Anyone Using PilotEdge?

[Gregg_Seipp 565]

 

 

Yes it is. PE moves simming to a whole new ligue. You feel the pressure, fatigue and mental overwhelming similar to real life. Flying the slow and easy cessna 172 on the sim becomes extremely harder when performing under real ATC. Good luck

 

Flying RW I don't find it as stressful.  Sorta feels like you're getting graded on PE to me.  I don't get that at all in real life.  You have a mission, a place to go, a reason beyond just flying.  Pilots are looking out for each other, working to be cooperative in the pattern, eyes everywhere looking around.  Safety is the number one thing...not rules.  I'm sure other folks won't agree but that's how it felt to me quite a bit.

[mmerelles 78]

Flying RW I don't find it as stressful.  Sorta feels like you're getting graded on PE to me.  I don't get that at all in real life.  You have a mission, a place to go, a reason beyond just flying.  Pilots are looking out for each other, working to be cooperative in the pattern, eyes everywhere looking around.  Safety is the number one thing...not rules.  I'm sure other folks won't agree but that's how it felt to me quite a bit.

 

 

Well PE is about learning the real thing, and SoCal is one of the most busiest, complex and controlled airspace. So flying PE is about learning the rules for any kind of situation and following them strictly. 

 

Flying on real life, specially (but not limited to) near uncontrolled fields, is quite different. You learn to synchronize/communicate each other for a safe and fun flying, BUT you already know the rules!

[basementflyguy 156]

Flying RW I don't find it as stressful.  Sorta feels like you're getting graded on PE to me.  I don't get that at all in real life.  You have a mission, a place to go, a reason beyond just flying.  Pilots are looking out for each other, working to be cooperative in the pattern, eyes everywhere looking around.  Safety is the number one thing...not rules.  I'm sure other folks won't agree but that's how it felt to me quite a bit.

 

I have to tell you, I was stressed the first flight. Shaking. Which is weird, because I'm sitting in my basement. But yeah, I know what you mean.

 

Last night I did a PE flight from Grand Canyon to Bullhead. I asked for flight following and was ATC monitored the entire way, and dealt with two different controllers along the flight. As I listened to the radio traffic, it sort of dawned on me that part of that stress is because it's a training environment. The students and noobs (like me) are trying to do it the right way, which is stressful. We're all trying to sound "official." When in reality, what's official is the jargon and the language, not necessarily the tone of the conversation itself. I suspect the controllers want to help us, but they also want us to have done our homework and be ready for what we're trying to learn. I can't fault them for that. But I also figure they are human beings, so the last two flights I've tried to talk to them as such. And they responded in kind.

 

Like this exchange last night when I was trying to see if the button I'd mapped to XPNDR IDENT in FUSIPC was working ...

 

ATC: "Skylane one five juliet golf, squawk 3246 and ident, please."

 

Me: "Los Angeles Center, squawk 3246 and ident. Also, I have a sim question - let me know if you see the ident, please. One five juliet golf."

 

ATC: "One five juliet golf, no problem, we have radar contact and we see the ident."

 

It was nice, pleasant, and didn't feel like grading at all. So I think some of it is the tone we bring to it. My view is as a RW pilot you should bring the tone you bring to RW. I'd expect most PE controllers would appreciate it.

[BrianW 124]

it sort of dawned on me that part of that stress is because it's a training environment.

The main reason for PilotEdge is practice and training so they expect people to make mistakes sometimes. As long as you’re trying and learning from the mistakes it’s fine.

 

It even happens to people with lots of real experience that aren’t used to such busy airspace. One of the most common real pilot mistake is transponder use at KSNA, not a lot of GA pilots are used to ADSE-X if you’ve never flown from an airport that uses it.

[basementflyguy 156]

The main reason for PilotEdge is practice and training so they expect people to make mistakes sometimes. As long as you’re trying and learning from the mistakes it’s fine.It even happens to people with lots of real experience that aren’t used to such busy airspace. One of the most common real pilot mistake is transponder use at KSNA, not a lot of GA pilots are used to ADSE-X if you’ve never flown from an airport that uses it.

Done that.

And all that said, for me it's been fun as hell. I really can't wait to get back in the sim. Even in VFR from uncontrolled fields, it's just so cool to make a CTAF call and know someone else could be listening, and that when you get controlled everyone's trying to do it the right way. I love it. Really hope they continue to succeed and expand the coverage area.

[Airline2Sim 489]

One of the reasons I gave up real life flying is that it became to difficult for me to understand air traffic control. My girlfriend did not feel comfortable having to repeat the air traffic communication for me or talking to air traffic control herself. Unfortunate as I really liked having a copilot to operate the radios. Made me feel like a real Captain.

 

I bought the Airline2sim training video but with the UK accents and the two pilots talking over each other I had to keep rewinding it to try to understand what was being said. After 15 minutes I gave up and never tried again.

 

Ted

Sorry to hear that Ted, you missed out on a set of training videos that won us an Avsim Gold award and 5 star reviews from every corner. However if you're also struggling to understand real world ATC then I suggest that maybe your hearing is the issue rather than your language skills. At age 40 as a result of my earlier career in broadcasting, I've lost a fair amount of the high frequencies in my hearing. These high frequencies are the ones that help to pick out speech when there are high ambient background noises so they are pretty crucial. A hearing test will reveal all.

[Ted Striker 338]

 

 

I suggest that maybe your hearing is the issue rather than your language skills.

Ben, you are absolutely correct. I have had my hearing tested, do have a high frequency hearing loss, and wear hearing aids. Hearing aids help, but do not bring your hearing capacity back to even close to 100%. My point in my post above was that introducing background noise and static into the radio transmissions will make it more difficult for those with a first language other than English and/or or a hearing deficiency to understand. This may reduce the participation by people in those groups.

 

With regards to your training videos, I did purchase the Q400 Cadet Training video but was unable to understand the first few I tried due to my hearing loss and the other reasons that I mentioned. As a consequence I didn't even attempt to listen to the remaining ones in the series that I purchased. I noticed from your forums, unfortunately after I purchased the video series, that others were having the same problem. The other people seemed to be those that had a primary language other than English, not a hearing loss. I know that the training videos got great reviews as that is one of the reasons I bought them. I just wish I could understand them as others can. I've been meaning to go to your forums and ask if you have transcripts for them so I could follow along but have not gotten around to it.

 

Again, I am not asking any developer to change anything or cater to those with a hearing loss or those that are not proficient speaking English. My post was just meant to provide a perspective for the developers to consider if they want the business of the people in those two groups. With regards to Pilotedge, I was just supporting the user option to have static added or not and provided a reason for it.

 

Ted

[Airline2Sim 489]

Ted,

 

We've looked at transcripts and or subtitles but they are incredibly expensive to do for productions which are as extensive as ours (as in thousands of dollars) so we'd have to charge users separately for videos with them, something I don't believe our customer base would be prepared to do.

 

We worked hard to slow things down on subsequent videos such as our Q400 First Officer Program and the American Captain on our forthcoming 777 Cadet Training Program speaks slower still. The conversational and rather light hearted style of our videos isn't something that absolutely everyone wants and I accept that. However I've been sent to sleep by enough training videos in my time to know that if you keep it fun and interesting then you learn more. The overwhelming majority of our viewers share this belief too. The international nature of the flight sim business makes these kind of things a challenge.

 

In terms of pilot edge, I agree with you. One thing that I always struggle with with vatsim is the poor quality of some of the transmissions from both pilots and ATC, many times worse than anything I've ever heard whilst flying my little Piper Cherokee in real life.

[turner112 52]

One huge difference is that in the real world, pilots never make mistakes on the radio. 

[Ted Striker 338]

Ben,

 

Sounds like you are trying to address the issues I mentioned in your subsequent videos. I don't want to derail this thread any further as it is about PilotEdge so I will try your Q400 Cadet Video again and report back on your forum.

 

Thanks,

Ted

[mmerelles 78]

One huge difference is that in the real world, pilots never make mistakes on the radio. 

 

 

you are being ironic i presume? 

 

on real life pilots do mistakes A LOT.

-not understanding instructions, not acknowledging back properly.

-landing on taxiways, landing at wrong airport

-departing on wrong runways

-causing near collisions and go-around being told not to enter the runway and doing the opposite.

 

I am not talking about small piston school guys here, i am talking about big commercial airlines jets.

[turner112 52]

 

 

you are being ironic i presume? 

 

No, but I was being sarcastic

[coma 6]

Starting to play VHF radio emulation for PilotEdge now. We avoided it for years because the version of the sound library we used didn't allow convenient post-processing of the audio. Now that we've moved to a newer version of the library (a while ago, admittedly), I'm looking closely at this. I found some open source DSP code and was able to apply high and low pass filters, but there was a buzz in the resulting audio of which I'm not a fan. I'll keep working it

 

Since we do track the signal strength for party on the network, we could theoretically degrade the signal as it gets closer to the limits of the reception distance. We already model the transmitter locations on the network as well as we can (even the altitude of the rado transmitters in cases where they're placed on top of a mountain) so everything is in place except for the last piece, which is to manipulate the audio based on all the conditions we're simulating.

 

Some people will like this, others will not. I started out not wanting it, but I have come to realize that the cd quality audio we use now needs at least a high and low pass filter to run over it (with the appropriate cutoffs) to remove the low end bass, even if we add no actual distortion, that would be a good start. Beyond that, we'll probably make it optional to enable the degrading of the signal.

 

Regarding the expansion, we're on track to launch by end of year, and yes, it's generally for tubeliners, but the 'bonus field' program might be of interesting to piston and turboprop guys. That's a program where we staff an additional field (on a rotating basis), not too far from one of the expansion fields. That way, there are some additional options for smaller planes without having to fly 600-800nm between airports. That, and we will be providing basic radar services for enroute IFR and VFR within the expansion area (albeit without the ability to vector or clear people for approaches into unsupported airports, but it does cover you for 95+% of the flight). This opens up several hundred non-towered airports, too, where you can depart on the CTAF, pick up advisories, fly around pretty much anywhere you want within the expanded area, then terminate your service just prior to swapping to CTAF at the next non-towered airport.

[Dean33 69]

Pilotedge is to me the 'icing on the cake' of flight simulation. Users are simmers as well as pilot trainees and others.

 

The controllers are extremely supportive and professional.

 

The original V1 to V3 exams have recently been replaced with CAT1 to CAT 11 - a series of monitored tests in VFR navigation under simulated ATC control. This is in addition to the original I1 to I11 IFR tests.

 

There are many YouTube videos as an introduction.

 

I can't praise Pilotedge enough and would recommend the 14 day free trial. Sign up, connect, listen, breath deeply and jump in.

[scottb613 1,186]

Hi Keith,

 

Caught my interest with radios sounding like radios - I'll be watching to see how this turns out...

:wink:

 

Thanks...

 

Regards,
Scott