Вот что авиасимулятор животворящий делает!

[tesanoff]

Удивительное рядом: товарищ, наигравшись в авиасимулятор, сумел взлететь, полетать и сесть на настоящем самолёте. Причём без предварительных тренировок и без подсказок и помощи со стороны настоящего пилота-инструктора.

Вот видео самого полёта (нетерпеливым можно смело мотать на 6:30):

Отчёт пилота:

TRIP REPORT

The Challenge

For me, this whole thing probably started years ago, having fun on assorted flight simulators, and thinking ya know, I think I might be able to actually land a real plane if given the chance. And for whatever reason, it came up at my work with another guy, and in May when I got word from him that his friend would be my co-pilot, the bet was on. For anyone who has followed the thread, it took forever to get it going. The original pilot wasn't able to make the time, or didn't have the interest, or whatever, but it all worked out as along came the famous W0X0F to save the day, agreeing to facilitate the experiment. Suddenly, it was on for November.

I had previously only flown the simulator using a joystick, so I made the commitment to buying a yoke and rudder pedals. Not cheap, but I figured it would give me the best possible chance of success. I practiced during the summer, in fits and spurts, but once the flight was officially on for November, I put in quite a bit of time. Just as a guess, I probably took off and landed at VGT (North Las Vegas Airport) and flew the pattern maybe 50 times. I played around with some crosswind conditions to try and plan for the worst.

It's worth noting that a lot of the commentary by the pilots on 2+2 made a huge difference. For example, although I had read in a flying instruction manual that pitch controlled the speed of the plane, and throttle controlled the glide slope, it wasn't until that point was repeated by pilots within the thread that I took it to heart. And once I "got it," it was like ohhhhhh, right! You may have noticed in the video of the actual flight that I specifically used that knowledge on final, both to scrub some speed (by pitching up the nose of the airplane) and to raise up the plane to make the runway (increased throttle). Also, the focus on the landing and the flare within the thread made me focus a lot on that in my practice on the simulator.

Crushing The Simulator and Day of the Flight

One thing is for sure: by the time the day came to leave for Las Vegas, I had the flight on the simulator absolutely down. I mean every time I flew it, it was almost perfect, even in light winds. I make note of this, because something fascinating happened during the flight which I haven't mentioned before (explained later). My confidence level was extremely high prior to the flight, as in I really thought I was a pick 'em to do this, as in even money. 5 to 1, 20 to 1, 100 to 1?? No effing way; I was sure I had a really good chance at success. Keep reading!

As for meeting W0X0F, and the day at the airport before the flight, I think that has been covered well already in W0X0F's TR, and for the most part, sitting around and waiting for him to get his paperwork done, and do his check flight, was pretty much boring for me. I did a little tweeting and that was pretty much it for about 2 hours. I did go and pick up a digital recorder at Best Buy, and thought I had it connected correctly for the flight, but apparently I didn't and got no communications sound. We had no time to test it really.

So with W0X0F done with everything, we were ready to go, and we walked out to the plane. We got the cameras set up. Unfortunately, one of the iphones (the one facing me) stopped recording about 10 mins after I turned it on. Not sure why, as the other iPhone worked fine for the whole pre-flight and flight. Fortunately, the one phone pointed at W0X0F did capture half of my face most of the time, and that seemed to work just well enough for the cockpit video. The Contour HD out the front of the plane worked beautifully, but the camcorder I had set up in the back seat was just pointed badly by me. I tried to cheat a little, and get both the instrument panel and also a view out the front of the plane, and of course it ended up being bad video of both. And glare on the cameral the whole time made it unusable.

The Flight

Walking out to the plane, setting up the cameras, and taxiing out to the runway, I actually wasn't very nervous. I know, it seems strange. I can get very nervous in certain situations, and I remember being pleasantly surprised that I wasn't shaking,or sweating, or anything really. Again, I had gotten so comfortable on the sim, I think it translated into a certain calm prior to the flight and right up to the point when the wheels left the ground. So W0X0F got us out to the runway (I did a little taxiing on the way out) and he lined us up on runway 7, and as you probably saw on the video he said "You ready?" Then "Your airplane."

I gingerly pushed in the throttle, we got rolling, and the plane pulled predictably to the left. I was ready for this and applied some right rudder to compensate. I increased to full throttle, and here is where the flight sim failed me. On the sim, the rudder peddles were really sensitive, and I did what I could to dampen their sensitivity, but never (as I know now) got it to properly simulate the actual peddles. So even though I was pushing right rudder the whole time during take off, I wasn't pushing it enough and the plane quickly started to pull too far to the left. I knew W0X0F had to be thinking about doing something. I pushed what I recall was a lot of right rudder (which was probably half its full travel, which felt like a ton to me) and that was enough to at least stop the plane's further left pull, and that bought me a few more seconds. I looked down and saw we were at 55 knots, and that was enough, I rotated. That was, by far, the easiest part of the flight!

Panic

There is really no other way to describe what happened next: I panicked. I did quickly bank the plane right to get it back over the runway, and this was pure habit from the simulator, which mimicked this part of the flight perfectly. But in the immediate seconds after take off, the first thing I thought was, I can't do this. The feeling of being in the air, and experiencing six degrees of freedom of the plane, was so totally foreign to me, I was literally scared. I even said to myself silently, (W0X0F's name) take over please. I was freaking out. The plane seemed to be moving all OVER the place, pitch, roll, bank, yaw, up, down, all of it, like a toy boat in a an unsettled bathtub, if you can picture that. But the nose kept generally pointed forward, and the plane kept its general climb attitude, and I settled down. That is, I settled down from a state of total terror, to just general major concern.

I recall within the thread describing how I would monitor several different instruments during the flight, and someone (I forget at the moment who) said look, you're not going to be looking at your vertical speed indicator, you're going to be focusing on what's out in front of you and just a couple instruments. Well, that was absolutely right. Right after takeoff, and during climb out, I basically couldn't bring myself to look down at the instruments! I was just zombie-locked on the view out the front of the plane. Vertical speed indicator? LO f*cking L.

So now maybe 30 seconds after takeoff, I knew I had a left turn coming up, and did manage to look down at the heading indicator. We took off on runway 7, and I had managed to keep the plane basically heading straight, so it should read 070. But it says 305. What the hell! I say to W0X0F hey, is that heading right? I half expected him to say, no you dumbass, your heading the wrong way, I've got the plane! But he quickly said, oh right! And he reached over and fixed it in like .04 seconds. We had forgot to set it prior to taking off. But no harm no foul. So, crisis averted and I was back to my feeling of general major concern.

I made the left turn, but because there was no crosswind leg, the turn was around to heading 300 which was parallel to the runway we were going to land on (runway 12L). This was in the opposite direction of the landing, standard for flying the pattern. This part actually went pretty well. I was still climbing, looking for 800 ft above ground level which is 3000 ft since the airport is at 2200 ft. I was focused on getting around to heading 300 and at some point went right up through 3000 to 3100. Other than flying a bit too high, the turn itself went well. I had settled down a little and was able to focus on the heading indicator and roll out of the turn at 300. Now on the downwind leg! It was here that I noticed we were at 3100 and I pushed in the yoke a bit to get us down to 3000. But, the plane really wanted to gain altitude so I actually used the trim wheel to try and push us down a bit. It sort of worked, but then I just abandoned that whole idea because things were happening really fast, and it seemed to be taking too much time for me to get any kind of response. And there is a reason: I looked at the airspeed indicator and we're doing like 120 knots. Good lord, I had totally forgot to ease back on the power ever since takeoff -- we were still at full throttle. So I pulled back on the throttle a bit and heard the RPM of the engine slow a little. I'd love to tell you what RPM we were at but I can honestly say I never looked at the RPM gage the entire trip. Not because I shouldn't have, but just because it was the last thing on my mind. Anyway, we slowed to what I believe was around 95 knots.

Still On the Downwind Leg

We were still on the downwind leg, and the plane still felt like it was moving all over the place. I couldn't get used to the sensation. I'm sure it is entirely normal, but to me, it felt very disorienting. By this time we were past the point where a normal pattern flight would have turned left, and as has been pointed out, W0X0F said something to the effect of "don't take us all the way out of here." Knowing what he meant, I immediately turned left to base. As for the turns, I had planned on banking the plane 20 degrees for them. But, it felt so weird to me when the plane banked over, I kept them really shallow, like maybe 5 or 10 degrees. So my lack of comfort is why you see the very shallow, long-lasting turns in the video.

We flew the base leg and I was looking out the left of the plane and saw the runway. I confirmed with W0W0F that we were going to runway 1-2 Left. I verbalized it in the plane only because it was a bit of an unusual airport pattern, having taken off on runway 7. Normally, you would take off and land on the same runway, so that was the reason I mentioned it to him. He confirmed 12L was ours. Right at this point, I realized I had yet again forgotten something -- to extend flaps. My plan was to extend 10 degrees flaps on the downwind leg, and then go to 20 degrees flaps on the base leg. I was just turning to final when I realized I hadn't extended any flaps yet, but I looked at my speed and I was going a little to fast to extend flaps. So, I had to pitch the plane up a bit, lose a little speed, and then extend the flaps. I got the plane slowed down to around 80 knots then reached for the flaps handle. I didn't know exactly where it was and just naturally said out loud while reaching "where are the flaps." Just a rhetorical question to myself, but still pretty comical if you ask me. "Sir, you are about to land this plane." "Roger that. So, where are the flaps?" Haha. Anyway, I found the flaps lever and set them to 20 degrees in one shot since I had forgot to set them earlier at 10 degrees.

This Is It

I completed my .0005 degree banked turn to the left, and we were on final now. Okay, it wasn't that shallow, but you get the point of my turns. [By the way, if any of you would like stop by my place and watch me make some killer 30 degree turns on the simulator, let me know]. With flaps at 20 degrees, the plane’s speed had decreased to just around 70 knots, perfect! I got lined up on the runway fairly quickly after over shooting it on the base leg a bit. And down we went. By this time I had calmed down a little bit from general major concern to just concerned, but for the most part, I actually felt pretty good. At least compared to the first 20 seconds of the flight, I felt pretty good. W0X0F asked about the VASI's, which are the red and white lights which indicate the plane's glide slope, high, low or good. I confirmed I knew what they were, and I had 3 whites and a red, which means I was a little high. Two whites and two reds is perfect. But being a little high is okay, while being a little low is more of a concern. At around this point W0X0F said to me “Remember our deal, if I say I’ve got it.” I of course responded, “Sit there and don’t touch anything, or I cut you.” Haha, joke. I said “Yep.” So on the approach I was able to keep the plane at 70 knots using pitch, but at some point I saw the VASI go to two whites and two reds, and even though that is okay, I felt a little low, so I pushed in some throttle, and just exactly like the simulator taught me, the plane came up and I was back on a decent glide slope. As I got closer, I had 3 whites and 1 red, and as I was almost over the threshold of the runway, the VASI went to 4 whites, but I had plenty of runway so I didn't worry about that. I reduced throttle now and was getting ready to land.

Like Watching A Movie

One thing I recall during this final part of the landing was that it was very surreal. It was like I was watching a movie of myself trying to make the landing. How weird is that? I was experiencing a certain amount of disbelief with the whole thing, and in particular, the landing that was about to take place. It sounds strange, but that's how I remember it. I had reduced power now to just above an idle, and I was over the threshold. I reduced power all the way to idle, and took my right hand off the throttle and put it on the yoke to help steer the plane, which became a little less responsive as my speed slowed. The planed yawed to the right, and I thought I was in trouble, but I put in a little left rudder just before I flared the plane, and it came around to be pointing pretty much straight down the centerline. I know W0X0F was paying very close attention at this time, obviously, and particularly to my airspeed (I didn't see him monitoring it so closely until I saw the video), but my airspeed, the alignment of the plane, and the mild flare were basically good enough for a safe landing. About 10 feet above the runway I was in a slight nose up attitude, and as the plane settled down I had to keep pulling back on the yoke to keep the nose up. And this is just exactly how several had described it within the thread. Because of that, I felt comfortable while doing it. The plane touched down fairly smoothly with a slight angle to the right, but it was good enough and the experiment had been a success. Within moments, W0X0F took over the plane, and we powered up for a touch-and-go.

Success! And Why No More Flying?

Although I suppose under scrutiny, the letter of the terms of the original bet would probably have meant a loss for me since W0X0F did provide some assistance turning for base. But that's been discussed, and in the end it's a good thing there were no bets on the challenge. Still, in my mind, I accomplished pretty much everything I had hoped for, and am really really happy about the whole thing. I think it will continue to sink in as time goes by.

There are two reasons I didn't have W0X0F take me around for some more flying, a mini-lesson and what-have-you. First, I would have had to pay for any additional time in the plane. And while it’s not always the case, I do have my moments of being a completely cheap bastard. Ha! Second, I was pretty emotionally drained, and probably wouldn't have gotten much out of the additional flight time. I was only thinking about what had just been accomplished. And why didn't I try one more landing? Well this one is easy. If I would have tried to land the plane again, there would have been absolutely no upside to doing it, and a ton of down-side. If I would have blown a second landing, anyone could easily say how lucky I obviously got on the first landing. Now, I'm not saying I didn't get a little lucky perhaps, but I just saw no reason not to end the experiment cleanly and clearly. So that's why no second landing attempt.

And lastly, I want to say this. You recall I said I thought I had a 50-50 chance of success before the flight, based on how well I was doing on the simulator. Now, after the flight, I'd say that the wisdom of the 2+2 masses was actually more accurate. Given what I know now, I'd say pulling it off was maybe 10 to 1. And if I could have stopped time 10 seconds into the flight and put a line on success? I'd have put it at 100 to 1. So, does that mean I got lucky? I don't know. But what I do know is I really underestimated how significant the physical forces and feelings of being in the plane, and in the air, would be.

Oh, I know one other thing to be an absolute fact. Without the enthusiasm, encouragement, (occasional hating), and outstanding flight advice from the pilots here, I would not have even come close to pulling it off. Thanks to all

Отчёт инструктора:

TRIP REPORT

I set out at 9 a.m. Friday with some misgivings, wondering why I had volunteered to travel across the country to take part in this crazy little experiment. But the idea really intrigued me. Could a guy takeoff and land a plane based solely on some desktop flight simulator experience, never having been in an actual plane? I didn't think so.

I had found a place at North Las Vegas airport (VGT) that would rent a Cessna 172. The wet rate (i.e. fuel included) was $120 per flight hour. Of course, I would also have to pass their checkout to satisfy their insurance requirements. The plane was N9572H, built in 1975.

Other than packing a pair of headsets for the flight, I did little other preparation. I didn't even check flights until the night before and I never bothered to book a hotel room, figuring I'd just find one (not factoring in the holiday weekend).

I talked to Sparks the week before heading out and we just covered some basics about the experiment. The most important thing to me was that we had a clear understanding that my main concern was safety and to prevent any damage to the airplane. It was agreed that if I said "I have the airplane" at any time during the flight, Sparks would relinquish controls without hesitation or discussion.

The first post in this thread lays out the parameters of the experiment pretty clearly:

The rules are that he [the instructor/safety pilot] will do all the preflight checks and the plane will be ready to go. He will communicate with the tower for clearance and such, and will taxi us out to the runway and line me up for take off. Weather will have to be clear and calm. After that, he can't say or do anything to assist me, from the moment I push in the throttle. If we encounter any other air traffic, which is unlikely at this location, he will take over and, steer us clear, then I'm back on the controls. Once I (hopefully) land, he would take over and taxi us back to the parking area.

Sparks was driving to Las Vegas and estimated his arrival time would be around 3 pm. So I looked for a flight that would arrive about that time and found one out of Atlanta scheduled in at 3:07. It went perfectly and Sparks rolled up in his bright yellow Corvette to give me a ride to Bally's, where I played some 1/2nl for the day.

This was our first face to face meeting and I was relieved to find that my initial impression (from our phone conversation) was confirmed: Sparks wasn't some crazy kid. He is an intelligent and very personable guy and right away I felt better about my decision to come out there.

We discussed the flight, reconfirming the "Rules of Engagement," and it was agreed he would pick me up at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday. I tried to get a room at both Bally's and the Westin (our crew layover hotel) and both were full. At 11 pm I had to start looking for a room in earnest and found one at Bill's across from Bally's. I was getting close to spending the night in the poker room or knocking on Sparks' door at the Encore.

THE CHECKOUT

Saturday was a perfect day with the winds forecast to be about 5 knots or less all day. We arrived at the FBO and I started the process of getting checked out. The first step was to fill out paperwork attesting to my credentials and experience level. Then I had to initial and sign several pages of liability waivers and also commit to covering their insurance deductible ($1000) in case of damage to the plane (yes, this gave me some pause). I don't have an up to date logbook but they accepted my estimate of 18,000 hours total time and I was able to log onto the Delta crew website to show my schedule and establish my bona fides as an airline pilot.

The next item was almost a show stopper: they needed evidence of a current BFR (Biennial Flight Review). Pilots are supposed to have a CFI sign off their log book every two years after giving the pilot both ground instruction and a check of flying skills. For pilots flying 121 operations (airlines), the recurrent training we do satisfies the requirements of a BFR. But the fellow across the desk from me wasn't so sure and I wasn't sure how to convince him. I just had recurrent training in October, but there is nothing I could show that said I had done so. Just the fact that I am currently employed implies I have satisfactorily completed such training. Ultimately, I convinced him that I was covered and that it was ultimately my responsibility and not his.

The next step was an open book test on the airplane. This was mostly a fill-in-the-blank test. So I had to find things like the stall speed (flaps up/flaps down), maneuvering speed, never-exceed speed, best rate of climb speed, best angle of climb speed, best glide speed, etc. Then I had to use performance charts to calculate density altitude for a specific set of conditions as well as takeoff and landing distances and fuel burn for these conditions. After satisfying the examiner that I could find my way around the aircraft manual and that I knew how to interpret performance charts, we proceeded to the airplane for the flying checkout (without Sparks, who had to kill a couple of hours).

Because we wanted Sparks in the left seat of the plane for the experiment, I decided to just be up front and let them know I wanted to fly from the right seat. As a flight instructor, I've spent lots of time instructing from the right seat and I told them that Sparks had never been in a plane but had flown out of this airport on his flight simulator and I thought he'd enjoy being in the left seat. (Of course, I didn't mention the experiment. I don't think they'd care for the idea and I wouldn't either if I was on their side of the desk.) They had no problem with it and I did the checkout from the right seat.

The flight went fine and took .9 hours. We departed the pattern and the examiner pointed out local reference points to use to help me stay clear of the Las Vegas Class B airspace. We flew over Red Rock Canyon and then up to the north of that to the practice area. We tried a power-off stall, a power-on stall, steep turns (45-60°) left and right, and a simulated engine out emergency (recovering once he was satisfied that I was set up for a landing on a road). At this point, we headed back to the airport for two touch-and-goes followed by a full stop landing. This satisfies the currency requirement to have three takeoffs and landings within 90 days.

As we taxied back to the parking area, I casually mentioned that we probably didn't need to tie down the plane, since winds were calm, but he wanted to go ahead and secure the plane, so we did. (I mention this for a reason that will become clear below.)

THE BIG EXPERIMENT

Now it was time for Sparks and me to go flying. First, he set up some cameras in the plane. He had two iPhones which he set up on top of the forward panel (dashboard to car drivers), one directed at each of us. A digital camera was mounted on top of the center of the panel facing forward. Another camera was on a tripod that was placed behind the seats with one leg in each of the seat back pockets. It was aimed at the instrument panel. Lastly, Sparks had a digital audio recorder which he had purchased while I was getting checked out, and he plugged it into one of the audio phone outlets in the back seat.

Next, we got in the plane and strapped in. Before starting the engine, I went over the panel so that Sparks understood where all the controls are. To anyone who might say that this is instruction beyond the scope of the experiment, I would point out that the plane and the sim aren't identical in layout. In fact, if we looked at each of the C-172s on the ramp we'd see differences among the various models. For example, in some of them the flap handle has labeled detents for each flap setting (and that's what Sparks was expecting). But in this plane, the flap handle was a three position toggle switch. To put flaps down, hold the toggle down and watch the flap indicator to see how much flaps you have. Flip the toggle up and the flaps retract without the need to hold the switch. I wanted to be sure he understood the operation as it is easy to accidentally retract flaps by moving the switch inadvertently past the center detent. It happened to me on one of my touch and goes. I noticed it pretty quickly and didn't want to see this happen to Sparks.

Besides the flap handle, the only other things that Sparks would need to touch during the flight were the yoke, the throttle and the trim wheel. I showed him the operation of the trim wheel and explained its use. It's a convenience, used to alleviate elevator control pressure, but not a requirement. You can muscle through those control forces, but it makes things a lot easier if you have the plane trimmed for fingertip control.

Next, I pointed out the Directional Gyro (DG) and explained that we would set it to runway heading just prior to takeoff. Sparks was hoping for runway 12L which he had flown on his simulator. He was used to the headings needed for the pattern from this runway.

After turning all the cameras on, I started the engine. At about this time, one of the FBO's instructors came jogging across from another airplane. This caught my attention and then I saw why: I had forgotten to remove the wing tiedown that the previous instructor had insisted on using. Very embarrassing! In my defense, it's not something I worry about on the planes I fly. (Pretty poor defense.) He removed the tiedown and we were ready to go.

I contacted Ground Control for taxi clearance, requesting a closed pattern (i.e. we would be returning to land), and we proceeded to the runway. On a straightaway portion of the taxiway, I let Sparks put his feet on the rudders just to get the feel of taxiing the plane. We got to the run up area and ran the Before Takeoff checklist, ensuring that everything was ready to go. I now called the tower and advised him that we were ready for takeoff.

Tower threw us a curve, clearing us for takeoff on Runway 7 with instructions to land on Runway 12L. This is a significant change and I felt that it was unfair to not briefly discuss what he had to do. After all, you only get one chance to make a first attempt and I didn't want to see it ruined because he was having trouble with situational awareness. So I told the Tower that I had a student pilot on board and we needed a minute. I took out the airport diagram and showed Sparks the relation of the runways and how he could takeoff and simply turn to enter the downwind for 12L. He was satisfied and I advised the Tower that we were ready.

AIRPORT DIAGRAM

Here's where I made a serious omission: I neglected to verify and set runway heading on the DG once we lined up on the runway. I got us on the centerline and told Sparks "Your airplane." He advanced the throttle, a little timidly at first, and we started rolling. As I expected, he began drifting left of centerline. The plane wants to go left due to several factors (gyroscopic precession, p-factor and prop wash) and right rudder is required to keep it tracking straight ahead. I think Sparks knew about the requirement for right rudder, but he just underestimated how much.

He had drifted halfway from the centerline to the left edge of the runway and I was mentally allowing him about five more feet before I was going to take over. But at this point, he finally applied sufficient rudder to stop the drift. (btw, if I had taken over, my plan was to initiate the climb and then turn the plane back over to him to see if he could make the landing.) His takeoff was very good and I was pleasantly surprised to see that he didn't over-rotate, another very common error for first-timers. If you rotate too fast or too much, the airspeed can bleed off dangerously, running the risk of a stall very low to the ground.

Climbout was pretty good. We drifted a little more left, but now that we were airborne there was no major concern with that. At about 500' agl (2700' msl) Sparks started a left turn to bring the plane around to downwind for 12L. He was looking for a heading of 300° and at this time he noticed that the heading on the gyro was way off from what it should have been. I quickly reset the gyro to our magnetic heading (indicated by a magnetic compass attached to the center of the windshield). Ugh, I felt horrible for missing that before takeoff!

Sparks leveled off at pattern altitude of 3000' msl and began accelerating much more than he should have for staying in the landing pattern. We got up to almost 120 knots before he realized that he needed to reduce power. As we continued on downwind, I finally made a small gesture, pointing left, to indicate that we needed to turn base soon. I wouldn't have done this if we had been at an uncontrolled field, but I didn't want the Tower to have to call us to ask about our extended downwind.

In Sparks' defense, go back and look at that airport diagram. You'll see that once he turns downwind for runway 12L, he's probably already past the abeam point for the runway 12L threshold. This isn't what he was used to when flying the simulator and it was horrible for his situational awareness. Looking back on it, I wish I had just asked the Tower for runway 12L. They probably thought they were doing us a favor by sending us off from runway 7 and I'm sure they would have approved my request.

At this point, I watched as Sparks slowed the plane and extended flaps. He settled on 20° of flaps which was his plan ahead of time and is fine for landing (I had used full flaps, 35°, for mine). As we turned final, we were coming to the critical part of the experiment. As long as we were in the air, there was really little he could do to put us in immediate danger. But close to the ground I had to be ready to take the plane.

His glide path control was pretty good. We got a little low at one point but he recognized it and shallowed the descent until we were back on path. As we got closer, the VASI became discernible and I pointed it out. Again, there might be some who find fault with that and perhaps I shouldn't have said anything. Maybe it's the flight instructor in me, but I didn't see any problem with pointing it out. I didn't discuss how to interpret it or make any suggestions about his control of the plane.

Coming up on the runway threshold I was waiting to see if he would make some of the classic first time mistakes. It's very easy to misjudge the round out from the descent and the flare for landing. A common mistake is to pull back too much, causing the plane to balloon upward as the airspeed drops off towards stall. If this happened, I'd have to take over. Another mistake is to simply fly the plane into the ground without breaking the glide at all. This will cause a nose wheel strike which can damage the plane (though it will almost always be a survivable landing). I couldn't risk damage to the plane and I'd have to take over if I saw this coming too.

Getting low over the runway, Sparks bled off the power as he shallowed the descent. We drifted a little right, but not even as much as he drifted left during takeoff. I was watching airspeed and descent rate closely, with my attention constantly shifting from outside to the instruments. We touched down at a very acceptable speed and began rolling down the runway with power at idle. At this point, I was satisfied that he had done it.

Tower had cleared us for "the option," which meant that we could have done any of four things: (1) make a low pass and go around, (2) make a touch and go (i.e. land, than apply power and take off), (3) make a stop and go (land, come to a full stop, then apply power and takeoff), or (4) make a full stop landing and taxi clear of the runway. I told Sparks I had the plane and I retracted the flaps and applied power for takeoff. It was my turn.

Once on downwind, I asked Sparks if he wanted to go do some more flying and I could actually give him instruction, but he was happy to call it a day so we just returned for a full stop landing. To be honest, my landing was probably a little rougher than his. It was looking like I was set up for a greaser, but I probably dropped it in from about six inches. As we taxied in, I congratulated him and told him that he had just made a mockery of my entire life. When we tied down the airplane, we had logged .5 hours on the plane.

After paying for the plane (total $267 for 1.4 hours plus two hours of the instructor's time), we headed off for lunch and relived the experience. I think we both agreed that the perfect weather (especially calm winds) made it possible, but that doesn't take away from the accomplishment. Sparks acknowledged that the real airplane is a whole lot different than flying the simulation software, but it obviously gave him the basics. I think he also said that some of the discussion in this thread of what to expect actually helped him.

After lunch, Sparks dropped me back at Bally's, where I played poker until 10 pm, at which time I caught a cab to the airport for the 11:30 red eye to Atlanta. I was back in D.C. by 9 a.m., almost exactly 48 hours from when I left my house to start this trip.

AFTER LUNCH

Me in the yellow. (We're both much better looking in real life)