What is the most difficult part of hand flying?

Probably holding altitude. But that is only in the Sim, I think you would find in real life that it is WAY easier to hold you altitude. So... In the sim it is holding altitude, in real life, probably landing.

Staying at a steady speed...BAH.

When I'm flying in faster birds I tend to have a problem during landing trying to keep the speeds where I want them.

When I'm flying in faster birds I tend to have a problem during landing trying to keep the speeds where I want them.

agreed 😉

SamIntel wrote:

Probably holding altitude. But that is only in the Sim, I think you would find in real life that it is WAY easier to hold you altitude. So... In the sim it is holding altitude, in real life, probably landing.

i would agree with that even without the real life experience

I think it's maintaining straight and level flight. I found it equally difficult when I had a couple of real life flying lessons.

The instructor told me to pick a point in the distance and kep the plane pointed at that. That helped.

At least in the sim the plane does go straight. Both Cessnas I flew pulled to the side, so you were constantly having to fight it to stay straight.

I think in a jet, cruising in general is hard. You have to concentrate on navigating your route, maintaining altitude and maintaining speed. I don't find any of those particularly hard, once the plane settles down, with a constant speed and the trim is holding a nice altitude with slight pitch up attitude. As long as you don't make strong movements, it should fly itself. 😉

It's hard because (most) sim aircraft won't trim properly. Of all my add-ons, probably the Wilco 737 PIC trims best - not perfectly, but pretty good. It's easy(ier) to maintain straight and level flight in that bird. Anyway, to answer your question, trimming.

I believe it is all of the above. As a poster noted on another thread, flying precisely requires an almost constant series of minute adjustments to heading, pitch, and trim. The more experience you have and the more recent practice you have, the more instinctive that becomes.

Back in the days when I was flying 100 hours a month or more, I was able to nail heading and altitude completely and without thinking about it. It just happened. Now that I fly 3-4 hours a month, sometimes none at all, I really have to work at it and I still have both altitude and heading excursions that go unoticied until they need a positive correction.

So, as the old saying goes, practice, practice, practice.

SamIntel wrote:

Probably holding altitude. But that is only in the Sim, I think you would find in real life that it is WAY easier to hold you altitude. So... In the sim it is holding altitude, in real life, probably landing.

Ditto on that. in the sim i find it very hard to maintain a steady altitude. i got a chance to fly an alon aircoupe and it was easier to maintain altitude.

Clearly, the most difficult part of hand flying...is going to the bathroom!

NoWorries wrote:

Clearly, the most difficult part of hand flying...is going to the bathroom!

thats a good one! actually unless your on an airliner. its aways kkinda hard to go to the bathroom! 😀 😀 😂