A real life pilot's first sim experience

The deal is this: I wanted to fly a loop in my M20J for a long time,
but it's hard to get around the 30 degree pitch limitation
certifications and do a loop. isn't it?

MSFS2004 offers an M20M Bravo! And Comp USA is selling that program
for less than $20.

So the four disks came in a couple of days ago, and got loaded into my
laptop. Problem 1: no number pad for pitch and bank. I messed around
with the C172 model and found the up down, left and right arrows did
all of that, although I did not locate a key for return to neutral.

OK, so I played student pilot and F3ed full throttle in a 172, figured
out how to take off and land. TT maybe 15 minutes, and not an
enriching experience.

Loaded in the M20M Bravo. This beast gets yanked around the sky with a
IO 540, my 201 does it with a IO 360. Lots more fuel usage, and a lot
more airplane than I can afford in RL. Never the less, I called up
KBED RR 29, and there I was, at the controls, position and hold!

Neat. No checklist at hand, so I did the best I could with cowl flaps,
wing flaps, trim, fuel pump, and the like, so it looked like this
airplane just might fly. Hold down F3, RPMs came up nicely, and
nothing happened! Message flashed -- parking brake is set, press . to
release.

What frigging pilot pulls onto the active and sets the parking brake?

OK, I put a period to the program, and started to roll, feet twitching
because with an IO 540 this thing should want to turn really badly --
in the M20J I used rudder mostly to keep it on centerline during the
early part of the takeoff roll, figured my little left and right
arrows would have to do the job here.

The Bravo tracked straight down the centerline without any help from
me! This is supposed to be an accurate simulation, with no P effects?
Gimme a break.

OK, I down arrowed at 70 kts -- this takes a lot more rotation (read
that as down arrow) than did the 172, I don't think I broke free until
about 90, way too fast!

Set up a straight ahead climb right out the 11 localizer, my memory
claimed the student practice area was a bit to the north of the 11 29
extended centerline.

Is there anything more boring than watching a simulated climb to 7000
feet? Like watching grass grow.

My plan was to reach altitude, dive the thing down at 45 degrees, let
the speed climb to top of the green, then hold down the down arrow,
and when I was at the top of the loop close the throttle, pray a
little, and try to recover smoothly at the bottom. Guys who have flown
aerobatics know the way you do them is look at the horizon to the
side. I worried about that a little, since the side image was going to
be in front of me, but it turned out to be a non issue. I couldn't
figure out how to get that side view.

The hell with it. I pushed over, and the speed went up really fast!
Mooneys are aerodynamicly clean GA airplanes. I downarrowed (which
means yoke in my lap, I think) and watched the windscreen view change
from ground to sky, saw the AH tumble, saw the ground in the top half
of the windscreen, closed the throttle, and somewhere near the bottom
went forward stick. It was NOT pretty. I didn't have that side view I
wanted. I still don't know how at one point I wound up in a 60 degree
bank! Never the less, I got back to straight and level, and remember
having started the dive from 7000 feet was more than a little suprised
to find the airplane was at a simulated altitude of 5500.

The guy who showed me some things in a 150 Aerobat would have been
ashamed of me. Never the less, I did a loop.

About then the phone rang, and a friend suggested I meet with him and
a few others for lunch. That sounded good.

The sim was paused 30 miles or so from BED, After I got back to my
home office there were some other matters that needed attention and
computer memory. Exit sim

That's it. It was as fulfilling an experience for me as eating cotton
candy -- there just wasn't much there. It simply didn't provide the
kinds of feedback I'd want, and I'm not going to buy a yoke with force
feedback and rudder peddles (sims who use a joystick instead of a yoke
in airplanes that come with yokes are another step removed from at
least what is my reality.

For those of you who get pleasure from the MSFS, more power to you. It
did not work for me. There is a possiblity my mind has been poisoned
to the sim experience, but probably not, I hoped it might be fun ro do
on late nights. Oh well, it was a $20 experiment. The good news is,
that was cheap. Most of my 'experiments' cost a lot more than that.
Want to know how to burn some VC's couple million in a startup
venture? Talk to me!