"Kyle Boatright" wrote in message
. ..

"LWG" wrote in message
. ..

I got vectored around pretty much the same as when I
fly under the hood. I thought that was absolutely fantastic, and all for
about a nickel's worth of electricity. No instructor or safety pilot
needed.

Yep, but it wasn't flying, which is the whole point, right?

It can make the actual flying/instructing time a bit more productive.

I'm taking LWG's position on this because, just like a "real" simulator,
it's useful to be able to simply back up and do an approach again, or try an
approach with an instrument failure or things you wouldn't want to spend
$100/hr practicing. It's not going to replace actual flight time, but I
found it helpful in practicing the ability to cross-reference instruments in
"IMC" (sort of like the instrument examples in the Instrument written exam.)

Useful for learning the instrument panel and practicing navigation without
outside reference. Definately a secondary or tertiary source; it could
replace neither practical experience or instruction but you can learn to use
an ADF, VORs or the Garmin GPS with it.

Augering is a little easier on the system, too.

-c