Looks like this blog is turning into a flight simming blog, but that’s really all I’m doing now.

Is it productive? Sure! The same way learning Japanese was productive. The most important thing is I’m having fun doing something I’ve enjoyed doing for years now…except I can finally afford to get the hardware I need, and possibly expand the possibilities into a real-world applications. In other words, I’m going to save up as much as I can to go into flight school!

I’ve been playing around with VATSIM, which is a fantastic service. It’s a good way to explore the possibilities of a multiplayer real-world environment utilizing real-world Air Traffic Control that’s not AI controlled. In fact, X-Plane has no real ATC to work with (other than a poorly written IFR ATC…that’s not even worth using).

There’s no flying around the Space Needle, or landing a small Cessna 172 at Sea-Tac just because I feel like it. Nope…this is filing a real-world flight plan, knowing the limitations of my aicraft, knowing how to fly (I’m using a very accurate C-172), and knowing the proper terminology of Air Traffic Control.

I’ve been tinkering the idea of going on PilotEdge. It is a training service for both beginners and real-world pilots on proper ATC communications and real-world scenarios. That way f I do decide to go to flight school, I won’t freeze up when someone says “Taxi via taxiway D4, D, B, B1. Hold short of Runway 16R”.

It takes time, obviously it doesn’t take 5 minutes to go through a session. For example, I’m doing a 10 minute offline flight for a beginner PilotEdge session. I’m devoting time preparing for the flight by picking up the local charts, studying the charts (taxi diagrams, frequencies, procedures), watching demonstration videos, learning the proper terminology (base, downwind, etc…) setting up the radios, and doing the proper checklist procedure before I even move the plane. I fly, I don’t even have time to look at the scenery because I’m keeping a constant eye on my altitude, direction, and speed.

Yet that moment I make my landing, not even as much as a hard bump on the ground…it’s that moment where I realize that I can do this. That maybe if I do fly in the real world, I’ll have a grasp on what to do, and how to do it. How much time did it take me for preparation for that 10 minute flight? About an hour and a half…yet it was so worth it.

I haven’t signed up for PilotEdge yet. There’s a lot of studying…and I don’t want to waste a free trial before I can even get the courage to fly. I’m determined though…I haven’t read this much in years, I haven’t studied this much…I’m enjoying it all the way through.

Anyways, I do have a few pictures to share since my last post. All of these aircraft are payware, yet they are certainly worth every penny. For $20 I’m flying a real-world aircraft doing real-world procedures. It beats downloading a DLC for a game I may play over a weekend.

I have a week off (and my new nephew was just born! I want to see him, my sister, and my brother in law this week if I can!). I’ll study in the meantime and perhaps make my first

As ridiculous $20/month sounds for an ATC service…I could think of worse things to spend my money on. Lootcrate? Crunchyroll? An MMO? Please…

Anyways, here are some new pictures. Hope you all don’t mind the GUI…I don’t feel like cropping them out.