This Saturday a friend of mine celebrates his 50th Birthday. I organized a gift certificate for a 20min Pitts Special Acro Ride...

I want a GoPro in his cockpit to see his facial expression.

Johnny had a GoPro but the battery was dead.

That was a great read smokin, very well written and your love of flying and passion shines through. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but God man, more paragraphs! My eyes! Kidding, but no....really....more paragraphs (*Overly harsh critics R US* ).

I need an EDITOR! Honestly, I avoided paragraphs because they made more pages and I was trying to get the length down to SimHQ's preference for 5 or less. (Currently, if viewed on 8x11 sheets, its 8).

Great read!

Awesome, thanks.

An evocative and inspiring account! Well done!

Thanks!

Great story thanks for sharing!
A little bit late to read it, but glad I did. After seeing most simmers in FSX striving to get the skills to fly the airliners, it’s refreshing and reinforcing to our hobby to see an airline pilot striving to fly GA and to keep up with simming.

Maybe you’ve noticed me missing from ROF flying online – the last few weeks I’ve started spending my weekends down at my local Sydney GA airport learning to fly and my week nights reading the theory . My desire to fly was confirmed after a back seat aerobatic dual flight in a Citabria, and now I’m learning on Piper Warriors.

Many think simming can be a hindrance, or that it gives one false confidence. But I’m glad your story confirms that the simming DOES help. At first I was thinking oh god this is so different to simming with all the movement and different forces, I was getting used to a yoke and the need to yank it back to climb instead of the very slight pull one does with a computer joystick. Contrary to my simming with a joystick, yanking the yoke won’t send me into a nose up stall! Also to learn to actually rotate at the correct speed instead of letting the plane choose when to lift off, I’m not in a Gotha after all…

Landings are something quite different in real life to rise of flight biplane simming, with the disciplined descent path, variable wind gusts, and a proper maintained approach speed required and none of this crazy ROF plane diving under fire, and dragging it in low with speed along the ground risky stuff. I’m glad no one is trying to strafe me as I practice circuits lol.

But I’ve found little by little my sim experience is creeping into the flying to help me here and there where I least expect it. Visualising the procedures in FSX, knowing the instruments, knowing the basic rules, it all reduces the brain overload one feels when learning!

I have a long way to go, between work, bad crosswinds, bad weather, and even engine fires I only get to fly less than half of the time I plan. But slowly I’m getting there, I regret not starting sooner (now I’m 33) but I’m glad I AM starting and not regretting more later than I am now.

I think where simming would help the most is if I were to do something like IFR, since instruments are instruments real or simulated. But that is some time away for me. For now I’m enjoying the fun of flying and the thrill of learning.

See you in the virtual skies again soon.

Cheers

Ps I’m curious why you keep quiet about simming to other pilots? Is there a general dislike of sims out there with career pilots?

Taipan,

I almost missed this but I needed the original SimHQ article to update the google.doc version. I am probably replying to late for you to see it. But yes I have noticed your absence and glad to hear it's for a GOOD reason. Flying is just awsome. If it were free there would be no drugs and few unwanted pregnacies (but maybe a lot of colisions).

The reason I don't discuss siming to other pilots is that when you are stuck for days with someone, most of that time in a cockpit the twice the size of a phone booth, you try to stick with subject areas common to both of you. Professional pilots are conservative, see-the-world-in-black-and-white sort of people. To most of them, anyone over the age of 15 who engages in any sort of gaming (at least that which is not done on an iPad or smart phone) is a mental midget. Although I do on occasion mention combat sims, I can see the eyes of the other pilot suddenly glaze over. The conversation soon recovers when we resume safe subjects like women, cars, airline contracts and home improvement. Sad, I know, but that's the culture.

Ahh now I understand

It's not just professional pilots, it's professionals in general. The few times I've even dared to bring up flightsims let alone combat sims, the eyes glaze over as well or I'll get the response "how do you get time for that?". Like one is not supposed to have a life past 21 years old.

When people get asked to work weekends, it's best for people not to know you spend weekends "playing games" that's for sure. "I'm busy" is a better response!

We simmers are a rare bunch, I don't know anyone in real life that sims unless I met them through sims. I've tried to show family and friends, but most people have already made their mind up that they are not interested before you begin. So I don't worry about it now I just enjoy it myself and share via forums.

Flying is different though, everyone seems interested in that although no one understands why it takes so long to get the PPL, even though they took longer to get their drivers license!

Heh, I guess my job is a bit of an exception to that rule. Two of the electrical engineers I work with - one is in his late 20s, the other in his early 30s - are just as big of gamers as I am. I can talk video games with them any time at all.

Yeah there are some gamers I run into at work, but they are just into XBOX or the handheld things really. Sometimes PC gamers, but then they are playing things like Diablo.

Great read !
Reminds me of my *almost acrobatic rating... Many years ago when I flew often, I decided to get certified to fly a little Decatahalon at my local airstrip. First tail wheel time was more humbling than I expected,but so much fun.
Unfortunately someone prop struck her the next week ..I don't know if the plane ever flew again. I know it sat a verry long time gathering dust.

Thanks for posting your experiences! The Pitts really is one of the most wonderful airplanes ever built - I'm glad that not all of the airline guys have lost (if they ever had) that true aviators spirit!! This should be in a more conspicuous place I think, it's a great read. I too have had a hard time getting pilots to accept that there is much of anything worthwhile about sims...they usually fall into two camps: 1) They fly for work, and don't want to fly when they are off 2) They love flying so much and know real flying so well that the experience on a sim just doesn't cut it. I understand the second camp - since there is simply NOTHING out there that models aerobatics with much fidelity at all, and though things like TrackIR, a Buttkicker, and a decent stick do an OK job of emulating the pilot interface, the truth is, they also really fall short - especially the the stick and rudder...either way, I am obsessed with flying, and always will be, so sims, R/C, and "real flying" will always be things I'm addicted to...and I'm not ashamed to admit that one bit, despite those glazed over expressions of those that just don't get it!