omg thanks a lot. im so stupid. i mean why didnt i do that before. lol thanks a whole lot man. well i guess its time to take up the air with rod once more. oh one more question. im thinking of going going for pilot training 2 years from now. is fs2004 any help or am i just wasting my time with it. like its taught me a lot. i bet if i enter a cessna now ill know what control does what and all. but overall will it help me fly. i heard lots of people say it wont but then again i heard people say it would. so will it?

im done with lesson 4 finally. are there any other websites have student training for fs2004? i really wanna get perfect at flying small planes before i move on.

Don't worry you are doing great. It takes a lot of guts to take up flying. Once you feel comfortable with the Cessna get into one of the heavies and take a look around and get a feel for it. Before you know it you will be flying it around and liking it as well.Practise as much as you can, my 11 year old son can fly the heavies a lot better than me right now... I think he has more time to practise. He thouroughly enjoys flying and is looking forward to a career in commercial flying as well.Keep it up and have as much fun as you can.Rob H.CYVR

In my opinion, it will help. First of all, you will know at least the basics of the flight - height, speed, bank, pitch, roll etc etc...You will not be a tooooooooooootal newbie. If not even some advanced stuff...but you will learn those anyway in the school, no matter how good your simming experience is. I think it can only help, it can't make it worse...I've heard lots of pilots report that flying in the real world is much easier than in the Flight Simulator, so go figure. Although, aircraft systems and what you gotta learn are not half-modelled here. I don't even myself know all of that stuff, and actually also not interested into learning if I'm not able to "use" it. I hope also one day to be able to pay for the Private Pilot License, until then, learn to fly well in the flight sim...You still got a lot to learn, but if you have the will, that is what counts! I say there are two kinds of people: people who like airplanes and simulators, and simply people who don't like it. Usually, there is no middle. :)As for your question, here's one resource I know of, which helped me a lot (there are both GA aircraft tutorials, and also commercial and private pilot lessons) - pretty cool stuff!:http://avsim.com/geoffschool/And...if you wanna perfect yourself in flying little prop aircraft, I would suggest you look in the file library for some better addons than cessna, OR even there are some really good payware addons, like FSD Piper Navajo (never tried it), for which I heard that are extremely realistic, with lots of onboard systems modelled, including engine usage, breakdowns if you use it inproperly etc...adds pretty much to the realism.If you need more info, just ask! :)

thanks a lot guys. there isnt enough that i can say that would express my thanks and gratitude for all your help. thanks a lot Word Not Allowed. im looking into that training program right away. and im so lucky to have found this site. i just went through the file library and i was like wooooah. i completed lesson 3 today (re-took it coz i was uneasy) and ive had the sim for just 4 days now. am i moving too fast or is that normal. like i read everything but not the nitty-gritty details. i guess ill know if i fail or pass the final test eh? well anhow im gonna turn in its been a long day. thanks again for welcoming me and offering all the help that i needed :D

First of all you must get comfortable with the handling of the aircraft, knowing your joystick or joke, whichever you use, trim settings, especially the pitch trim (it's vital for later!).May I ask, which joystick are you using?Nah, it's not too fast! These lessons will teach you a lot about basics, and the lessons from geoff will teach you about few advanced things...a little tip for you: if you want to know *anything* special, try always first the (advanced) forum search. It has mostly answered all of my questions!There's a lots of "theory" to be learned, though don't be disturbed if you don't know it, you'll learn it on the way - I'm talking about understanding navigation, VOR, NDB, airways, procedures etc. etc. Especially if you are newbie and state that you're the one, people will almost always help you.Enjoy the community! Sidenote: there's a new performance file so far i know for the default cessna in the library, you might want to try it!

Well, it has helped me (I'm about 15 hours into my PPL). Just one thing to remember: it isn't the same, just closely related. You can't learn not to be airsick except by really flying enough, you can't learn the look and feel of a correct landing from the sim. That said, though, it was very helpful to have all that background. Make sure and fly small planes enough. Airliners are a totally different thing to GA aircraft, and that experience won't do you much good at all with real world flying, since you start in the small stuff and get really serious specific training for any large plane.I'm finding that at certain stages of training, it is actually helpful to leave the simulation alone as it can reduce the value of your actual lessons to mix them; you end up confusing the two skills. Since you're paying quite a lot to fly, it's best to get the most you can from that. Circuits, where you learn to land the plane right (and get your other plane-handling skills sorted, but landing is the main event), is very much like that. I'll probably do a lot of simulator work while I'm learning instrument flying.Also, once you've got a good handle on fs2004, go buy X-Plane. Not nearly as pretty, and not as accurate as far as avionics systems go, but it is absolutely on the money for aircraft handling, mechanical systems and instrument behaviour. As such, it's actually certified if used in a training context with a certified plane model (its default Cessna, or the Piper factory models, for example).

hi there. yeah that should be awesome. whats the name of the performance file? about the joystick. i unfortunately do not have one but im gonna buy one this weekend. any recomendations? im not looking for something thats not too fancy nor expensive. i mean im cool with the keyboard its just that its sooo much harder than flying with a joystick so i dont think i really need the top of the line right now. if i ever get to the jets then we'll see.ive come across another problem in the form of taxiing. okay heres what i do to taxi (flying a cessna). press F3 untill i get moving then press F2 to reduce speed and then use the arrow keys to turn. after ive turned i jam on the breaks and then go through the checklist.is anything ive done so far thats wrong? something has to be wrong right coz its all awkward and wobbly the way the plane handles. alrite the major frustrating thing starts after i push full throttle. the plane WILL NOT GO STRAIGHT for some reason. keeps on swerving and all.whats the best way to taxi though. am i doing stuff correctly?

You are doing it more or less right, it's just that you really need that stick with a twist rudder control and a proportional throttle; you can't put in smooth control inputs with the keyboard. It's like you're controlling it by stamping hard on the pedals, which will make it wobble.The best without spending silly money is the Microsoft Force 2, if you can find one (they are out of production). Get one used even, they're so much better. If you can't, get whatever you can afford that does not have centering springs that are really stiff; the controls in real aircraft are fairly lightly weighted. Don't buy a Logitech force feedback stick, they're hopeless, but their regular sticks are pretty good.When you go to do your takeoff roll, don't just slam the throttle on, increase it smoothly. It should take a couple of seconds to get to full, and that will reduce the tendency to yaw all over the place. That yawing is realistic, the real thing does it too and you have to be pretty accurate, quick and firm with the pedals to keep it straight. It's just not going to work with the keyboard, no matter how hard you try.

darn lol oh well. yeah ill got myself a joystick then. whats wrong with the force feedback. im getting one for $20...it has i think 11 buttons.

force feedback sucks if it's not done right, and I haven't found one that does it right yet. You don't want a strong centering spring because when you take off or turn you don't want the stick jerking back to the middle on you, makes it really really hard to fly. Buttons are cool, but the important thing is the action of the stick. Don't be afraid to bring it back and exchange it for something else if it dosn't work for you.billg

Hi ThereI've read this thread with interest and I wish I had come across it in the early stages like you. Since then though the help and info you can get here at AVSIM forums is immeasurable.Anyway onto sticks.All of the above is correct, keep away from force feedback, it sounded wonderful when it came out but really its not that good, you can get better effects and feel from just getting a 19/21 inch screen, pricey but really immersive.Anyway my suggestion would be the Saitek Gold or Platinum stick, I have a platinum by Saitek and its spot on in terms of centering springs and the rudder control is perfect. Excellent for civilian flying and yanking those military jeys about the sky.Happy FlyingWycliffe

thanks a lot. im off to get one right now. good thing with hardware and peripherals is that you can return it if it doesnt wor kor you dont like it. hope i can taxi better with the joystick. one more thing. the joystick will let me have better control of the plane during take-offs and level flight right? hope it does cause the keyboards frustrating.and is there any way to stop the plane from rolling on the runway? or is this a normal thing? the cessna just wont fly take off straight no matter how perfectlty i position it.

just by that one needle it could be 11440, toobut not with that mix, rpm and oat i guess;)if i were the guy in that cockpiti'd much rather have it 11440cos with that speed, attitude, vs and full tanksat 1440 he's dead meatjust look at that trimhas he ripped the yoke off yet?:)

hey thereyou got a terrific responsethis forum is an oyster indeed:)let me throw in a cheap (literally) suggestion...http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detai...=books&n=507846a mere $17that will change the way you thinkof what goes on in that cockpitand that... may save your life one day;)ps.it has the answers to your last series of questions, too