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Thread: Tips on Learning to Fly?

  1. #11

    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    St. Louis/Omaha
    Posts
    115
    Quote Originally Posted by wotai View Post
    One thing I always recommend to students is to use a flight simulator at home. It is a great tool during your pilot training. It allows you to practice what you learnt at your lessons when you come home. Flying lessons are expensive and it's difficult to go out and fly every single day as much as we may want to. If you're practicing and flying at home, it also means less time spent going over review at your next lesson.
    I'll agree to an extent.

    My two biggest complaints about home simulation programs are that:

    *They don't have the same tactile feedback as a real plane;

    *I keep having to untrain self-taught instrument pilots - that is they're looking at the gauges instead out the window.

    Having said that, they can be good procedures trainers under the guidance of an instructor. Make sure you coordinate with your instructor so you get the most effective use of your time.
    Anxiety is nature's way of telling you that you've already goofed up.

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Plano, Tx
    Posts
    12
    Aeronautical decision making is one of the most important skills in flying. Flying gliders is a good way to develop your decision making. If you haven't landed at another airfield, get your instructor to take you to one and have the towplane come with you. Take a few tows at the new airfield, cover the altimeter, and have the instructor pull rope breaks on you. Without the familiar landmarks of your home airfield and with no altimeter, landing becomes a matter of evaluating your angles and managing your energy.

    Stretch your legs as far as allowable for a student at your soaring club. Fly short triangles around the airfield without getting out of glide range. Plan your flight ahead of time using a sectional. Draw "safe altitude" circles on the sectional around your airfield and use them during your flights. If there are nearby grass strips use them as waypoints. They are not always easy to find and it makes good navigation practice.

    Fly in various wind conditions (but only with your instructor's approval). Get used to slipping to a landing.

    Do all of the above in a safe manner.

    Have fun!

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