"Inside the Box"
Deb Thompson

Looking the sharpen your IFR skills? How about being able to do so with much less expense than in the air and not even having to pull the airplane out of the hangar on a chilly morning! I know a place where it's a warm 70 degrees in the cockpit (it sometimes feels MUCH warmer), and the 'ambient' conditions can range from benign IFR in a stratus layer to a topsy-turvy ride down an ILS.

SIM FLITE MINNESOTA has been open for business only a few short months, and already a diverse group of pilots from experienced King Air charter pilots to CFII's, students and myself are singing its praises. Linda Dowdy, membership chair of the Minnesota 99s, started this new venture after purchasing an ELITE Flight Training Device in the summer of 2006, and the business has really 'taken off'.

The 'sim' can be configured as several types of aircraft. A King Air 200, Baron, turbocharged Seneca, Bonanza and a C172 are among the favorites. More aircraft models will be available in the near future. Just loosen a few screws on the power quadrant and a single can be transformed into a twin or vis-a-versa in minutes. Inside is a comfortable left seat, large easy to read instrument displays (configurable by aircraft type), real communication and navigation radios, an actual Garmin 430 GPS and even a flight director and autopilot. All of this provides you with opportunities to learn equipment that may not be available in the aircraft you usually fly.

The instructor station is easy to use and operate, making it fun to challenge the pilot in the left seat. What, want to try that approach again and again and ??? With the click of a mouse, the aircraft can be easily positioned to any desired location, making it practical to try approach after approach without burning one ounce of avgas or unduly harassing MSP approach control!!

If you don't like the weather... that's easy to fix too... With just a couple clicks of a mouse the visibility can suddenly fall below minimums! Want to make an ILS more interesting> A headwind shearing to a tailwind can liven things up quickly for the pilot in the hot seat.

The audio and visuals are realistic. For example, on engine start you hear the coughing... "I'm not sure I want to start" sound before the engine fires. Gear operation is accompanied by a rumbling sound. And there is all the typical stuff -- Morse code identifiers on the VORS, localizers, marker beacons, etc.

Airports are portrayed with all the correct runway configurations. So if you break out of the clag on short final to runway 10R at KFCM, you will see the airport environment and the parallel runways. [See a screen capture of Deb flying that ILS approach.] When you are 'on top' or between layers, a realistic over/under cast is shown below. The view out of the cockpit window is displayed ahead on a large 4' x 8' screen.

On the door to the sim room there's a picture of a little guy in a red suit with horns on his head holding a pitch fork. Above him is the caption "Stuff Will Happen". In the sim STUFF can and WILL happen... failed gyros, frozen pitot tubes and static ports, split flaps, engine failures, it's all here in the safety of a little room at KANE airport. Declaring an emergency in here can even be FUN, and there's no paperwork to do after the excitement is over.

If I have any complaint about the sim it is almost too nice. The instrument displays are so crisp, clear and easily read, unlike those in the dim panel of an older Beechcraft Duchess I know.

The sim rents for $50 per hour. Instructors can get checked out to teach in the sim and set their own rates for their instruction time. Your sim time is logable as an FTD Flight Training Device, per FAR 61.51. Up to 20 hours of this time can be used toward an instrument rating. It can also be used for instrument currency as well as a full IPC (instrument competency check). Instructors can log the time as FTD or simulator time and dual given, while students log it as FTD (or simulator) time and dual received. If you plan to fly the sim periodically, Linda can set you up with an ID to log on to an online schedule hosted by Aircraft Clubs. This allows for a very convenient way to schedule your 'flights'.

Linda hopes to enhance the sim over time, with Glass Cockpit wizardry, so pilots can learn and hone their skills here before paying for expensive flight time on aircraft equipped with these systems. For now, the sim is probably one of the most cost effective ways to sharpen or learn IFR skills.

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Copyright © Linda Dowdy, 2007-2008