I have started flight training :-)

[pilotpierre]

Hi Req,

I only just found this, being os for the last 5 weeks in some shitty internet locations at times, i was just scanning the "general discussion" section whenever I got the chance.

 

Great news though mate, I have every confidence you will make a great and conscientious (ergo safe) pilot.

 

I'll now go and plow my way through your blog. As someone else said, you will remember the first solo flight for the rest of your days. I can remember having a huge grin on my face for the whole flight and shouting "Yeehaaa" several time on the way around.

 

Now for the blog to see if you have soloed yet.

[pilotpierre]

Looks like you are creaming it sport. I have subscribed to your blog and will follow your progress with great interest.

[Mastermariner]

Ssshes! This RL flying thing is just sooo over rated. Both the DM and FM are way off as I heard.

Don't take it to serious, you will be back when they refuse to recognise your kills.

Master

[andyw248]

Ssshes! This RL flying thing is just sooo over rated. Both the DM and FM are way off as I heard.

Don't take it to serious, you will be back when they refuse to recognise your kills.

 

[indiaciki]

I'll probably start in autumn... bad windy time here. How's you're meteorology going? I think I'll never going to get that right. Confusing...

[Requiem]

Requiem,

 

Your engine out forced approach simulations reminded me of my C150 training way back in '75. The instructor pulled the power on me and I set up an approach on a very nice looking field far below. As we descended, I thought to myself, "That really is a nice looking field. But what are those structures on either side?" My instructor asked me if I noticed anything unusual about the field and I replied yes. He then said, "Well, you may want to avoid doing a forced approach on a rifle range." Ah, ya! He pulled that on many of the students. Careful!   :-)

 

Cheers! 

I don't think there are many outdoor rifle ranges around where I fly, but I know now to pay attention to the GPS as well as outside thanks to the time he pulled the throttle on me when we were directly over an unpaved strip and I was too busy looking outside for a landing point to see it

 

Hi Req,

I only just found this, being os for the last 5 weeks in some shitty internet locations at times, i was just scanning the "general discussion" section whenever I got the chance.

 

Great news though mate, I have every confidence you will make a great and conscientious (ergo safe) pilot.

 

I'll now go and plow my way through your blog. As someone else said, you will remember the first solo flight for the rest of your days. I can remember having a huge grin on my face for the whole flight and shouting "Yeehaaa" several time on the way around.

 

Now for the blog to see if you have soloed yet.

No solo yet mate as that comes later in the program. I'm probably about a week and a half away from that milestone...which of course I'll record and upload to YouTube Glad you are enjoying the read! I really enjoy writing these entries as it keeps my family and friends up to date on how things are progressing, plus it solidifies the lessons learned for me that day when writing them from memory.

 

Ssshes! This RL flying thing is just sooo over rated. Both the DM and FM are way off as I heard.

Don't take it to serious, you will be back when they refuse to recognise your kills.

Real.jpg

Master

 

I'll probably start in autumn... bad windy time here. How's you're meteorology going? I think I'll never going to get that right. Confusing...

The meteorology (weather and weather services) has probably been the most complex bit so far because even though it is integral to flying it just feels like such a separate topic. I already had experience reading METARs and TAFs from my air force experience, so it was more or less the weather theory and other services I needed to study. I surprised my instructor with the knowledge I had about aerodynamics, aircraft systems, etc..so since those parts were easy enough I've been able to spend a bit more time studying weather and weather services as that is stuff I never had to worry about in a simulator

 

Great News Requiem, and it explains the good reason why we've seen you a lot less at this and other sim forums ;-)

 

I'm curious on you opinion regarding the flightsim experience and flying for real, and how much the former has impact ( positive / negative ) in the later ?

 

And, please don't do like me who, when I restarted flying for real, after a long hiatus, in 2006, trashed all of my sim stuff because I thought - "I will never

need a flightsim again!..."  :-)

 

All of the best to your training!  Follow the checklists!!!!

The biggest difference is the feeling of flight and the feedback I receive in my body and from the controls. The actual flying of the airplane part has felt pretty natural for me from the start. It's funny though, I got to fly BoS for a little bit yesterday and was lamenting about the lack of feedback in the pedals    I won't be ditching my flight sim gear though...I still want to flight sim and make instructional vids once I'm all finished with the program and become a CFI. There is just going to be a delay with that until I've got all the ratings.

 

When I started I mentioned that I had no real flight experience but I have flown flight simulators before, so on my first flight the instructor let me do the takeoff. During the course of that first flight the instructor must have felt pretty comfortable with how I was going and let me do the landing too. I have this flight recorded so I'll send you the link. As for asking if simming has helped me...right now I'm about three weeks ahead of schedule, so my sim experience has definitely helped me progress well in this program.

 

My 'unexplained absence' since I started is probably because this is the only forum (and thread) where I've posted what I'm doing so it's likely most people won't see it. I'm just not really into cross posting the same thing on multiple forums as it gets to be a bit of a hassle. I can just squeeze in the time to write my blog entries about what I've been doing that day, so although I read a bit on the forums and answer PMs, the actual posting on them is secondary. This post is a bit long since I'm on a day off today, but I get back into it tomorrow for more flying!

[pilotpierre]

Hi mate,

I have been following and commenting on your blog but not sure if you are seeing the comments. Sounds like you are really creamimg it - I would have expected nothing less from you. I'm glad you ate enjoying it, its an exciting time.

What is the minimum hours you require prior to going solo over there? Sounds like it is far more than Aust.

[Requiem]

Hi mate,

I have been following and commenting on your blog but not sure if you are seeing the comments. Sounds like you are really creamimg it - I would have expected nothing less from you. I'm glad you ate enjoying it, its an exciting time.

What is the minimum hours you require prior to going solo over there? Sounds like it is far more than Aust.

Sorry mate, I thought I replied last night but I checked and it doesn't look like it went through. There should be a reply now though...AFAIK though there are no minimum hours required. My first solo flight is dictated by the program's schedule.

[oneeyeddog]

Thanks for the update Requiem , and best wishes for continued success.

[II/JG17_HerrMurf]

How are you finding the sim world translates to the real world. I did it the other way round. Curious for your perspective. I assume you did a forward slip with full flaps and dumped 2000' on your first approach to the perfect flare - while the CFI tried to wrestle the controls away from you

[Requiem]

Thanks for the update Requiem , and best wishes for continued success.

Cheers mate, I don't really update this thread that much so the blog is where I do most of it

 

 

How are you finding the sim world translates to the real world. I did it the other way round. Curious for your perspective. I assume you did a forward slip with full flaps and dumped 2000' on your first approach to the perfect flare - while the CFI tried to wrestle the controls away from you

Not quite that extreme Actually, my CFI has noted that since I started he hasn't needed to touch the controls from Day 1, so the simulator flying has helped me to some degree for sure. The big differences at the start for me included adjusting to the resistance in the rudder pedals, getting that consistent seating position sorted out, and actually feeling the feedback in my body about what the plane is doing instead of just relying on the visual cues you see in a sim. The radio calls I got back into pretty quickly as I did plenty of that back in the air force so that was one less thing I had to worry about, which let me concentrate on flying the plane instead of fumbling about on comms. It was funny though as I went cold turkey on sims once I started the RL flying. Then one day on a weekend I had the day off and tried a couple out and it felt so weird for a few minutes as I had to re-adjust to flying without the feedback I was now accustomed to! Much to the amusement of a friend of mine who flies in RL..."Welcome to my world" he said...

[6./ZG26_5tuka]

Yea as a glider pilot I can only fly in sims over the winter period. When I'm at real flying again in spring I always have to adopt to flying smoothly and gentle again since I still got that combat-sim feeling in my hand

 

At my first flight my instructor asked me "Are you a sim pilot?" He laughted. "We know those guys for some time now, they always wiggle around with the stick too much and can't fly smoothly".

[voncrapenhauser]

Yea as a glider pilot I can only fly in sims over the winter period. When I'm at real flying again in spring I always have to adopt to flying smoothly and gentle again since I still got that combat-sim feeling in my hand

 

At my first flight my instructor asked me "Are you a sim pilot?" He laughted. "We know those guys for some time now, they always wiggle around with the stick too much and can't fly smoothly".

LOL

 

I fly in winter too, Ridge running and such,  just to stay current on type, was always hard to keep the canopy clear of condesation.

Having the front vent open constantly was the solution, but the English winters are cold, especially in the face.

 

I had that too from my instructor, asking was I a sim pilot.

My instructor said "Sim guys fly Digital" ie not smooth and harmonised.

When I first started Glider flying I was allways getting moaned at for not using the rudder enough lol.

 

Glad to hear Requiem is enjoying the experience

Edited February 10, 2015 by voncrapenhauser

[voncrapenhauser]

Hi mate,

I have been following and commenting on your blog but not sure if you are seeing the comments. Sounds like you are really creamimg it - I would have expected nothing less from you. I'm glad you ate enjoying it, its an exciting time.

What is the minimum hours you require prior to going solo over there? Sounds like it is far more than Aust.

I went solo at 115 hrs but our average on K21 was 85 to 95, ( was a slow learner) but the Instructor sent you when he was confident.

No hard and fast rules on how many hours.

I had a surprise solo put upon me, I hadn't finished spin training yet

 

What types do you guys fly? Open question to all?

 

I fly K21,K13,SZD Junior and have had hands on, on Tiger Moth, Rotax Falke, Super Falke.

Edited February 10, 2015 by voncrapenhauser

[pilotpierre]

I was ready to go solo after 13 hours, but the next 2 flights the weather was lousy and the IP chickened out. Did it at 15.6 hours in a PA 38. That was a long time ago though.

[Soarfeat]

Hey Requiem,

I just watched your solo video and again wish you many more great real flying hours. I use to tell my kids that all I want is for them to find their passion and pursue this so they enjoy what they do as an occupation ( hopefully ). I want them to kick their heels up on the way to work !!! Well, I have modified this a bit in my journey and have found that sometimes that passion finds us, we just need to drift sometimes for this to happen. Maybe this is it for you, hmmm !!! 

Regardless--embrace the moment !!!

[JimTM]

In reply to voncrapenhauser's post, I used to fly C150/C152, C172, and Piper Archer. I once got 1/2 hr. flying a Citation I, did the takeoff in a Mooney, and got a short go at flying a Canadair Cosmopolitan (Canadian version of Convair CL-66B). I also got to land an Air Canada DC-8 simulator at Montreal back in '75 (well, at least I kept one wheel on the runway, but it was a night landing).  :-)

 

My first solo was very busy as there were six planes in the circuit on runway 22 at Ottawa Uplands. I never had time to savour the flight but it was still "one of life's golden moments", to use one of my dad's favorite expressions. He trained on Tiger Moths, by the way, which is where "JimTM" comes from.

 

Salut!

Edited February 13, 2015 by JimTM

[Soarfeat]

Cheers guys, I'm very happy you all like what you've seen so far  On the other hand I'm very bummed though that the F11 free camera from RoF still isn't enabled yet. Other camera options have been carried over from RoF so it has obviously been deliberately disabled for the EA version. I won't be doing BFM or ACM videos without it because the learning points I try and get across to you guys would suffer. The BFM and ACM stuff is where most people's interest lies I think considering this is a combat sim, so I'm hoping the devs are listening and help me to help them. Otherwise, why bother putting out inferior videos?

 

 

No I'm not Soarfeat, I've never been able to afford the costs involved, but it's something I've always wanted to do so maybe I'll do it one day if all the stars fall into place. Just please remember that these videos will never be substitutes for RL training and that I've never claimed they are. I've had internet experts get their panties in a twist at me over  sim-footage I've used to illustrate principles thinking I'm passing it off as RL training for some reason, so I often feel like I need to use that disclaimer. 

 

Hey Req,

I just read your blog and am so glad " the stars fell into place " for you to pursue this as a livelihood. Do you remember me asking you about being a real life flight instructor ? ---- I had high hopes you would pursue this professionally and am using this a a good example of how if you drift with circumstances, it leads to where you should be ---weird but true !!!

I am very happy for you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You will be a good asset to the aviation industry.

Blue skies and light winds ---sf--

Edited February 14, 2015 by soarfeat