You know how it is when you get behind some old guy who’s putting along, usually in the fast lane, about 20 miles an hour below the speed limit!? Frustrating, right?
Well we’re not going to talk about old guys driving slow; we’re going to talk about flying slow for pilots of all ages.
But doesn’t it seem like aircraft are going faster instead of slower these days? It does to us. Strangely enough, Aircraft Simulator Training (AST) is taking the opposite approach and slowing things down!
The FAA is finally paying attention to what we’ve known all along; that slow flight can be dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing. But the funny thing is, at AST we teach you how to fly slower than you probably have before – and be safer doing it! Sound strange?
In our Loss of Control class we show you how to fly slower, not just 5 to 10 knots above stall, but right at stall speed! Dangerous you say? Not so much because we do it in our simulator and we show you how to get the most performance out of your airplane while maintaining a measure of control you might not have even known existed in your airplane.
Yes it could be dangerous, if you’re in an airplane and you don’t know the real limits of that airplane. But we teach you how to fly slow in our simulators so that when – not if – you find yourself in a situation and you become distracted, you’ll know how to keep yourself, and your precious cargo, alive.
In the sim you can be on the ragged edge of potential trouble but still feel safe. Our full motion sims actually “buffet” when they’re on the edge of a stall. That’s when you really know you’re practicing slow flight and you’re not afraid you’ll fall out of the sky!
That kind of confidence that we help you build in our sim training keeps you from feeling anxious because you know what to expect when you climb in an airplane.
Not only are you building confidence but you’re also building proficiency, the kind of proficiency that’s not always possible if you’re training in an airplane because of all that’s happening around you that’s distracting you from absorbing the true purpose of the lesson.
Needless to say that kind of anxiety seriously detracts from the fun of flying and also distracts you from the true learning purpose of the training.
And we haven’t even mentioned the money that so many students waste, trying to attain proficiency in an airplane that could be done much quicker – and cheaper – in a simulator.
Here’s a situation we’re sure you’ve been in; you’re in your airplane and you’re practicing slow flight, climbing, turning and descending at minimum airspeed and all you can focus on is the creeping onset of that dreaded stall vibration and the darn warning horn blasting in your face!
Now compare that to practicing those same maneuvers in the sim, really getting the feel of flying on the edge of a stall, honing your slow flight skills and knowing that there’s no way you could be doing this in the airplane without constantly having to look for traffic, trying to hear what the instructor is trying to tell you over the engine noise and, oh yeah, trying to think clearly with the stall warning horn going off!
Add in the full motion realism of our sims, without the anxiety, and you’ll see why sim training is so valuable in conditioning you for the real thing….
Come on in and find out that being old is not a requirement to fly slow, safely!