Navigation is a knowledge-based procedure, not an advanced flying skill, which makes it a great simulator session. The next day I fired up Microsoft Flight Simulator 98 and in less than an hour figured out intercepting and tracking to and from the VOR with nothing but the game and a keyboard and mouse.
The lesson was a complete failure, and I left wondering if I was cut out for instrument flying. I was a tired, frustrated, and headstrong 20-year-old, and my instructor and I were arguing about the technique in the airplane. My low point in instrument training was about a third of the way through when trying to learn intercepting a radial to the station. It’s almost always because the student had spent dozens of hours with a home simulator before coming to the airport.
You can save many hours droning along in the airplane by learning these skills first in the simulator.Įvery experienced instructor has an example of someone who has shown up for training and effectively knows how to control the airplane from the first day. Taking the time to learn how the instruments interact with each other, where to focus during each phase of flight, and how to effect change is the core of the instrument course. Instrument flying requires you to ignore what your body is feeling and focus entirely on what the instruments are telling you. No, the simulator won’t behave exactly like the airplane. Although you can start this training even before you begin working with an instructor, it can be helpful to get a basic introduction to instrument cross-checking and aircraft control prior to perfecting it in the simulator. Safe instrument flying relies on specific, replicable procedures, and it’s more effective to learn them on the ground without the pressure of controlling the airplane.Īssuming you can configure the simulator just like your training airplane, basic attitude instrument flying is a great way to use a home simulator or inexpensive model at the flight school.
Or start on the ground and work on the pre-takeoff briefing, departure procedures, and checklists. Put the simulator 10 miles from the final approach course intercept and work on your approach briefing, aircraft configuration, checklists, and cockpit management. Cockpit management is a form of crew resource management, and checklists and flows are just as applicable in a Cessna 172 as they are in an Airbus. In the airline world that’s checklists, flows, and crew resource management. The object is to develop and solidify procedures. Some of these are old cockpits where the student can flip switches, while others are nothing more than fancy posters. Many airline pilots use procedure-specific training devices between the classroom and the more expensive and resource-limited full-motion simulators. Simulators are especially useful for honing procedures. So get a copy of X-Plane or Microsoft Flight Simulator, order a throttle quadrant and yoke, and get started on these skills. Don’t let the instructor hold you back.Įspecially during instrument training, everything from a desktop “game” simulator up to the most expensive motion device at a simulator center can help to improve learning. Not surprising, given that instructors also like to fly. But studies on instructor perceptions of simulation often illuminate a low level of confidence. That was true even in private pilot training. The Navy has estimated simulator training can chop nearly 40 percent off the airplane time for a trainee, and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University found that nearly every skill was mastered more quickly in the airplane if it was first learned in a simulator. Numerous studies have shown the benefits of simulation. Yet for the all the questions instructors get about how to save money in training, and for how anxious students are to fly on their own, spending quality time with a simulator usually isn’t at the top of the list. Ever since World War II-era pilots suffered through the Link trainer, trainees have shunned simulation.