Getting Up To Speed - A new member's trials and tribulations

Ok, I tend towards the verbose, but I'll try to keep it brief for those who'd rather fly than read. I've spent hours of flying all kinds of planes and reading and learning about navigation and can land ILS and VFR - although I continue to struggle with glide slope on manual flying. The FS lessons frustrated me when the instructor kept telling me I wasn't getting it and would shut me down. Still, I've managed to please both passengers and copilot using FS passengers - although sometimes serving extra drinks was necessary to satisfy additional passengers (and their pilot when the fight is completed).

So...here I am at the pub - after a trying day flying my second tutorial flight from the link sent to me by my friendly hub manager (KMSP-KMNM). Yep...did the first flight too (and did it first), but couldn't seem to figure out what to write down and when to write it down (I'm generally too busy flying to write - and I'm lucky if I get all the ATC information the first time around).

My goal is to get my skills to the level where I won't embarrass myself when I make my first on-line flight with real ATC (ok...guys and gals simulating ATC, but it's real enough to scare me). So I’ve been flying and reading and buying new add-ons (I’m borderline obsessive compulsive – so I can’t help myself but jump in all the way or not at all). This can really hang things up when I’m on a 14-day countdown to file my first PIREP.

Here is what I did this weekend:

• Learned that there was other ATC besides the default FS one – I’ve begun using Radar Contact

• Learned that I can get other weather simulation and have begun using ActiveSky

• Downloaded basic SPA versions of the Beechcraft d1900 and the King Air 350 (I want to fly the SPA logo). I found that the first panel for the 1900 didn’t seem to work ( a number of the instruments were blacked out). Panel-2 worked, but there was no performance file for my FSBuild program that I had previously purchased for flight-planning. I created one from a similar sized plane, but I wasn’t confident that it was correct enough.

• Discovered Tutorial Flight Two (which should be the first tutorial flight because it walks through so much – and gave a better indication of what I should write down for my PIREP (in red) – while giving a very nice ‘how-to’ on the King Air 350.

• Yesterday (Sat) I flew the first tutorial twice while configuring the various software add-ons, but didn’t have things set right, or document the correct information for adding a PIREP.

• Today I flew the second tutorial flight – and it went pretty good, although I had to hit pause a number of times to read along and make things work according to plan. Also – my ATC wanted me to take off from 12R rather than 22. I accepted this rather than requesting alternate from ATC, and adjusted frequencies and other things accordingly. I also noted that my V1 VR and V2 seemed to differ slightly from those shown in the tutorial (using the settings in my Kneepad Ref. section - v1=108, vr=111, v2=117).
This time I gathered all the necessary information (by hand) necessary for a PIREP, but it appears that this won’t count as a recordable flight. It did take me a bit longer to get off the ground (I got lost on the taxi-ways as this was only my second attempt to navigate using the map rather than the ‘progressive taxi’ option (not available in my newly acquired Radar Contact). The rest of the flight went as planned, except when I was finally landing on rwy 3 I somehow lost the glide slope –realizing this as the trees were coming up really fast and the runway was still a bit ahead. I was forced to turn off autopilot and manually land the plane.

So… I’m working as fast as I can – but I think I’ll have to wait until next weekend to do the training flights and file a PIREP (hopefully I’ll still be a member in good standing).

jr

Wow jr, that's a very interesting piece. It's great to get some feedback on the tutorials. The first one was done quite a while before we did the second one, so I guess the second one is better. Let me study what you have written and see what we can do to: (1) Clear up some confusions and (2) Improve the tutorials.

Mike Daugherty
MSP Hub Manager

Thanks Mike,

Not a criticism - just letting you know I'm working on things here. The information I've found here has been great - including your tutorials. I'm just not sure that 14 days is enough for me (that kind of translates into about two days (about a day each weekend). The combination of learning while solving myriad software glitches can really eat up time. Just wanted to let you know I'm plugging away at it.

jr,

Don't worry about the 14 days and don't let the PIREP intimidate you. We are not about enforcing rules at SPA. We are about encouraging your (and our) interest in aviation. Try one of your assigned flights and file a PIREP. If there are problems, let us know and we'll help. That's what we're here for.

Mike

OBTW: I've been at this eight years and I still have to use the pause button.<br /><br /><!-- editby --><br /><br /><em>edited by: Westcoast, Nov 20, 2011 - 08:47 PM</em><!-- end editby -->

Thanks for the encouragement Mike, I'll keep plugging along and try to get that done ASAP.