Hi, I've been training to get my PPL and I have about 17.5 hours, and my flight instructor says I'm about ready to fly solo. However, the weather has been mostly IFR and I recently I got an oppurtunity to fly when the weather was clear. I hadn't flown in a month, and I was making stupid mistakes like not enough rudder for crosswind landings and not turning my transponder onto the appropriate mode. Is MSFS more counter-productive than helpful in terms of keeping fresh on flying? Or is it just because of the big interval between flights? Thanks for any help.

Try and fly at least 2wice a week, give this instructor 3 or 4 more hours to solo you, if you don't solo dump this instructor and find another.it's no big deal as a student pilot with 17 hours to make a mistake of not using enough rudder in xwind landing, just learn from it and apply enough rudder to keep the nose aligned with the runway next time. the transponder thing should be corrected by using the checklist. Go sit in the cockpit of the airplane on the rainy ifr days you can't fly and become familiar with every inch of the plane, you'll have a private ticket before you know it.

For items such as transponder, fuel pumps, switching tanks, and navigation...................... these flight sims are VERY helpful, IMO. They also work well for flight into unknown airports, where you can see the runway layout versus the surrounding topography.As far as rudder and crosswinds go, it works to an extent and some models are much better than others. But I really think, it's best to have the real experience first and let it fill in the "holes" of the flight model. There have been many times, these sims have seemed close to real, but then part of it surely has to be the "mind" and previous real experiences. And rudder pedals are a must! :)L.Adamson

thanks for the tips guys. Yeah, I usually try to go in at least once a week. Twice a week is pushing it for me money wise. But thanks again!

...and if you haven

If I could just borrow your subject for a moment, I think I can sum up my experience with MS2002 and how it relates to my real-world flying...MSFS2002 IS a real supplement to flight training.Good luck on your training - you'll get the hang of it and you'll have the rest of your flying life to continue to improve your flying!

Simming will do amazing things for your general knowledge of aviation. However, it's also easy to make bad habits that you will have to unlearn later, for example spending too much time staring at your panel or just firing up the plane and ignoring checklists. If you are going to use FS to supplement your training, my suggestion would be to approach every sim flight as you would the real thing. With checklist in hand, simulate the pre-flight inspection, startup procedures, etc. Make a point of using the checklist for each phase of flight as you would in real life. Use the Virtual Cockpit and pan around scanning for traffic. Make all your radio calls verbally, out loud (don't worry, your family members already know you're crazy!) before you hit the menu keys. Don't forget things like clearing turns, crosswind correction while taxiing and during takeoffs and landings, etc. Otherwise you will just make bad habit that will come back to haunt you later, on your checkride or worse.