On Mar 6, 6:15 pm, Mxsmanic wrote:
Jim writes:
Excellent advice on all points. Only thing I would add is to use these
steps in basic trainer such as C172 until proficient, as in real life
you must crawl before you can walk. Flying a complex aircraft in
simulation is task intensive and frustrating.

Does a Baron 58 count as complex? It seems easy to fly compared to the big
iron.


It has retractable gear and variable pitch props, means it's complex.
Not to mention multi-engine.

I fly mostly the Baron 58 as Dreamfleet's simulation is rigorously accurate,
so it behaves just like the real thing. The C172 seems too easy, so either
this is the world's easiest plane to fly in real life, or the sim is not as
accurate as it could be.

In real life, I'd want to fly the same thing I had flown in the sim, if I
could find a place that would give me instruction in a Baron (a new one, not
one of those WWII relics, but without the G1000 junk).

You would be very ill-advised to try and start your flight training in
a twin.
There's way too much stuff to cope with when you're trying to learn
how to take off, fly s+l and land..
Best to learn on something small, slow, forgiving, and you can move up
later. I found even going from a C152 to an Archer, I got way behind
the aircraft - too much happening too fast, and the Archer doesn't
have two engines, CSU's or retract. And the difference in cruise is
only 35kt or so, but enough to get me seriously behind the aircraft!!



Be careful not to float or balloon
in ground effect. If you do balloon add a bit of power to stabilize
and cut the throttle again and flare to landing. Hope this helps.

I do seem to glide excessively just before touchdown. I have a phobia about
expensive damage to the gear. I've hardly ever crashed in a way that would
injure me in real life, but I've had a fair number of landings in which the
gear was damaged (on one occasion I damaged flaps as well, not sure how).


If you are floating you are going too fast or trying to hold it off
too long. From reading your earlier post, you identified the VSo of
the Baron as 75. My research came up with 69-72 as stall speeds.
Which makes VSo x1.3 = 89-93kt. You probably don't want to be going
for a full stall landing in a twin, so come in at about 90kt, raise
the nose a bit to flare and let it settle onto the runway. Don't try
and hold it off, that's what a Cessna pilot should do, but probably
not a twin pilot. Just make sure your mains touch before your nose
wheel.
Mind you, I am not a twin pilot so that could all have been
rubbish. :-)