Autopilot being an idiot

[reider]

I can't resist.. oh the pain in trying  

Drill in the 172 until you can land effortlessy, fully understanding the theory behind flying an approach..  Then the Mooney... Then the Baron... Then the Caravan (to get used to turbine spool lag)..  Then the KingAir ... Then the Lear..

By the time you're landing big jets easily.. THEN start letting the autopilot handle an approach...  8-)


I'll go, now  :-X

To be honest, I more or less did this when I started, enjoyed it so much I carried on and never bothered with the airliners.  Then one day my son came to visit and brought his machine, he had a problem flying an airliner and I helped him.  Only way to help was start flying them myself and thats how my transition came about from the King Air 350 to the airliners.

The small plane to airliner transition really does stand you in good stead for the future.  I say keep going back to the small plane too every so often.  I have a fave Cessna CL 150 with opening doors, windows, engine cover, oil tube filler cover, pitot tube cover, sun visors and wheel chocks etc...., so the temptation is always there for me.

Reider

[Brett_Henderson]

Usually, the only time I fly a sim jet, is after an afternnon of plane-spotting. There's something about seeing them that gives you an urge to sim in one.  Or... after I've taken trip that included an airline leg, it's always fun to replicate that flight in the sim. Or...... if I'm trying to answer a jet-related question in this forum...

Other than that... I stick pretty much to single-engine prop-simming (have you tried my Cardinal yet ?). Short to medium, scenic flights with plenty of take-offs and landings. I like to pose real-world problems for myself; like loading and fuel on high density altitude days, on short  runways...  Or dealing with weather and flying realistic instrument procedures. I honestly believe it keeps me sharp and makes me a better, R/L pilot. Those,  "weight/CG, fuel/reserve-fuel, what-if-i-need-to- go-missed(more than once)", brain cells can get rusty, if not lazy... and so can your navigational reflexes...