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How long before I am bored? ... again!

BaiterOne

BaiterOne

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261
Country
ireland
Some years ago I went to a lot of trouble to put together a 2D panel with XML gauges for the B737 from 50 North, in FS2004. I bought the ISG gauges to give me a realistic FMC. I flew with it a for a few months, updating and improving the gauges as I went, then tired of it...

I then spent a few months bringing my AI traffic bang up-to-date, but then realised that newer versions of AI aircraft, and flightplans to fly them, were coming out quicker than I could install them. So I grew tired of that exercise too..

I then went back over my old B737 XML gauges and brought them all up to the same standard - not a very good standard, I admit, but as best as I could achieve anyway. Then I flew the revamped B737 again for a short while and grew tired of it...

Recently I was given a Fathers Day present of a flight in a C172 simulator, a Redbird FMX, and flew low and slow around the local airports and airfields, touching and going. An enjoyable 45 minutes. No Autopilot or ILS landings - hands on only!

I SUCKED!!!

Despite a decade of simulated flying FS2000, FS2002 and FS2004!

Never kept level flight for more than a second or two; stalled; couldn't keep a heading; bounced really HARD on landing; shot off like a rocket or F-15 on take off. The instruments were correctly spread over the full sized panel and I just couldn't manage to keep my eyes on the ones that mattered and fly the aircraft at the same time (too used to a 23" screen and a mouse!). Soft hands, or some expression like that, the instructor said I needed - I definitely didn't have them, jerking the Cessna around like mad. With the simulated movement in the simulator one might have been airsick! I lived through it though. I blamed my performance on the fact that I had never used a yoke or rudder pedals, only a Microsoft Sidewinder. I get the impression that the instructor wasn't too impressed.

Anyway, this sparked off an interest in doing the same in my own FS2004. It all seemed like a good idea to fly the C172SP but really you get nowhere fast and almost nothing is automated. I was getting bored again...

I needed a goal.

Then I remembered a set of lessons I did from the internet when I started in FS2004 - to help me understand VORs, NDBs and ILS.

I went back and found the site - I had previously printed down all of the lessons but when I moved on the the 'sophisticated' B737 all the printouts were dumped. Busy printing again!

So I am back now using http://www.navfltsm.addr.com by Charles Wood. Learning all of the basics of navigation again. Flying a C172SP. When I did the lessons years ago I completed the course - I wonder will boredom set in yet again?

Does this flight simulator lifestyle ring bells with anyone else?

Walter
 
Walter,

I think things would have been different for you if you'd had flown a real C172.

I can tell you it's much easier to fly the real bird than any simulated version, as it is obviously much easier to drive a real car than any console's copy.
In a real C172 you don't actually need to keep an eye on every instrument at every moment; you basically fly with the seat of your pants; you feel the plane and pilot it accordingly, the same as you feel you car to instinctively make a smooth turn on a road's curve, or keep a straight ride in adverse conditions (rain,snow).

What your instructor told you about soft hands is really true. It means to avoid grabbing the yoke with pressure, an instinctive action product of the excitation, but instead handle it softly, prefereable with the left hand only (for a left seat), maintaining the right always ready to control power/mixture levers.

In the real you can also make sharp turns (35-40 deg bank) without the almost unavoidable loss/gain of altitude that happens in the simulator, product of the lack of feeling.

Of course I am refering to VFR flights; in IFR things are a bit different though it is not common to go IFR in a 172.

I think that if you could, you should try a real 172, the experience should be unforgettable.

Tom
 
Tom is quite right. Real flying is alot different then sim flying (without the axis rotations that is. Axis rotations would really enhance the sim flight). Always trim your plane. Once you have it trimmed, you fly it with two fingers on the joystick. They usually fly themselves in calm weather.

But..... The best practice that my instructor told me to do is at least once a week, get in the 172 in FS and do about 4 or 6 shotgun pattern flights, touch and goes, at the same airport. Learn all you can about how to do a pattern flight, leveling off, scanning the main 6 gauges, then scanning the horizon, repeat. When you start doing this a few times a week, it becomes natural, and when you go up in a intro flight in a real Cessna, you will find you actually think you are in a sim, its that similar and familiar.

You might get the Carenado 172, just for realism.

The instructor I had was kind of freaked out, but then I had flown with dad a ton when I was a kid, so it wasnt 'totally' new, plus my perhaps 5000 hours on the sims, lolol...

Every Sunday morning, I try to do at least 4 laps around a airport, watching my gauges, scanning, altitude level-off's, headings, etc. Find a website that has some advice on doing pattern flights. When you are doing this like you are studying for a test, it makes it a bit more intense.
 
The point being missed is that Walter's "flight" was in a full-motion Redbird FMX* simulator, so there was quite a bit of "seat of the pants" effect, at least within the constraints of 6DOF movement. Only the "slide" or "slip" cannot be replicated.

* http://www.redbirdflightsimulations.com/fmx/
 
Ahh so... I'll bet that was fun. We who have been in this for ages now should all have personal multi axis sims. Thats my thoughts.
 
By the way, I did actually 'fly' a C172 last year. A birthday present from the same son who gave me the present of the simulator flight!

I spent 30 minutes in the left seat of the aircraft - 'flying' it once we reached a thousand feet or so. The guy giving me the introductory flight was very busy during that time - constantly correcting my mistakes, unfortunately never quite letting me actually fly. I suppose I cannot blame him - he owned the Cessna and probably had better uses for it rather than giving a once-off flight to someone who showed no great flying skills.

The instructor in the simulator was much better - letting me do most of the stuff - I suppose he reckoned I couldn't actually kill him or do any real damage if I made a mistake!

Anyway, both instructors seemed to want me to look out the front of the aircraft and know that I was flying level by observing how much the horizon was over the instrument panel. The same for turning, climbing and descending. I was dreadful - I couldn't judge it at all - I spent most of my time in a panic, looking down at the ASI, the VSI and the altimeter, all of which were yo-yoing in time with some unheard music, and none of which I could control without upsetting at least one of the others!

I really have turned out to be an armchair pilot - what would I do without the autopilot?

That is why I am now back in the Cessna in FS2004 - back to basics, for the moment!

Walter
 
In my earlier years, another instructor taught me to do the horizon thing as well and I just couldnt do it. I relied on the instruments instead. Its odd as you speed up, the cowl will dip down. As you slow, the cowl rises. Doing all of that really makes gauging the top of the dash as your horizon marker difficult. But.......... I imagine after you get quite a few hours in, you suddenly 'click' and its second nature.
 
Sunday morning Walter! At least 3, perfect touch and goes on the sim in a Cessna!

Some good things to remember (well, things I was taught);
* Keep your climb constant, dont let it wonder, such as 700 FPM, 1000 FPM, etc.
* Level off and make your turn. Use a marker on your gyro for your turn (bank) as a constant so your turns are all the same. (Good for timing in your mind, like 6 seconds, 12 seconds, matching turn amounts).
* Maintain perfect altitude through the pattern
* Always note your headings when doing patterns. When you take off, set your heading bug so you keep it in front of you on the gauge, make exact turns in your pattern laps based on the runway heading
* Keep pattern speeds low, like 100 - 120 knots
* Turn onto base (3rd turn) 'after' your runway is at least 45+ degrees behind your shoulder (more if you need it, if you are higher, so you have a chance for a smooth, non-steep descent)
* Slow down on your final, trying to cross the fence at perhaps 80 knots and remember your touch downs will probably be around 40 knots (with flaps, actual point of touch down when you hold the nose up and throttle off and let it sit down smoothly onto the runway).


I know as a simmer you know all of that. I think I just wanted to write that out half way to remember it myself, lol... How I love flying and reading about how others do as well.
 
Well, no touch and go's.... yet!

Three take-offs and luckily also three survivable landings!

Managing now to keep more-or-less level flight, even when changing course.

I am flying by the numbers on the instruments rather than keeping my head out of the cockpit - rpm, trim, heading!

Still jerking in a blind panic at the joystick to correct even small errors. but getting less frequent.

Landing much too fast still - just haven't nailed a correct glideslope all the way down and then have to take a quick dive at the end bringing the speed up.

It is probably more fun than flying in the 737 on a flightplan from Manchester to Dublin - certainly the pulse rate soars at times!!
 
You'll get smooth as glass. You have to also grow to know the plane and you'll connect with it.
 
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