Well after 3 weeks of waiting for suitable weather I finally got my first real flying lesson earlier this week in a Piper Archer. And I thought those of you who haven't tried it (or those that have) might like to hear my first impressions of the experience and subsequent thoughts.
I really enjoyed it. I suppose it is unlikely I will ever achieve a real pilots licence..its just so expensive in the UK! and the weather
. But I suppose my main reason was to compare the real thing with virtual flight, so I tried to take in as much as I possibly could.First surprise was the size of the cockpit ...small... and it was a four seater. Flying a Spit must have felt like you were wearing the plane!
The pre flight checks were as comprehensive as I expected and we finally got clearance to taxi and takeoff.
My instructor (very nice guy!) didn't use any flaps but we were airborn faster than even an Oscar in IL2
After we climbed to about 2000ft he let me take control, asked me to try and maintain an altitude of 2500ft and gave me a heading until he told me to change. We were heading for where I live.
The wind buffeting surprised me in how vigourously it shook our little aircraft but you did get used to it. For the small changes I had to make to keep course it was similar to using a joystick, quite sensitive. Of course he had trimmed her to fly herself really, however I was concentrating on the instruments so much I had to keep reminding myself to look outside. Rookie nerves.
Slightly OT.
I wanted to go to my home village for other reasons than the obvious.
I live 2 miles away from an old disused WWII airfield called Charterhall.
It is worthy of a story in itself. It is quite simply an amazing place for anyone interested in flight of that period. Both landing strips are pretty much intact but its the buildings that are the delight. Most still stand. The numerous 1940's huts still have their glass windows. The rooms are empty now(although my wife tells me papers were apparently there till recently) But when you look inside it takes little imagination to see the place filled with RAF uniforms. Its being used in part by a farm and two large hangers still grace the sight.
I have been reading a quite famous WWII book 'The Last Enemy' by a BoB pilot called Richard Hillary who was stationed and killed while at Charterhall.
He has a small memorial stone nearby. Sadly our local graveyard is the last resting place for many pilots from all over the Commonwealth who like Hillary were killed while training to fly nightfighters (mainly Blenheims/Beasleys
and Beaufighters) in shocking weather, obviously in the pitch black. A biography I have mentions how hard these planes were to fly and how much strength was required, which was probably Richard Hillary's downfall as his hands were severely crippled by fire when he was shot down in the BoB.
In the biography on him there is a photo of the airfield taken from the air and I wanted to see it for myself as it is now and perhaps try and imagine what it was like landing at the airfield I had read so much about. Well on a good day as it was, you could see the airstrip for miles and the hangers and buildings, it was uncanny how similar it still is. A big thrill.
As we headed back I mentioned some of this to my instructor. I then remembered Hillary, while of no603 fighter squadron had been based originally at Edinburgh where we took off from. It began to feel like I was on a pilgramage!
On the comparitive thing, while flying over some hills my instuctor spotted a low flying military jet some 2000ft below us. As I watched it (rapidly) depart into the distance it struck me how accurate IL2 is at conveying distant aircraft.
It was difficult to spot while looking against the ground as a backdrop and turned into a dot as it receded into the distance.
Then the real shocks. He asked me to pull on the flaps and try and keep the nose level, flying straight. With full flaps, man was I straining. What had been gentle movements before was now real force. Explaining what he was about to do he then applied full power and as the aircraft pulled left with torque, beginning a roll, he asked me to straighten it with rudder only. Again the force required was surprising to me.
Finally he asked if I wanted to experience a hard turn. I thought he was going to let me try
sadly, though fortunately not. He banked the aircraft and pulled what from a sim perspective you might do if you had forgotten to look behind yourself while on a DF server- a reasonably tight turn thats all. Wow 
Not very nice and that was only 2G. I was ok but again what would a combat manouvre have done. Guess I'd never have made a fighter pilot 
Coming in to land was to me very like the sim also. I was glad to feel as he approached the runway, his use of flaps and throttle and the way it looked was all very familiar.
So in the end a great, memorable day.
My thoughts now about the similarity of virtual flight to real?
I suppose its pretty obvious, just the degree that surprised.
In the visual sense its very, very close but the lack of the physical experience makes a HUGE difference IMHO and that was in an ultra safe cruising commercial aircraft.
Thinking of Richard Hillary's death, not having the strength to prevent his plane crashing and myself waggling my stick
with fingertip strength in a cushy chair doing huge G turns emphasises the point I think.But mostly its that playing a sim can never simulate that these pilots were facing death every time they took to the air and many,many found it. 'The Last Enemy' is about this, it is death that is the last enemy.
I think of some of the posts of so-called aces at UBI forums comparing their exploits to real pilots, usually with the careful provisor that of course this is a sim. But its so far off the mark to be plainly ridiculous or perhaps more bluntly, disrespectful to those mens lives.
I really enjoy this sim(perhaps game is more suited) and want to get better at virtual flying in all aspects, that is in itself enough for me.
If I ever delude myself that what I do resembles what happened here over 60 years ago, I have a short walk to a graveyard that quietly says otherwise.
Sorry ramble over!
Graham.
I did some VERY silly and dangerous stuff in my younger days.
IL2&CoD NOT FOR REAL?
