One week until I move to Daytona Beach and 10 days until I start the program!
I am pretty excited about starting so I don’t really want to wait to ask this question until I am there.
How do the sims work? I remember talking to the instructor about them a little bit whenever I took my intro flight, but he didn’t go into too much detail about them.
Basically I have two questions, (the first kind of leads into the second a little)
Do you have to have an instructor with you at all times while using the sim? Not right at the beginning obviously, but once you know what you are doing can you set it up and go in by yourself?
Can you go into the sim whenever you want? I will only be living 5 minutes from the airport, so say I am bored on a random Wednesday night, would it be possible for me to go practice some things in the sim for an hour to two?
If you’re going to log sim time then you need to be accompanied by a CFI, but if you’re just using it to practice then you can do that on your own whenever the sim is available.
A CFI should be the one to teach you how to operate the sim. Each sim should have a start up and shut down procedure and they need to be followed exactly.
Mark, I will be forming a study group for us all. I am looking forward to seeing you as a part of that. On the sims, I was told we have access to them any time they are not booked but the building closes at 8. Also, my personal hunch is that I wouldn’t want to spend too much time on the sims early on without CFI supervision in order to avoid forming any bad habits.
I want to caution you, I think time would be better spent learning knowledge related material. Yes, the flight training devices are convenient and helpful, but if too much time is spent in them they become counterproductive. I’m just sharing this with you because I had a student transferred to me last minute. Before they were assigned to me I had discovered that they spent most of their free time in the sim instead of preparing for the oral. When it came time to sign them off for their commercial multi, I couldn’t because they weren’t ready.
