6 ms·

> VFR students shouldn't be anywhere near a simulator, I agree but I wasn't talking about stick and rudder skills, I was talking about cross country VFR prepar

> VFR students shouldn't be anywhere near a simulator, I agree but I wasn't talking about stick and rudder skills, I was talking about cross country VFR preparation (learning landmarks etc.). I guess you can do it just using Google Maps, but it would be fun to do it in sim IMHO. PS regarding the expression "VFR students": there is a preconception where VFR skills are just something that you learn as a beginner pilot, and then once you have enough experience, you start focusing on IFR. I think this mindset is wrong. There are some very experienced bush pilots who regularly - and sometimes mostly - fly VFR; aviation is not just airliners.

tjohns 6y ago
Now that you mention it, I could see MSFS being useful for general area familiarization. Foreflight has 3D mode now for the same purpose. But MSFS would certainly be more fun, and an instructor could mix in other navigation skills. It would be a good exercise to drop someone into an unknown area to practice VOR navigation. (And 100% agreed about the "VFR students" thing. Poor choice of words on my part.)
- mastazi 6y ago
  Oh yes I love Foreflight 3D mode. > an instructor could mix in other navigation skills Yes you made me realise that my initial comment was not very clear, I said “VFR” but really I meant visual navigation.
redis_mlc 6y ago
> cross country VFR preparation (learning landmarks etc.) That's unnecessary since your sectional (map) has most of that. > there is a preconception where VFR skills are just something that you learn as a beginner pilot, and then once you have enough experience It's a really strange argument to make, since pilots are responsible for see and avoid, which means looking out the window, even with an IFR clearance. Since you're writing basically GPT-3-level nonsense, are you actually a pilot? Source: commercially-rated pilot.

tjohns 6y ago

Now that you mention it, I could see MSFS being useful for general area familiarization. Foreflight has 3D mode now for the same purpose. But MSFS would certainly be more fun, and an instructor could mix in other navigation skills. It would be a good exercise to drop someone into an unknown area to practice VOR navigation. (And 100% agreed about the "VFR students" thing. Poor choice of words on my part.)

mastazi 6y ago
Oh yes I love Foreflight 3D mode. > an instructor could mix in other navigation skills Yes you made me realise that my initial comment was not very clear, I said “VFR” but really I meant visual navigation.

redis_mlc 6y ago

> cross country VFR preparation (learning landmarks etc.) That's unnecessary since your sectional (map) has most of that. > there is a preconception where VFR skills are just something that you learn as a beginner pilot, and then once you have enough experience It's a really strange argument to make, since pilots are responsible for see and avoid, which means looking out the window, even with an IFR clearance. Since you're writing basically GPT-3-level nonsense, are you actually a pilot? Source: commercially-rated pilot.