
Flight-Simulator Enthusiasts Confident of Real-World Skills - jonbaer
https://www.wsj.com/articles/flight-simulator-enthusiasts-confident-of-real-world-skills-1534446556
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daly
I spent a couple thousand hours over several years flying the MS flight
simulator for a small plane. I signed up for flying lessons. On my first-ever
real flight I started the plane, got tower clearance, taxied to the proper
runway. took off, and flew to the practice area. I did all of this without
comment or discussion with the flight instructor.

After a few minutes he said "my plane" and asked me to "put on the hood" (for
those who don't know, you wear a hood so you can't see anything but the
instruments). He whipped and flipped the plane around for a minute. Then he
said "your plane"... so I looked at the instruments, found that I was in a
vertical dive. I cut the throttle, centered the stick, and kicked opposite
rudder. The plane leveled out.

He commented "that was an ok performance but you could be better". I asked him
if this was standard testing for a first-time VFR pilot (aka newbie). He was
upset. He thought I was an instrument pilot and already had my VFR license.

The hardest part about flying the actual plane was steering the plane on the
ground. You do this with your feet and I had no practice at that.

Besides the simulator I also have a bookcase full of flying books and videos,
from mountain flying to flight engineer. I HIGHLY recommend
[https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Rudder-Explanation-Art-
Flying/d...](https://www.amazon.com/Stick-Rudder-Explanation-Art-
Flying/dp/0070362408)

For a real education read [https://www.flyingmag.com/tags/i-learned-about-
flying-from-t...](https://www.flyingmag.com/tags/i-learned-about-flying-from-
that)

Also, I don't know if the FAA program still exists but they used to encourage
pilots to visit the tower so you could see the kind of pressure they are
under. I spent many hours trying to sequence planes and clearing them for
landing (talking to myself, not the actual planes). Those guys are AMAZING.
You can't imagine how hard it is to keep track of a dozen planes you can't
see, keep them in order, talk on the radio, and do it flawlessly for hours at
a time.

Later I flew a CAP-10B
([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudry_CAP_10](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mudry_CAP_10))...
Flying a Cessna 152 is like riding a bicycle while drunk. It "responds" with a
LOT of lag. Landing the Cessna is like wrestling a soft mattress down a flight
of stairs. Flying a CAP-10B is like driving a Formula-1 racing car. It
responds to your heartbeat in a heartbeat. I landed the CAP-10B "on the
numbers" on the first try. There is no comparison.

