Hi there grm,
Here's my story:
Back in '94 I was in a USUA (United States Ultra-light Association) program, learning to fly stick-and-rudder ultra-lights.
I was doing high speed taxi practice in preparation for my first solo.
I gunned the engine and went roaring down the runway in that near-twilight zone between flight and not-flight. (Base altitude 8,200 in the Rockies.) A surprise gust of wind from the left side blew my plane into the air, off the runway, and stalling me over the swamp. And, I had already signed a contract making me financially responsible for this $5,000 Quicksilver Sprint I, plus the humiliation factor.
What happened was instinctive. I full-throttled the engine and flew that stalling thing out over the swamp and into my unintentional first solo flight.
Instinctive? The gust of wind was entirely unanticipated and the plane stalling over the swamp was going to be a complete disaster; I was ALMOST totally unprepared for the event. BUT, I had been flying an early flight simulator from back then: Fighter Duel, on a Commodore Amiga, and that simulator practice of doing carrier landings had prepped me for the go-around. Was I in danger of my life? No, but the financial and humiliation disaster was very real. When the plane blew over the swamp and was near stalling in, it was my Fighter Duel carrier landing practice that made it INSTICTIVE to gun the engine and make the go-around. (It's amazing how many things can go through your mind in a second at the brink of disaster.)
Since then, I have 500 hours in ultralights, 400 as a USUA Basic Flight Instructor (I've since quit.) And, I've soloed in sailplanes at the Schweitzer Academy in NY.
To this day, I swear, it was my experience in a computer flight sim that saved me on that one special day of my first solo. (The real life-threatening events would come much later, which, obviously, I survived as well. First cross-country, Powder River Gorge, I saw all the famous rock formations from co-altitude while the wind gusts were throwing the ultra-light up and down at 1,200 fet per minute.)
regards, Airman T. E. Shaw
