Buying your own plane for training

[drseti]

Another good reason for a flight school to invest in a simulator. On that kind of day, my students practice the planned lesson on a sim. Next time, when the weather is better, they find they do much better in the plane. Sure, unless it's a high-end ATD (the kind that costs as much as an airplane), they can't log the hours. But, we all know that skill with the stick trumps hours in the logbook.

[rcpilot]

Another good reason for a flight school to invest in a simulator. On that kind of day, my students practice the planned lesson on a sim. Next time, when the weather is better, they find they do much better in the plane. Sure, unless it's a high-end ATD (the kind that costs as much as an airplane), they can't log the hours. But, we all know that skill with the stick trumps hours in the logbook.

They have a sim but as far as I know they don't use it for sport pilot training. Of course now that they've lost their biggest customer (they were doing the training for the Dowling College aviation students, Dowling is closing it's doors today due to humongous debt) they may need to refocus their training program. But, if the AOPA is successful in getting the medical reform their looking for, sport pilot may take a hit (I find a lot of older private pilots moving to sport because they're afraid they might flunk their next medical).

[HAPPYDAN]

Another good reason for a flight school to invest in a simulator. On that kind of day, my students practice the planned lesson on a sim. Next time, when the weather is better, they find they do much better in the plane. Sure, unless it's a high-end ATD (the kind that costs as much as an airplane), they can't log the hours. But, we all know that skill with the stick trumps hours in the logbook.

They have a sim but as far as I know they don't use it for sport pilot training. Of course now that they've lost their biggest customer (they were doing the training for the Dowling College aviation students, Dowling is closing it's doors today due to humongous debt) they may need to refocus their training program. But, if the AOPA is successful in getting the medical reform their looking for, sport pilot may take a hit (I find a lot of older private pilots moving to sport because they're afraid they might flunk their next medical).

I ran into the same thing. "We only use the sim for instrument training." Since I have very little flying experience and none on any kind of sim, they may have a point. Some say sim use by low time students can create bad habits. But, one of our Northwest Heroes, The Barefoot Bandit, flew all the way to the Caribbean from Indiana in a stolen plane, and his only training was a Microsoft sim program. Food for thought.

[drseti]

I think supervised simulator sessions, where the student flies a specific pre-programmed scenario (ideally one tied to the specific flight lesson it supplements) can be a valuable training aid. Random simulator free flights, unsupervised, can indeed lead to developing bad habits (one of those bad habits may be the tendency to steal aircraft...) So, I use the sim for dual instruction (which can't be logged as flight time, but is certainly logable as ground instruction).

[rcpilot]

Well finally got a lesson in today. Plan was for soft/short field takeoffs and landings. First though, we flew out to the beach because my instructor wanted me to see the fog rolling in off the ocean. This is a common occurrence and he wanted me to see what it's like and we discussed how to avoid it. Then back to Brookhaven. He did the first "soft" field landing and then a soft field takeoff. I did the next couple, I'll need some practice. Not terrible but they'll take some getting use to. Same process for the short field work. Climbing out at Vx (55mph) is just not natural. At least my landings were "passable". So looks like the next couple of lessons are going to be practice of things we've done up to now. Hope to get to my x-country work when I get back from vacation. Oh, and it looks like the hobbs is working correctly so the avionics shop must have caused it to roll ahead somehow. I'm still going to keep a close eye on it.

[Cluemeister]

Did Vx feel like you were pointed straight up, or that you were going super slow, or both?

[rcpilot]

Did Vx feel like you were pointed straight up, or that you were going super slow, or both?

Pretty much both.

[FastEddieB]

Did Vx feel like you were pointed straight up, or that you were going super slow, or both?

Fun "food for thought" question for the student pilots:

Are Vx and Vy for a given plane ever the same, and if so when?

[Cluemeister]

Edited: I cheated and went on the internet.

Not the answer I thought I would get. I thought the answer would be for a brief moment at takeoff.

[FastEddieB]

We'll give the others a bit more time.

Once visualized, it can actually help a pilot get best performance when needed in the climb.

[drseti]

let's see now... one varies with bank angle, and the other doesn't (can't recall which is which). But that suggests there may be a particular angle of bank where the two will be equal. Isn't that the principle behind a chandelle?

[drseti]

Oh, wait, -- here's a completely different solution. At an aircraft's absolute ceiling, there is only one airspeed it will fly. Anything faster or slower and it descends, and it can't climb at all under any circumstances. I'm guessing that, at that particular altitude and airspeed, it's simultaneously at Vx and Vy?

[FastEddieB]

Oh, wait, -- here's a completely different solution. At an aircraft's absolute ceiling, there is only one airspeed it will fly. Anything faster or slower and it descends, and it can't climb at all under any circumstances. I'm guessing that, at that particular altitude and airspeed, it's simultaneously at Vx and Vy?

Ummm...Professor...I kinda wanted the students to take this one.

Since the cat is out of the bag...



In depth discussion here:

http://www.boldmethod.com/learn-to-fly/ ... -altitude/

Worth a read.

[drseti]

Ummm...Professor...I kinda wanted the students to take this one.

Ummm...but Eddie, the professor is always a student!

[drseti]

So, I guess my answer that DA (density altitude) had something to do with it was partially correct.

Absolutely!