to fly the plane, so this is not to say that disorientation will never occur-that that won't happen to me. I just think this part went better than I expected. It was fun because it was problem solving like a puzzle, going from tangled to untangled, from unusual to, well, usual. Essentially, the instructor is saying, "I broke it (the attitudinal situation), now you make it right-fix it." It was also fun because of some of the things Larry said as he was about to take us into attitudes unusual, like, "Here we go, I always get a barf out of this one." On another occasion, I was the victim of his vaunted "triple snap." I don't know what he did, exactly, but we jerked around pretty good before he had me look up and recover. I ought to call him and ask, "What the hell was that 'triple snap,' anyhow?" (Actually, I did-but I'm not telling!) I was still only about halfway through the three hour requirement. It seemed like we'd done more. Larry said I could go somewhere and finish it on an approved simulator if I wanted. That didn't sound appealing so we discussed maybe doing a two-hour session. "That may not be necessary because today we did almost the whole lesson under the hood, all but the take-off and two landings, for 0.8 hours. The first landing he had me do the approach under the hood, simulating a radar or 'surveillance' approach. He was the controller and vectored me in until we were about 500 feet AGL, then had me un-hood and land. Larry had me track to the nearby VOR (seven nm west of the airport). It was a little tricky because of the wind. He said the main thing was to pick a heading and stick with it until the needle began to center, and when on course, pick another heading you think will keep you on course, etc., in other words, to pick headings and not to chase the needle around. He also said to use the rudder to make 5° course corrections to avoid overcorrecting. He had me do one of the local instrument approaches. After we crossed the VOR he had me turn to the 254° radial outbound for a minute, do a procedure turn, and cross the VOR at 2600 feet. He said to start timing again and in three and a half minutes I'd be able to see the runway. Sure enough, after the elapsed time he had me un-hood and we were about a half mile out. He had me do the missed, a right climbing turn to 3000 back towards the VOR." These two pictures are from the same point in time and illustrate how one can practice unusual attitude recovery in flight simulator. You can use the IFR paneled Cessna 172, beginning straight and level. Then as you look down at your keyboard, turn 3-7 seconds each way back and forth while opening and closing the throttle and while pitching up and down some. Do it until you're unsure of your attitude, but do it quickly. We slugged out the hood requirement and on the last day of that Larry brought along an approach plate. It was really cool to do a real published approach after having done so many in Flightsim. I believe it was the same approach as the one he'd talked me through before, but there was something about doing it with the plate that made me feel like an honest-to-goodness pilot. After the second and last landing of the day we were taxiing back to the hangar when Larry said something along the lines that I was well prepared. After we got the airplane in the hangar he said he wanted me to get back to learning how to fly. He said we'd been distracted by having to complete the hood requirements. He wanted me to go out and spend half the time doing stalls, turns-around-a-point, and the other half landing. He said after that we'd do what he called a 'wash-out ride' to see if there was anything I still needed to work on. I took this to mean a pre-checkride dress rehearsal. I figured when he was discussing the solo time he was meaning maybe three hours worth before the wash-out ride. But then he started talking to me about setting aside a day to go up to where the examiner is based. I replied, 'What're we talking, like three or four weeks?' I started mentally reviewing my work schedule when he said, 'We may be able to do it before the end of the month.' My jaw nearly dropped as the immediacy of it all really began to sink in. He also said we had a lot of ground schooling to do yet. I always look forward to that--getting to sit around and talk with a flight instructor about flying isn't a bad way to spend time the way I see it. I spent more time schooling than flying. Larry told me, "Sleep with your POH under the pillow." I scoured the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) and made myself a little outline of the significant Parts. And Larry and I talked a lot. We talked about weight-and-balance, about positive and negative stability, about airplane inspections and all the paperwork, G-loads and utility category, Vx and Vy, and a plethora of other topics. He told me to give complete answers but to be careful not to volunteer too much information. He reminded me that many FAA requirements were minimums. He quizzed me and gave advice and explained what traps to avoid. At one point, he asked me why it wasn't a good idea to take-off with an overweight airplane, what would happen. I said, "I don't know. You'd need more roll for take-off and landing; it would effect the wing loading--" "Wait a minute. You were right when you started out-you don't know." He tapped the POH. "That's why airplanes come with these. Any time you fly outside the specs in this book you don't know what will happen. Anytime you fly outside these specs you become a test pilot for the airplane's manufacturer." Some of Larry's advice I may have taken too literally. I went up for an hour of solo practice and the next time Larry went along. It was the "wash-out ride." We did a little bit of everything. He gave me some advice to quicken my approach-to-landing-stall recovery. When we were finished that day he did two more things. In my logbook he wrote, "Recommend for Private Pilot." From the airport office, he called the Examiner as I looked on. "Hello, David, it's Larry. I have another one I need to send up to see you..." We made the appointment two weeks off. I was given my "homework." Before going up for the checkride I had to do a weight-and-balance with mine and David's weight, and I had to prepare a flight plan. On Larry's recommendation, I flew one more hour of solo practice in the interim. I was apprehensive. When there was a slight chance for thunderstorms along the route to the checkride, part of me hoped I wouldn't be going so I'd have more time to get ready, maybe even fly one more time and work on crosswind landings. But Larry told me to get ready to go, to turn around if any bad weather really did materialize. He still had to review my flight plan to the checkride since I was still his student, and I also showed him the one I'd done for homework and the weight-and-balance. He told me if anything I'd over-prepared. (I'd already done an FAR cheatsheet.) The weather was good most of the way, smooth as glass and visibility to spare. I passed well south of the big runway of the Air Force Base along the route, avoiding its Class D airspace, and followed a RR track to the next significant town. After passing that town things went a little sour. Frankly, I got lost. The visibility halved. The tailwind turned and I got blown off course. I thought I had my next checkpoint, a smaller town, and reported 10 miles from my destination. But when I thought I should be seeing the town hosting the airport where I'd be doing the checkride, it did not appear. I started searching the sectional for landmarks but there weren't any good ones nearby, at least that I could see. Beyond the town a major river bends southeast, and the town lies between a major Interstate and the river. I couldn't even find the Interstate. I mean, a major highway and a major river, what more could you ask for? Being lost in a Cessna 150 isn't easy. There's no autopilot, so you have to fly the plane, scan, and look at the sectional. There's only the one VOR receiver. I put it to use and cross-haired a couple stations to find that by then I was southeast but not yet to the river. I followed a radial and before long had the airport in sight. Low visibility can be so unkind. Actually, the visibility appears worse in the picture than it really was here. I met David, the examiner, at the door. He was an ex-Marine, a little older, close cut hair balding some. David was the local airport guy, the voice on UNICOM, the local instructor, etc. I supposed he'd been wondering where the hell I'd been since making that 10-mile report so I confessed I'd been 'positionally impaired.' He laughed at that, and I figured I hadn't blown it by my unplanned delay. While he went over my personal paperwork, including my logbook, I pulled out my stuff and began to organize it. You have to establish the plane is legal to fly, that is, you and it have all the required paperwork and log entries. I suppose once he saw I had it there he didn't figure he needed to look through it or quiz me on it. It seems like we started out by discussing inoperative equipment and I handled that fairly well. We quickly moved on to my flight plan and then on to the weather. All in all, the oral exam seemed cursory. I had either over-prepared or he had seen early that I was prepared and perhaps didn't require a good grilling. He said the oral would continue into the flight test. When we got to the plane the wind had become harsh, a straight crosswind. When I checked later it was well over 10 knots and gusting higher. My first landing was really lousy. David asked me how to prevent that from happening again. I said more tilt of the wing and more rudder. He said to really 'stick that rudder.' Next was a soft-field take-off and landing. I flew a better pattern and really let the rudder know who was boss--and nailed the landing pretty good. David said, 'That's a lot better. That one was so good it made up for the last one.' Short-field was next. He said to be conservative; not to try so hard to get within the target range that I blow the landing altogether. This landing was decent, maybe not as good as the soft-field, but not bad and within the target. (To give some flavor of how difficult the wind truly was, the person flying in for the checkride after mine went around three times before making it in.) David next had me start to fly my plan. After a bit he claimed the weather ahead was lousy and had me divert to the northwest. Then he said we'd just flown into clouds and gave me the hood. He asked me what I would do. I said, quite simply, 'Turn around.' He said, 'OK, do that, then.' We talked about lost-procedures and ended up tracking a VOR. The recovery from unusual attitude was from a highly banked stall. He told me to remove the hood and we did a straight approach-to-landing stall and a departure stall to the left. Steep turns and turns-around-a-point were next, and then a forced landing. The forced landing was a little tough because it was hard to tell what kind of crops were beneath us. These river bottoms are some of the best farmland in the world, and everything below was plush green. I couldn't tell the corn (bad) from the beans (good). David gave me some hints in that regard. I was over corn and was able to extend to the beans, and slipped down until he told me to recover and get back up. Next on the agenda was a simulated electrical fire. I knew mostly what to do but there were a couple things he added. By then we were close to the airport again and he told me to head for the pattern and bring it in. Of course, the electrical fire had 'busted' the flaps, so I couldn't use those. This landing was therefore a little long, a real floater, but I kept it straight and touched down gently. As we taxied into the ramp area, David said, 'You're going to need fuel. If you can taxi back around there to the pumps without hitting anything, you pass.' I did, and I did!!!" I was ecstatic. This was one of the greatest moments of my life! I'd worked for this for a year, and had dreamed about it through three or more years of flightsimming. Twice that day I thought I'd blown it. Wandering around "positionally impaired," the pressure of not being able to find my destination had been bad enough, but there had been the added pressure of that sinking feeling that I was blowing my checkride even before getting there. And then after that first landing things didn't look so good, but I redeemed myself quickly. As the checkride progressed there was a growing feeling that I largely had things under control and was going to pass unless I did something really stupid. All the training began to kick in. David and I returned to his office. I paid the fee. He filled out the temporary paper certificate and signed it. I was a Private Pilot! This is the card the FFA sends you later, but until you get it the paper one is just as valid. I was a Private Pilot--so now what? Larry and I sat down and talked upon my return from the checkride. The gist of what he told me was that I'd be "lost." I was used to being "spoon-fed" what to do, and now I had to make my own way. As you may recall, I mostly took lessons just to take them, just to learn to fly, with no real ulterior purpose. Of course, now that I was a pilot I had no intention of quitting. Larry knew that many new pilots take friends for rides. He suggested I check out and familiarize myself with as many airports in the area as I could. He suggested I rent planes for a while, and to try to fly as many different types as possible. He also suggested I take a look at a book by Private Pilot editor and columnist Leroy Cook, entitled "101 Things to Do with Your Private Pilot's License/p> (See here; this is great reading for a freshly minted pilot, I discovered, with plenty of ideas for flightsimmers, too). As I write this, I've been a pilot for a brief time. I haven't flown nearly as much as I wanted, but that's probably true for most pilots. I'd like to buy an airplane someday. I'm still working on the missus on that one. I've tried to hook up with as many other pilots as possible and have flown in a few different planes. Larry's been very gracious about answering questions despite I'm no longer his student, and there are plenty of opportunities to chat with him partly because I rent from him. But he was right; I feel a little lost sometimes. My first passenger was my sixteen year old stepson Mark. We flew to a lakeside town where I do a lot of work. We chatted on the way, got there and flew around some, and landed. The airport was unattended but we got into the pilot's building by entering into the lock the numerals of the frequency of a nearby VOR. Before long we were airborne again, only this time I eventually noticed we weren't chatting as much. I looked over at Mark. His head was turned away as he gazed out the window. I scanned around and looked back and Mark was still transfixed and motionless, looking out the window as the ground passed beneath and the seconds ticked by. There was a great feeling of contentment at that moment. The epiphany was that flying was a gift. The experience of flying was a gift I could now give to Mark and later to others. It was a gift that I have received from many; but particularly from all my friends in the Flightsim world, and then from my instructor Larry. My sincere hope is that by recounting the experiences of one Flightsim enthusiast who grabbed the chance to become a Private Pilot, I've been able to pass along to you some of the gift of flying. Joe Zuzul jzzl@earthlink.net
  8. Learning To Fly #3 By Joe Zuzul It's mid-April as I write this and I'm in the final phase of the flight training I began last summer. Recently my instructor Larry and I completed the night cross country flight, so now it's down to the wire, fine-tuning my skills until he thinks I'm ready for the checkride. I passed the written about two months ago. One of the trusty steeds. A lot has been covered since my previous two articles. The first covered the very beginning of training, and the second my up and down road towards the solo. This article will go up to the cross country phase of the training. That'll be covered next very soon. In the first article I had some thoughts about the differences between flightsimming and real flying. This time around I plan to describe what to my mind are some of the similarities. After soloing, Larry just wanted to get me used to flying alone. I'd wondered if I'd get a laundry list of maneuvers to do, but for my first solo hour he had no particular instructions. I was a little edgy. I spent most of the time just exploring the practice area. Larry also said that solo hours would be more productive. The idea was that I'd do three solo hours, and then an hour of dual. I would either have mastered what we were covering and get bored by then or if not he'd need to step in and help. In my second solo hour, I was more comfortable, which was good because I had to deal with some local traffic: "On a crisp, clear, calm Saturday morning even a little airport gets a little busy. There's a skydiving outfit there that hadn't been active on my weekday evening excursions, but they had two aircraft going this morning. Another student had Larry's other Cessna 150 out when I arrived, and sometime during my practice area time another airplane came in for a full stop. This is yet another experience that you don't really get in flightsim, local pilots keeping tabs on each other. In flightsim the AI pilots are always going to or coming from somewhere. Anyway, there was a little mental debate about if and when I needed to relay my position. I figured while I was out in the practice area I was all right. The other 150 was staying in the pattern. The two skydiver planes were mostly operating to the north on the other side of the airport, and higher. I almost radioed that I was out in the practice area, but I really didn't know how far out I was. I practiced turns and slow flight and did my first three solo stalls then decided to head in. I knew I needed to radio when I got closer to the airport, and when one of the skydiving pilots radioed that he was also approaching the pattern (though from farther out), I radioed that I was four miles out coming in for the pattern for runway 18. The other pilot acknowledged that he "had" me and would be following. From then on we four pilots maintained fairly steady communication. I'm not sure how exactly, but the last landing got away from me a little. I was a little too fast and I flared a little too early. I remember saying out loud, 'This landing's gonna suck.' But I held on and let gravity do its thing and ruddered it back straight. So with a little perseverance a bad landing became at least a mediocre one. Flying was simply real fun today. There was something new. I felt a little more confident being alone and that was reflected in my flying." Ironically, I never actually saw any skydivers or even the skydiver planes that day. It was all radio. And my landing skills were improving to the point that I could correct a little mistake. One of the clearest days ever. This morning's flight was one of the most satisfying of all, even if it was the least comfortable. Yesterday the winds had been 16 knots gusting to 26. The forecast for this morning was for lighter winds, in the 10-15 range, but the forecast was wrong. It wasn't as gusty today but the wind speed was probably at least 15-20. I was surprised yesterday when Larry told me I could go if I wanted to. He said that I wouldn't get much out of it though, other than maybe something to brag about at the local tavern. I replied that since I no longer drank that that wasn't reason enough to go. What was even more surprising was the way the aircraft behaved just after being towed out of the hangar where it was exposed to all this wind. It wanted to move; control surfaces where rattling all over. My weight in the plane didn't seem to settle it down any-it still rocked in the wind. I tried to hold the yoke steady with my knee while I buckled up. I was having serious second thoughts. It was hard just staying focused on the checklist. There was no smooth air upstairs. This is the kind of wind that will yaw the nose and lift you up out of your seat. Straight and level flight becomes something of a challenge. Passing through 2000 feet it was slightly calmer. It was just flat lousy at 2500, so instead of climbing up to 3000 I decided to go back down to 2000. I meant to do S-turns anyway. I seriously considered just going back and landing it was so rough. I'm beginning to get the hang of S-turns. I perhaps wasn't patient enough coming back upwind with the shallow bank angle, and had trouble getting back to even when I was reaching the road from the windward side. I feel had the wind been slightly calmer, I would have really nailed these. I also practiced slipping a la a crosswind landing. Before long I realized I had been up for half an hour and decided to head back. I hadn't decided whether one landing was going to be it or not. I really had to crab back into the wind to approach the field at a 45 degree angle and pointed the nose nearly due west. When I came in to land Larry was with another student at the end of the taxiway prepping for take-off. As I rolled out, a voice came over the radio. 'And the scores are coming in ... 4.5, 6.2, 7.8 ...' I laughed out loud. I couldn't come up with a tart reply and just radioed, 'Roger that.' He asked me if I'd had enough. I explained that I was debating that, and then told him I'd go for one more. One more turned out to be two more. On the second approach I was too high and too hot, and went around. The third and last landing was a lot like the first, perhaps a little more under control because I knew what to expect. I don't know if Larry really didn't think I'd get much out of flying in today's conditions, or if he was just giving me an out. If so, he couldn't have been more wrong. Flying today was about control and patience, about taking what you're given but still being on top of it all. I had more pride in this session than any since the day I soloed. I probably would have bragged about it at the local tavern. Flailing around up there, getting yawed around some and getting whomped on the seat of my pants, little was accomplished technically. It was a horrid day for checkride maneuvers. In some ways though, there was more to learn about flying than any amalgam of maneuvers could teach. I had less moment to moment control of the plane, and I had to trust it. There developed a sense of partnership, but I also realized that ultimately I had to be the senior partner. This session also made me think more about risk management because it was more difficult to stay in control. I know "risk management" is such a broad term and touches every facet of aviation, but in this context I was again thinking of something more moment-to-moment, something I dubbed as I thought about it on the drive home, "managing the potential for chaos." That day it felt more like I could lose control at any given moment than any other time I'd flown. How does all this relate to flightsim? I think flightsim can give one the flavor of partnership with an airplane, and I also think in flightsim we must "manage the potential for chaos", even if the consequences of mismanagement are not so grave. This can happen when you're on the edge, when flightsim is at its most intense; when your situation is drawing you in to the point where you nearly forget that you're really sitting in front of a computer. Probably anyone who's flightsimmed for long and taken it seriously has had this experience, probably many times. These two ideas, this partnership and this managing the potential for chaos are to me the best link between flightsim and real flying. There's perhaps a certain irony this idea germinated after a bumpy, windy flight, because it's oft said that the lack of feeling such forces is the shortcoming of flightsim. Before long Larry was broaching the cross-country flights. He had to teach me STOL (short-field landing and take-offs, as many of you know) and soft field landings and take-offs. OK, I cheated and used one of my cross country pics. On the short field take-off, we got the airplane as close as we could to the edge of the runway and lined up. With the brakes locked, full power was applied and the brakes released. Larry said the idea was that we had to clear a 50 foot wire running across the midpoint of the runway. Instead of rotating at 50 KIAS, we rotated at 45 and took off at 52. The plane was able to be pitched up at a pretty good angle and still the airspeed rose to 60. We held the airspeed there until the airplane was about 100 feet off the runway, and then the nose was lowered until we reached the normal best rate of climb speed. The short field landing is essentially a full flaps landing, but the airplane is guided in a little lower before the threshold to reduce carry past the threshold. When he demonstrated it, I thought he might touchdown short, or scrape the little lights right at the edge of the threshold, but we carried over. The idea here is to get the airplane configured with full flaps, a 55 KIAS approach speed, and touchdown on or before the numbers. Because this must be more precise, there is more power adjustment going on during the approach. Larry said to make gross adjustments with the throttle, fine adjustments with pitch. Soft field take-offs and landings are to be used for wet grass and dirt fields, where the nose wheel may have a tendency to get stuck. For the takeoff, one notch of flaps is deployed before rolling onto the runway. A key is not to stop the airplane here, as is done on a short field take-off, so the nose wheel is rolling through the muck and doesn't have much chance to sink into it. Similarly, once full power is applied, the nose is lifted completely of the runway. So configured, the 150 will lift-off at only about 40 KIAS, but since the idea is only to get out of the muck and no obstacle is involved, once positive climb is obtained (40 feet), the nose is lowered, the flaps retracted, and airspeed gathered. Counterclockwise from top: pitot tube, strut, and potential forced landing sites as viewed from 3000 feet. Soft field landings are sort of what I'd been doing quite a bit with my flaps landings. In other words, the plane is flared a little high, about 6 feet. Back pressure is applied and the airplane is allowed to slowly sink and maybe even drop the last foot or so. The difference is that the yoke is kept back and the nose is kept off for as long as possible. Larry said that with a real soft field, the mains will catch some and the nose will be forced down abruptly anyway, so keeping it up is partly to counteract that tendency. Cross-country is just around the corner, Larry pointed out a little later when we were chatting in the office. He said after my next series of three solo flights he would go up with me and check me out for cross country. I have mixed feelings about this. I'm excited to be progressing to the point of consideration for cross-country. Sometimes, though, it all seems to be going too fast and I know that someday it will all be over all too soon. Time is funny that way. I believe it was after this lesson Larry said I'd seen everything there was to see that may be on the checkride. It seemed I might be closer to the end of the training than the beginning. That day I thought I'd handled the precision take-offs and landings fairly well. I'd been practicing landing with full flaps before that and it had paid off. In some ways it didn't seem like that long ago I was struggling "just" to solo and now Larry was talking about cross-country and checkrides. Though I was later cleared for cross country, it was after this lesson that I also began to think about and discuss what I might do with a license once I got it. I started discussing maybe buying a plane and started checking into rental options. When I embarked on this trail, it was doing just for the sake of doing and what might happen afterward never really mattered so long as I got to do it. When Larry read about all this dream-chasing stuff in my first article before its submission, he'd raised an eyebrow and said something like, "Having a license opens doors. It gives you opportunities. Some people fly for business. Some go on to instructing and others on to aerobatics. And some people just go up once in a while and fly around the yard and smash bugs with the windshield. You have the opportunity to do any of those things." I didn't see myself using an airplane for business and I wasn't sure about aerobatics. Instructing someday would maybe be fine if I had the right stuff, but didn't seem plausible. Though by no means resigning myself to it, I began to think about how being one of the bug-smashers might not be too bad. After all, it was the flying that always mattered. Joe Zuzul jzzl@earthlink.net
  9. Learning To Fly -- Solo By Joe Zuzul I'm still flying! It's been so long since I wrote that first article that I bet whoever among you who read it figured I washed out by now. The "bear cub" who'd just found his you-know-what but didn't know what to do with it insofar as landing a real airplane was concerned, is now an official Student Pilot. Larry's signature now adorns my 3rd Class Medical Certificate. I soloed on Friday, September 13, 2002. I'm now close to starting the cross-country phase of my training, but this piece will only go through to that great date above. How all this relates to flightsim per se is hard to tell. This is all more about the trials and tribulations of a hard-core flightsimmer doing real flight training than any commentary about flightsim itself. This is not to say flightsim references aren't peppered throughout. After all, that's what led me to try flight training, and the diary entries below result from recounting what's been going on to a group of other hardcore flightsimmers. We pick up the story where my last article left off, with me doing just OK at landings at the end of eight hours of lessons. We were using Cessna 150's. As it turned out, I was about to be introduced to crosswind landings: I called Larry, my CFI, late this afternoon to make sure we were on. He told me there was a crosswind today. He said if I was busy we could go another day, but I wanted to fly. He said, "I guess we'll have to do crosswinds sooner or later." I got the impression he was hoping this would come later. Larry has upgraded the avionics of his Cessna 150's considerably. (Actually, this a is a 777 mural I got from Sportys.com -- I figured I needed as many pictures for this article as I could get) When I arrived we talked about doing crosswind take-offs and landings. At first he figured this wasn't something doable in flightsim, but then he remembered I had rudder pedals. I told him I'd done plenty. He talked about slipping the wing into the wind and using opposite rudder to align the plane. As we taxied, he also talked about the crab-kick method. He said that's what he did, and the implication was that method was more advanced, I suppose because of the timing involved. He had me apply full aileron into the wind (from our right) at the beginning of the take-off roll. I needed to apply just a touch of anti-weathervaning left rudder. The wind was nearly canceled by the torque. As the airplane gained speed the aileron began to center itself, and I only had to apply a little resistance and let that happen. He wanted us to get to 60 rather than 50 before rotating. Airborne, I had to crab to the right to stay along the runway line and did a lousy job of it the first time. He had me look back and we were well to the left of the runway. I was surprised by what even an 8-10 knot wind could do. When we got up to 2500 feet he had me practice and get the feel for side-slipping the wing with opposite rudder. Larry showed me a crosswind landing using the slip method. He did it without flaps. We came in significantly faster than normal, not even playing with stall speed. I figure this was because, as Tom (Goodrick, friend and flightsim mentor) has previously mentioned, you don't want to get the plane so slow it's exposed to a gust, especially a crosswind gust. Then we went back into the pattern and he had me do one. My first approach was OK, but I turned final a little early and was getting blown to the left of the runway. I turned right to line up, and then dropped the right wing and applied left rudder. I applied too much. Leroy said that was common with beginners. I got it aligned and brought it in. It was a little rough, but not bad. I leveled the wings right as we were touching down and got pushed to the left some. Then we went up again. This time I overshot the turn onto final and had to come back left. I did a better job on the approach but was still herky-jerkying around some. By the time we touched down I'd gotten it straightened out and that landing was not bad, better than the first. I'd kept the wing dipped all the way in, and could feel the right main touch first. Then we did one using flaps. He said anyone who says to not use flaps on a crosswind landing is full of BS. He went on to say there was a point when the wind was too strong to use them, but they were fine in a slight wind like we had. This time I lined up and really held it. But I leveled out too high. Larry said, "You don't want to land the plane from up here!" I brought it down but got a little overwhelmed. At the last I really over applied the left rudder and we actually hit fairly hard and the tires skidded to the left. The approach that had been so good turned into a horrible landing. Larry had been saying all along that a crosswind landing is difficult because with all that's going on landing a plane, one has the elements of alignment and slipping. In fact he had said that when he really wants to see how good a pilot is, he'll watch them do a crosswind landing -- it can't be faked or done well by accident. He said that I was somewhat an advance student, but that my landings weren't to the point of really being up to doing crosswinds. But he wanted me to get a glimpse. A few seconds into the air. After the lesson I asked him about soloing. I said I didn't really care, but was curious. He said experience had taught him not to try to solo students too early. He said I was doing OK, but my landings weren't there yet. He said I could get up and down all right, like if something were to happen to him while we were up there, but that wasn't enough. He said he looked for consistency; for example, three good landings in a row would indicate one wasn't good just by accident. But he said the main thing he looked at was simply whether he felt he was needed in the cockpit. The closer a student came to soloing the less he would talk and the more he would observe. He wanted to see a PIC attitude. We talked some about decision-making, and I essentially asked for and received permission to do things without asking or hesitating. I told him I felt more in control, but just wasn't sure when to ask and when not to. He said he would stop me if I began to do something wrong, or point out things I was missing. So, a couple of thresholds were crossed this evening. I did my first crosswind landing. And I got clarification about taking more control. Yeah, right, no problem. Crosswind landings? "I've done plenty." The truth is I had done plenty of crosswind landings in flightsim in the three-or-so years I'd been into it. It's hard to avoid them if you use Real Weather at all. Not long after I started flightsim (FS98), I specifically practiced them. But I doubt I'd really specifically practiced crosswind landings in a long, long time. I do now. And I also practice a lot more of what an advanced simmer would consider "basics," and I sure as hell practice in the small, slow planes a lot more than I had been. So real training has changed the way I approach flightsim. From what I've learned, real pilots do the basics over and over and over. Another thing I do now that I probably didn't do nearly often enough is going around when an approach looks bad. In flightsim sometimes it's easy to force a landing gone wrong or to just say what the hey and let the plane go down. (As it turned out, I believe the first landing I attempted in my first complete hour of solo was a go-around. I joked that it may have been the quickest go-around decision in aviation history, for after turning to base it was immediately apparent everything was off-not aligned, too high, too hot.) "I did my first crosswind landing." Even if it wasn't textbook, it was my first real one. That's part of what is exceedingly satisfying if you're a simmer who's getting the chance to do the real thing: the opportunity to do in reality things you may have done a hundred times on the sim. At about the same altitude as the layer of haze. And yes, that is my finger and not a cloud. To some degree, the lesson above was a turning point. I was at a stage where I felt I had the ability to be in more control. I needed permission to do it. Perhaps that's just me and a bolder individual would have just grabbed the reigns in such a situation. Larry was perfectly clear about where I was in relation to what he was expecting for soloing. I didn't have the PIC attitude, but I was getting there. After a couple more lessons... It was one of the calmest, coolest days yet, with a slight Nor'easter. We did no stalls at all today, which may have been a first. We began with some S-turns-along-a-road, something we hadn't done since my second lesson. Even though it wasn't windy like the first time, Larry wanted to see how I controlled the plane, particularly whether I was able to keep the plane level during the turns (not completely). He said later he wanted to check this while I was busy having to concentrate on the road, to divide my attention. Then we went straight to the pattern. My landings are getting smoother (and my take-offs are getting really smooth). I'm not sure how many we got in today, maybe six, some with flaps and some without. Larry said I've got the basic hang of it, that now we're "fine tuning." Mostly this referred to the last little bit of rudder before touchdown, figuring exactly where to make the turn to base, judging whether to add power, etc. He said he figured my landings would start to improve because I was doing better at take-offs. This isn't to say that I greased any or errors weren't made. On one I didn't align using the rudder and there was a little sideways squelch when the mains touched, but it wasn't a tongue-biting thump, either. On another with flaps I didn't get the nose down enough and lost quite a bit of airspeed and had to throttle up a bit. It's hard to describe how steeply this plane approaches with the flaps, how pitched down you must be. On the second to the last one I told him I felt like I was fighting the nose some, that I'd wanted to trim down. He told me to go ahead, and on the next one I did. Once re-trimmed he had me let go and the plane was configured just right, nose down, stable airspeed -- a slight rudder correction at the bottom, and it was my best one yet. One critique was my yoke-handling after the flare. After rounding out, waiting for the plane to come down the last few feet, I'd been giving the yoke little forward pumps. I didn't even know it. He said to just be patient and let gravity do its job. As I held the yoke back and the plane slowed, there would be less pressure, and to bring the yoke farther back into the pressure each time that happened. He said this was one of the things flightsim couldn't teach (maybe it could if one had a force feedback yoke, I don't know). He also commented that there were no hydraulics involved, what you felt was what you got. However, he also said that my flightsimming experience had put me ahead of where I would otherwise be, perhaps three hours worth. He went on to say that the flightsim experience would pay especially big dividends when we started the navigation and cross country phase. So in that regard, considering the cost of three hours of lessons, maybe Flight Simulator has now paid for itself and then some. I don't want to say that landings are becoming more routine. It would be fair to say they are becoming less "scary", less doubt-filled, more controlled. Left seat. And imagine that -- I can see over this control panel! An S-Turn-along-a-Road is a windy-day maneuver. I'd never heard of them until real training. I'd read about Lazy-8's and Chandelles and had briefly played with those in flightsim, but not S-turns. The maneuver is pretty much its name: You draw an "S" along a road, so that road is the center of your path, like a dollar sign, "$". A road is picked that is perpendicular to the wind direction. The idea is to cross the road with the wings level, and make a 180° turn back to the road so that one's wings are back to level when the road is crossed again, and so on. The trick is that on a windy day one must gauge and vary the bank of turns, all the while keeping track of one's position relative to the road. This can be done in flightsim, and you can see how you're doing by watching your track line in the GPS or in flight analysis. The trick in flightsim is that you have to manipulate the side views while you're banking. Larry is not into flightsimming, but his teenage son is. His attitude is fairly discernable from his comments about it I've related. It's useful but it's not the real thing. He's occasionally asked me whether I've practiced various things and is generally positive about it. I was slightly surprised, but greatly pleased, when he said flightsimming had put me ahead and would more in the future. Sometimes I wondered if it was actually holding me back, if it was creating unrealistic expectations on my part or had taught me bad habits I needed to unlearn. Though I was making progress, I wasn't there yet. Today I got really dejected for a while. I was making little dumb mistakes and my first landing just flat sucked. I nearly ran the plane off the runway it was so bad, and cussed at myself out loud. The wind that was rolling in from the north turned to about 35-40° between the time I got there and the time we got under way. So I had about a 10 knot right-quartering headwind for my take-offs and landings on runway 36. Beginning descent to pattern altitude. Either that or the camera has just "banked." The first dumb mistake was during the pre-take-off checklist. I looked at the compass and then set the directional gyro to 41°, but I got confused by that backward way the compass reads. It was really at 19°. Larry caught that one immediately. Then later after we got up and were practicing medium turns, as I came back north after cutting a decent 360° turn, Larry said, "OK, now give me the one-eighty to the right that I asked you for." After forced landing practice we headed for the runway, but we were close to the airport and due west of it, a poor angle for pattern entry. I was a little confused by this and even more confused when he said Jim (a post-solo student who was out with the other Cessna 150 at the time) was on downwind. I couldn't see Jim. It turns out Larry had said to announce to Jim we were headed for downwind. So this first landing started badly from the get-go. I was behind and trying to play catch-up the whole time. By the time I'd radioed we were at the point to turn downwind, with little runway left. The downwind leg was long, so final was too. The wind had more time to affect us and the power had to be increased. Short final was largely under control, but I did that left rudder overdose right at touchdown again, and the wheels squelched and the plane jerked and I cussed. Larry said, "That's the stuff of which landing gear failures are made." And he said not to be afraid to get onto the rudders once the plane was down to keep the plane going where it was supposed to go, and demonstrated, serpentining the plane down the runway on the roll-out. By this time we were to the point where we had to go all the way to the far end and come back the full length of the taxiway. The ride up the taxiway seemed to take forever as I mentally kicked myself even harder than I'd kicked that left rudder. I thought to myself, "I'll never solo at this rate. I'm getting worse instead of better." I can honestly say that I am proud of the next three landings I made. My touchdowns were all good descent-rate-wise. Though a little later than perfect with power adjustments, I did those sufficiently as well. On one of these the plane was gliding slightly to the left, and on another the nose was off-center to the right just a bit, but both were fairly smooth. The last one -- well, I sort of needed that last one. In my opinion it was the best landing I've made yet. I thought I was down all the way when the plane pivoted slightly to the left and then the left main touched down. I asked Larry what happened and he said I had the right wing tilted. Later, he said after the "trashy" landing, the landings were good and had gotten progressively better. He said the first one was a good lesson in what happens when one gets busy and behind the plane (was this set up by him intentionally perhaps?) He said we'd made a lot of progress today. I was going to leave and had gone to the airport office, but decided to go back and ask about the last landing, what I'd done wrong. This time he seemed a little confused and started talking about the first one. I said "No, the last one, when you said the wing was tilted. I was sort of surprised when the nose came around; that first it was only on the one wheel." He answered, "It's supposed to come down on one wheel on a crosswind landing." It sure is. "That's the stuff of which landing gear failures are made." Ouch. As bad as that was, it was more diplomatic than the utterance I'd made just a few seconds before, and far more diplomatic than the noise those mains made when they squelched into the pavement. After that horrid landing, having to come back up the full length of the taxiway, I experienced a combination of emotions that is hard to describe. I figured I'd just added at least another three hours of pre-solo flight to my training. I was torn between sobbing and banging my head into the control panel. If Larry said anything meaningful then, it has since been forgotten. I think he let me just fume for a bit in silence as we made our way back to the other end of the taxiway. As I write this now, I have to wonder whether his taking the plane down the full length of the runway so that we would have to come all the way back was done intentionally so that I'd have to time to get it back together. One way or another, I was able to. And again, as I write this now, I wish I could remember how I turned it around or if Larry did say something critical. It turned out that three or more hours of training were not required before soloing, because the next time... I'll never forget today as long as I live. I flew a real airplane all by myself. It was a slightly tricky day. When I arrived the windsocks were hanging straight down. But there was some wind, and every now and then the windsocks would show a slight southeasterly crosswind. When Larry and I took off we began to hit thermals all over. Upon encountering a particularly forceful one, Larry commented that a glider would have just rolled it over and spiraled upwards. We plowed though it. Things just seemed to click today, nearly a mirror image of the first half of the last lesson when nothing seemed to go right. It wasn't perfect by any means, but I must say I largely recognized when things were off, and was able to do a little self-critiquing. We didn't do a whole lot before we headed back in for landings. We did some turns, slow flight, departure and descending turn stalls (one each; those went well). He gave me a tough forced landing scenario. We weren't over anything that looked very inviting. I turned us back towards a radio tower and then realized there would be guy-wires all around it, and adjusted to find a safer nearby spot. It seems like we were actually just talking more and even kidding around a little. There's nothing like hitting a thermal updraft to liven up a conversation. This is not to say you don't have to be careful when you hit one of these. They can make a turn or climb or descent really interesting. In fact, there was one at the beginning of the downwind leg, making it initially difficult to hold the pattern altitude. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any coming up on final. I think we did three landings. Again, not perfect, but decent. The first one was a little hot and we glided some, and I should have used a little right rudder. The next two were slightly better. As we turned off after the third one Larry got into the glove box to check the time-record for the airplane against the Hobbs meter. I asked him if he wanted me to go straight or right (back to the hangar or back down the taxiway for another go). He said to take a right and I did. Then he had me stop the plane and I looked on incredulously as he opened the door and got out! Especially after last week I didn't think this was going to happen for at least another three hours. Well, this was it! I wish I could remember exactly what Larry said but I swear I just can't. He didn't say much. I'm not even sure if he actually said to just get up in the pattern and bring it back in or if that was just understood. He must have. He said, "I'll be waiting right here and watching," as he shut the door and moved away from the aircraft. All of a sudden that cockpit seemed pretty damned big. I'd already re-trimmed and shut off the carb heat, so there wasn't much to do but give it a little throttle and get going. I thought about the guy who'd emailed me about being scared so bad at this time his knees knocked, and wondered if I would get scared. If I did it was only a little. I'm pretty sure that as I rolled down that taxiway there was a sizeable grin on my face. The grin left at the end of the taxiway and it was time to really get back to work. I made sure everything was set, radioed my intentions, checked for traffic, and off I went. I got off and the wind immediately pushed me to the right. I remember seeing Larry standing between the taxiway and runway as I went by, and thinking again how empty the cockpit seemed. I went around to downwind and bucked the thermal, and then had the biggest fright of the flight -- radio traffic! Someone somewhere called a position and I must have jumped three inches out of my seat. How dare this person abruptly and loudly interrupt this glorious flight with radio chatter! Then it was time to come down. I tried to use what we'd learned about the conditions from the previous three landings and made nice transitions from downwind through to final. It looked good. It felt good. I brought it on in. It'd be nice to say it was a greaser, but I actually bounced a tad. Nothing horrible, it was still a decent landing. Right seat. Notice there's no one there to block the view! I got up to Larry and stopped. He came up and opened the door and I grinned again, "Dang, I bounced it." He said, "Well done. You do it better when I'm not in there with you. That wasn't a bad landing under these conditions." Then he said to do it again to make sure it wasn't an accident, so I did, without the bounce. Later I told him I had been really surprised when he exited the airplane, that I didn't think it would happen yet. He said it was better to just do it that way, that there was nothing to be gained with long drawn-out discussions about it. He said that he'd been looking for consistency. He said he had some concerns about the wind but I'd showed him I could handle it. He also commented about how the flightsimming had made me more experienced -- something about not having to go up there and chase needles, a reference that I already knew the basics of flying and knew the instruments. He also said that this was more of a psychological hump than anything else because I hadn't done anything I hadn't already done. (I'd just done it all by myself) Joe Zuzul jzzl@earthlink.net
  10. Learning To Fly By Joe Zuzul Two years of whining, begging and pouting has finally paid off--my wife finally broke down and agreed to let me take flying lessons! I called the investigator for a local attorney, a former CFI, who recommended another CFI from a town 30 miles north of here with over 10,000 hours. His name is Larry Cramer. He returned my call a little while ago, and it looks like I'll be starting next Tuesday. We'll be using Cessna 150's. I feel that since I have the opportunity, I must at least give it a go or I'll forever regret passing it up. I was really going to do it, really learn to really fly. There were reservations, of course. This was dream-chasing, pure and simple. Flying wasn't going to become a career. The odds that I'd ever use a license for a whole heck of a lot once I got it were slim. And there was this nagging slight fear of heights. For example, I never cottoned to carnival rides much--frankly, some of them scared me silly. But I'd taken an introductory flight about a year and a half ago and loved it. This slight acrophobia was part of my wife's hesitancy, too. Luckily, I'd saved a newspaper article about a local air show in which an A-10 aerobatic pilot had talked about having a slight fear of heights--he was unable to walk up to the edge of the Grand Canyon. Reading that article assuaged my wife's fear somewhat, as well as hearing about a retired Air Force navigator buddy with a similar problem. So I was on for my first real lesson. Some flightsimming friends had asked me to regale them with my flight training experiences, and this in turn evolved into something of a flying diary. A time or two today I wondered what the hell I'd gotten myself into. Any doubts were obliterated shortly after my arrival. Larry is a smaller guy, maybe 5'7". He said he weighed 178 lbs., but some of that weight was probably from all the stuff he had in his shirt pocket. He looked like his picture, perhaps a little older, a little more weathered. He liked to talk (after all, I'd paid for that, he said) and kidded around some. But it was clear he meant business, that I'd undertaken something serious and potentially hazardous. "My main job is to make sure you don't hurt yourself while you teach yourself to fly and to sort of speed that along a little"... Then I was in the cockpit of a real plane. This wasn't my comfortable computer rig. It was hot and a little cramped. But there before me were some of my familiar friends, the altimeter, VSI and the rest. I had to peek around the yoke to see some of them. The tachometer was way off to the right compared to where it was on my computer screen. I wish I could tell you that after settling into the cockpit there was some great sense of self-actualization or epiphany, but that would be a lie. The truth is we got down to business. We climbed to 3000 feet in somewhat choppy air, 2500 rpm, probably only doing 300 fpm or so. Then we just flew straight and level for a time while he talked. Larry said a plane was more like a horse than a car; it just needed to be guided. This is when he was explaining trim, as I recall. He said one of the best things to do if I got into trouble was to just let go. Then we talked about turns and he had me do some. First 90° either way, then 180° either way, then a full circle. He wanted me to get the feel of the interplay between rudder, ailerons, and elevator (back-pressure to hold altitude). I can only imagine what this must have looked like from the ground. Then he told me to stop looking at the VSI and altimeter, to look at the horizon, to put the horizon at a particular point on the engine cowling. He took back control of the plane and handed me the checklist card, telling me to use it to hide those gauges. Then he turned a few times. We didn't drop or climb more than ten feet. He said not to worry too much about the altitude on turns at this point, that after a while I'd be able to turn the plane at a constant altitude without watching the gauges much... Then we "glided", his term for a descent configuration, and went on to slow flight and stalls. For the next fifteen minutes the stall warning must have been going off nearly the whole time. The idea was to throttle back to 1500, aim for 50 knots, and then pitch the plane up slightly to keep altitude. Once the airspeed hit 50, we brought the throttle up to 2000 and just flew like that, the stall warning going all the while, while he explained stalls and angle of attack. He talked about and demonstrated just pushing the yoke forward to avert a stall, and that a lot of pilots had been killed simply from failing to remember this simple input. He said from infancy we are taught to grab for things as we fall, and that it is instinctive to do just that when the plane starts to stall. Then he asked, "What's there in a cockpit to grab?", and of course, there's the yoke right in front of me. He said, "That's right. It's hard to say how many pilots have been found in wreckage with the yokes back here against their chest." So he had me practice that a bit, getting the plane really pitched up, feeling the plane tremble from the burble, the sluggishness of the inputs, and then the return to normal flight with just a slight shove forward on the yoke. What a BLAST! As I write this I have a whopping eight hours under my belt, and haven't soloed. Therefore, I'm probably no major expert on "What is the main difference between real flying and flight simulator?" I couldn't begin to count how many flightsim hours I have; I couldn't even count how many logbooks I've lost by reformatting hard drives or whatnot, and forgetting to back them up, since I started flightsimming back in the FS98 days. I've read books on aviation and have subscribed to both Flying and Private Pilot. So on that score I'm no newbie. To me the main difference has nothing to do with G-loads or navigation or fuel consumption. To me the main difference is that real flying is so in-the-moment, so all-focusing. It's the same kind of focus one has while experiencing a car wreck, only it lasts a lot longer. There is just no way to reproduce that with a home computer based simulator. The folks at Microsoft can keep trying to make Flight Simulator "As real as it gets" from now until FS2030 or whatever, but as long as it's run on anything resembling a home computer, they're just going to be SOL as far as recreating that "rapture". Grizzly veterans of real flight may no longer view it the same way, but if they don't now I'd wager that at least early in their careers they did. (I'd bet even more that most of them still do, though). Standing on the tarmac after that first lesson I remember thinking how hard it was going to be to remember all the stuff I was learning while airborne because of how intense and enveloping it had all been. It was sort of a blur, sort of like remembering being in a car wreck. ...We did slow flight and some stalls, but then he added a twist: full power stalls. He described these as the kind of stall one might get during a climb-out, perhaps trying to get over a hill or row of trees too quickly. We set this up just like slow flight and low-power stalls, by reducing thrust to 1500 rpm and raising the nose to maintain altitude while the airspeed falls to 50, then increasing power to 2000. Instead of staying level, one pulls back on the yoke, causing a more severe pitch-up, and then full throttle is applied while continuing to pull the yoke back. When the stall finally occurs, it is sudden. Larry said it's the kind of stall that'll "reach out and grab you." There's no introductory burble as with a low-power stall, and the engine torque makes the plane roll fairly hard to the left. This is all counteracted with, of course, forward yoke input to get the nose down, but right rudder is also applied. I did the rudder both before and after the onset of the stall, beforehand to better control it, and afterwards because I wanted to experience more of the left roll and recovery. I must have done this pretty well, because he "accused" me of having done it in flightsim. I told him I'd done a lot of stalls, but had never done a full-power stall. He showed me some more about trim as we were stabilizing for level flight after the last of these stalls. He showed me that if the plane was trimmed correctly, it might pitch up and lose airspeed, and then down and gain airspeed, but it would eventually stabilize. Then it dawned on me that he was showing me fugoid oscillation! Then I screwed up (more on this later) and asked him if that's what this was. He said, "Yes, you're right on the mark!" Then it was time to head for home...When we were flying inbound Larry said we would do even trickier stalls next time, stalls while doing climbing turns and descents (he said these would be the stalls to be demonstrated in the checkride). I suspect these will be tricky because the ailerons will be much more in play. When we'd taxied back in he told me he was going to start pushing me a little harder--"You're not paying for a ride!" He said his tactic was to push the student, and pull back if the student began to have trouble. So maybe I should have kept my mouth shut with that fugoid oscillation business! One has to give Microsoft a nod here, as Flight Simulator has become much better at reproducing the onset of stall and the rolling that can occur. In FS98 it was nearly impossible to get a plane to roll like that. Even though I got pedals and my primary flightsim mentor, Tom Goodrick, sent me a demo and flight for doing it, I had a hard time getting the Cessna 182 to spin. I've spun the FS2002 Cessna 172 all over the place. Most of this was done after the lesson described below. Before then, I had only tested the waters, so to speak, trying to get an idea of how FS2002 modeled stalls and spins. Part of this had been experimenting with trying to turn a Cessna 172 around, after an engine out, and land on the runway from which I'd taken off. A professor of aerodynamics at the Naval Academy had posted a paper positing that sometimes it was, in fact, better to try to go back. The flightsim 172 entered a short little spin before nosing into the ground most of the time. Larry and I didn't actually spin in real life, but this maneuver gets you fairly close to it: For about ten seconds during today's lesson I thought it was going to be my last. Anyone who tells you they enjoyed their first taste of a full-power climbing turn stall is either a nut or a liar.L I had advanced warning; Larry had told me last week we would be doing these. I had some apprehension, because I thought he might use this maneuver to introduce me to stall-spin recovery, and because, well, we were going to be stalling with the plane banked and the ailerons clearly in play... Then it was time for him to demonstrate the full-power climbing turn stall. Honestly, I was afraid. I'm sure my heart rate kicked up a notch or two. Then he did it, and here's how it works: This is set up the same as a full-power stall, but a medium turn is initiated, about 15°, and then the yoke is pulled farther back. The example he gave was of someone doing a climbing turn who was trying to clear a row of trees. Some opposite rudder is needed to keep the bank from going too far. The yoke goes back until the airspeed nears a stall. OK, at this point the plane is already at something of an unusual attitude. You've been climbing, turning; the plane is pitched way up and banked. It's already slightly disconcerting. The airspeed drops some more and the stall hits. That's the surprise--the plane doesn't go in the direction of the turn, it rolls (and I think yaws) back over the other way! It reverses! So the recovery is to apply full rudder the way you had been turning and the nose has to be pitched back down pretty good, all at once. My stomach did a little flip-flop and it took my brain about ten seconds to catch back up. It was during those ten seconds that I had serious doubts about how bad I wanted to be a pilot. I wasn't disoriented; it was more of a "Holy S---! What the hell was that!" sort of thing. I was hoping we'd just fly straight and level for a minute, but I guess I was more afraid of telling Larry that than of doing another one. Of course, he just looked straight out the windshield as he said nonchalantly, "Now you do one. Uh, go to the left." What else was I going to do? So I did one. Mine was rougher than his, but it wasn't so bad. I knew what was going to happen, and there's something comforting in having the controls yourself--if nothing else you're busy and not just spectating. I did another to the right, and then he had me go the other way again. Going back to the left, I apparently didn't apply enough right rudder to control the bank. I was using too much aileron to control it instead (cross-controlling is the term). Also, P-factor/torque is more significant doing this to the left. When the stall hit, the plane jerk-rolled to the left! It didn't reverse! I bet we were close to a 90° left bank. I instinctively floored the right rudder and pushed in the yoke, and we popped upright again. Larry explained to me what had happened and went on to say we'd been pretty close to a spin. He had me do a couple more, and then explained I was overcooking it a little, but that that was to be expected from someone with so few hours, and then demonstrated how to do it more smoothly... On the ground getting out of the plane I told him how at first I wasn't too sure about that full-power climbing turn stall. He said I'd done fine but went on to tell me to let him know if I was ever uncomfortable. He said he could usually tell when people aren't doing well because they stop talking and "the Adam's Apple starts to sort of bob up and down." I guess I hadn't been as bad off as all that. He said we were getting the rough stuff out of the way, that that stall would be one of the roughest things we did, if not the roughest. I'm going back next week to further this conspiracy of getting a plane to do things it should never do. I have to and now believe I will get used to a plane when it's not in normal flight. Surely this is a lot of the purpose behind the steady diet of different varieties of stalls. And perhaps most importantly, I'm learning that flying is about not getting oneself into these predicaments to begin with-- there's no better way to learn that something should be avoided than to experience it. In a way, I've touched the hot stove. Well, OK, perhaps that was a bit melodramatic. I've since learned that spin recovery isn't part of private pilot training, and these stalls are part of the checkride, after all. Looking back, I'm a little embarrassed that I was a little scared. Now I like doing climbing turn stalls, they're really fun. They're fun to do in flightsim. Just take the 172 or another light plane and follow the instructions above. In fact, it's been a lot of fun recreating the lessons in flightsim and practicing the maneuvers. The sequence pictures below depicts a climbing turn stall with the Cessna 172. It should be noted that the empty weight Moments of Inertia (MOI's) in the aircraft.cfg file Weight and Balance section have been reduced at the suggestion of Mr. Goodrick. His suggestion was to reduce the pitch MOI by half, the roll and yaw MOI's by 20%, and to set the coupled MOI to 200. After some trial and error, I settled on a 35% reduction in the pitch MOI. Also of note is that the fuel is at 40% capacity, and my 209 lb. weight is set in the left seat and Larry's 178 in the right. Figure 1: We're starting to push the plane up into the stall. The airspeed is dropping through 60, the vertical speed is 1700 fpm, and the bank is 10° right. Note the chicane in the road below and the tower, which may be used as reference points. Figure 2: On the edge of the stall, with airspeed at 50, vertical speed already dropping to 1000 fpm, and a 21° right bank. Figure 3: "Holy S---!" The reversal when the stall hits. Even banked at 65° or so to the left, the plane is still pitched up slightly and the vertical speed is still slightly positive (but it's dropping fast!). The airspeed has dropped to 45 kts. Figure 4: The yoke's gone forward and right rudder applied, and the stall is no more. Airspeed is back up to 80 kts. Figure 5: Straight and nearly level. I was surprised to see that even here the vertical speed was still -250 fpm. Figure 6: Flunked the checkride; lost > 300 feet. But hey, I had to take screen shots, right? Ouch. I swear on a stack of Pilot Training Manuals that in the real Cessna 150 I can recover from a climbing turn stall within the 300 foot allowance. I may have done it a time or two losing only a little over 100 feet. This may be another difference between real and simulated flight. Flightsim may be a little more extreme with these maneuvers. For example, one really has to pull the yoke back to induce this stall, but seemingly more so in flightsim. Also, even with the default MOI's, in flightsim if one is just a smidge slow applying the rudder, the plane can reverse back such that it is past a 90° bank, which is more inverted than not. Now we get to the maneuver every flightsimmer has done over and over--the landing. It only seems fitting to wrap up this piece with a few comments about landing. Landing a real plane is...well, it's just harder. Of course, in Flight Simulator, we all have the luxury of bad landings, even crash landings, that isn't present in reality. This is not to say my real landings are very good yet. If you've ever dreamed about being a pilot yourself, visit www.beapilot.com for more information. The following post-lesson exchange may sum up where I am with landings better than anything else I can think of. Back on the ground, as we're starting to walk from the hangar back to the office, Larry seems a little perturbed at himself. He tells me it's not enough to bark commands at me, he needs to show me again. "You've been doing all the landings. You haven't seen me do one for about five hours. I need to show you." I mention that I'm surprised how hard it is to land a real plane, but that I feel I'm getting the hang of it. He says something to the effect of, "Yes, you're doing fine--you're doing landings. You're just not to the point of getting them down real soft and smooth"... It takes a rare type of individual who can completely turn an aircraft he or she owns over to a novice and have the novice land it--while riding along! I can't explain why landing a real plane is so much harder than landing a simulated one other than the obvious fact that one is actual metal and gas and glass and the other is a simulation. It sort of harkens back to the in-the-moment comment above; there is so much going on in such a small amount of time. Maybe a lot of our flightsim landings aren't as good as we think they are because we can't feel the bump when the mains hit. In reality, you can't reset the flight and put the plane back up somewhere on downwind, base, or final. And can I have a show of hands from those out there who learned to land in flightsim with an off-center wind? ...As Larry finishes telling me I'm doing OK, a big grin crosses his face as he makes his parting shot about the current state of my landings. "You're kind of like a bear cub who's discovered his [appendage deleted] and isn't exactly sure what to do with it." Joe Zuzul jzzl@earthlink.net
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