I start ground training in a few weeks and I hear that if your going to fail training it usually is in the sim. I'm wondering what I can do to prepare for the sim before I go. Microsoft? FTD? Glass 172? Any tips on what to expect once in the sim. Any advice that anyone can give me is very appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

Make sure you know your flows, profiles, and call outs cold. Be able to perform them while being distracted, eating, sleeping, whatever. If you know them it will make learning in the sim much easier. When the sim starts moving and you're off the ground, it's easy to forget everything you learned sitting in a CPT while the room is still.

 

Second on the flows. When things get a little crazy just remember it is just another airplane. You already know how to fly, so relax and just fly.

 

If your basic instrument skills are rusty, MS FS is the cheapest solution. May as well pick a turbojet aircraft with a PFD. Just stick to the IFR basics...don't waste time worrying about systems.


The flows and profiles are critical. If you can juggle tennis balls, or bounce one off a wall while reciting profiles you should be good.

 

Very sage advice..... and when you can bounce that tennis ball and successfully recite your flows and callouts, find something else to distract you.

Do it in the shower, on the potty, driving down the road, standing in a line, waiting for the bus, etc.

What airline?

 

Go fly a BE1900 in the mountains in the snow without autopilot for a few months. You'll be fine in the sim then. GUARANTEED.

 

I've posted this on here several times before, but I still think that it remains one of the best articles about airline style training. Make sure you read it and give it some consideration before you start.

It's a long read, but has some very good tips. Written by a former sim instructor and check airmen, and a very good friend of mine: Playing the Game: An Insider's Guide to Successful Airline Simulator Training

 

pick a good partner. there is nothing more important than getting along with your study/sim partner. youd be amazed as to how well you can do when you back each other up. go in there as a team and you will look like a real crew

 

No disrespect to Beech drivers, but this statement is not necessarily true. Sure their handflying skills would be great but so are the skills of somebody flying for AirNet or Ram Air Freight...its mostly dealing with the automation and speed at which things happen that causes problems for some folks.

When handflying, make sure to use trim. But when you use trim, only activate it a second or two at a time so as to not overtrim. The most important thing when hand-flying is DON'T FIGHT THE AIRPLANE. The airplane flies well but the simulator is much more sensitive on the roll axis and somewhat more sensitive on the pitch axis so just like your private instructor said, don't over control the airplane.

Slow down. In the sim certain maneuvers require a certain speed, but for everything else don't worry about blasting off to the next situation. Fly either 250 or 200 but whatever you fly make sure you bug that speed and fly that speed.

Don't let anybody fool you - the autopilot is your best friend in the sim. You can't let George rip right after a V1 cut, but turning the AP on after you've got the airplane stable and climbing will allow you to relax somewhat and work through the problem. I actually had a CKA tell me to "use the damn autopilot" during an engine failure on a PC, FWIW...

Don't allow yourself to get slow on final, trust your sim instructor, know your boldface boxed memory items COLD, have fun, and be as calm as possible on your PC. Good luck!

 

I used Microsoft flight simulator. It helped a lot for me. It got me used to using autopilot and gave me a good scan on glass. I bought a payware plane from here

http://www.wilcopub.com/index.cfm?fu...prod_CRJ_fleet

It also can produce bad habits so be very open when your start training. Use the fms and track vors inbound/outbound using the autopilot. The plane above is very realistic. Hope this helps!