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The
Cockpitweb IFR Training Software
version 1.0
was tested and reviewed in the november/december 2003 issue of PC
PILOT magazine, U.K., the world's favourite flight simulation
magazine. Read the review here.
An improved version 2.0 is available since 2005!
REVIEW
SCORE
"An ideal tool
for serious students of fixed-wing instrument flying."
PC
PILOT MAGAZINE, U.K. |
PC PILOT MAGAZINE REVIEW:
"Life is hard
for the pilot who wants to use an aircraft seriously but lacks an instrument
rating - a fact that's particularly true in the British Isles, where poor
weather prevails and the nation's choicest airspace is open only to those
with an instrument rating. The catch is that becoming instrument-rated
is a costly exercise, one that in the UK can easily lighten your bank
balance by £15,000. Any tool, therefore, that
helps an aspiring instrument pilot make the best use of ground preparation
time as a way of controlling costs in the air has to be worth considering.
In the US, approved
PC flight simulators can be used under the watchful eye of a certified
instructor to log the initial hours of a formal instrument training programme,
and budding US Navy aviators have been issued with a copy of Flight Simulator
ever since this arm of the military concluded that the software improves
learning. Closer to home, PC Pilot has reported how the Defence Helicopter
Flying School at RAF Shawbury uses a PC-based helicopter instrument trainer.
CockPIT
is an instrument flight simulator bundled with a comprehensive handbook
and is aimed squarely at the serious student of fixed-wing instrument
flight. Complementing its ability to run on a very modest computer, CockPIT's
biggest attraction is its series of practical exercises, which grade you
as you fly and follow a logical instruction syllabus.
The Pilot Training
Manual, at 140 pages, is the largest section of the CockPIT handbook and
follows a 40-page introduction that details how to install, register,
configure and use the software; as well as the simulator and programmed
exercises it also provides a navigation log and a weight and balance calculator
to help with pre-flight preparation; there's also a useful tool that handles
conversions ranging from pressure and power to moment of force.
The
manual is an excellent summary of the essential theory of instrument flight
and is particularly handy because it manages to combine a comprehensive
approach with compactness.
It gathers information into a single reference volume and lets you in
on the pragmatic tips instructors use to help students handle the mental
gymnastics that are a feature of instrument flight. The material is arranged
in the logical sequence typical of a real-world training syllabus, starting
with the basics of attitude instrument flying and closing with the complex
subject of holding patterns. The only real criticisms that can be levelled
at the handbook are an absence of colour and a paucity of illustrations.
The CockPIT simulator
is initially disconcerting if you're an ardent fan of current flight sims
or a real-world pilot; CockPIT's simulated aircraft
is engineered to be particularly stable and to stay where it's
put. The aircraft - it performs like a Cessna 172SP
- is impossible to stall, automatically pitches up if you overspeed and
limits your bank angle to 45 degrees.
CockPIT's authors
have dubbed this stability feature 'Automatic Longitudinal Trimming',
or ALT for short, stressing that it allows pilots to focus entirely on
learning instrument and navigation procedures rather than struggling to
control the aircraft itself. Pilots just starting
instrument training and discovering the mental workload that's involved
will find ALT a real bonus.
The
ALT system does have the benefit of making the CockPIT simulator truly
flyable using a keyboard, something that isn't a rewarding experience
with most sims.
If you travel with a laptop so that you can snatch quality training time,
CockPIT has its attractions.
CockPIT's instrument
panel and maps are basic compared with those found in the current crop
of civil sims, but are consistent with the software's primary aim of teaching
core instrument flying skills and with the style of other simulators used
for serious aviation training. CockPIT has a fictitious practice area
with three VOR (Very-high frequency Omni-directional Range), three NDB
(Non-Directional Beacon) navigation aids and a single ILS (Instrument
Landing System) that's used for flying the programmed exercises. If you
want to fly freely in a part of the world you're familiar with, then you'll
need to use the area editor to create your own locale; the task is straightforward,
if tedious.
Each custom locale
can have up to 15 VOR, 15 NDB and 15 ILS systems, but you'll need to manually
enter latitude, longitude, magnetic variation and other essential information
for each, culling it from aeronautical charts. Compact data files define
each custom locale, and the starting location and weather conditions that
you want; these are saved in accessible Windows folders so sharing data
with other users is possible. Valuably, starting
positions can be defined relative to an instrument approach's locator
outer marker, not just to a VOR, NDB or ILS transmitter; if you're
new to the art of flying instrument approaches you can give yourself a
head start by placing your aircraft precisely at the final approach fix
and aligned with the final approach or localiser course.
CockPIT won't appeal
to everyone. But if you're serious about starting
a structured instrument training programme, CockPIT is worth examining
particularly if you have only a modest PC. The printed material provides
an excellent summary of the theory of instrument flying, punctuated with
valuable suggestions and hints. It also links effectively with the simulator's
programmed exercises that will test whether you really can apply the instrument
flying theory you've learned.
lain Dawson.
At a glance: An ideal tool for serious students
of fixed-wing instrument flying.
System Requirements: 75MHz processor, Windows 95 or later, 32Mb RAM, 4Mb
disk space.
Recommended: If
you're running any other sim successfully, you're unlikely to have trouble
with CockPIT!"
PC Pilot Issue
25, November/December 2003.
©2003
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