Simulator

[Lister Noble]

I have a partial skills test first thing Saturday morning and will not be able to fly until then.
So I've been up to Norwich airport this afternoon to use a simulator,not one of the £million things but a good bit of kit based around a Cessna 172 (or a twin of some sort) costing around £50k.
It was really excellent,I did lots of steep turns ,stalls etc and also some VOR exercises.
As a finale we did an instrument landing into Norwich and it was so real I was waiting for the landing sounds and couldn't understand why we were still flying.
"You've landed" said the instructor.
Cost was £75 /hr plus dreaded vat.
OK,it's not the same as flying but I reckon if the weather is rubbish in the winter at least one could keep the old hand in.
Any thought?
Lister

[bellend]

Hi

Is this one hour loggable or is it a fun exercise? good luck with the skills test ,its a piece of pi$$ !!!:uhoh:

[kevmusic]

Does a chap have to go all the way to Norwich for a ride? Is there such a sim in the South East?

Kev.

[dwshimoda]

£88 an hour sounds a bit steep for a 172 sim, but if it's loggable, I guess it all counts. The key thing about the sim is the number of different things you can cover off in that hour, so it probably equates to 2 - 3 hours in the actual aircraft (no time for taxi t/o, you can reset at any point, etc.)

Certainly a good idea if you can't get into the sky to practice that way - I even used Microsoft Flight Sim to practice holds for my IMC rating, and it's amazing how even a basic sim can make some difference.

Good luck for Saturday - hope it goes smoothly for you, and keep that altitiude in the turn!

DW :ok:

[Zulu Alpha]

Lister,

Good luck on the skills test.

You are correct, the simulator does help. I find that an hour or to on MS flight sim at home really helps get back into instrument flying before going up to practise for real.

I haven't tried using it for VFR but as I am lucky enough to fly regularly it has not been necessary. I'm sure when you get your hands on the Cub you'll fly regularly even in the winter. You do get quite a lot of very cold but gin clear blue skies days in winter..great flying

Again, good luck.. we'll expect a special post giving us all the details.

ZA / DJ

ps couldn't you get Stik to take you up. you could practise some really steep turns etc!!

[Lister Noble]

Zulu,
Stik has shown me the full capabilities of a Pitts,I flew with him last year and we did his complete aero display routine.
Perhaps he left something out, but if he did I don't know what it was!
The hour in the sim actually ended up as nearly two as they were setting up new hardware and software so it was very good value.
Lister:)