Passing time with Flight Sim

Well it has been about a month since I did my discovery flight with Jeff White over and Pacific Coast Flyers. I am not sure I was able to fully enjoyed the flight because of two reasons: one being that I felt like between Jeff being late, him talking to people we passed, and also the plane needing fuel, we didn't take off for at least 90 minutes after we were scheduled to meet. The other reason being that because we took so long to get up in the air it was dark out, and the awesome view of the California coast line I was expecting couldn't be seen. Jeff was a great guy, and I left with a much better understanding of what to expect if I were to pursue this, but I just didn't have the right feeling leaving there, I wasn't excited.

I decided if I were to take flying lessons it would be after day light savings time ends, that way I would have my tax refund back, and more day light to fly after work. I thought that in the meantime I would watch instructional videos online, and try to get Microsoft Flight Simulator running on my computer. If I still had a desire to take lessons after a month of simulated flying and ground school, than I could feel better about dropping the $8k.

I put this little flight sim setup together for relatively cheap, finding the yoke, throttle, and desk on craigslist, and the rudders on eBay. I definitely think the flight sim has helped to teach me a few things, and more importantly it has kept my desire to learn to fly still burning. In a few more weeks I plan on starting lessons at Grey Eagle Aviation, a part 141 school. I didn't think that a typical school would be right for me, but the prices were better then if I had learned through a club, and more importantly I left the school feeling excited.

Expect my next post sometime mid March, when I take my first flying lesson.

Saiktek yoke, throttle quadrant, and rudders

My super sophisticated flight simulator