On May 16, 11:57*am, "birdog" wrote:
. Pilots die as a result of major lapses in judgement.

(Pilots die as a result of minor lapses in judgement as well.)


As to "avoiding" *having to recover from unusual attitudes, etc., that is
what learning to fly is all about. Every pilot that has ever solo'd has
balooned on round-out,

One of our students who is about to solo had to contact tower and
report that there was a coyote on the taxiway that wouldn't get out of
her way.

I have a student who is 16 and very eager, wanted to take off and land
on his second flight. He plays MSFS so I have to do a lot of
deprogramming of dangerous habits, and required that he explain,
demonstrate and recover from approach and departure stalls, full, at
5000 ft, and then hold a falling-leaf stall until he could keep the
ball centered. The concept of stalls and stall recovery terrified him
on hsi first and second flights. It took him a couple of times, but,
he NAILED it.

On his first turn to final, a Navion cut us off (towered airport)
reporting engine problems, so we had to go around, circle right and
reenter in a right traffic pattern, with birds and student helicopters
in the vicinity. On final, a flock of Canadian geese flew in front of
us and the kid had to keep it together. When he touched down, he got
excited and stiffened his legs... big 6'1" teenager feet on the brake
pedals...

I too love flight simulators, but, sitting in the right seat of a
C-152 on short final with a teenage novice at the controls for the
first time... that'll put gray hairs on your head, but watching him
explaining stalls to his terrorized grandmother, and then seeing her
pride when I told her how well he'd done... That was cathartic. I get
the same feeling when I fly people around Mt. St. Helens, or fly a
brand new Cirrus with NWPilot (for those of you who remember him, he's
in Tarawa now, by the way, taking a new SR-20 from California to
Japan) or riding in a B-17.

-c
CFI/CP-ASEL-IA