Question for Real World Pilots

[planenut 19]

I've always been curious as to why you real world pilots out there use flight simulator? Is it just for entertainment or do you get any benefit to apply to real flight. Having a real world license to fly would be the ultimate and flight simulation can't come close to the thrill of actually flying (IMHO). Basically I would just like to know your attitude toward flight simulation.Jim

[AWACS 12]

I'm private rated working on instrumentI think pilots like Flight Sim. because it's 1. Cheaper 2. let's them sim fly aircraft that they have never flown before, and 3. I think it helps a little bit. Not so much for your private license for me at least, but seems to be really helpful for your instrument rating. (If of course you fly mostly IFR flights in FS)Jeff USAF

[Guest allblack]

What a great question.I must admit, I've seen RW pilots saying through these threads that they sim a lot, and I've often wondered why.CheersTim

[Guest aca_dia]

85% of my use is for interment instrument skills/procedures refreshing. It is really handy if I am coming up on recurrent training and want to get my head straight on a particular skill (approach type, odd hold entry, etc) I don

[rightseat 277]

I can "fly" on the computer three or fours hours a day if I wish. I can't do that in the real a/c. Fuel, maintenance, prep time, etc. all tip the scale towards lots of sim time. Besides, flying is a blast! When you've got the bug, you get your fix where you can. I love any form of flying. The computer is just the most readily available alternative to burning up hours in the real thing.good question

[Guest jlwoodward]

I have 700 hours in a C150 and 182, plus an instrument rating. Several years ago my eyesight failed so I gave it up. FS9 on a good computer and with a good add-on aircraft is as close as you can get to real flying, and you don't get beat up by all the wind and turbulence. Try greasing an airplane like the C310- it probably takes as much skill as the real one does. Other reasons- you could live somewhere like Florida but do your flying in Alaska.

[Geofa 108]

I have used it for to practice for every rating I have gotten (multi instrument ,commercial , almost cfi now).I used fs4 in my primary training to break the "turn the steering wheel, yoke properly positioned into wind" syndrom early students usually show with about 2 hours of non stop takeoffs on the sim. I practiced the procedures for ground reference maneuvers (which are much harder to do on the sim), and xwind technique. I used it for instrument scan and practicing holds,navigation,approaches etc. in my instrument training. Going back and looking at your track afterwards-or the ability to pause the sim to reinforce aspects is very valuable.When I bought my Beech Debonair in 1994 (see in avsim downloads-30,000+)I recreated my panel from photographs (including the actual instruments) and made a faithful recreation of the systems and instrumentation with the help of Reality xp and James Eden. When I got my Baron last year I did the same-it helped with a very quick transition.I used it to practice the commercial manuevers (again much harder in the sim) and for the multi procedures and manuevers-nothing like some quick engine failures with pitch, power,drag, identify, verify, feather, to get in the habit.When I take a trip to an unfamiliar part of the US-I always fly the approach on the sim first-get an idea of the terrain, look of the airport, and instrument approaches.Right now in the Civil Air Patrol-I have developed a program that allows CAP members to practice grid searches (search and rescue) practice on the sim-we have a session once a month.Using the reality xp apollo gps which is the same the CAP uses sure helps practice.When it gets winter in my neck of the country it is pretty hard to fly at all for a couple months (unless luck/weather/schedule come together which they rarely do). The sim helps keep the cobwebs off during these down times.In short-I use it all the time to reinforce aspects of real flying!There are some things it still can't create-seat of the pants feel for instance-but there are a heck of a lot of aspects that are close enough to be extremely useful.....http://mywebpages.comcast.net/geofa/pages/rxp-pilot.jpg

[Guest]

Not a real world pilot yet but a sim gives you the opportunity to fly any aircraft available and practice. repetition makes you a better pilot, and the simulator can create a pilot out of anybody, all it takes is practiceI have really no interest in flying small props and flight sim gives me the ability to fly jets, in real life I would have to spend years flying little props before given the chance to fly a jet.

[Guest DNelson]

No one has mentioned the most important advantage yet -- you can drink a beer while flying on the computer.Seriously, the old Fly! and FS98 were of great help when I was working on my instrument rating, especially holding patterns and approaches.

[McDaniel 48]

Helloi just wanna give my 2 cents :-)i did my VFR PPL last summer, it was one of the best things i could do! I know flightsims since commodore 64, man that was a time :-)ups, back to the questions:since i am a real world PPL, flying with fs2004 is more fun, you just get a other view of all the things in fs2004, strange but true in my case :-)also i used the sim to practice, every flight i had to prepair i did in fs2004 with the Switzerland Professional Scenery, it was very helpfull what kind of landscape i could expect in places i did not know, also i could watch out for good "fixpoints"The fs2004 is very helpfull to train VOR/NDB "proceeders"Its also very nice to keep the emergency proceeds up to date!!The big one thing i miss in FS2004 is the feeling! You can not fly with your "but" we love to say! :-)Summary: I think it dosent matter if you are a small PPL pilot or a ATP Pilot, if you have ever been in the sim world you will always like it, because it gives you so much freedom in choice where and with what you gonna fly......and on which crazy path lol :-)GreetsMcDanielsorry for the bad grammer....

[windycloud 30]

I've been simming for years and I got my Private Pilot Liscense Oct. 2004. Well I guess for me simming is the reason for my pursueing of real world experience rather than the other way around. It's true that sim does not really help real world VFR a lot. But I'd say it's very helpful with practicing procedures. Other than that, the rest is obvious. It's cheaper...and also hard as I would try, when would I ever be able to fly a 737NG into Munich and turn around and hop to Sion in a KingAir 200 in real life?Jason Zhang

[Guest Kefuddle]

Generally, since I started to fly, I have found FS9 less and less interesting. I think to a certain extent it is because much of the wonder has gone...replaced by knowledge and fact. Also, there is very little value in practicing much on the sim except procedure, instrument navigation and instrument scan; frankly Elite and RANT are generally better all round tools for those aspects. Personally I have reached a stage where I can look at most aspects of FS see straight through it. However, it can be fun to occasionally download an adventure and see what happens with the unexpected.However, I maintain a tacit interest in the development of FS and X-plane and I would consider looking at one or two of the heavy representations for panel familiarity should I be lucky enough to land an airline job interview.

[michal 44]

>I've always been curious as to why you real world pilots out>there use flight simulator? Because if you have to pay big $$$ for every hour of real flight then using FS comes handy .... and cheap !!!You should rather direct this question to professional pilots like Peter Sidoli or Kevin Au who not only use FS but also fly (probably almost daily) for living. Their case is harder to justify ;-)Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2

[ronzie 21]

I am a former commercial rated VFR pilot with about 250 hours. I was forced to give it up because of physical issues.In your comment about VFR not being much help I'd have to say I disagree. The VFR flight planning (with a different planner) by hand with charts or computer or both help with navigation and pilotage principles such as checkpoint recognition and dynamic plan/course corrections. In controlled airports procedures still apply in comm and pattern merging and they can be practiced in FS including traffic avoidance by turning on AI and acquiring a good set of at least GA AI models and plans.You might want to take a look at bush flying scenarios as well at conferences here and other sites.

[Guest 737_200_Pilot]

I agree with the rest, definately helps you learn and stay proficient at IFR procedures.Airline Transport PilotB-737 Type Rating