If you were an ace of the base with the PMDG 737/777/MJC Q400 then almost certainly you'd be able to successfully operate the real one. However where you'd come unstuck is that the sim feels totally different to the real one when it comes to hand flying. I watched our real Q400 pilot trying to fly the Majestic one and it was hilarious!

We have a virtual flying club (Cape Virtual) here in Cape Town & we look after & mentor 'the Young Falcons'. It's a 2 year project, every second Saturday mornings & we have 60 kids, 30 juniors & 30 seniors. The course consists of lectures then practicals & flights on PC's, as well as navigational exercises. Once a year they go to our local gliding club for a few launches.

The 2nd year ends with private pilots flying in & taking the kids for flights. The 'real' pilots take off then let the kids fly circuits on their own. We have quite a few kids that have achieved PPL's & a few have joined the gliding club!

 

We are using FS2004 to train the kids!! (We are using our local freeware developers, Aereoworx, for our scenery!!)

Oh, we have also built 2 simulators, an Avro Shackleton & an AeroMacci MB326 twin seater (known as an Impala here in South Africa) We using actual yokes, sticks, pedals, seats in a real fuselage as well. Also FS2004! 

 

So, you do NOT need fancy equipment, fancy planes, (apologies to A2A) to learn to fly. All you need is to know the procedures, & practice, practice & then practice again.

 

Immersion is the winner here. We cannot have realism using gaming joysticks, monitors in front of us & hard fixed seats.

 

Cheers,

Robin.

That is very interesting. You are doing a great service to get kids interested in flying!

 

A little off topic, but do you recommend the NMG airport scenery for Cape Town? I have NMG FAOR and it looked pretty good, not FlyTampa quality but much much better than anything default. Do you have any airport scenery for FACT for fsx or do you use only fs9?

Have a look at http://aeroworxsa.blogspot.co.za/

There's South African scenery for FSX & FS2004.

I/we prefer using the Aeroworx scenery.. Just looks better, uses the same mesh & prefer supporting the freeware guys. (Nice bunch).

 

Cheers,

Robin

 

(I've PM'd you)

If you were an ace of the base with the PMDG 737/777/MJC Q400 then almost certainly you'd be able to successfully operate the real one. However where you'd come unstuck is that the sim feels totally different to the real one when it comes to hand flying. I watched our real Q400 pilot trying to fly the Majestic one and it was hilarious!

 

We often get real airline pilots visiting us & flying our Shackleton simulator & the immersion factor is such that we can see them bracing themselves on touchdown, such is the immersion factor. (the sim is static)

We also had the ex Chief of our Air Force fly it (he is also a Pilatus PC-12, amongst many other mil aircraft) pilot).Quite impressive that such an advanced pilot few the sim. So, as I mentioned before, you do not need expensive add-ons to have fun.

then saw that the push-levers for throttle and mixture work very differently than I expected, seeing the small fine tuning wheel-screw on them being adjusted etc...etc... -  I realized again that "real is real", that all my virtual preparation did only get me closer - but not really there. For me personally, the experience was the same as looking at a pretty girl and maybe reading her letters - and then really taking her out to dinner. 

 

I love the analogy you used and I totally agree.

 

I will say that - I have almost 70 hours of exp on C152 and around 250 landings and take offs. Not too many, but I am feeling quite confident flying the type. Few weeks ago I had done rating for C172. I was expecting that it would be pretty much the same plane with minor differences.

 

And... I had almost crash landed this C172 during my first flare... My Flight Instructor had to help me to recover.

I was suprised with the forces on the yoke! While on C152 you can almost skip using the trimmer in C172 you need to help yourself to reduce the forces... or just pull it much much harder.

 

My point is this - hand flying is all about the muscle memory. If you have never landed a real plane you will never do it. Of course, there are some exceptions... like from every rule!

 

 

That 200 pounds could buy a lot of very nice flight sim addons you can enjoy for many years though! In America I have seen discovery flights advertised for cheaper but that might have changed from a couple years ago.

 

No, still cheap.  My local airport, KPCM, does intro flights for $49.  

 

Also may be interesting to the OP is one of the students posted his flight log from intro flight to checkride.

 

http://pcairport.net/greglog.html

I can fly and land many different planes...........in the sim. (Most of us can, I believe)

 

However, I've recently taken up gliding at a local club. The first hands on approach I did, was a bit of a mess. :Nail Biting:  Too much faffing about with the stick...  and the instructor had to round out and land the glider.

 

"If she's doing what you want her to do, then don't interfere. Don't feel you need to be doing something!  "

I remember my flight instructors saying people with good FS experience need approx. 5 hours less flight time for PPL completion.

 

The hardware equipment also contributes to this. E.g. with a standard self-centering Joystick you don`t even come close to the real trimming feel. A force feedback yoke with non centering axis makes a big difference already.

 

Mike

I'm now able to cold start, taxi, take off, fly around at various alts (up to 30K+'), do combat maneuvers, land and park, an A2A combat P51 WoP3 at full FSX "real", without even thinking much about what I'm doing any more.  Would I even think of trying any of that IRL...dream on. :smile:

If you are an expert at first person shooters, shooting troll, water, with a joystick, and can win at LAN events, will you cope in a real life scenario? Playing with pixels can be immersive, but hardly realism.

In my 20's I flew a C152 up to solo status but my eye test rendered soloing a no no (draconian South African rules). The doctor suggested that I take up soaring ( I wish that I had ). 25 years later I took up soaring and found it to be a wonderful experience. Our 2nd world war runways at Andreas ( IOM ) needed pinpoint precision landings. Pulling 3~4 G in a Blanik doing a loop has to be experienced. A Blanik in a spin is out of this world!

 Alas, there is no substitute for real seat of the pants flying. The absence of the instructor in the back seat of an ancient K2 glider on the first solo really focuses the mind!!. High blood pressure and the resulting damage to my left eye stopped all real flying.

 

I enjoy simming because: No need to do walkabouts, instrument checks or other jobs if you don't want to. The call to dinner or tea = the pause button. Engineless flying has a drawback in my sim in that I tend to do gliding approaches to runways. It is also very cheap to crash trying to land at some of the difficult airstrips. Basically certain routines can be practiced on the sim but there is no way to simulate the varying G forces of reality.

Once you start Flight School and get a taste for the real thing you may find you lose interest in Flight Sim

 

 

What? Not a chance. I loved simming even more after flying for real...  

 

I started with simming..then I did the real thing..got the PP, did the tailwheel and the multi ratings.

 

And I am still loving the sim... except now I prefer flying the airlines.. PMDG 777.

 

Simming complemented my real world flying so much..... My first long distance..Dallas to New Orleans (Lake front airport) with my friends to go fishing over a long weekend., I flew the sim with F1 Cessna 172 on the same flight plan the day before... and felt comfortable with the real trip.

If you are an expert at first person shooters,..

 

I can run a hell of a lot further in Battlefield 4 wearing full kit than I ever could in real life!

Ditto Manny...

 

Regards,
Scott

There's absolutely no contradiction between flying a simulator and flying in real life.  Real cross-country flights can be practiced in the sim prior to the real flight.  Procedures that might be difficult or dangerous in real life, such as flying in bad weather, can be practiced in the sim.  And the sim gives a pilot the chance to get a sense of what it would be like to fly many different types of aircraft.  How many real pilots will ever get a chance to fly a P-51, DC-3 or modern airliner?  And there's that pesky money issue - maybe get a little extra practice, keeping abilities fresh with the sim, instead of banging around the airport circuit at $100 per hour.