From Sim to Real Life: Flying with YouTuber Q8Pilot
On June 23-25, flight simulator gurus gathered in Houston for FlightSimExpo 2023, one of the world’s largest dedicated flight simulation conferences and trade shows. Unfortunately, I had no idea it was taking place, or else I’d have joined real-time some of the cool seminars, including “Using Flight Simulation in Real-Life Flight Planning” and, perhaps to my wife’s chagrin, “Building a Full-Size Home-Based Airline Cockpit Simulator.” (Fortunately, the seminar recordings are available!)
One of the Expo’s sponsors was a popular YouTuber named Sam, better known as “Q8Pilot.” After the expo, Sam had a few extra days in town, found my website, and contacted me to book a flight. Fortunately, we were able to find a time that worked before he had to head home. He mentioned his YouTube channel, and asked ahead of time if I minded if he took video. Of course not!
Before our flight, I checked out his work. Q8Pilot has published all kinds of flight simulation videos, but he specializes in reviewing and introducing new aircraft offerings to the sim community. I was captivated and impressed with his 2-hour simulated flight in, and review of, a Beech Bonanza not unlike the one he’d just booked to fly in real life!
When we met to fly, I was delighted to learn he intended to make a full video of his experience. I stammered through a few videoed interview questions, and we were off.
We had a great flight! The clouds around downtown were a little pesky, but Houston air traffic control let us into their Bravo airspace, which allowed us some better views of downtown. After we rounded the San Jacinto Monument and got south of Kemah, we said goodbye to Houston ATC, and I gave Sam the controls. Generally, I’ve noticed that non-pilots with sim experience do better at the controls than those without it. Sam undoubtedly has more flight sim experience than anyone I’ve flown with, and it showed. Not only did he control the plane smoothly — before long, he was turning, climbing and descending like a pro — but he also anticipated and understood the checklists and procedures we walked through.
Q8 Pilot at the controls of the IRL Bonanza!
Because Q8Pilot’s reviews often involve demonstrating how new simulated aircraft offerings approach real life aviation in other than straight-and-level flight, he asked if I could demonstrate a sideslip or a stall, so we did both, plus a few steep turns. Sam was surprised when during the stall demonstration I departed from the textbook stall recovery procedure: “Don’t you add full power to recover from the stall?” Ah, here was a crystalized sim vs. real-life flying moment: when your airplane has real-life cylinders and pistons and valves and bearings that would rather you not slam the throttle forward to recover from a stall, you don’t. Besides, the Bonanza is so well designed that as long as your feet are in the right place on the rudder pedals, the plane will fully recover from a stall by itself if you simply let go of the yoke and stop trying to stall it.
Stall and stall recovery
After we landed, Sam couldn’t stop raving about the flight. But my favorite comment of his could only have come from an experienced simmer: “That was so, so . . . immersive!”
I enjoyed Sam’s company, and hope we get to fly again some time. Without further ado, here’s Q8Pilot’s video of our flight. Enjoy!
