Flying by the seat of your pants is nothing more than getting a feel for the airplane. When you first start to fly, like anything, you don't have a feel for it. Eventually do. The same is true of horseback riding, motorcycle riding, juggling, and the simple acts of eating, walking, and drawing. Nothing more.
The feel of flying is perishible, just like all flying skills.
When I began flying, I left high school to start crop dusting. I did that for some years, and then took an overseas assignment which didn't involve much flying at all. When I left for that assignment, the airplane was an extention of my mind. I thought about where I wanted the airpalne to go, and the airplane merely did it. When I returned from my break from flying, it was a different matter. I was thinking one thing, but the airplane was doing another. I had to relearn the airplane, relearn the feel, re-learn to fly.
That is seat of the pants. It comes from the old barnstorming admonition that you feel the airplane through your seat. You feel one cheek get heavier in the seat than the other, you push rudder on that side. You feel both get heavier, you're probably climging, you push forward. Flying by the seat of the pants means not really having to think about it, you merely do it.
Flying by the seat of your pants means listening to the slipstream, feeling the stick or yoke, etc. In an open cockpit it means feeling the pressure of the wind on your face, and the way it struck your face. It means feeling the position of the throttle, it means getting in tune with the airplane so you're on the same page.
In other words, the same thing you did when you learned to walk, but doing it in an airplane. Don't let anybody tell you it's difficult or beyond you. Fly enough, and it doesn't take much, and you'll be flying by the seat of your pants. It just isn't rocket science.
The feel of flying is perishible, just like all flying skills.
When I began flying, I left high school to start crop dusting. I did that for some years, and then took an overseas assignment which didn't involve much flying at all. When I left for that assignment, the airplane was an extention of my mind. I thought about where I wanted the airpalne to go, and the airplane merely did it. When I returned from my break from flying, it was a different matter. I was thinking one thing, but the airplane was doing another. I had to relearn the airplane, relearn the feel, re-learn to fly.
That is seat of the pants. It comes from the old barnstorming admonition that you feel the airplane through your seat. You feel one cheek get heavier in the seat than the other, you push rudder on that side. You feel both get heavier, you're probably climging, you push forward. Flying by the seat of the pants means not really having to think about it, you merely do it.
Flying by the seat of your pants means listening to the slipstream, feeling the stick or yoke, etc. In an open cockpit it means feeling the pressure of the wind on your face, and the way it struck your face. It means feeling the position of the throttle, it means getting in tune with the airplane so you're on the same page.
In other words, the same thing you did when you learned to walk, but doing it in an airplane. Don't let anybody tell you it's difficult or beyond you. Fly enough, and it doesn't take much, and you'll be flying by the seat of your pants. It just isn't rocket science.
Whateva, man...I could teach a monkey to fly a cessna from point A to point B.
