N_Molson
Addon Developer
Hello,
Just had this afternoon the short but first real piloting session on my life on a Robin DR-200 with a instructor and a friend of mine, it was indeed quite fantastic. Weather was hot and nice and the guy let me the controls for nearly 10 minutes on a 30 minutes flight, I even had a try doing some turns. The major challenge I faced were "hot bubbles" coming from the sun-heated fields below, making the plane randomly climb, and the transitions between the bubbles and the ambient air. I can't say 10 minutes were short, as I really felt the stress !
Other than that, the experience I had from flight sims really helped, as I knew the instruments, what they were saying and in which unit. What flight sims like FSX can't prepare you to is the thrill when you feel the plane sliding a bit on a wing because you were hit by a hot air current. Even if there is a watchful pro right next to you, you can't help thinking you are risking your live and his and that with a bad stall or crosswinds things can really go wrong very fast, especially at VFR altitude. But the guy said things were going really well, told to the tower that "things were perfectly smooth and that he could almost take a nap".
I was definitively gaining experience on the end, understanding that, as the instructor told me, "one says that often, the factor that prevents a plane to fly well... is the pilot". And feeling I was often over-reacting.
As a result, I'm now sure I'm going to take lessons ASAP.
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Just had this afternoon the short but first real piloting session on my life on a Robin DR-200 with a instructor and a friend of mine, it was indeed quite fantastic. Weather was hot and nice and the guy let me the controls for nearly 10 minutes on a 30 minutes flight, I even had a try doing some turns. The major challenge I faced were "hot bubbles" coming from the sun-heated fields below, making the plane randomly climb, and the transitions between the bubbles and the ambient air. I can't say 10 minutes were short, as I really felt the stress !
Other than that, the experience I had from flight sims really helped, as I knew the instruments, what they were saying and in which unit. What flight sims like FSX can't prepare you to is the thrill when you feel the plane sliding a bit on a wing because you were hit by a hot air current. Even if there is a watchful pro right next to you, you can't help thinking you are risking your live and his and that with a bad stall or crosswinds things can really go wrong very fast, especially at VFR altitude. But the guy said things were going really well, told to the tower that "things were perfectly smooth and that he could almost take a nap".
I was definitively gaining experience on the end, understanding that, as the instructor told me, "one says that often, the factor that prevents a plane to fly well... is the pilot". And feeling I was often over-reacting.
As a result, I'm now sure I'm going to take lessons ASAP.
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