I essentially taught myself how to fly in FSX. Which basically meant it was a year or so before I found out how to do a proper ILS landing, or a landing that wouldn't crash my aircraft. I was wondering if any of you were in the same boat as me when you first started, not knowing anything at all, and despite the constant frustrations, you kept at it till you got it?

Yes, this is my experience as well. It was a year ago last April when I first installed. I have been using the Navy's student pilot cirriculum as well as studying on the side.

Yeah same here.First few months of flying was just by hand. To be honest I just messed around just like any other "game"

 

Then a couple of years later I got FSX took it serious did the lessons, after I completed those lessons and missions within FSX I thought I was finished with flight sim.

 

 

Then i found this site lurked here for about 3 years before joining, discovered payware aircraft, addon scenery, weather programs, flight planners, I then went from taking it seriously to being obsessed with learning to fly correct and learning aircraft systems

 

 

 

If i couldn't understand something either avsim or YouTube helped me learn. It’s also addictive to be constantly learning (Let’s face it using FSX you not only learn to fly but you also become an expert in PC hardware and tweaking)

 

 

As someone with no aviation history I am also impressed at the fact I stuck with it but sure am glad I did

 

Yes, that's how I started but with FS2. Pretty much just "winging it". Then I got a book "Instrument flying in flight sim". I already had nav ability as a Navy "ship driver" so the concepts weren't new.

 

scott s.

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In one of the earlier versions of FS I was having problems hovering and landing the helicopter. Frequently the aircraft would start yawing in a manner I had problems recovering from. One day I was giving it another try over the apron at Meigs when I decided to fly over the runway. Suddenly I was having a much easier time maintaining control. I went back over the apron, and the control difficulties returned.

 

In that version the apron and taxiways at that airport had a significantly blurrier low resolution texture than the runway pavement. I discovered similar improvement to my hovering ability if some 3D scenery item like a building was withing a few hundred feet in front of me.

 

Sometimes spending time with a program leads to unexpected discoveries like that.

Yes, definitely the same experience! I started out with FS9 (because it was a lot less expensive in 2009 than FSX was), wanted to get started with Rod's flying lessons, but I totally messed it up when I had to execute the first turn (don't ask me where I ended up, I just didn't have any idea where the airport was :rolleyes:), but i continued until my first attempt to land (of course I crashed), so I gave up flying the lessons. However, I enjoyed the sim and played around with various planes, and finally I got an idea how everything works.

I essentially taught myself how to fly in FSX. Which basically meant it was a year or so before I found out how to do a proper ILS landing, or a landing that wouldn't crash my aircraft. I was wondering if any of you were in the same boat as me when you first started, not knowing anything at all, and despite the constant frustrations, you kept at it till you got it?

 

 

With Flight Simulator in general this was somewhat my experience.   Back when I was first learning to fly we only had 2D cockpits (FS5.1).  The biggest thing was knowing when to flare and crosswind landings.  With what we have today (FS9/FSX, Yoke/Peddles, TrackIT) your desktop experience is much more realistic.  Once you learn how to do a proper flare over the runway you can practice this with great success in the sim and be that much better the next time you actually fly.  Controlling the aircraft on the ground is another key thing you can do at home. 

 

I must say the best crosswind trainer is Flight.  Using the Maule on short runways with a crosswind takeoff is all but like the real experience.  I haven't seen a sim that really captures crosswind landings but Flight to me is the best option for both.  Maybe someone could chime in about Aerofly FS...

Started off in FS98 in the summer of 1998.