Hello

Limbatus here from California. I am interested in learning how to fly. I would like to use computer simulators to train. How do you recommend I start? Thanks!

Welcome.

Hello Limbatus, welcome to AVSIM!  

 

 

I am interested in learning how to fly. I would like to use computer simulators to train. How do you recommend I start? Thanks!

 

Welcome to AVSIM.  If you haven't done so already, you need to install one or more of the flight simulators.  I recommend Prepar3D from Lockheed Martin.  FSX will still work and new addons will be created for it in the far future but the FSX engine can no longer be updated and technology is growing and growing.  Lockheed Martin is actively creating and updating Prepar3D for real world simulators to include the Defense Department.  It has the basic engine of FSX but they are making changes to it as much as the Microsoft licenses will allow.  It's fun to learn the techniques of real world flying but none of the simulators will provide you with the expertise to fly real world other than give you a bit more knowledge if you ever decide to obtain real aircraft training.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Welcome, brother, get on the stick.

Welcome aboard.   :smile:

Welcome to Best Korea!

Welcome to AVSIM.  If you haven't done so already, you need to install one or more of the flight simulators.  I recommend Prepar3D from Lockheed Martin.  FSX will still work and new addons will be created for it in the far future but the FSX engine can no longer be updated and technology is growing and growing.  Lockheed Martin is actively creating and updating Prepar3D for real world simulators to include the Defense Department.  It has the basic engine of FSX but they are making changes to it as much as the Microsoft licenses will allow.  It's fun to learn the techniques of real world flying but none of the simulators will provide you with the expertise to fly real world other than give you a bit more knowledge if you ever decide to obtain real aircraft training.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Thanks Jim, Prepar3D is the Simulator I am using. I would like to find an open source cesna 150 or 172 model for training. Any Idea where I can find other plane models. I do not have FSX.

 

I am interested in improving the detail of scenery and cities in California to make training more realistic. Can you recommend some plugins? Thanks - Limbatus

right now the city streets around goleta ca resemble something more like washington dc

Hi Limbatus,

 

welcome aboard. Other than Jim I recommend X-Plane 11, which is in beta now. Here plays the music. Es far as I know, if you buy x-plane 11 now, you get x-plane 10 for free (only at laminar research official website). P3D is really good but as always in life, the better is the enemy of the good.:-)

 

Tom

Thanks Jim, Prepar3D is the Simulator I am using. I would like to find an open source cesna 150 or 172 model for training. Any Idea where I can find other plane models. I do not have FSX.

 

I am interested in improving the detail of scenery and cities in California to make training more realistic. Can you recommend some plugins? Thanks - Limbatus

You are probably already aware of A2A Simulations - http://www.a2asimulations.com/.  I think they have the best professional C172 trainer packages on the market.  They can be expensive but real world training costs even more.

 

For California I use Orbx/FTX Southern and Northern California scenery.  I also have MegaSceneryX California scenery.  FS Dreamteam, Orbx/FTX, FlightBeam, and Taxi2Gate have great airports for California.  But they have lots of eye-candy so you have to be careful with your settings.  Aerosoft has very well detailed cities for Los Angeles and San Franciso.  There's a lot of eye-candy addons out there.  Just be careful as the products were not made for Prepar3D at max settings.

 

Best regards,

Jim

Welcome.

Welcome to the community!

Hi and welcome. One of the things you might want to try is Aerofly FS2 if you want to practice getting okay at flying and you want California terrain at high resolution:

 

https://www.aerofly.com/aerofly_fs_2/

 

Aerofly FS2 is pretty inexpensive, runs really smoothly and has a lot of built in beginner lessons which utilise a Cessna 172 flying around California. And of course, when you get good, you'll have a very high resolution sim of California to fly around in with lots of built in aircraft, including some fun ones such as the F4U Corsair, F/A-18, Boeing 737, Boeing 747 and Airbus A320, so you can suss out what you like and then apply that to P3D with some add-ons. Add-on sceneries of New York State and Switzerland are very inexpensive too, and the NYC scenery for it is breathtaking to say the least. The lessons in Aerofly FS2 are very similar to real-world ab-initio training, with an AI instructor who works some of the controls whilst you master one of them at a time, then you move onto using two controls simultaneously, then three, building up to a final couple of lessons where you have to take off and then land, doing everything yourself with no help on the controls. Each lesson has to be completed with a certain level of proficiency before you can move on to the next one, and it gives you breakdown of what you did well after each lesson, with accuracy of each control element expressed as a percentage. So it's a very gentle learning curve, but it will ensure that you are doing things properly, such as coming in at the right descent rate and speed (75 knots or so in a C172, a little bit more is it is gusting) using the throttle to control your descent and the elevator and elevator trim to control your speed (which is what most new pilots get wrong).

 

Of course you can find lessons to do all that with a Cessna in P3D, but it seems to me that if you want Cali at stunningly high resolution running super smooth and C172 lessons, Aerofly would appear to have been made for you.

 

 

Hi and welcome

 

Glad to see you back too Chock!  Haven't heard from you for a long time.  Hope all is well!

 

Best regards,

Jim