NaFenn
Completely agree with you. Sims can help you to remember flows and understand airplane systems only if the airplane is correctly replicated which is not always the case. Sim also made me familiar with things like TAF, METAR, NOTAMs and phraseology. That's what I believe the sim is there for as much as you use it correctly. I mean these more theoretical aspects. Sims won't tell you how to actually fly the airplane. It's quite easy to fly an airplane in heavy turbulence in the sim but how is it in real life when your head and your arms that are holding the control column and the throttle are shacking all over the place and you can't see anything? I don't know. How to recover from stall? I don't know. How to land? Many pilots can give you a throughout explanation and you can always try to practise it in the sim but will I be able to do it in real life? I don't know.
How will I be able to do it? By listening to my instructor.
Big Pistons Forever
I wonder how it's gonna be for me
Wiggy
I think ELMS makes a valid point in that it’s dangerous to assume everybody around the world (or even Europe) has a flight deck access policy that is a clone of that enacted by the UK or the USA..
In fact, I never went able to access the flight deck from US or UK based operators.
I’ve yet to see any PC based sim that accurately replicates the handling…..switches, etc may well all be roughly in the right place, yes you can run checklists, but there’s a lot left missing that simply can’t be replicated at home.
Yes and the PMDG 777 is a great example. I went able to find much stuff that was not matching the manuals. There are also things that just can't be simulated like ACARS, SATCOM or even the cabin crew or the fire trucks in emergencies. Talking about checklists, the CCD is not working and is being replaced by your mouse because it would be quite difficult for simmers to do it like in real life. I highly doubt the PMDG handles as the real 777 would. I would say 90% of the things being simulated are well replicated despite all the glitches. Most real 777 pilots I heard giving their opinion about the add on were impressed and quite surprised by how much things were close to real life. I know a few pilots use it to practise flow and stuff like this but it will never replace curriculum.
With my ex instructor (basic jet) hat on I can see you have been offered, for free, lots of good advice from many previous posters. Above all early day’s it’s all about attitude, in more ways than one…[img]file:///C:/Users/Noah/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif[/img].
Yes, tons of great advice. That's why being curious and listening to others whether they are or aren't more experienced than me will make me able to improve constantly because you will never stop learning even with thousands of hours of flying. I'm still quite surprised by the attitude of some people here saying things that I never said and comparing me to a duck quacking.
Heston
You need an instructor to teach you which you don't have at home (not so many posts have made this point)
I just can't count the hundreds of times I were doing things in the sim and wondering am I doing it right? The only way to get the answer is to ask or see how real pilots would do in a similar situation.
I wonder if the OP has heard back from his aeroclub yet - I'd expect that first lesson to be booked by now. Perhaps he can let us know how it goes...
Definitely planning to do it.
Now I got a question coming to my mind.
I visited 2 aeroclubs.
The first one, we did one hour and the roads, arrived at the site, there was no one. He said he thought we were coming to another date and admitted he didn't place it correctly on his agenda after realising messages we exchanged with each other were saying something different to his agenda. Fine, we came back a week later.
The second, we went here and they put me in contact with an instructor saying he would take me for an initiation flight. When trying to find a date he didn't answer my messages. I came back to him later and he said he was not answering me because the weather wasn't appropriate. I said fine, when do you want to fly? He said I am on vacation I'll get back to you as soon as I come back. Never heard of him since...
Now I asked by email for an inscription in France. Got a form from them I had to fill out. I gave them the form completed and never got an answer. Sent them another email, no answer. My friend flying there asked them what was going on, they said it was a normal process and they would come back to me really soon. Two weeks later, nothing from them.
So here comes my question: do aeroclubs care about having new students? It just feels like they don't want me to pay them to learn how to fly.
FlightDetent
Hopefully by the time he touches a real airplane, the flight simming hobby will slide backwards due to the sheer excitement and learning opportunities the physical experience brings.
Believe it or not, I hate flight simming. It's just boring but unfortunately, my parents aren't rich enough to give me immediate access to real flying so instead, I'm simming. I think with time, my simming hobby is likely to slowly slide backwards.