Hi TJ,

 

you are completely right, the actual flying part is quite different. As far as "keeping your eyes outside" is concerned, I did that intuitively right away. In a flight simulator you are not worried to hit something, but in a real plane that's a little different. And I must admit I was surprised by my own reaction.

 

Having said that, the A2A models in particular are an excellent tool to study all procedural aspects of aviation. If you're on Vatsim or IVAO you can even properly practice most of the ATC communication.

 

Peter

Early on your instructor will harp on you about keeping your eyes outside, especially in the traffic pattern.  Your head needs to be on a swivel as you maintian proper pitch attitudes just by looking at the horizon, judge distances, look for traffic and so on. 

 

And you'll also feel less sick...

 

FS9 taught me to stare at the panel too much. The instructor - and my stomach - said it was much better to keep looking outside.   B)

Defenitely, the A2A Cherokee.  :wub: It has something magic.

Defenitely, the A2A Cherokee.  :wub: It has something magic.

Agreed!

Defenitely, the A2A Cherokee.  :wub: It has something magic.

Its God-like  :rolleyes:

Very interesting read  for this thread.

As a flight simmer of 32 years all the way back to sublogic. I wanted to become a pilot at 17 but it hasn't and won't happen. So flightsimming is the only thing I have to scratch the itch.

Very good points. I'm always trying to "make it more real" and one thing that caught my attention was the climbing and descending speeds (FPM rates) It's very easy to get into a -/+ 2000 fpm climb/descend without getting a sense of how crazy that would be in real life.

In small planes like this what is realistic? 700-800 fpm?

10 minutes ago, briansommers said:

In small planes like this what is realistic? 700-800 fpm?

Rate Of Climb: 631 fpm   Easy Google search of the Piper Cherokee specs.

You are going to find stuff such as holding altitude or getting nice descent rates is tougher to achieve in a flight sim such as FSX, than it is in a real aeroplane. It's for a few reasons, but mostly it is to do with the fact that trimming a real aeroplane is a hell of a lot simpler and more intuitive in real life on a real aeroplane with those specific trim controls than it is in any flight sim where you are clicing a button up and down trying to get the thing to flind a level point or a specific rate of climb or descent, which is in no way as easy as it is for real. You also have the problem of looking at relatively small gauges on a computer screen which is having to fit the entire panel on it; a larger monitor will help, but you are still probably going to find the VSI and such look fairly small in comparison to when you look at a real one in a cockpit.

If you drive a car for real and have ever gone on a car racing or truck driving sim or some such, you will appreciate the difference; i.e. you can easily and intuitively drive that car for real, but you go on a driving sim and it proves trickier when you'd think it really should not be.