So my girlfriend has kindly booked me in for a 90 minute flying lesson from London Elstree this Sunday, in either a Piper Archer 2 or a C172.
Am looking forward to seeing if I can apply what I've learnt from flying in VR to the real world (even though it's just a first lesson).
Hopefully my instructor uses Aerofly and will let me have a good go at flying! 
I'll let you know how it goes and will post a video if I can record one.
Great!
Please show us some nice shots or even a video.
Hope you enjoy the experience. 
Rodeo
Be prepared for some much improved resolution. It will be the feel of gravity, the smell of avgas, oil, plastic and fabric that you will notice, the engine and wind sounds will be very different different than your home envirorment and the ATC chatter along with the bumpy and bouncy ride will be long remembered,
This is an important day, only second to your first solo, make sure you soak up every detail, the human memory is a wonderful thing and you will cherish this experience forever, you only get one first flight.
Regards,
Ray
So my girlfriend has kindly booked me in for a 90 minute flying lesson from London Elstree this Sunday, in either a Piper Archer 2 or a C172.
Am looking forward to seeing if I can apply what I've learnt from flying in VR to the real world (even though it's just a first lesson).
Hopefully my instructor uses Aerofly and will let me have a good go at flying!I'll let you know how it goes and will post a video if I can record one.
Beware for aerovirus, the disease is highly contagious 
My advice would be to refrain from talking too much about simulation with your FI unless he/she comes to the topic.
My experience of real world aviation is people can be sometimes quite conservative and many instructors I met have very little idea of flight simulators (whichever it is) but a somewhat negative prejudice.
Not all the instructors of course, some can see the obvious potential pedagogical aspects and use it, but that's unfortunately still a minority. Some other instructors are just too happy to prove their student they're learning bad habits by playing with their toy, sticking their nose to the instruments...
First enjoy your flight and experience the unique feel of flying when you're at the yoke, many feelings that cannot be experienced in a simulator whatever it is, and don't forget to look outside the aircraft.
After the flight, if you feel like your FI could be a simmer too, you can come to that topic...
Just my 2 cents.
Have a good first flight !
Cheers
Antoine
Hope you enjoy your first flight it is a big difference from flying in vr with all the added elements as Ray mentioned I'm sure you will get to fly the aircraft that way you will get a good idea if flying for real is for you my instructor was never too happy I used fsx as he said I picked up a lot of bad habits always looking at the instruments and not enough looking outside of the aircraft, enjoy your flight.
Jim
As has been mentioned, be ready for it to seem very loud and bumpy.
But you will bring that back with you to your simming, and you will incorporate it into your imagination while flying in FS 2. Real flying makes simming "feel" more realistic, in my experience at least.
I go outside now and again. The graphics aren't always that good.
What jetjockey said is spot on lol! Yeah it will be an experience to remember. The very first time I went up in a Cessna, I had not mentioned my simming experience at all, but the instructor let me have some yoke time. He turned to me and said, wow you are a natural.
That was when I told him I have been simming for years. It opened his eyes that maybe simming isn't such a bad thing after all. I hope the same experience for you.
Enjoy the ride
While there is a great deal that simming will not prepare you for, one big plus point is familiarity with instrumentation. I had thousands of hours of FS experience before I first went "under the hood" (flew on instruments alone) in real life. I had taught myself to scan the instruments, and fly by them in the Microsoft series of flight sims for years before doing it for real.
Then, during pilot training, when it came time to go under the hood, something wonderful happened. My simulation experience met reality. On that very first time wearing those funny glasses, my instructor was blown away at what he was witnessing. He kept asking, "Are you sure you have not been under the hood before?" And I kept affirming it was indeed the case.
That's when something staggering took place. He told me to follow very carefully every instruction he gave, to the letter. And so I did, and after about ten minutes or so, he instructed me to put Piper Warrior C-GOCH into a descent. He kept giving calm instructions regarding heading, speed, etc, and, still flying with reference to instruments alone, I followed without question. Then, just as I was thinking we must be getting pretty darned low, he told me to flare very carefully and..... We were on the ground! "Keep the heading" he told me. "Add power and climb normally" he said.
A few minutes later he told me to take the goggles off. "Congratulations" he told me. "You just did your first touch and go under the hood into Hamilton Airport." (CYHM).
I remember shouting, "I can't believe you just had me do that!" He explained that he'd never seen anything like it, and he firmly attributed my unexpected prowess to years of flight simming.
A true story folks, and one that still causes me to shake my head in the sheer wonder of that moment more than 20 years ago!
Regards,
Kenneth
Flight Simulator can teach you a lot of good things, it only depends on how you use it. In an airclub there are many, many aspects for which it can be a fantastic pedagogical tool.
Not for pure aircraft handling skills, but rather for all the tasks the pilot has to manage aboard : procedures, navigation, communication, flight management, situational awareness, rerouting, emergencies, etc.
It is quite frequent that simmers are at ease when flying with the no-outside-visibility googles. Unlike Kenneth, I was released by my instructor in final for a go-around without touching, but we were perfectly lined-up and set up for landing.
In the next flights my instructor started to make me talk while holding my parameters, and compute things, explain how various instrument work. Holding parameters becomes quite tricky and you quickly let some drift when you're getting overloaded.
That's something you can practice with an instructor in a sim.
But what you cannot practice is IMC when you need to disbelieve your internal ear and follow the instruments, because your ear won't fool you in the sim...
Cheers
Antoine
Antoine, I appreciated and enjoyed your insights. Thank you for sharing. By the way, is your avatar picture in a Chipmunk?
- Kenneth
(...) By the way, is your avatar picture in a Chipmunk?
- Kenneth
Affirm ! a much beloved 1951 ex-RAF british-built DHC-1 Chipmunk... I love that aircraft !
[Blocked Image: http://www.airteamimages.com/pics/152/152491_800.jpg]
Cheers
Antoine
Yes, I love the Chippy too! My first ever flight was way back in 1971 in WK591 at RAF Newton. Now, to get Just Flight to port their Chipmunk into AF2?
- Kenneth
What a lovely girlfriend, after 50 yrs marriage all you get is " don't forget to cut the lawns"
Have fun and certainly looking forward to your reply when you get back
What a lovely girlfriend, after 50 yrs marriage all you get is " don't forget to cut the lawns"
I cried when I read this LOL
What a lovely girlfriend, after 50 yrs marriage all you get is " don't forget to cut the lawns"
My wife got me my first sample lesson for my birthday back in 1998. We had been married 12 years then, coming up on 32 next year. I still treasure that memory. So cool, and so thrilling when the pilot lets you take the controls and you realize that hey, you really might be able to do this!!!
Great stuff. I've got a lesson lined up as a present at the moment, just trying to sort a date for it.
"4. When you're flying for real, there is no room for serious mistakes and a flight sim can never project real fear or panic, which is essential for learning and developing your reactions"
Actually that's the part I'm hoping will get beefed up when there are multiple aircraft and ATC with some bad weather... and with my bass shakers and motion platform to make it more visceral. I don't want fear exactly but a bit more adrenalin of being under pressure to do things right. I've had a little of that getting lost while navigating by VOR and pilotage but that isn't viable at the moment as you can't stay immersed in VR and refer to charts to try and get back on course. It will get there.
