Any real-life pilots on this group?

Hi,

In article <1194908522.586315.196800.TakeThisOut@y27g2000pre.googlegroups.com>,
Figaro<ponsellite.TakeThisOut@yahoo.com> wrote:
> I am wondering...are you guys serious aviators who have (or are
> planning to get) your pilot's license or are content being armchair
> pilots the rest of your lives?

I'm currently training in a PA-28 Warrior. Since I started I've pretty much
stopped flying Flight Sim. I found I'd got into an awful lot of bad habits
in terms of not looking out of the window enough.

Also, the flight models of the light aircraft in FSX seem very twitchy
compared to the real life handling of the Warrior. In FSX I find it very
difficult to maintain level flight as the aircraft seem very unstable, and
using trim is also very difficult.

People seem to say that Flight Sims are good for practicing the more
'procedural' stuff related to instrument flight. If I ever go as far as an
IMC rating (I'm in the UK) it may well be useful for that.

I still like to hop into a 747 or a Lear in FSX though, but for now I'm
steering clear of flying any of the light aircraft.

Andy

Figaro <ponsellite DeleteThis @yahoo.com> wrote in news:1194908522.586315.196800
@y27g2000pre.googlegroups.com:

> I am wondering...are you guys serious aviators who have (or are
> planning to get) your pilot's license or are content being armchair
> pilots the rest of your lives?


Got my private ticket 30 years ago, but haven't used it
much since. Got kinda boring. Take off, fly around the patch
for awhile, land. Repeat until money runs out.

Combat sims at least have objectives, at least the historical
ones.

Noemail RemoveThis @comcast.com (Mitchell Holman) wrote:

> Got my private ticket 30 years ago, but haven't used it
> much since. Got kinda boring. Take off, fly around the patch
> for awhile, land. Repeat until money runs out.

Thanks for confirming my suspicions.

I'm sure there are people out there who'll disagree, but I've always
imagined (imagined being the key word) that once the initial novelty
wears off, the combination of safety requirements, airspace restrictions,
aircraft performance, and the expense of it all would soon make flying
'just another way to get from A -> B'... though usually it'll be a case
of getting from A -> A again.

Andrew McP

"Andrew MacPherson" wrote

>> Got my private ticket 30 years ago, but haven't used it
>> much since. Got kinda boring. Take off, fly around the patch
>> for awhile, land. Repeat until money runs out.
>
> Thanks for confirming my suspicions.
>
> I'm sure there are people out there who'll disagree, but I've always
> imagined (imagined being the key word) that once the initial novelty
> wears off, the combination of safety requirements, airspace restrictions,
> aircraft performance, and the expense of it all would soon make flying
> 'just another way to get from A -> B'... though usually it'll be a case
> of getting from A -> A again.

That was how it was for me. I got my PPL and flew only about 10 hours after
that before it became a big ehh.
I am seriously considering learning to fly gliders but suspect I'll get
bored with that as well pretty quick.

In article <fhioiu$25g$1@aioe.org>, roball DeleteThis @xtranope.co.nz (rob) wrote:

> I am seriously considering learning to fly gliders

That might be more interesting, because keeping the aircraft in the air
is a challenge you need to keep on top of. I can understand the
attraction to something like that... it's something where your skill
makes a real difference.

Not that 'normal' flying doesn't require skill, but you know what I mean.

Andrew McP

I agree with you, private flying is boring, expensive and in some cases,
dangerous for the people who must be restricted to Private Flying. Flying
"High Performance" military aircraft is entirely different! Flying Sims
(Like IL-2 in FS War)can be more fun than flying "Real" light aircraft.
Military flying is where the "Thrill" never goes away! It is always
competitive, and you bet your life, and your friends lives on your
continuously developing skills!
Join the Navy and see what Aviators can really find in Aviation!

"Andrew MacPherson" <andrew.mcp.TakeThisOut@DELETETHISdsl.pipex.com> wrote in message
news:memo.20071116075600.2228A@address_disguised.address_disguised...
> In article <fhioiu$25g$1@aioe.org>, roball.TakeThisOut@xtranope.co.nz (rob) wrote:
>
>> I am seriously considering learning to fly gliders
>
> That might be more interesting, because keeping the aircraft in the air
> is a challenge you need to keep on top of. I can understand the
> attraction to something like that... it's something where your skill
> makes a real difference.
>
> Not that 'normal' flying doesn't require skill, but you know what I mean.
>
> Andrew McP

I am a licensed private pilot with land, sea, and instrument ratings.
I am also a professional photographer, and use a C-172 for low altitude
aerial photographs, and I just fly for fun as well. Well, fun, AND the
joy of doing something well. I am constantly working on being better
at all phases of flying - takeoffs, and landings, and nailing the
enroute courses, and vainly trying to attempt to keep the needles
centered in ILS approaches, and trying to come somewhere near (anywhere
near) the approach end of the runway out of an ADF approach in a good
crosswind. I have flown at dawn, and during the day, of course, and
at sunset, and at night, and in rainstorms and snow poor visibility. I
have watched the first light of dawn on an early flight, and seen the
sun rise and set so many times. In the winter, I have flown over
rolling fields with the orange light at the end of the day illuminating
the landscape. I have flown up and down in the Hudson River corridor,
looking up at the World Trade Center, when it still existed, both
during the day and at night.

So for me flying is not just about manipulating the controls of an
airplane at high noon. It is about going places, and seeing the world
from the best vantage point there is.



On 2007-12-18 21:08:18 -0500, "H Dickert" <hd DeleteThis @dickert.ca> said:

> I'm one. Captain on the CRJ with Air Canada Jazz. I never played any
> Flight sim game untill I was off on med leave for a number of years. At
> first I was going to use the progragm as a learning tool to help in my
> return to work. I downloaded a version of the CRJ but it was no good. Then
> I found the BD-5J. That little aircraft was the coolest thing going when I
> was a student pilot. I replaced the instruments in the virtual aircraft
> with a glass cockpit, and added double the thrust. WOW - what fun going up
> virtically. Actually got my instrument scan back using it. Fast forward a
> year and I loaded up the BD-5J again but it didn't do what I wanted. Then I
> designed my own aircraft in GMax from scratch. I just uploaded some images
> in another post. Check it out. Or go to www.dickert.ca/swift
> The Swift is still a work in process but it's a blast for checking out
> different areas of the world. At 1,250 KIAS or Mach 1.7 this thing really
> covers some ground. Sometimes I just put it on Autopilot and let it go.
> I'll come back to the computer a number of hours later and see where it is,
> click off the autopilot and check out the area, put it back on the autopilot
> and go away again. As others have said here, real pilots will poke a hole
> in the sky with a C-152 and see the same old area every Sunday. With this
> little simulation, I've actually left the airways, decended to a hundred
> feet AGL and flown in a way that would get you busted if it were the real
> thing.
>
> Harold
>
>
>
> , and ne
> Figaro <ponsellite DeleteThis @yahoo.com> wrote in message
> news:1194908522.586315.196800@y27g2000pre.googlegroups.com...
>> I am wondering...are you guys serious aviators who have (or are
>> planning to get) your pilot's license or are content being armchair
>> pilots the rest of your lives?
>>
>> As far as I know, Microsoft's flight sim series is great fun to play
>> but is not FAA-certified as a pilot training tool. That honor goes to
>> X-Plane. I also think Flight Unlimited offers better flight lessons
>> for serious would-be pilots than Microsoft.
>>
>> Nothing wrong with flying (or golfing) on the computer. Just not the
>> same thing!
>>
>> Figaro
>>
>
>
> <image>


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