Author Topic: private pilot! (Read 2472 times)

Dingbat · « **Reply #30 on:** May 14, 2003, 03:20:15 PM »

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Originally posted by Zigrat
not really flying for real has a very different feel. plus the skill set is completely different. it probably helps that you already know what an aileron is etcera but not that much

I disagree somewhat, It's great for IFR training and Basic VOR Usage. Other than that I agree.

GrimCO · « **Reply #31 on:** May 14, 2003, 03:38:34 PM »

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Originally posted by airbumba
WTG Zig..i hope you have a long and uneventfull flying career. Remember to always turn carb heat off on dirt runways, keeps the ground crew happy:)

Grimco reminds me of a story, there was a guy who had trouble starting his twin engine plane, (Seneca II i think) so he started it with a boost from his car,heheh. So on climb out the engines died, the guy did a very good emegency landing, saving himself and his ride. At the FAA hearing , when informed about losing his liscence for 6 months, he squeaked at the decision complaining that nobody took into consideration his great emergency landing....lol. Ya gotta wonder sometimes.

Airbumba

Hey, any landing you walk away from is a good one! LOL

Zigrat · « **Reply #32 on:** May 14, 2003, 04:57:51 PM »

yeah it is definitely good for ifr if you use fs2002. not much for your private pilot though. and if your only experience is air combat really it helps zero, very little time is spent in aces high trying to perfect landings, keep an eye out for traffic, maintain heading and altitude, etcera which are all things that definitely take getting used to.

Animal · « **Reply #33 on:** May 14, 2003, 05:01:41 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Zigrat
yeah it is definitely good for ifr if you use fs2002. not much for your private pilot though. and if your only experience is air combat really it helps zero, very little time is spent in aces high trying to perfect landings, keep an eye out for traffic, maintain heading and altitude, etcera which are all things that definitely take getting used to.

Actually, many people who go take their introductory flight have no idea how a plane flies, what does what regarding controls, what is a stall, etc.

A person who flew any kind of decent sim knows this stuff, has a general idea of what is involved in flight, and probably how to recover from stalls.

It does help a little.

Scootter · « **Reply #34 on:** May 14, 2003, 05:12:23 PM »

Welcome aboard mate.

Now join AOPA, the real learning begins now that you are on your own. Enjoy and fly as often as you can, be cool if you take a newby with you, no stalls or steep turns about a point to show off, we need new flyers, dont turn them off, get them started with your instructer.

Get good at cross wind landings so you will feel comfortable going cross country when its a bit windy, now you prob. feel like they are no fun (they are!).

When you get to about the 250 hour mark watch out that's about the time you get cocky and start to do dumb things (guilty as charged by my own log book)

You will never forget the day you got your ticket (like your solo) it will be one of those days for ever in your mind.

Glad to have your with us if you ever get to Vero Beach look me up. I'm buying

N42588
KVRB T-hanger T-3

cpxxx · « **Reply #35 on:** May 14, 2003, 05:48:52 PM »

FS2002 has it's uses for IFR practice but even then it never really replicates the sheer pressure you get in the real thing. My Instrument rating flight test was easily the most pressure filled 2 hours in my life. 100% concentration all the time.
I think it may be counterproductive for VFR flying. As Zigrat will no doubt tell private pilot training emphasises visual flying and keeping a good lookout. That big panel in FS encourages people to fly the instruments rather than the aircraft. In real flying with some experience you can fly around the pattern without reference to the instruments at all, just power settings and the attitude of the aircraft. A good instructor will make you do that sometimes.

But simming does help as Animal says. If you know the basics and the terminology before you start to fly it can only be good.

Sometimes though AH is almost like the real thing. If you get up high and fly along in and out of the clouds looking at the ground below. You almost forget it's not real. Until you get bounced by some hero who snuck up on you. AH does not help with landings though. If I landed in real life like I do in AH. I'd be arrested and shot at dawn!!

The one big difference, I find:eek: is that when you crash in real life you don't end up back in the tower and you can't fly through friendly aircraft.

Udet you could consider doing a full time residential course somewhere in the sunbelt, FL or TX during the summer. It could be done in about a month, flying every day. That gets the hours up and you could even pass the checkride and come back with a licence. Of course you need the money up front but it works out cheaper in the long run and it's great to spend all that time as a full time pilot with nothing else to think about. A lot of Europeans do that because of the uncertain weather in Europe.

There are quite a few schools who do full time private pilot courses.

Bluefish · « **Reply #36 on:** May 14, 2003, 06:50:17 PM »

Congrats, Zig, and welcome to the club! Lots of good advice in this thread for the new pilot, too, especially the "license to learn".

I also heartily second the recommendations about joining AOPA and/or EAA; they both provide great pilot resources and information and also help protect general aviation's interests in the political arena (and these days that's a pretty tough job).

airbumba · « **Reply #37 on:** May 14, 2003, 08:37:43 PM »

A few things above caught my eye.
Here in Can. we had to do 5 hrs under the hood, IFR training as part of the single engine private VFR lisc. Is that the same in the US? A certain % of that could be done on a REAL old fashion sim machine that had a Cess. 172 panel, with dual nav radios and an ADF, I think 10% of the sim hrs counted , not exceeding 1 hour total IFR time, it was even singed off by your instructor.

The other thing I want to ask my fellow pilots, has to do with above mentioned crosswinds.

I took extra hrs of training in crosswind landings because once when my real instructor was on holiday, I flew with a rookie instructor and when we came in on final we had a gusty 25knt crosswind at about 60 deg. off our nose,(aprx 310 deg on runway 25), and the rookie instructor used the crab technique for landing. Well sure enough as we crabbed in , with the nose into the wind, just at flare out, the wind stopped dead and we hit the runway like a rock with our nose off center. thankfully we pogo sticked back up the wind returned and we landed. well I was scared. I wouldn't stand for being scared in a plane as PIC, so when my real instructor returned I told him what happened, and we spent an extra 5 hrs only flying when there was a severe crosswind.

All my long windedness aside, this is my question. How many of you learned the harder, but more sure technique of landing always nose to runway, fighting rudder all the way in, as opposed to the easier 'crab' into the wind and straighten out on flare technique?

Just wonderin, cause it really came into play when I went for a float rating.

Bumba

GrimCO · « **Reply #38 on:** May 14, 2003, 08:53:55 PM »

Hey there Bumba,

Never crabbed in a crosswind in training, and don't do it now.

I've always kept the nose straight with the runway, wing down into the wind using rudder to keep alignment. I would think crabbing in a crosswind landing would be absolute hell on the tires. As an A&P mechanic also, that's probably explaining all those flat spots on tires where the pilot didn't lock up the brakes on landing...LOL

Dingbat · « **Reply #39 on:** May 14, 2003, 09:01:17 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by GrimCO
As an A&P mechanic also, that's probably explaining all those flat spots on tires where the pilot didn't lock up the brakes on landing...LOL

Yeah Right

I thought that was the boneheads stepping on the brakes before the wheels are on the ground.

GrimCO · « **Reply #40 on:** May 14, 2003, 09:48:18 PM »

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Originally posted by Dingbat
Yeah Right I thought that was the boneheads stepping on the brakes before the wheels are on the ground.

That's what I meant! LOL Can't tell you how many times I've seen that.

CyranoAH · « **Reply #41 on:** May 15, 2003, 03:09:32 AM »

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Originally posted by airbumba
I took extra hrs of training in crosswind landings because once when my real instructor was on holiday, I flew with a rookie instructor and when we came in on final we had a gusty 25knt crosswind at about 60 deg. off our nose,(aprx 310 deg on runway 25), and the rookie instructor used the crab technique for landing. Well sure enough as we crabbed in , with the nose into the wind, just at flare out, the wind stopped dead and we hit the runway like a rock with our nose off center. thankfully we pogo sticked back up the wind returned and we landed. well I was scared. I wouldn't stand for being scared in a plane as PIC, so when my real instructor returned I told him what happened, and we spent an extra 5 hrs only flying when there was a severe crosswind.

All my long windedness aside, this is my question. How many of you learned the harder, but more sure technique of landing always nose to runway, fighting rudder all the way in, as opposed to the easier 'crab' into the wind and straighten out on flare technique?

Just wonderin, cause it really came into play when I went for a float rating.

Bumba

Hi Bumba,

here in Spain we are always taught to keep the nose to the runway and make a slightly faster approach (75 kts compared to 70 kts in a Robin, for example).

The rule is to get everything done as soon as possible so you can concentrate on the flare. As they say, "a good approach is 80% of a good landing".

Daniel

Dingbat · « **Reply #42 on:** May 15, 2003, 06:24:56 AM »

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Originally posted by GrimCO
That's what I meant! LOL Can't tell you how many times I've seen that.

U'd probably hate me, I don't do that, but sometimes on SFL I hit the brakes a little too hard AFTER i'm firmly on the ground, I'm Hard Of Hearing so I don't always catch the brake squeals, but in the words of the man in Holy Grail,
"I'm getting Bettar"

Dingbat · « **Reply #43 on:** May 15, 2003, 06:32:51 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by airbumba
The other thing I want to ask my fellow pilots, has to do with above mentioned crosswinds.

I took extra hrs of training in crosswind landings because once when my real instructor was on holiday, I flew with a rookie instructor and when we came in on final we had a gusty 25knt crosswind at about 60 deg. off our nose,(aprx 310 deg on runway 25), and the rookie instructor used the crab technique for landing.
All my long windedness aside, this is my question. How many of you learned the harder, but more sure technique of landing always nose to runway, fighting rudder all the way in, as opposed to the easier 'crab' into the wind and straighten out on flare technique?

Bumba [/B]

I was always told the Crab method was harder... I've had two instructors my first one preferred to crab all the way in and then switch to the low wing to the wind just over the threshold. He said it's good practice because sometimes you have to use Crabbing over low wing in higher cross wind situations...

My current instructor doesn't like students using the crab method because generally their reaction timing is not as sharp nor is their ability to recognize a bad situation quickly enough. Of course your milage may vary... IMHO I guess it's a case of fish or cut bait... I've been unluckey in the aspect of X winds, I haven't had much at KNYG. It's been a calm and varible lately.

X2Lee · « **Reply #44 on:** May 15, 2003, 06:47:34 AM »

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Originally posted by cpxxx
Well done Zigrat, welcome to the club. Now the fun stuff begins.
It's a pity the FAA has such an unimpressive licence. You get a big fat book from the JAA with your grinning mug inside.

Onwards and upwards.

Don't be so hard on the examiner, Grimco. That 'bastard' may save your life one day. I don't know why they call it a multi engine rating. You spend most of your time flying around on one engine.

Congrates Zig!
there is no picture on my license and theres no book....