On Mar 18, 3:28*pm, "Mortimer Schnerd, RN" mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com
wrote:

Frankly, keeping my scan up is the *only* thing I use the sim for. *The rest of
it (MSFS) is just a toy.

Mort,
For instrument practice, I used Elite flight simulator program.
Not sure whether you had come across my postings on instrument
training but my self-study with Elite in conjunction with actual
instrument flying practice in my plane helped to prepare for my
accelerated instrument training. I also had an excellent instructor,
Bill Zaleski in Schenectady NY who got us quite a bit of actual time
during our 5 days of IFR training. Rick and I had just talked about
our instrument vs. commercial training yesterday. While we had great
fun with the commercial training, the instrument training was much
more thrilling and exciting. There is no way that one would get the
real IMC sensation just by playing with the simulator.

The instrument flying skills are also very valuable especially
for long cross country trips. I still fondly remember of the solid
2.5 hrs IMC flight I took late last fall from KHIE back to KPOU. It
was intense with scattered thunderstorms in the areas. Albany approach
vectored us around some cells. Even in the cloud, we still could see
some dark cloud areas ahead and asked for additional deviations from
our route. Without not even a jolt, I glanced at my altimeter and saw
that I had lost 500' and sinking. I added full throttle trying not
being pushed lower for fear of lurking mountain tops below. Then
within less than a minute, we were out of the downdraft and got a
1000' uplift again without not even a jolt. It was as if the entire
plane was pushed down and lifted up uniformly. Albany approach asked
us whether we had trouble maintaing our altitude and Rick informed
them of the situation. The rest of the trip was smooth as silk in the
soup all the way until we approached our destination. The ceiling was
high enough so I asked for a VOR approach rwy 24 for favorable wind
instead of ILS runway 6. There is no way that I could recreate this
trip using a simulator. It was intense and a bit nerve-racking but
also exciting. I still remember the extreme tiredness mixing with
pure exhiliration as the wheels touched the ground. It was an
incredible trip.

I had been using the Elite program to practice approaches before
embarking on a real cross country trips. I have not done much
instrument flying either on the Elite simulator or actual during the
winter but will get back to these activities real soon. Ever since
getting the Elite program, I have not touched MSFS. MSFS sceneries
were nice but Google Earth gives me much better visual information so
there is no point of playing with MSFS.

I feel incredible lucky for being able to afford to fly, to have a
spouse who share the passion. I am quite grateful for having the
opportunities to learn from quite a few of great instructors from the
brand new, enthusiastic ones to the highly skilled CFI and CFIIs, and
seasoned pilots with quite a few from the rec.aviation forums.

Hai Longworth