by LROBBINS » 16 Mar 2022, 10:13
Hi Arima,
Your post brought back fond memories of my 1000+ hours piloting light aircraft, a much missed activity that stopped when we moved to Italy 20+ years ago.
I suspect that there are two sources to the problems you've had with the simulator. First, you are completely dependent on visual information and don't get the physical feedback you'd have with a real airplane or a hyper-expensive airline simulator with haptic feedback in the controls and hydraulic jacks that move the "cabin" in al directions. Second, this new generation simulator may be much more accurately simulating the changes in aerodynamics with changes in flight condition such as during the landing flare (and yes, that's the right term for it).
BTW John's suggestion to finish the flare just above stall speed (in old fashioned airplane speak, doing a "wheel landing") and using a bit of flap, to lower the nose during the approach and lower the stall speed for the actual landing can certainly help.
Some people have native athletic talent and learn to fly even when knowing rather little about why they need to do what they need to do. I certainly don't count myself among those, so for me, learning to fly required the same sort of study that John keeps pushing for learning to get the most out of a wheelchair and its batteries. As he says, knowledge is power. So I'll recommend two of my favorite books:
First step - "Stick and Rudder" by Wolfgang Langewische. A real classic of deep knowledge and experience, clarity and good sense. McGraw-Hill, NY & London, 1944.
Then, after you've become an accomplished "airman" of "airwoman" and want to polish your skills, "As the Pro Flies" by John R. Hoyt, McGraw-Hill, NY, Toronto & London, 1959.
Now to a couple specifics. I suspect that this simulator is even simulating the changes in airplane behavior that happen during the landing flare and that this might explain the last-moment turn that's causing you a problem. There are several sources for this, but one is the fact that the prop is a heavy gyroscope and when you change the nose angle "precession" will produce a turning force at right angles to the prop's plane of rotation. Older PC simulators certainly didn't simulate this, but the newest might, and that's a real improvement. There's also a change in the way the corkscrew airflow from the prop hits the tail. The fin is offset to counteract that in cruise, but you have to adjust for it otherwise.
In a real airplane you would have both physical (in the control feel and in the "seat of the pants") and visual feedback for this. With the simulator, however, you are completely dependent on what you see and the anticipatory actions you've developed based on knowledge and experience. What John suggested will certainly help, but another thing that I found very helpful, and it took me a good while to condition myself to do this, is to focus your gaze further forward - a few hundred meters in front of the nose rather than looking at the intended touchdown point. Try to force yourself to do this, and you might find an immediate improvement.
HAPPY FLYING!
Lenny