Skidz flight training confessions

skidz

skidz

Well-Known Member
Dear JC forum,

OK, I've been hiding a dirty secret from my fellow jc bunch and the secret is that I have started the flight training for my instrument rating last week. I intend to use GI bill so I'm using this 141 school in the area that is VA approved. I had two lessons so far and both in a PCATD sim. Now, this is kinda bugging me because they charge the same as the real flying and they want me to do 8-10 hours in a sim before I get to fly for real. Well, both times the weather kind of sucked so I didn't really care, besides the sim is kinda cool, but I'm getting anxious to fly for real. All I did so far was some turning to headings and changes in speed and altitudes and I aced it so I feel like wasting time a bit. Well, I guess I'll keep posting my new experiences here as they come. I'm wondering though...how many of you did some sim time for your instrument training and did it really help you any or not? For me personally it feels like flying my MS flight simulator which I flew like a million times already. Please don't clutter this thread with totaly unrelated stuff...thanx.

Truly yours,

Skidz :D
 
Totally agree, the PCATD did nothing for my instrument skills as I had already done that countless times with Flight Sim. I would think it would be useful for anyone who had no prior experience.
 
I did about 15 hours in the sim for my IR.

Advantage =
1. Timed turns, mastering the 500 fpm descent.
2. Shooting the ILS from just beyond the outer marker...
3. $55 pr/hr with instructor (before VA reimbursement)...and time still counts toward the 35 hours for 141
4. Holding. Getting thrown into some unrealistic holding situation and making sense of it on the fly. Big advantage in the sim.

Disadvantage (for you) =
1. They must be really proud of that sim to charge you full price. If it is the same price, don't let them milk you for the full 15 hours. If you have actual IMC conditions, demand that they do the lesson in IMC instead of that stupid sim.

I laughed when I saw that you started a sdhcvhoh(sp) type of flight training thread. Don't be posting pics of you taking the 172 up to 17,999 :D

Congrats on getting started man. Keep the stories coming.
 
I did about 14 hours in an FTD. I thought is was very helpful and it was cheap! I paid about $14/hr to use the FTD. I hadn't done any instrument flying on MS Simulator, so I was a complete newbie to the IMC world. The thing that benefitted me the most in the FTD was being able to stop and ask questions right in the middle of the flight without worrying about wasting time/gas/money. Plus, when it came to shooting approaches, once you go missed, you don't have to waste time re-positioning the airplane, but rather the instructor just moves you to a good starting point for the approach...no messing with ATC, other traffic, etc...

IMO, it was worth the time to use the FTD. I'm really surprised at how expensive your PC-ATD costs!
 
Wing_96 said:
IMO, it was worth the time to use the FTD. I'm really surprised at how expensive your PC-ATD costs!
Click to expand...

No kidding, I really feel like being robbed. They are charging $125 an hour. Damn, I mean, I could probably get some multi level D for that :mad:
 
When I was doing a lot of IFR training, I would try to do the first 10 hours in the ground trainer so the guy had seen a lot of stuff before doing it for real. Most syllabi start with a heavy dose of BAI and patterns A and B. I'd always run a guy though that but if he aced it, I'd move on quickly. The problem is a ground trainer flys so different from the real thing, it's almost useless for learning scan. It's GREAT for learning holding patterns and approach procedures, though.
 
Well, you know what dudes and dudettes? I actually flew the real airplane today and not a chinese water torture chamber they call a simulator. It was cool, one hour under the hood chasing around all those crazy gauges, awesome! :D I'm supposed to fly tomorrow again so I guess I'll put it in here if anything interesting happens.
As for today, it was the compass turns, timed turns, unusual attitudes, climbs, descents, climbing turns, power on/off stalls, steep turns....
*yawn!* :D
Well, nothing much to write about so I'll keep it short. The weather was nice, the tower went to sleep by the time we were ready to go. It was already night when we came back to land and I did my first 90 knots 10 degrees flaps landing that we're gonna use throughout the whole training.
I'm planning to go like 3 times a week till november and about 5 times a week in november. Wish me luck cause I wanna have that shiny new instrument rating in next two months. :)
 
My instrument instructor who is a master cfi and former checkairmen for a major airline made me do 20 hours of simulator (10 hours a day for 2 days) after that we only did 3 hours of dual in the plane before my checkride. We did do a full day of prep for the oral before the sim but it was all 0 knowledge to instrument rating in 4 days including the checkride. It felt boring, repetitive, unrealistic, etc. However as soon as I got in the plane it all fell into place and some of it seemed easier to do in the plane. Every hour of sim time really helped me out and made for an easy checkride.
 
I've done another one today and that's it for this week. We covered the same things as yesterday including some partial panel and timing turns, I think everything is going pretty smooth so far. I really had no trouble at all flying with just basic compass with total vacuum failure and doing timed turns while climbing at certain rate and descending. I'm anxious to do more. I have three lessons scheduled for next week so...we'll see. I feel alive again.
:)
 
Just a quick add. Tonight I had another instrument lesson. It was pretty much a review of the last few lessons. We did slow flight, stalls, steep turns, partial panel turns to headings unusual attitude and the usual changes in altitude and speed.
All of it was done at night time which felt a little bit different to me because I have never done it before at night. Well, it was supposed to feel the same, but at day time I still get some cues when under the hood.
Anyway, I’m a bit tired but I just love going there and doing stuff while flying around. I could do this all day I think. Hopefully I will one day. :)
My instructor just loves to call the New Orleans approach to tell them where we going, but there is so much chatter in the air that it becomes annoying after a while as I’m chasing the needles around. :crazy:
So far my worst sin was not being able to relax and my instructor has pointed that out to me like million times, I can't help it, I guess it will get better over time.
I had the aircraft trimmed pretty good most of the time I think, for some reason the altimeter kept creeping up on me always trying to be close to a hundred more than I'm supposed to be and when I try to correct it I keep chasing it up and down, it works so much better leaving it like 75 above the assigned altitude :D
I have another lesson early in the morning at 7am tomorrow and this time it is supposed to be some timing turns and S maneuvers in preparation for holding patterns, can’t wait.
So much for now, I might have something interesting to write up tomorrow, untill then try to get some sleep guys, I know you can't wait to read my next blog here :D
:hiya:
 
aloft said:
Yeah...don't pay them $125/hr for a PCATD...that's a huge ripoff.
Click to expand...

Well, there is more. Apparently they are NOT VA APPROVED. Just a tip for all of you out there that plan on using va benefits, check with va first. The school being part 141 does not automatically mean it is VA approved.
This school I'm training at has been advertizing VA benefits on their web site for 2 years now and they were not approved at all. Well, I found that out today. Apparently, they were given guarantees but then Katrina hit and they lost the paperwork. Anyway, I'm still sticking with them because I like the instructor and there really is no other school in New Orleans area that is VA approved unfortunatelly. I don't know why veterans get screwed like that, but they do. :mad:
 
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