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Hello,

I am not a pilot - but I play a lot of flight simulator. I wanted to
talk to some real pilots about flying proficiently. I feel like I am
pretty good on simulator, but I have no way of knowing b/c I don't
have feedback from an actual pilot.

It's hard - you also don't get feedback from banging your head on the window
if you are jerking the stick around (easy to do with a PC sim). I find
myself banging the stick in the sim because you just don't notice how bad
you are flying. In real life you would get instant feedback. And a few
minutes later, if you have a passenger, you would get feedback all over the
floor.


I was wondering what makes a pilot proficient? When making turns,
does the VSI fluctuate at all or should a pilot be able to keep it at
0 fpm at all times? What degree of fluctuation is considered
proficient?

1) A VSI in real life is just this side of worthless. It has a lot of lag -
better to ocassionaly glance at the altimiter and airspeed
2) You need to get your head outside teh cockpit - chasing the needles is a
bad way to learn to fly - and in real life you REALLY need to be constantly
scanning for traffic when in visual conditions. In a turn, watch the nose -
put it at the right attitude and adjust from there.

You should be able to make a 360 degree turn and end up within less than 50
feet of where you started.

When leveling off after a climb or descent, how quickly
should the pilot be able to get into straight and level?

You get pretty close pretty quick by looking at the position of the horizon
reletive to the nose. Fine trim from there on.

Trim is important, but, it doesn't work well in sims with spring loaded
sticks - you have to move the stick as you change the trim (unlike real
life)

When landing
an aircraft - especially a jet, does a proficient pilot stay precisely
on the glide slope 100%? How else can I build proficiency and how
well does flight simulator emulate reality?

Forget the glide slope. Learn to land first. The reason the glide slope was
invented was that when things fog up, you can't do a visual approch and they
had to come up with something to keep people from driving into the ground.
You still need the skills to make the final approch and landing visually.

You need to be consistant on the speed over the fence, consistant on where
you touch down, consistant about how you touch down. And you need to do it
without fixating on the panel. An ocassional glance at the airspeed should
be all that you need once you are in the pattern. Google "Gimli Glider" to
see what kind of tools a proficient pilot needs when the chips are down.

If you are a proficient pilot, what types of things do you ensure in
take-off, cruise, landing, etc?

Practice, practice, practice. You really want a "feel" for teh airplane, but
that's hard to get in a desktop sim.


I've heard that good piloting is more about knowledge than skill, but
personally it seems like skill is a massive aspect of flying - am I
wrong?


I've run into some really good pilots and some not so hot pilots. The
not-so-hot pilots, however, don't seem to realize it. Example: Back in the
olden days, when I had dark hair and could get a medical, my brother used to
take me to New Hudson (now Y47 - seevskyvector.com for a chart) in the old
man's Cessna 120 because they had such a nice, well marked runway (it was
hard to tell the difference between the dirt and blacktop runway where dad
kept the 120 - narrow and in bad shape). So that was cool, I enjoyed
practicing there, and eventually got my ticket. I had a buddy that was
working on his private pilot also - one day he comes by and announces that
he had just passed his check ride. Cool. But he didn't seem very happy - so,
what's teh problem? He starts going off on the examiner who took him to some
crummy little airport with this tiny runway (my buddy trained out of ARB)
and he tried two or three times to land there and couldn't (I don't remember
the exact number anymore) so the examiner tells him "land or fail" and he
finally manages to get it down. My buddy continues to rant about this
airport and didn't see why he should have had to go there, how bad the
examiner was, blah, blah, blah... So, the whole time, I'm thinking, where
did he go? There are a couple private strips around that are tight - I'm
thinking one of those. Finally I ask, what airport was it? And, you guessed
it, New Hudson. The place I used to go just because they had such a great
runway. Somehow I managed to keep my mouth shut (unusual for me).

"Learn yourself to fly" with a sim has a lot of shortcomings. Consider
taking an "introductory flight" at a local airport - you will be surprised
at how much you learn in just one flight. Or, hang around talking to
people, someone will likely eventually take you for a ride.
Or, look for a soaring club nearby - they often offer rides for less than in
a powered aircraft. You might find it to be more fun too.
http://ssa.org/sport/wheretofly.asp in the U.S. But be carefull, these
people are like drug pushers - they get you to try it once - but they know
there is a good chance you might become addicted.

--
Geoff
The Sea Hawk at Wow Way d0t Com
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