Passed our commercial check rides today. Warning: Long post ;-)

Longworth wrote:
Rick and I had just talked about
our instrument vs. commercial training yesterday. While we had great
fun with the commercial training, the instrument training was much
more thrilling and exciting. There is no way that one would get the
real IMC sensation just by playing with the simulator.


No sensation at all, in fact. The closest you can come is to simulate a flight
in thick stratus, since that gives you a smooth ride anyway. As for flying in
the bumpies, no sim that you or I could afford can come close to a real IFR
trip.

Nope, but I never suggested it would. I only said it would help you get your
scan back up to speed. It will, too. Why do people always say it's easier to
fly a real aircraft IFR than a sim with your instructor breathing over your
shoulder? Because your scan is the first to go when you get rusty. You tend to
fixate and the next thing you know, your altitude or your heading is off. What
is it about real IFR flight which makes it easier? Shadows sliding across the
panel... the feeling in the pit of your gut when you hit an updraft or
downdraft... the difference in the sound of the prop as it tries to maintain its
rpm by varying its pitch. Lots of visceral clues that we say we should ignore
but nobody does. You don't ignore them so much as you take them with a grain of
salt.

I feel an updraft so I glance at the VSI and the altimeter. Do they support the
feeling? If so, I correct. If not, I ignore. But it's the feeling that gets
me to even glance in that first instance.

If you don't fly enough hard IFR to really keep the rust off your skills, then
flying a practice flight of the route on the sim can be useful. At your busiest
moments you will be able to recall a heading or a frequency without having to
look; maybe while turbulence is shaking the teeth out of your head.

Scan and procedures is all the sim is good for, IMO. They are no substitute for
regular flight in a real airplane. They just help out. Just another tool.



--
Mortimer Schnerd, RN
mschnerdatcarolina.rr.com