Just finished a flight from some tiny field in southern Mississippi to KSRQ (sarasota, FL) in the Cessna Grand Caravan. The flight started in the late afternoon. (time kept by FS Real Time) I was doing this flight because Air Hauler sent me their to deliver goods to Sarasota and my in need of cash cargo company would make a tidy profit from it. The weather was beautiful with a few high clouds and a north westerly wind provided by Active Sky 2012. I filed my flight plan with FS Commander 9.1 and took off and got to my cruising altitude of FL140 and enjoyed the view, which was enhanced by Ultimate Terrain X USA and Ground Environment X. The skys were not very crowded today, but MyTraffic X made sure things stayed "real" with the ATC.

 

The ATC guided me down from FL140 and into perfect alightment with the ILS runway 32 in the dark and i made a nice "greaser" touchdown and completed a 3 hour flight.

 

Folks, even though we gripe and tinker, this wonderful simulation can always bring a smile to my face.

 

FSX brings to me something i probably will never have the chance to do in real life. And thats magic

Hear, hear!

:Applause: same here

FSX brings to me something i probably will never have the chance to do in real life. And thats magic

 

Yes magic is the word !

 

For me like for so many others i suppose, learning to fly in real life is out of the question.

Can't afford the approx. 15000 € it would cost me here in Belgium to get my PPL.

Flying a ULM does not really attract me, to many accidents last years.

 

But now i decided to start with soaring: for 500 - 1000 € for a whole year (depending on how much you fly), i can be member of a soaring club, learning, training, flying included !

 

Looking forward to it. :Money Eyes:

Soaring is miles more fun than flying a spam can anyway, you will know what I mean when you get into it. It will make you a good pilot.

 

Al

+1 for soaring.

 

I started out flying gliders (sailplanes west of the pond) nearly 30 years ago, graduated to microlights for a while (ultrlights west of thepond) then eventually got my PPL A licence in the Cessna 152.

 

I found flight simulator agreat help with the instrument flying part of the PPL course (the oly part of the course I didn't have to do more than oncce to get right).

 

All I fly in the main nowadays is FSX. Don't really fancy going through the proces of re-validating a long lapsed PL after all this time.

 

Yes FSX does have a number of issues with it, but it is still a wonderful programwhen it all works properly.

 

IAN

Gliding (soaring) is a wonderful, joyful, fun activity but I personally don't make comparisons with gliding and powered flying, in the real world. They're sooo different!

 

Gliding is all about going somewhere for the day, going up, feeling the G's, feeling the fun, excitement and adrenaline of the motion and acrobatics, then landing, back at the starting point. I've only ever glided off a winch, so haven't experienced a tow plane.

 

Flying as in GA flying however is just totally different: to me, it's more about the journey, the travel, going somewhere, flying higher (usually) and taking in the views of the whole journey, not just the area local to the aerodrome.

 

I'm not in anyway 'dissing' gliding; just observing that to me, it's not relevent to compare them so much, or say that one is more fun than the other. As they're so very different.

 

What I will agree on though, is that gliding is Waaaaaay cheaper!!

GA flying, either with powered aircraft or gliders, is more alike than most people think. But what is more important, is that the stick and rudder airmanship required when flying a glider improves ones piloting skills all round.

 

Sloppy flying will lose you a lot of height and see you down in some farmer's field, with all the attendant hassle of getting a trailer out, so the skill one acquires on the rudder to keep those turns nicely coordinated does make one better when flying powered aircraft, not to mention the fact that the steep turns which one regularly makes when thermalling gives you a subtle appreciation of things such as elevator buffet when nearing the stall, since you are so often flying on the edge of that.

 

Every landing you make in a glider is in effect a dead stick landing, and that makes one a very good judge at planning approaches, which is something that would certainly be useful for when flying powered aircraft should the engine ever quit. Every aeroplane I fly for real, is flown with the constant scan for where and how I would set it down if the engine quit right now, and it was flying gliders which drilled that one into me.

 

Aerotowing gives one an appreciation of sympathetic formation flying and requires a good deal of skill to not endanger the tow plane, especially on take off, where you have to hold the aircraft down to avoid tipping the tow plane on its prop, so one gains a good knowledge of ground effect at low airspeeds. It is unlikely that most powered GA pilots who have never flown a glider on an aerotow, have ever been that close to another GA aircraft when in the air, and so one also gains a good appreciation of wake turbulence and where it lies behind another aircraft (it is a lot lower than you would think), and certainly there is much etiquette to follow and good visual scanning required when in a thermal with many other gliders in very close proximity. This makes one's lookout habits better for VFR flying in general, and improves one's appreciation of the dangers of busy circuits.

 

Low level ridge soaring gives one an appreciation of the movement of air masses and the dangers of downdrafts far more than one would ever gain from flying powered aircraft alone, and up high in wave lift, you can make use of that stuff in a powered aircraft too, and learn about how such downgoing waves can be dangerous. This is all good stuff when it comes to navigation and drift offsets when flying a powered aircraft, and certainly useful if one ever has to land anywhere that has a steep hill up to the runway threshold, since it is likely there will be a downdraft on finals in such places as every glider pilot knows.

 

Generally speaking, most glider pilots have a good deal of stalls and spins under their belt too, and so they are used to recovering from them in a timely fashion and not phased by them when they do occur. This is an invaluable skill to have when flying any aeroplane.

 

All of this stuff is knowledge and skill which can improve how you fly, whatever you fly. There is no question that flying something with no engine, where it is your skill and knowledge alone which keeps you in the air rather than the amount of gas in the tanks, will make you a better pilot, of any aeroplane.

 

Al

Very interesting contribution Chock. Tried glider once and never realised the skills this can bring.

Completely agree with you, jdhowell!

 

I have only very recently gotten into flying GA props, using OrbX scenery. I used to be a jetliner guy only. Typing in everything in the FMS, taking off, and getting that plane back in one piece at whatever destination I was flying to. But then, due to some fault or whatever, I lost an IRS. Gone was the autopilot. There I was, over the channel, flying to London Heathrow in a KLM 737NGX. I admit I panicked a bit. In learning how to use the FMS, I skipped the basics: VOR, ADF and DME. I found my way to heathrow because the FMS and all that was still functioning, the AP just stopped working.

 

I realized that as long as I would be flying jetliners, I would be inclined to use the FMS, and I wouldn't learn a thing. So, I reinstalled my Carenado GA props, installed the OrbX scenery that I had bought months ago but never quite got around to using, filed a flight plan, found the NAV radio, entered the correct heading and frequency, and off I went. No AP. No FMS. No automation. Just flying, low and slow, from one small strip to the other, over Sydney, Melbourne... The thrill of flying myself, finding my way around the sky and giving myself the time to not only see the scenery below me, but also experience it, was really something special.

 

Now I have the RealAir Scout and I'm happy. Already done several flights, using TrackIR, EZCA and Accu-Feel, and honest to god, I have never felt that FSX was as realistic as it is now. The experience is really great. Plus, props work very well on my scenery. I have high settings, and the FPS are good, fluid motion throughout the flight.

 

Yes, FSX got a lot better since I started flying props. And when I learn the basics of navigation, I will reintroduce myself to jetliner. I will not go straight to the PMDG 737NGX, though. First the CS 737-200, 727-200, that kind of plane. No FMS. Just old school VOR, DME and ADF. Once I master that, I will get back to the automation of modern airplanes.

 

But for now, low, slow and simple. FSX can be a source of frustration, but also a source of much pleasure.

 

I swear, if there's a program that taught me to mistrust everything around me, it gotta be FSX. If there is a program that taught me that the little things in life can give as much pleasure as the big things, it is FSX.

I love FSX.

 

I hate FSX.