Real Pilot

[vortex681 806]

18 hours ago, mattria said:

A couple of real world pilots I know have shunned the notion that the ATPL is heavy maths and physics stuff. They all told me that other than probably trigonometry, a 10 year old could probably do most of the maths required, with a little practice.

One of the biggest problems with instrument flying is getting your head around how to interpret what you see on the gauges rather than necessarily making the calculations. A piece of software I've had success with in the past, which is used by many commercial flying schools and the military, is RANT XL (Radio Aids Navigation Tutor) - Google it as I'm not sure of the status of posting links here at the moment! It's not cheap and looks quite basic but it's very good at what it does. By the time you reach the instrument phase of the course your basic flying skills should be well-established so the software ignores the mechanics of flying and just teaches you how to use the instruments. They have a trial version so you really have nothing to lose.

[motoadve 49]

Also useful if you buy good scenery and you fly to the airport in the sim before going in real life, its good for familiarization, I did it for flying to the backcountry strips of Idaho and then went and flew them on my own.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgzajQp10VM

[scottb613 1,188]

24 minutes ago, motoadve said:

Also useful if you buy good scenery and you fly to the airport in the sim before going in real life, its good for familiarization, I did it for flying to the backcountry strips of Idaho and then went and flew them on my own.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgzajQp10VM

Hi...

Bad link on the video - you the guy with that beautiful orange Skylane with the Costa Rican reg ??? Man - watched a bunch of your vids - that's some spectacular flying...

Folks - seriously  - watch this guys videos - mountain flying at its best...

Concur - use Flightsim all the time before real world flights - just to get the lay of the land and some expectation of how things will look... More the mountains, hills, water, roads, towns and such instead of actual airport details...

Regards,
Scott 

[motoadve 49]

Yes Im the one with the orange /white Cessna 182.

 

Link worked for me, that is weird.

Here is a link to my channel if anyone wants to see it, its mostly backcountry flying.

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEy4on05jWQG3aNN5USqChQ?disable_polymer=true

 

 

[scottb613 1,188]

3 minutes ago, motoadve said:

Yes Im the one with the orange /white Cessna 182.

 

Link worked for me, that is weird.

Here is a link to my channel if anyone wants to see it, its mostly backcountry flying.

 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEy4on05jWQG3aNN5USqChQ?disable_polymer=true

 

 

Hi...

That one worked for me - but then I already had it...

 

Regards,
Scott

[scottb613 1,188]

Hi...

Sorry - one follow up - what's that instrument on your glare shield - some type of AoA indicator ?

Thanks...

Regards,
Scott

[John_Cillis 2,406]

When I took light sport lessons, I felt right at home in my steam gauge Allegro 2000 trainer, and my instructor complimented me on my sim based knowledge.  But he also advised me to scan the sky more than the instruments, a habit the sim can cause is too much scanning of the instruments since they are so prominently displayed.  Especially on final, you have to use your eyes to scan to the end of the runway in order to apply flare at the right time.

Once I applied those habits back to the sim my landings improved quite a bit.  One thing the sim did not prepare me for were the dynamics of the Phoenix desert air.  The air currents would bob my nose back and forth off the centerline, I had to be prepared to counter with rudder and coordinated use of the ailerons.  Although my instructor felt I was ready to solo, I felt I wasn't.  That was where my lessons ended, as use of the trainer became tight in competition with other students, so weeks started to lapse between lessons and I would become too rusty.  I switched to trikes shortly after that which are easier to fly and more exhilarating as well.

In the sim I always fly with a little bit of light chop to mimic my typical real world experience.  Makes hand flying fun and unique for each flight.  Also applying mild winds from 0-3 kts adds to the realism.  We have those all the time in Arizona, there is not a day I go out and don't experience some breeze, usually out of the west.

John

[motoadve 49]

19 minutes ago, scottb613 said:

Hi...

Sorry - one follow up - what's that instrument on your glare shield - some type of AoA indicator ?

Thanks...

Regards,
Scott

Yes Alpha systems AoA , been flying with it for more than 1,000 hrs Im really used to it now, like it a lot, all GA planes should have one, makes for safer and easier flying.

[glider1 90]

VR headsets a big help because of the 1:1 scale. Pilots rotate their head in the same way as real world and can focus correctly on visual cues as well as instruments. VR is already good and next year 4K per eye headsets should start to ship if we're lucky.

[vortex681 806]

23 hours ago, glider1 said:

VR is already good and next year 4K per eye headsets should start to ship if we're lucky.

It all depends on what you mean by good. Immersiveness, yes, resolution, no.

As for 4k per eye, I don't think that the desktop hardware required to run that resolution at the required frame rates currently exists (or will do for some time). Even if it does in the future, you'd have such a tiny potential market that it wouldn't make economic sense to develop it. QHD is probably a more reasonable target but even that would probably seriously stretch all but the most powerful systems.

An interesting alternative is the upcoming Fove VR headset (getfove.com) which uses eye tracking along with head tracking. It can make only the foveal area (the centre of where you're actually looking) high resolution and the rest of the image lower res just like your real eyesight. This would reduce the graphics load as only a relatively small area of the display needs to be high res. Also because it knows exactly where you're looking, you could just look at a switch to be able to turn it on - much better than the hand tracking options currently available.