17,324,567 (plus or minus 354,682).............

On 12/2/2019 at 10:29 AM, jon b said:

Just to turn this on it’s head ...I am the captain of a very real 747, but have been simming longer than I’ve been flying.

if someone made a very calm announcement that they’d got autogen trees growing out of their taxiways at KMCO (a real problem I believe) as a real simmer would I volunteer to give it a go ?.....No I don’t have a clue about the inner workings of simulator  software 

That's OK... there are still plenty of simmers who think they can fly your real 747.

On 12/2/2019 at 9:29 AM, johncott said:

My existing FS logbook goes back to 2000 and I've carried it over from FS 2000 to FSX.

Wait... you use a logbook in the sim?  Hmmm... perhaps I'm not a "real" simmer after all!

Greg

56 minutes ago, lownslo said:

Wait... you use a logbook in the sim?  Hmmm... perhaps I'm not a "real" simmer after all!

 

Yes, I used the default logbook, started it is with FS2000, FS2002, FS2004 and now FSX.  It is also continuous, meaning one flight leads to another or in other words, if I land at a airport I will take off from that airport for my next flight, I will go back to my home airport and pick up another plane or will "rent" a plane. For example, took off from western Canada with the Carenado Cessna C404 and flew to Australia and then "rented" a Cessna C172 to tour low and slow over Australia, then will fly back to Canada with the C404.  I do use a logbook editor, first of all, to convert from FS2004 logbook format to the FSX format. Since I do play around with design, I will also us the logbook editor to delete my test flights when I am testing my projects. other than that, I work hard to make sure the logbook is accurate and shows my FS flying history.

I have only read the first page of tis thread but everybody who turns on a sim from the guy who likes to spend 30 minutes pre-flighting an Airbus and going through all the startup procedures to the guy who likes to jump in at the end of the runway and fly off are all simmers.

It's fruitless to try to define simmers based on our individual ideas of what a simmer should be.

As a former real life GA pilot who learned to fly  in float planes in mid 50s and cannot fly anymore I enjoy reprising my experiences in general aviation aircraft.  I very seldom fly airliners or military aircraft although I do on occasion.  And I much prefer starting my engine with ctl-E as opposed to flipping a panel full of switches.  Going back to the Luscombe 8E I first soloed in I could say you are not a real simmer unless you hand prop the aircraft to get the engine started yelling 'switch off' and 'switch on' to your J-3

We are all real simmers with a thousand reasons of why we like the game or simulator or computer program or whatever you want to call it.

Trying to categorize real versus 'unreal' simmers by the way they enjoy the game (yes I call it a game even though I have been at it for over a decade and have done some scenery design for California Classic and some of my work is on Flightsim.com) tries to make it sound like some of us are better than others because we take it more seriously than others.

We are all simmers for various reasons.  The one thing we have in common is aviation.  So now I have to ask what is a real aviation enthusiast?  One who flies real airplanes or one who flies a simulator or one who just sits at airports and watches airplanes or reads books about aviation?

Or who is a real pilot?  The military jock who flies an FA-18 or F-35?  The B747 pilot flying from Los Angeles to Brisbane?  The weekend pilot who enjoys tooling around the sky in a Cessna 152?  The hang glider pilot leaping of the top of a hill and landing on the bottom?  An RC pilot who builds his own airplane and flies his model from some abandon runway or a drone enthusiast?  After all they give wings now to military drone pilots who fly from what is essentially a simulator.  

Well, they are all pilots.  They all make things go in the sky.  And all of us discussing this here are real simmers for all the various reasons we enjoy the hobby.  Let's not categorize ourselves into a hierarchy.

Noel

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 5, 20196 yr by birdguy
Last minute thought.

2 hours ago, johncott said:

Yes, I used the default logbook, started it is with FS2000, FS2002, FS2004 and now FSX.  It is also continuous, meaning one flight leads to another or in other words, if I land at a airport I will take off from that airport for my next flight, I will go back to my home airport and pick up another plane or will "rent" a plane. For example, took off from western Canada with the Carenado Cessna C404 and flew to Australia and then "rented" a Cessna C172 to tour low and slow over Australia, then will fly back to Canada with the C404.  I do use a logbook editor, first of all, to convert from FS2004 logbook format to the FSX format. Since I do play around with design, I will also us the logbook editor to delete my test flights when I am testing my projects. other than that, I work hard to make sure the logbook is accurate and shows my FS flying history.

Congrats on your dedicated record! 👍

Greg

On ‎12‎/‎2‎/‎2019 at 12:14 PM, overspeed3 said:

My definition of a "real" simmer:  The Captain and First Officer on a very real 747 have passed-out and are not responding to ATC.  The flight attendant makes an very calm announcement asking if anyone has experience piloting a plane.  You are on that plane. As a real simmer, do you volunteer to give it a go?   

I know I'm late to the party to anser this, but no matter how many times you have landed a 747 is FSX/P3D, that doesn't qualify you to land one IRL.  The best you might be able to do is to steer is so that it isn't going to hit anyone on the ground, ie by crashing into the water.

However, this question often comes up, could it be done by a person.  It has never happened, never been required.  And whatever happened to the captain and FO would take you out as well.

Airlines insurance obviously will not cover it. 

So, nope.. Never will happen.. 

LOL.. How many thousands of hours in a PMDG Boeing? 

41 minutes ago, andyjohnston.net said:

I know I'm late to the party to anser this, but no matter how many times you have landed a 747 is FSX/P3D, that doesn't qualify you to land one IRL.  The best you might be able to do is to steer is so that it isn't going to hit anyone on the ground, ie by crashing into the water.

However, this question often comes up, could it be done by a person.  It has never happened, never been required.  And whatever happened to the captain and FO would take you out as well.

I disagree with this somewhat. 

I've been simming in one form or another for almost 25 years, and currently fly a small jet IRL. 

The biggest hurdle when transitioning from a simulator to a real aircraft is the sensory overload from the sounds, feel and feedback from the controls, vibrations, G-Forces etc. I can be a bit overwhelming, but definitely not a complete deal-breaker. The sensation of sensory overload was present the first time I flew the real aircraft after training, but I was still able to manage....and definitely didn't crash. 

As a matter of fact, the full motion sim I trained in had a lower fidelity in some areas than some of the high-end addon aircraft for P3d (PMDG, FSLabs, Maddog, Majestic etc). While the cockpit and avionics were a 100% accurate re-creation of the real thing, the sounds, graphics, general immersion and actual feel of the controls were definitely not......as I quickly learned after flying the real aircraft for the fist time. 

 

This became even more obvious during my first recurrent training event after dozens of hours in the real thing. The full-motion sim felt more like a sim to me than a real aircraft....and in my mind it started to feel like FSX with a fancy cockpit setup. 

 

My point is, even the simulators real pilots use don't have 100% fidelity....and in some areas home simulators have caught up, or even surpassed the professional full-motion simulators. So I'd give an experienced simmer better than 0% odds at safely landing an aircraft if ever needed. Just find the longest, widest strip of pavement facing into the wind and let the autoland do the rest. If there's no autoland, let the autopilot stabilize it, take control at 1000ft and smoothly fly it down to the runway. It might not be a greaser, but a couple blown tires is much better than the alternative.

Airplanes are not that difficult to fly once you get over the the fact that you're actually flying.

(Disclaimer: The above does not apply to any tail dragger airplanes..especially anything made by Pitts) 

 

Cheers,

DB

Edited December 6, 20196 yr by DaviiB

Taking over the controls of an airliner where the pilot and copilot have been disabled is the dream of many flight simmers.  But think of how remote the chances are.

First, what are the odds of both the pilot and co-pilot being disabled?  Add to that the odds of not having an airline pilot dead-heading to wherever in case that did happen. 

To my knowledge it has never happened that a flight simmer landed an airliner of any type.

That being said there are incidents of non-pilots in general aviation aircraft taking over and landing the aircraft after the pilot has been disabled.  Back in 2012 ns 80 year woman landed a Cessna after her husband died while they were in flight.

I suppose it would be easier for flight simmer to land a C-152 in case of an emergency than an Airbur.

Noel

13 minutes ago, birdguy said:

Taking over the controls of an airliner where the pilot and copilot have been disabled is the dream of many flight simmers. 

🙀

I imagine, therefore I am...

On 12/2/2019 at 7:02 PM, charliearon said:

A real simmert does not call this a GAME.

Sounds more like an elitist simmer who doesn't realise simulators are a sub-genre of games. A simmer that wants to separate the two because said simmer doesn't feel he can be taken seriously if he says he plays games and has to be associated with gamers, yuck. It's okay, we're almost in 2020 and playing video games has become socially acceptable, no need to be embarrassed. 

4 hours ago, birdguy said:

Taking over the controls of an airliner where the pilot and copilot have been disabled is the dream of many flight simmers. 

Given that these days there would be no way to get into the cockpit, such would remain only a dream...

...until being killed in the crash that is.

1 hour ago, n4gix said:

Given that these days there would be no way to get into the cockpit, such would remain only a dream...

...until being killed in the crash that is.

Yes, we have seen that in the last 5 years.

This topic is, I don’t know, in my personal opinion is useless. What is a real simmer? That’s up to the individual to decide.

My first flight sim was the original flight sim, prior to MS taking over, sublogic FS II on my Atari 1040 ST. I was 18 when I first gave it a spin. My father had the foresight to know that I would appreciate it and he bought it, and my dad being my dad was correct. It natively came with SoCal scenery and you had to purchase additional scenery disks. If I recall correctly, it was $45 Canadian for each scenery disk. I was in university at the time, I decided to get Western Europe with the ability to fly to Red Square like that German kid did back when 99 Luftballons was a hit. 

Anyway, I digress. When I first got the sublogic FS II, yes, I did try to crash the Lear jet into the Golden Gate Bridge. Am I a real simmer? I have been in every Air Canada full simulator except the DramLiner. Pilots said I missed my calling.

 

 

Actually, no such thing as a 'real' simmer, as we all 'simulate' or 'pretend' to fly with a game that simulates/emulates a simulator. 

Yes, we try to make it look as real as we can, and to do things that real pilots do. 

Having said that, I do have 'wings' for qualifying a VPPL. (V for virtual) & our instructor at our Virtual Club, here in Cape Town, South Africa, has a Green Jacket, with our national sports emblem, a Spring buck, issued to him by our countrie's National Sports Body, as he had represented South Africa in an international virtual sports event. So, virtual flying is recognized as a sport, here in South Africa, and my VPPL was presented to me as I had passed all tests as per the real PPL. 

So, depending what is is called 'Real'!!