Hi All ! I've been taught that yours is not to reason why , blah blah, but bear with me
No offense or harm meant, but I think going up in a C150 on a first-ever flight is a huge mistake. I fly frequently, in anything from Boeing's to Harvards/Texans to C150's. A C150 is the aircraft I dislike the most. Picture a C150 at 5,500 ft MSL at approx. 35 deg. Celcius, and you've got my flight in a C150. I don't know if you have it in your area, but we offer introductory flips in a Harvard, including 8-10 minutes of aerobatics. Believe me, the first time you feel those serious G's (in a computer game 4G's is nothing, but I usually pass out at 4,5G's) and you look up to see the ground, you'll be hooked forever. My advice is, go again, but definitely in a different aircraft. Something bigger and more stable in the air. A C172, Cherokee or C210 should do the trick. But don't give up. Once you start liking it, you'll never be able to live without it !!! Danie Heath Web Integrator RisC Com cc +27 12 654-5100 083 412 6904 [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of David Megginson Sent: 06 April 2002 01:58 To: FlightGear Development Subject: [Flightgear-devel] My First Flight Although I've said before that I wouldn't do it, I went up today for a CA$45.00 (US$30.00) introductory flight in a 100HP Cessna 150 at the Ottawa Flying Club at CYOW (there's a separate north field for small aircraft so that we don't have to worry about wake turbulence from all the big jets). My instructor was younger than I am but had 1,600 hours flying experience -- I think this is the first time I've ever been formally instructed in anything by a younger person. After reading over the log book then walking around the plane, checking the surface movements, examining fuel samples, checking the oil level, etc. etc., we plugged in our headsets, climbed in, and sat down. The interior of a C150 is very small, and the instructor suggested that I leave the door open until I had my shoulder strap fully fastened or I wouldn't have room to do it. He was right -- it made economy class on a commercial aircraft seem roomy by comparison. I had expected that in an introductory flight the instructor would fly to altitude, take me to the practice area, then let me take the yoke for a few minutes and maybe try a few turns. In fact, he put me in the pilot's seat immediately, and after we ran the checklist, he had me fire up the engine and (after we listened to ATIS and he radioed for clearance for our flight) asked me to taxi. Even though I *knew* to use the rudder pedals, he still caught me trying to steer with the yoke once, out of pure reflex (it doesn't matter how much you practice at home with the computer -- you still want to steer a moving vehicle with a wheel). In FlightGear, neither JSBSim (either before and after my patch of yesterday) nor YASim has taxiing quite right from my limited experience. On the C150, at least, the nosewheel has more turning authority than JSBSim used to allow it, but not so much as I gave it yesterday with my patch (or YASim gives it) -- you really have to use the toe brake a little in most turns. Unfortunately, JSBSim pretty-much stops all forward movement with even a little differential braking, while the real C150 keeps on moving forward. I was pretty clunky taxiing at first, but it's a small plane and I got the hang of the steering and differential braking fairly fast, at least in time to hold short for the runway. We watched one of the club's C172s land, then the instructor radioed the tower and got clearance, and I taxied out onto runway 22 and lined up (well, pretty close) with the centreline. Winds were light and variable. He simply told me to push the throttle all the way in and to steer only with the rudder pedals (no brakes), then, after a few seconds, he told me to pull back on the yoke. I was prepared for a heavy propeller effect and probably overcompensated with right rudder when we lifted off; actually, I didn't notice any p-effect at all, period (I had my feet on the rudder pedals, so I would have noticed them moving if the instructor were compensating for me). Obviously, this was a small aircraft with a much weaker engine than the C172R's 160HP IO360, but I'm willing to guess that both JSBSim and (to a lesser extent) YASim are *way* overdoing it with their propeller effects on takeoff. One other reason for the absence of noticable propeller effects might be the fact that I did a very shallow climb (fortunately, there are no significant obstacles after the runway). Things were happening far too fast -- I had had no idea that I would be flying the plane right at the start -- and I found it very hard psychologically to keep the nose up, since it covered my forward view. Imagine driving fast down the highway with the front of the windshield entirely covered with snow and ice, so that you can see only out the side windows -- that's what it's like climbing in an airplane. It took me a long time to get to 2000ft (the airport is around 335ft), but the instructor was patient. He gave me a new ground reference to aim for, and I turned the plane right and tried to hold 2000ft (+/-10%, in the event). Scanning the instruments in a C150 is *not* like watching the instruments on the screen of a PC simulator, were everything's visible in the same focal plane. I was sitting very close to the panel and above it, so even checking the airspeed indicator or tachometer (way over on the copilot's side) required a head movement and eye refocussing, as well as a slight pupil adjustment from the sunny exterior to the darker interior. It's not like scanning the speedometer and gas gauge in a car either, where you're sitting low and further back -- I'd say it's about as disruptive as looking down at the car radio. It's probably easy for an experienced pilot, but I, with only a few minutes' flying experience, growing vertigo from the aircraft's motion, and a total inability to read motion cues, was very unwilling to tear my eyes away from the outside. The best way to similate this in FlightGear, I think, is to set up the view so that you have to use the mouse to tilt the view down to the panel and then back again -- that seems like a good equivalent of the physical effort of scanning instruments, at least for a first-time flier. We did another right turn at the Queensway, the major east/west expressway across Ottawa, and the instructor told me to keep to the south side. The parliament buildings are a few km to the north of the Queensway (the airport is to the south), so all of downtown north of the Queensway has been a no-fly zone since 11 September. I noticed that the ball on the turn coordinator pretty-much stayed centered no matter what I did (again, my feet were on the rudder pedals, so I would have felt the instructor moving them for me). What the instructor *was* doing, besides radio work and navigation, was scanning for traffic (I was too scared to take my eyes off front anyway) and trying to quietly adjust the trim wheel for me, though he couldn't tell what pressure I was feeling from the yoke so it wasn't very effective. In fact, when I was flying 200ft too high and he tried to trim us down, I kept compensating unconsiously to hold the nose up. I followed the highway for a couple of minutes, past my own neighbourhood. The instructor offered to take the controls so that I could take some pictures with the digital camera I had brought along, but I said I didn't mind keeping flying. The truth was that I was terrified to let go of the yoke and was feeling more and more motion sick (fortunately, I had arrived on a mostly empty stomach). He gave me a new ground reference, a smokestack that just happened to be lined up with runway 22, and once I passed it I turned right, pointed the plane at the runway, and began a descent (I lost 200ft in the turn despite my best efforts, so I had a bit of a headstart). The instructor radioed the tower and then took control of the plane and brought it down -- we hit the runway at a very slight crab, so there was a snap as the wheels straightened us out. As soon as the plane was slowed down, he gave it back to me to taxi back to the flying club (a long taxi, since the club is near the other end of the runway). I did much better this time, and managed to hold the yellow line even around the turns. The rule is to taxi with the engine at 1000 RPM, sometimes going up to 1200 RPM just to get started -- he said that a C172 taxis around 900 RPM because of the more powerful engine. When we got to parking, the instructor took over again and found us a parking place on the grass, across the taxiway from the club. We ran through the post-flight checklist and shut down the plane, but didn't tie down because it would be going right back up again with someone else. Will I do it again, and pursue a private pilot's license? I don't know. One problem was that it wasn't fun or exciting really -- during the flight, I felt like I was just driving a very difficult car around the city, and being in the air didn't seem a lot different than being on the ground except that I got much more motion sick and felt an enormous (almost crushing) weight of responsibility being at the controls, even with the instructor ready to take over. The motion sickness was a big problem -- I was still experiencing vertigo 6 hours after the flight, and feel slightly unsteady even this morning even after a good night's sleep. We hit rough air twice, but I don't think that was the main reason. The vertigo didn't interfere with my ability to fly (I knew it was there, but was able to focus through it), but it hit hard once I was on the ground and out of the plane, and even harder once I had driven home. Right after the flight, I was thinking I might not want to go up again; and hour after, I was sure I wouldn't. By late yesterday evening, however, I was thinking of everything that I could do better if I had one more try. I'd try to relax enough to reach for the trim wheel; I'd make sure I held a steady climb after takeoff; I'd use a looser grip on the yoke; etc. I still feel disappointed that I felt no excitement at all from actually being in the air, though (I enjoyed taxiing and the preflight more, if you can believe it) -- I was like a kid looking forward to Christmas and then getting nothing but socks. Will the excitement come when I'm more relaxed and confident, or is it simply not for me? I've never enjoyed driving or owning cars -- they are a necessary evil for me, but nothing more -- so perhaps I'm just the wrong personality type. Learning a difficult skill does interest me, though, and that's the main point in favour of going back. I also enjoy navigation, so perhaps when I can fly cross-country, it will be worth it. I'm going to think things over and perhaps try one proper lesson in a bigger plane (like a C172) -- if I'm less crowded, the vertigo might not be so bad, though lessons will be slightly more expensive. Right now, I'd say that there's a 55% chance I won't continue flying but I might change my mind over the next few weeks. Ground school starts in late April, so I have some time to decide. All the best, David -- David Megginson [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel _______________________________________________ Flightgear-devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mail.flightgear.org/mailman/listinfo/flightgear-devel
