Sinistar
En-Route
- Joined
- Sep 9, 2016
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Display name:
Brad
Maybe back to some reality here:
Although there will be a few similarities from time to time, IMHO helming or "piloting" a submarine is significantly different than piloting an airplane. I guess one thing I don't know is if either the bow planes and/or stern planes (or whatever is back there on a Seawolf/Virginia...please don't answer) can be moved opposed to each other (like Ailerons). If so, then the actions of the stick might somewhat follow that of an airplane. Otherwise just two significantly different setups.
When your first learn to fly you look out the window, you feel, hear and even smell things. You actually feel the forces on the controls. You will actually sense sometimes more and sometimes less than 1G. I also suspect for every 1 overlapped task you learn while piloting a submarine the airplane pilot will be mastering 2...4. Put as simply as possible...things happen, way, way faster on an airplane. And where a submarine almost always has a final safe way out (HP blow or EMBT Blow) to the surface you still ultimately have to do one thing on every flight...land. And that landing takes mental and physical coordination and I swear every single landing is different.
A specific difference as mentioned earlier: I do not believe any submarines use foot pedals as primary controls. When foot pedals are added to the equation, especially something with a range of variable motion (rudder) your body/brain has to start doing things that few people are good at. I always kid with friends that I think a drummer might master cross wind landings before anyone else. As you think of the layers of learning...just the final and landing...how the feet are needed seems simple on paper but getting your brain to do all that takes lots of repetitions and difference experiences. First you might just learn how much to crab in and CFI lands. Then your learn how to straighten it out right as you near the runway and CFI lands. Then you learn to keep the plane pointing straight down the runway (with all those forces against you) and you or CFI lands. And ultimately, the slip to land where natural instinct is left hand + left foot or vice versa but is really left hand + right foot (or vice versa) but never in any one repeatable set of amounts. And in none of those phases did I mention just what your left hand is doing (turning/leveling with ailerons and pushing/pulling to maintain and ultimately stall the plane). Plus your right hand is on a throttle ready to do several things in succession of something is wrong (throttle, carb heat, flaps, elevator trim, etc).
On a submarine you have backups (systems and people) for problems and casualties. A plane would be like a single person submarine where a single officer HAS to do everything. Hidden in that statement is that a pilot has responsibility for everything. The GA pilot has to make every single decision. On a submarine usually someone else (Conning Officer) decides the course, the pilot or helm steers it. On an airplane you will have to factor in winds, wx, approach requirements just to come up with that course and then actually fly it and do all that while monitoring everything in the plane, talking to ATC, looking for planes, etc.
I actually wish it had been more similar. Heck, even the announcing terminology on a submarine (Navy in general) might at first seem similar. However, if a sub guy took his first lesson at a controlled airport and the CFI asked him/her to do all the talking they would probably be just as lost as a high school kid with no exposure to either field. There is a cadence to both comms. But the pilot version is more terse and yet ironically more free form vs very rigid navy internal circuit command and readbacks.
@Nub_Pilot - I think you are going to love it! Please write about your experiences. If I am wrong I will be the first to admit it. At the same time I would hate for you to realize they are significantly different and give up. I've done both. If I could ride on a submarine on a Saturday afternoon would I...HELL YEAH
But give me that same choice 100 times and I'll pick the plane 98% of the time. When I get home from flying I feel tired yet fantastic in a way that is hard to describe.
Although there will be a few similarities from time to time, IMHO helming or "piloting" a submarine is significantly different than piloting an airplane. I guess one thing I don't know is if either the bow planes and/or stern planes (or whatever is back there on a Seawolf/Virginia...please don't answer) can be moved opposed to each other (like Ailerons). If so, then the actions of the stick might somewhat follow that of an airplane. Otherwise just two significantly different setups.
When your first learn to fly you look out the window, you feel, hear and even smell things. You actually feel the forces on the controls. You will actually sense sometimes more and sometimes less than 1G. I also suspect for every 1 overlapped task you learn while piloting a submarine the airplane pilot will be mastering 2...4. Put as simply as possible...things happen, way, way faster on an airplane. And where a submarine almost always has a final safe way out (HP blow or EMBT Blow) to the surface you still ultimately have to do one thing on every flight...land. And that landing takes mental and physical coordination and I swear every single landing is different.
A specific difference as mentioned earlier: I do not believe any submarines use foot pedals as primary controls. When foot pedals are added to the equation, especially something with a range of variable motion (rudder) your body/brain has to start doing things that few people are good at. I always kid with friends that I think a drummer might master cross wind landings before anyone else. As you think of the layers of learning...just the final and landing...how the feet are needed seems simple on paper but getting your brain to do all that takes lots of repetitions and difference experiences. First you might just learn how much to crab in and CFI lands. Then your learn how to straighten it out right as you near the runway and CFI lands. Then you learn to keep the plane pointing straight down the runway (with all those forces against you) and you or CFI lands. And ultimately, the slip to land where natural instinct is left hand + left foot or vice versa but is really left hand + right foot (or vice versa) but never in any one repeatable set of amounts. And in none of those phases did I mention just what your left hand is doing (turning/leveling with ailerons and pushing/pulling to maintain and ultimately stall the plane). Plus your right hand is on a throttle ready to do several things in succession of something is wrong (throttle, carb heat, flaps, elevator trim, etc).
On a submarine you have backups (systems and people) for problems and casualties. A plane would be like a single person submarine where a single officer HAS to do everything. Hidden in that statement is that a pilot has responsibility for everything. The GA pilot has to make every single decision. On a submarine usually someone else (Conning Officer) decides the course, the pilot or helm steers it. On an airplane you will have to factor in winds, wx, approach requirements just to come up with that course and then actually fly it and do all that while monitoring everything in the plane, talking to ATC, looking for planes, etc.
I actually wish it had been more similar. Heck, even the announcing terminology on a submarine (Navy in general) might at first seem similar. However, if a sub guy took his first lesson at a controlled airport and the CFI asked him/her to do all the talking they would probably be just as lost as a high school kid with no exposure to either field. There is a cadence to both comms. But the pilot version is more terse and yet ironically more free form vs very rigid navy internal circuit command and readbacks.
@Nub_Pilot - I think you are going to love it! Please write about your experiences. If I am wrong I will be the first to admit it. At the same time I would hate for you to realize they are significantly different and give up. I've done both. If I could ride on a submarine on a Saturday afternoon would I...HELL YEAH
But give me that same choice 100 times and I'll pick the plane 98% of the time. When I get home from flying I feel tired yet fantastic in a way that is hard to describe.
