Got Microsoft Simulator 04 today

[Thair81]

Oh just one more thing, and this is slightly off topic...

Lloyd, I checked out your website and the photo blog...pretty interesting. Is it just me or does the day in the life of a flight instructor revolve a great deal around meal times? Just asking because there seems to be a lot of pictures of lunch.

Just curious.

[mtsu_av8er]

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Lloyd, I checked out your website and the photo blog...pretty interesting.


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Well, thank you very much!! I didn't think anybody actually read that...lol.

I haven't updated the webpage in ages, and the blog is about 2-weeks behind. More on the way!!!

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Is it just me or does the day in the life of a flight instructor revolve a great deal around meal times? Just asking because there seems to be a lot of pictures of lunch.

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well, I do eat at least twice a day....

[Maximillian_Jenius]

Still want to hear how it was with your highschool student tag alongs?

-Matthew

[aloft]

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Do any of you guys feel that the Flight Simulator program is a useful tool for training and learning or is it more of a fun thing for just playing around?

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Flight simulators (MSFS isn't the only game in town) can indeed be a useful training aid, as long as you recognize their strengths and weaknesses and act accordingly.

Due to the lack of visual fidelity in even the most advanced PC-based sims, a student working toward their PPL would be best served not messing around with a PC sim AT ALL until you start to work on radio navigation and the cross-country phase. During pre-solo and initial solo flights, there's just too much "negative transfer" going on between flying a sim and flying a real airplane. In this stage, you're working on developing proper sight pictures and muscle memory, neither of which are reinforced by a PC sim, they're just too different, even if you're using a yoke & rudder pedals. Pre-flying your student cross-country flights--especially your solo XCs--can be useful as it can give you a degree of familiarity to what has to happen and when.

Where PC-based sims shine is in practicing instrument flying procedures. Though none have great external visual fidelity, most have the instrument panel down pretty good (I prefer X-Plane to MSFS because its instrument displays are many times more fluid). Because instrument flying is done exclusively by reference to the flight instruments, external visual fidelity isn't a big factor. Moreover, instrument flying isn't about sight pictures and muscle memory, but of instrument scan and interpretation, and maintaining a sense of positional awareness. In other words, my take on IFR ops is that it is predominantly a mental exercise, and one that can be worked out with a PC sim.

[sorrygottarunway]

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well, I do eat at least twice a day....

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LUCKY!

I slap on an IV line before I go up teaching.

[mtsu_av8er]

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well, I do eat at least twice a day....

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LUCKY!

I slap on an IV line before I go up teaching.

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Well, sometimes it is from the wheel of death. . .

[mtsu_av8er]

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Still want to hear how it was with your highschool student tag alongs?


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Man, those kids were cool! I think that they both got a really good idea of what it was like to be in this industry. For the sake of reality, I kind of mixed up their schedule. Most of my days start at 0800 or before (some as early as 0530), and I made sure that they got to see what it was like to show up, have coffee, get a weather briefing, check the status of the aircraft, fuel states, etc, etc - all before 0700.

They got to see what it was like to be constantly 20 minutes behind schedule all day, and being forced to squeeze lunch in between endorsing a logbook and walking out to another airplane. They got to fly with me at least once each day of the week - except for the day that they got to see a full day of cancellations.

They got to watch me with just about everything that I did, and they asked a ton of questions. One of them seemed to be more interested in the business aspect of being a CFI more than anything else. He really dug the fact that you have to be your own cheerleading squad, marketing department, secretary, crisis manager, maintenance manager and personal scheduler. All while trying to keep the planes right-side-up!!

If I get the chance, I'll be doing it next year!!!

[Thair81]

Aloft,

Thanks for the detailed explanation. It definitely answered my question.