Learning to Fly With Real & Sim Hardware 

I love the fact that I was 15 when I started watching Scott back in the day, and now at the age of 23 I’m flying a real 737.It’s the first time I know more than him about a subject. Feels wrong.

Try landing in strong winds. In a Cessna 172, I was landing in a very strong headwind. My instructor kept repeatedly telling me to hold-off on my landing descent, until we were directly above the center of the runway, but at pattern altitude. When I reached for the flaps, I was told no flaps or we would land while moving backward relative to the ground. The descent was near vertical. The engine set to provide slight forward movement relative to the ground, but much higher throttle than a normal landing. I think the instructor intentionally chose that airport that day, just to teach me something new, and to amusedly watch my face as I was surprised at so many non-standard techniques.

13:30 The wing rocking thing they did when I landed at Oshkosh for real back in about 2000. I'm not a pilot but a buddy of mine took me out from a nearby field and we landed (over the top of a 747) on that runway! I was told its because there are so many transponder signals the radar just looks like a disco light so they eyeball everyone. As a young guy from the UK who had never been in a light aircraft, gettting to fly it and then landing at a place with so many thousands of aircraft.... mind blowing!

I passed my PPL on Monday, and some thanks go to you Scott. I started flying almost 2 years ago, during lockdown. And stagnated slightly around the beginning of this year due to poor weather and being busy in general etc. Been a fan of your videos for years but seeing your actual flying videos encouraged me to finish it. I also used a sim set up when I first started (with the Saitek yoke) but stopped using it as I needed my PC for a Web Dev course. Might set it up again! Thanks again Scott for spurring me on to get my pilots licence!

It has been fun seeing your development as a pilot

I love the Osh controllers, a truly amazing bunch of professionals, staying in control of a barely controllable situation and staying impossibly cheerful at the same time (mostly!) Regarding your interesting osh approach, you should have called an emergency, it would have made things interesting for the controllers and would be the right call iRL, Then diverting to nearest suitable landing field of course. There have been an awful lot of pilots that soldiered-on with a seemingly small fault, only to end up as the subject of an NTSB report.

I love watching the progression starting with the Logitech 3d attack lurking in the background to a simple HOTAS to a full sim nerd setup to screen shots of piloting real planes. Also i have a feeling Scott would really, really REALLY like DCS World.

Great video. My first experience with a forward slip was in a glider and we were racing a squall line to the airport. We were already at full spoiler, and the instructor turned the plan well to the right and dropped the left wing. It felt like we were flying sideways, and I was looking through the side window at the runway. Made it in with room to spare, so we could secure the plane before the wind gust. A couple years later, I had to opportunity to do something similar in a 737. I was on a training flight which allowed me the chance to fly along the Grand Canyon. To give a better view into the canyon, I was told to put the plane into a shallow forward slip. I hand flew the plane in this state for about 15 minutes. One of my favorite flying memories.

You should have declared an emergency when you lost your flap. That would have raised the excitement level for everyone on the Oshkosh simultion.

Great to see you learning and attaining your PPL. I love flying in MSFS2020, I would really love to actually fly a plane but I have epilepsy so unfortunately I'll never be able to. It's good to be able to live vicariously through you though!

Jeez Scott... many many years ago when I was learning to fly sailplanes, and old pilot glanced into the cockpit of a 'competition' glider and and said " you don't need any of that crap to fly cross country. All you need is a compass and a mirror. The compass tells you your'e lost and the mirror tells you WHO'S lost"... :-)

12:10 While she was technically correct, that wasn't the best way for ATC to communicate the information. People remember things via primacy and recency, i.e. they will remember the first and last thing you tell them better than anything in the middle. Anything that is out of the normal flow for the pilot should either be the first or last thing you say. Since a right-hand pattern is unusual for most airports, ATC should have said something along the lines of "Report RIGHT midfield downwind runway 30." When you initially repeated the information back to her you said "Report midfield downwind", omitting the instruction for a right-hand pattern. I missed ATC tell you right-hand traffic on the first listen, myself. If ATC had been more on the ball she would have noticed that you didn't repeat the direction of the traffic pattern on the read back and should have repeated her instructions to you. Technically you were "in the wrong", but ATC wasn't exactly on the ball, either. This may seem insignificant, especially in a sim, but this kind of thing does happen in the real world and if you are in busy airspace it can lead to a mid-air collision.

Wow that controller of the sim event doing the work 👍🏼

I remember flying a C172 when a bell crank to a flap failed. So we were in a very similar asymmetric flap situation. Squishy/sloppy low speed control with a lot of roll and rudder just to land. (Probably a great intro to flying twins with a failed engine !)

I have actually announced (quite loudly) on a commercial flight "We're going around!" With glee in my voice. The people near me were looking at me with WTF looks, but we were indeed going around for another try at the landing. No issues, the pilots erred on the side of caution, and the second try was smooth as butter, even though we had very gusty crosswinds that day.

I’m a young student pilot and I use the in game cockpit with a flight stick similar to the one he has and that’s all I need for stuff like VATSIM. I was even able to learn most of IFR flight with that basic of a setup. Long story short you don’t need much even though Scott’s setup is super cool. :)

Yeah sim setups are awesome even when you dont have the most expensive gear. So such fun and you can actually learn things and automatism you can use in the real world. Started simracing about a year ago love every second of it.

i am an avid user of Microsoft flight sim 2020. I havent flown an airplane in the real world for several years which is unfortunate but thats why I watch you fly scott

Scott, always a pleasure watching your vids

Thank you for being willing to share your landings no matter what they look like. This has been such a fun time watching you take this journey!

As a fellow student pilot, I appreciate these updates. I'm also trying to spend time in the simulator, but it's always a struggle to find time to practice in the sim, take real lessons, and have a job and friends too. I started taking flying lessons back in 2007, but at the time a lot of people were recommending against using the simulator at the same time. My experience in (re)starting lessons now and starting with a simulator at home, is that the simulator is hugely beneficial. It's doesn't teach any *feel* for the airplane, but it's great for me because I learn by making mistakes and exceeding what one *should* do. I can smash the airplane all I like in the simulator, then push a button and get a brand new airplane! It allows me to do all the *dumb things* without an instructor stopping me or yelling at me, and getting those out of my system.

Scott, I grew up flying with my father in Beechcrafts, bought an Flightstar ultralight, then a C172 and finally a Beechcraft Debonair. When I started taking lessons in the C172 my first landing was a squeeker and the instructor was impressed, but I had done hundreds of landings by then in the UL and a few in Dad's planes. I just had a really good feel when the plane was done flying and would settle smoothly. Keep practicing landings, and it will become much more easy to make smooth gentle ones. Fly Safe!

Scott i have been flying for more than 30 years. If you want to learn how to fly then go fly an airplane. There is no substitute. For IFR stuff sure get a sim but you are overdoing it with the gadgets. Save your money, get a really old guy to show you around in a Piper cub, Cessna or whatever. The bonus is he gets to fly too then you can learn from what he does. Feeling the air over the wings, swimming in the air and feeling it is the best teacher.

Awesome breakdown of your setup and experience. We’re working on a new experimental airplane for Jessica Cox, the armless pilot. Pieces are starting to arrive for her sim. So if you’re ever in southern Arizona, feel free to come on by and try flying with just your feet. Plus it’s an RV-10 which is better than a Cirrus, anyway 😉

If that's your worst landing, You're doing OK. Most people have trouble with airspeed control when slipping early on. Make sure you are well trimmed to your approach speed and it will make life a lot easier. It is also advantageous to practice coming in and out of slips at altitude. Do so in approach config and speed in level flight. It will descend when in the slip and that is the goal, but practice keeping your airspeed the same throughout the entire maneuver.

As a pilot, simulators are harder than actually flying a Cessna 172 in real life!

Oh man i remember playing DCS Falcon 1.0 on my old 286 computer, every key was used on the keyboard. I use to play it every day, getting into dog fights and doing bombing runs. Landing was always the most intense moments in that game.

For a guy that works at Apple, you have quite the work/life balance! Cheers!

Your videos always fill me with a sense of wonder and amazement. Love your channel and your content m8. Keep it coming

Best part about your last approach is you can log 2 or 3 landings!! 😛

As a sim pilot and now a real pilot this video is freaking amazing!

I work in flight training simulation, making the big full motion simulators used for pilot training. As you say, your life isn't in danger during emergency scenarios in a simulation, but in the sim those scenarios can be quite stressful. I've been working on these things for 15+ years, and I've been in them with pilots doing scenarios that made me real nervous. Latest one was a max weight takeoff, at a high altitude airport, in the mountains, with an engine failure. We had to thread through valleys and between peaks for 10+ minutes before we were clear of terrain.

I'm sure you've heard this, but my latest sim rig has honeycomb yoke and throttle. It's a dream, truly. I had a CH yoke, and tried a turtle beach one. They don't compare. The CH one is probably like the saitek with pots instead of hal effect, and the turtle beach has other issues making it stick. The honeycomb is just smooth. Along with my 55" 4k tv i play on (soon to be 3 maybe with msfs multiview), the only upgrade would be force feedback and full 6dof motion lol. I've got one of those logitech instrument panels on the way to see if i like it for older planes, and eventually I'll get tablets for g1000, etc, but for now just the honeycomb stuff and a radio panel are great fun. Great vid, love watching your pilot journey as I learn a lot of the same stuff, down to vfr cross country mission planning, just without the intention(or money) to do the real thing :)

Love the T-shirt. I have always said that a physicist's answer to the half-full/half/empty question is completely full, half air and half water.

I used MSFS to do the exact same prep for a flight into Ukiah a few months back! How fun!

Right downwind vs left downwind. 😳 Glad you learned that lesson in a sim. Making that mistake by passing other planes head-to-head in the pattern is incredibly dangerous (not to mention SCARY).

Scott, Side slipping a 172 is my most fun thing ever. With a little practice you can love it too. The secret is to put the wing which is into the wind down, stand 100% on the opposite rudder, then balance the plane with the ailerons. I can slip down to a couple of feet off the turf. Then just neutralize controls and she straightens out. At least, that's how it works in the 172. Your mileage may vary. But this is an essential skill if your flaps go out.

Your sim flight into airventure brings to mind the video series Wolficorn did. I've never felt so stressed watching a video as his approach into Airventure a few years back. Highly worth the watch.

Holycow that ATC, she was awesome!

I used FSX when I was doing my PPL. While it certainly helped me using instruments my instructor kept telling me to look out kore & see the picture as apposed to looking inside too much. But it definitely helped a little. However as you’re a rich RU-vid you should really go for VR. It’s so far beyond using a screen it’s amazing. It almost feels like you’re actually flying and your headlining etc will be realistic. You’ll never go back to 2D

USAF and USN VR sim designer here :) . A couple things that can help improve carryover from simulator to reality: 1: Control placement in relation to your body. Stick between the knees, or just above and to the left or right of your respective knee. This is close to how it is in real aircraft and it is that way for a reason. If you put your stick up on the desk, you end up flying with your arm instead of your wrist and finger tips. By resting your forearm on your knee, or on a rest to the side and letting your upper arm hang down, you can flying wrist and finger movements which is way more precise. Of course, having higher control forces (real aircraft have far higher forces than flimsy gamer sticks so trim becomes essential) helps but those sort of devices are probably beyond your budget. 1b: Rudder pedals. Get CH pedals rather than saitek/logitech. They have far higher control forces. Also in most aircraft your legs stick out more or less straight from your body, rather than the 90° bend most desk chairs give. So you want a chair and desk fairly low to the ground so you can straighten those legs. Helps quite a bit. 2: VR. A common problem of students who start in the sim is flying on instruments when you should be looking outside way more. And it is understandable. A limited screen FOV plus slow panning control sucks. Get a VR headset however, and you can look around with far more freedom and stop focusing solely on instruments when you should be VFR.

Nice going Scott. My first sim was in a Class C DHC-7 back in the early 90s, went on to FlightSim, sail planes, and ultimately got my multiIFR. Sims really help with procedures. Great advice. I wish I had all the toys back then.

As a pilot and a user of SIMS for over 4 decades, I will say this. Flight simulators are amazing for procedures and keeping your edge. I personally can say that my life and the lives of my passengers have been saved because of the use of sims. You will never get the feel of an airplane in a sim but nonetheless the best tool for training and preparation to become a pilot.

I didn't do the fly in Vatsim, but I did park my amphibious plane in the lake and listened and watched all the planes flying in to Oshkosh. That was pretty cool to do my first time on Vatsim.

Passed my PPL 3 weeks ago, waiting for the license to turn up. Keep it up, Tom Petty did sing 'Comming down is the hardest thing...' I use the sim to familiarize myself with airports and terrain surrounding them and navigating using paper maps, very useful for that. Actual flight mechanics, not so much in my opinion.

Great video!! Been to Air Venture many times. The traffic pattern into the West Gate is terrible. Oh, I forgot, I was in a single-engine 4-door sedan on the ground doing 5 knots. Not the same 🙂I have not flown since 1995, got my ticket in 1981. Things have sure changed in the cockpit. I still am a fan of the old steam gauges.

Scott: Lands safer in real life than me in a sim Also Scott: "I was throttling up for a go around"

Well that was definitely a cool experience, even looking from afar. Thanks for sharing all the particulars. Answered all my questions.

Only Scott Manley gets a new gadget that stimulates him to take up a new hobby, then builds an entire simulation setup of gadgets to help learn the new hobby.

KSP with keyboard and mouse experience is a bonus 5000 flight hours at any respectable flight school.

Scott! I thought for sure you'd have a video on the Artemis scrub and the sensor issue!

Unbelievable, I'm sitting and thinking that I'm going to take up my flight simulator skills, then this comes in the feed on youtube

Flown into Oshkosh twice. The first time a guy that I raced with we're out at Road America and he met me down at Milwaukee after I dropped off my rental car and we flew up there and it was crazy the planes that were all around I can only think about those images of groups of bombers in World War 2 where above below left right front back there was somebody. Very very busy airspace.

I was just looking at (drooling over) those radio panels at Microcenter an hour ago. Thing is, I mostly do space flight sim and they don't really do anything for Star Citizen.

That's cool. One thing I noticed that may help in the future: You may want to get in the habit of saying "zero", when it's a zero, not "Oh", e. g. in frequencies. If you listen to ATC, especially when they give you a heading or a speed to fly, they will say "turn left heading one-five-zero", or "reduce speed eight-zero knots", they will normally never say "oh" if they mean zero. (As a side note, a well-trained ATCO will also never say "to". Flying a Cirrus is on my bucket list, so far I've only flown DA20, P28A, RALL, DR40, EVSS, and looking forward to the C172 familiarisation flight this Tuesday. I also use X-Plane to practice procedures for airfields I fly into for the first time on long cross-country flights. It's a great tool. Too bad that X-Plane 12 will drop OpenGL support, and my old Mac has an Nvidia card, so Metal/Vulkan is not supported.

I love aviation stuff! I also binge mentour pilot's content. Very interesting for problem resolution, crm,...

As a person used to engines where the fuel pump runs whenever the engine is running (motorcycles in case anyone is wondering), the process of flipping the pump on/off/on/off freaks me out more than it probably should.

I like the t-shirt message. That's what I use to say it's not half empty or half full - it's full, just half-half! One of my cousins' sons is a pilot -he was learning to fly as a teenager and I think he got his pilot license before his driving license. I don't know how you can tell half of what is being said by the (simulated) air traffic controllers when it's so distorted (and so fast!). I suppose it takes some getting used to. It reminds me of having listening practice in French and German lessons from very distorted cassette tapes. I thought that even if they were in English they would be hard enough to tell what was being said and I'd probably miss a few words. Fly safe indeed!

Love your videos!

Before I started flying real planes I had thousands of hours RC flying, and probably a good 10 hours on real airliner flight simulators ( those multi million dollar hydraulic things) free roaming and mucking about, while I had a very deep knowledge of how to do aerobatics, all it taught me was carelessness and impatience. Congrats on your PPL.

I've been flying on the Oculus, then I went on a discovery flight at a flight school, that was awesome lol. I then went to their "Redbird" full motion flight sim and did really good. I took off fine once I adjusted to the pedal movements. I flew great, no problem as I "fly" in BF4 all the time lol. When it came time to land, I didn't see the runway until I was really really close. The instructor said I could flyby and land the other way. I said I could make it. So I landed in the middle of runway due to my overshooting. Ann I hopped a couple times but I landed the first time safely. I just wanted to know I could do it when the Apocalypse or zombie Army takes over. I know I can take a small plane, start it, take off and then land somewhere safe. Mission accomplished

Well done Scott on your "bouncy" landing. I appreciate the amount of concentration you were applying. Rather like juggling with both hands while balancing a bottle of beer on your nose. Great job.

OMG the ATC lady needs some kind of medal... Btw that exact same flaps thing happened to me a while ago. :-D I was running on fumes in thick fog, when i finally saw the runway but i was too high. I HAD to put it down, otherwise i'd end up in a lake. So i pitched down, but picked up too much speed to land, so i deployed flaps and the right one ripped off. Managed to land anyway, but almost ran out of rwy.

Even at the top level of aviation sims are a fantastic and cheap (and safe) alternative to a real plane. Perfect for getting procedures down and practicing controlled situations. The spontaneous and randomness of the real world is what builds experience. Especially since theres no pause or reset button. You want a really good story read about the sims they used testing the X-15! Sim and real world experience, you cant have one without the other! 👨‍✈️ ✈️

Hot damn. I was always fascinated (mostly as a gamer) with flight simulator hardware, but as a kid I never considered the possibility of using that equipment to develop a real skill. So cool.

That's the importance of an stabilized approach! great to see you flying

Granted I haven't flown since the wet rates for a 172 were $35 an hour, but this was amazing!!! I'd of given anything to have had something like this when I was learning back in the 90's!! This would also have helped as I transitioned to high performance & complex a/c!! Not to mention helping with leaerning these new complex all in one screens like those Garmins. Almost think I was lucky just learning a 6 pack instead of those complex boxes!!! Good luck Scott, and HAVE FUN!!! 🙂

So cool Scott. You’re making me think about re-approaching ground school.

1:21 Yay! Someone else who uses trackball mice! I’m the only person I know who prefers them and I’ve felt so alone for so long on this technological island, thank you Scott. Made my day. :)

A few notes from a flight instructor: 1. Make sure you're using your checklists and doing everything in the sim as if it's the real airplane. (I bet you probably do, but just skipped them for this video to save time. If you'd rather not fumble with the mouse, use a printed checklist.) 2. You should have declared an emergency at Simventure. It would have given everyone a great learning experience and would have saved you from trying to your rock wings. In that situation, you get priority! 3. You can always go around. It's not a bad outcome of a landing, and it's not a failure. Fly safe!

I just did some contract work for NASA, flying the Vertical Motion Simulator at AMES and now I'm ruined. I can never enjoy my home flight sim again. Sims never really worked for me because they feel so different from the real aircraft, but the VMS is incredible. It's the first one that actually fooled me into thinking that I was flying for real. Well, I kinda was really flying, within its 8-story tall envelope. It was an honor and a privilege to fly the same sim every Space Shuttle astronaut was trained in. The whole time I was thinking "I can't believe they are paying me to do this".

Your flying video timing is co-incidentally perfect with my training. Every major milestone seems to come near one of your releases. Prepping for my private checkride on tuesday.

I grew up in Novato, and my father kept his piper colt, then tripacer,, then Cesna 172, and finally 182 (with a Robertson STOL kit) at Gnoss Field, before moving it the Smith Ranch , which is now the San Rafael Airport I flew into and out of that airport dozens of times, back in the 60s and 70s. I was very disappointed to hear the the plans to extend the runway length was canceled (again). Marin County is going to have to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. Here's hoping for your continued success in your air venture. Keep one eye out for Mt. Burdell, during the fog.

Scott Manley to ATC: “Hullo, Scott Manley here”

great emergency landing, but! that parachute is there for a reason! I can totally see how most cirus pilots die without pulling it, you get so lost in the moment you forget you even have it.

I had two flights on Cessna 172 these two days, 1/9 and 2/9/2022. First yesterday day I had the co pilot seat and got to pilot a bit around the landmarks of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, flying at an altitude lower than the height of the 3 towers (PETRONAS, Trx, and Merdeka 118). Today my father had the co pilot seat and the opportunity to pilot the plane, whilst I sat at the back. I would really love to make this a hobby and get myself a license, but the price is beyond what I can afford to do regularly.

Got to see my home town on the map! I don't know why but that was cool. A line of planes fly over my house on the last "leg" to Oshkosh for Air Venture. A wonderful museum also!

Hey Scott. Very nice setup. I recently got that radio panel and the multi panel. I highly recommend the multi panel as your next addition. It adds such a great immersion when doing any instructions from ATC for IFR flights.

Are you loving it? I bet you are loving it. When I took my first lessons long ago my time playing MS Flight Sim was invaluable. I already knew the basic instruments and could fly and nav by ILS, VOR and NDB (didn't have GPS back then, just loran C). My first flight with me at the controls (and instructor of course) was 0 vis right after take off, then a 2 hour flight of various orbits and tracks over a large lake nearby (which I never saw), all in 0 viz, to an NDB backcourse approach to landing, and at no point did the instructor have to do more than give me headings and altitudes to hit. So yeah, the sims save you a ton of money and time.

I'm so envious, Scott! I have been tinkering with X Plane Mobile for years--because I have been unable to get my career back on track here in Japan! You are learning more than I did in 6 years 'cause you're doing the real thing! Good on ya. Wow, you forgot to ask permission to take off and you never looked left or right on the taxi! Just takin the piss--and while I am at it, you could have landed on that road without hitting the grass! Remember Fred Haise: "Don't panic early!" That was some good adventure in the Oshkosh sim! Nice one keeping airborne control after boneheading your flap! If I had a dime fir every time I dropped flaps at the wrong Vso (is that the right one?) I’d have a plane! Man--I will say, you know your shit after a short time! Thanks for this. It is inspiration! Fly safe!

Thanks Scott, great inspiration of trying new things and credit to you for showing the stuff you could have done better.

Scott, if you ever lose any part of your playing in-flight please declare emergency immediately. Otherwise you may go out of control at any moment. Also, proceed with no floor landing if one of your flap is inoperational

wow this is great! Jeepers that landing at the ending looked hairy!!!!

+1 for the Logitech trackball. I highly recommend the updated version with bluetooth and multiple connections. You just press a button to switch computers. It also has a side tilting scroll wheel.

I upgraded my Logitech yoke and throttle to a Honeycomb Alpha and Bravo setup. Best money I ever spent. I couldn't believe how awful the Logitech yoke was until I made the change.

Sorry if someone's already mentioned this, but if you try SimHeaven's x-America it probably has a better-than-nothing representation of those antennas you're missing. Adds autogen based on real buildings and obstacles (much like MSFS as I understand it, just not as pretty) and makes visual navigation a lot more doable than it is otherwise in XP. Plus it's free!

I'm sure someone else has already told you this, but I kinda got the subtle vibe that if you had executed a go around that would have been a failure of some kind which of course it is not. It's always the safest default choice if your approach is unstable, which I'm sure your instructor has drilled into you as mine did :) Kudos for being spring loaded to execute one.

Thanks for the look into your pilot training.

It's called ATIS (Automated Terminal Information Service) that gives you weather information for your airport. It gets updated as weather changes. Each report is named in sequence: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie... etc.

I'm a UK PPL (Private Pilot) and I did my PPL licence in 1978 on Cessna 150s, so no fancy electronic gizmos back then. But flight is flight, and the aeroplane is only interested in aerodynamics not what is going on on the panel. No pre flight checks, including controls and power check and most importantly configuration check - presumably omitted for clarity of the video? Light aeroplanes do not have a rotate speed. That's for transport category heavy metal. Light aeroplanes fly when they are ready and they will tell when that is - if you are listening. My favourite mount, the lovely dH Chipmunk, can be hauled off a muddy airfield at a ridiculously low speed and flown on the back of the drag curve while it accelerates in ground effect. It will tell you through the stick when it's on the right side of the drag curve and can be safely climbed away. Flaps - I like mechanical flaps - you can FEEL the forces as you apply flap so are unlikely to deploy them mistakenly above Vfe. On your Oshkosh approach I'd have retracted the remaining flap and done a flapless landing. You may be able to maintain roll control with asymmetric flap during the approach, but a go-around could mean an uncontrollable roll into the ground as power is applied. If the remaining flap could not be retracted, I'd have declared an emergency (yes, even on that busy Oshkosh frequency) and continued to a certain landing. In an emergency, no controller in the world can tell you to go-around if you don't think that's wise. Engine failure - yes, no.1 is get the nose down IMMEDIATELY - lots of pilots die in the 'States every year (actually a few per month recently) through NOT getting the nose down; speed bleeds off, one wing reaches critical AoA (in a few seconds!) and you're into an incipient spin from which there will be no recovery (just this happened to friend of mine in a PA38 some years back at Manchester Barton). Check out Dan Gryder and Blancolirio on You Tube for more on this. More subtle is PARTIAL engine failure, which happened to me in the Chipmunk. The decision process is then not so clear cut! Slipping: I have not flown a Cirrus but I recollect it has quite a slim round-section rear fuselage which won't create a massive amount of drag when flown sideways, so the slip will not have anything like the effect on rate of descent that it will in a slab-sided type like a Piper Cub. That final power-off approach looked very fast! I don't know the Cirrus but it looked to me you were pretty hot, and that power increase 'for pitch authority' just made it worse! I reckon carrying the speed you were carrying you could have climbed a few hundred feet without power had you needed to, eased the nose over, and landed off that! Don't worry about bouncing. As long as they are diminishing bounces they are safe, otherwise go around. Oh, and always plan to go around anyway. If you don't need to and land instead, that's great. But there's absolutely no shame in going around. Quite the reverse. Enjoy your flying! For me,. it's one of the best life choices I ever made. Vince

What a beautiful field to fly into.

One simple thing that could be an improvement is a head movement in game tracking. Some of these devices are really simple and cheap but they bring a lot of quality to sim games.

Personally I don't think it's really important to have a great similarity between the simulator and the actual airplane. Afterall, once you get your license you're not likely to fly just one kind of plane all the time, and you can just look at your simulator as a different kind of plane. Even a cheap rig like just the joystick (which is the same one I have), makes for a valuable training experience. However, there's definitely fun to be had in geeking out over making a cool setup. The one thing that I find most valuable about the simulator is the pause button. Unlike in the real airplane, you can hit that pause button and take a moment to self-assess where you are, where you thought you were, what you've done, whether that was right or wrong, and what you are about to do, and whether that's smart in light of all that. It's a great tool to avoid committing mistakes to muscle-memory by repeating them over and over.

It looks like you're really having a blast flying and what a great little setup for the sim.. I was lucky and picked up the thrustmaster hotas x a couple years before the pandemic.. It's not a realistic cockpit yoke and throttle, but it's quite sensitive, and a ton of fun to use in flight sim on an extreme budget (got if for like 35 dollars) - if you can find one they're like 200 bucks now, the pandemic did that. Anyway thanks so much for sharing this info, so much fun!

It's good to see you using X Plane 11, i run a Scenery Company called Windsock Simulations, we would be happy to give you some of our sceneries which are based in Spain for your enjoyment. all we ask is a shoutout!. Happy to help.

That was intense. Cheers!

Thanks for sharing your path to being a pilot. If you decide to fly to OSH next July land the day before about 100 sm. west. Launch the next day by 6 am, inbound over RIPON and landing will be fun instead of frantic. Camp by your plane and watch the crazies on final. Cheers!

If you are using it to learn to VFR fly I would recommend 3 large monitors. You can visually feel like your in the plane. Practice See looking for other aircraft. Even Practice pattern work.

Careful out there scott, a cirrus is really not a trainer, easy to get behind the airplane, wishing you safe flights.

I fly XPlane on Linux in VR with a Valve Index headset. I have a physical joystick, throttle and pedals, but everything else is virtual and I interact with VR controllers to turn knobs and push buttons. VR really helps make me feel like I'm actually in the aircraft.