Taxiing IRL

[tired flaps 0]

I play X-Plane on occasion and I never managed to taxi correctly without using overlay arrows that show exactly where to go. How do pilots manage to read taxiing signs quickly enough IRL and not get confused / lost? I have to zoom in quite a lot to even read the signs, especially from a plane like 737.

[ahsmatt7 1,199]

You see them much more clearly in real life. Plain and simple.

[kowen 64]

Being familiar with the airport

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

In RL you possess both focused and peripheral vision. Taxiway signs catch your eye (so to speak) for only a quick second. You don't really have to stare at them in real life. The same thing is true with road signs when driving a car.

I don't know about you guys, but even with TrackIR, my peripheral vision when viewing a monitor is vastly diminished. Maybe it's better in VR.

[Captain Kevin 586]

Couple things to point out here. For starters, your view of what is outside in the real world is a lot bigger than what you're seeing on your screen, most likely. So already the signs are going to be a lot bigger in the real world. In any event, in the real world, you'd most likely have airport charts to reference your position, so all you have to do is look out the window and make sure you're where you think you are. Also, when in doubt, you can always slow the plane down or stop.

[bonchie 2,305]

10 hours ago, tired flaps said:

I play X-Plane on occasion and I never managed to taxi correctly without using overlay arrows that show exactly where to go. How do pilots manage to read taxiing signs quickly enough IRL and not get confused / lost? I have to zoom in quite a lot to even read the signs, especially from a plane like 737.

We have airport diagrams and you usually have a general idea of what routing ground will give you because you know where you are going. Much of the time you are familar with the airport as well.

The vast majority of airports are fairly simple. Sim pilots spend a disproportionate amount of time at massive hub airports compared to real life. In reality, when you are at an airport that big, it's almost always because you fly something big enough to have someone in the right seat. That lessens the workload obviously.

[jcomm 5,936]

Flying in general is a lot easier than in a sim IRL.... Everything!  They use a much better graphics and FDM... 🙂

Add to it weather injection and AI Traffic IRL, and … well, forget about sims, if you have the $$$ to pay for it 🙂

 

Edited May 24, 2018 by jcomm