While I've been flight simming since the good ole days in Flight Simulator 2 I am not a real pilot. I have never taken any classes/courses for ground school or the like. However, I would like to at least 'simulate' what real world pilots do. Right now I fly mostly GA aircraft but will eventually like to upgrade to the larger tubeliners. So, my question for all of you is: Is there any book or site you recommend to teach one the in's and out's on the procedures of flying? I remember with MSFS 2002 (I believe anyway) Rod Machado did a book that was included and walked you through everything to include traffic patterns, IFR flight, ect. I remember it being very well done for novices. Alas over the years I have forgotten so much of it and of course no longer have the book, so....

Anyway, thanks in advance for any recommendations and/or help. 

If it is info about GA flying you are after, there are many books on ebay/amazon which can be found concerning gaining a PPL and these are of course also useful for simulator pilots. A quick search on those sites will find these. If on the other hand it is IFR airliner operations you want to know about, for simulator flying, then I can thoroughly recommend a series of books aimed specifically at this, which are available either as PDFs, or as ring-bound paper books, these being the ones you can find here:

https://utem.com/

The author - Mike Ray - was a US Naval aviator who flew the Grumman S2 Tracker before switching to flying airliners (if I recall correctly, for United Airlines), so he's a very experienced pilot as well as being a pretty good writer.

His writing and illustration style in these books is friendly and entertaining, which is one of the best ways to teach of course, but beyond imparting the knowledge required, is full of insights, tips and tricks gained from flying airliners for years. They will do much to demystify the procedures and explain exactly why, and how you operate an airliner in the way you do when flying one professionally.

I can particularly recommend these two titles from him:  Flying the Boeing 700 Series and Sim-Flying the Airbus A300 Series which as their titles suggest, are not aimed at a specific airliner type, but instead cover all Boeing airliners and all Airbus airliners in all flight simulators, so they are ideal for a vast number of simulator aeroplanes.

Beyond teaching you all the proper stuff, Mike's friendly and informative style will also teach you the stuff that isn't in the manuals for the real aeroplanes, for example, in his 700 series book, Mike mentions that the 200 series B737 was so slippery on descent that they often had to drop the landing gear whilst on descent in order to keep its speed down. You won't see that mentioned in the Boeing manuals. This sort of inside information makes the books somewhat akin to having a friend or personal instructor sat next to you teaching you stuff whilst having conversations with you about interesting anecdotes. So unlike most manuals and guides, they don't merely teach you how to do stuff, they also teach you why to do stuff and why knowing what you can and cannot do is also useful.

If you do buy one of these books, I would recommend the spiral bound hard copies. Here's a pic of the 700 book on my PC desk, which demonstrates why it is good to have the spiral bound versions; they stay open on the page you are looking at. But either way, you absolutely will not regret getting one of Mike's books, either as a PDF or as a hard copy; I cannot recommend them too highly for flight simmers, they are worth every penny and they will make you a better sim pilot.

Edited June 3, 20206 yr by Chock

Hi Lotharen,

I am in the same boat as you: I am not a real pilot, but I try to keep things as real as possible. I have read a number of books, watched a lot of videos, and discussed a lot with other people. I even took a flight lesson to see the difference between reality and computer. There are a lot of aspects to a real flight: proper flight planning, safety inspections, ATC communication, legal regulations, weather, handling the airplane and so on. Here is what I would recommend.

- Join Vatsim, (or IVAO, or Pilotedge). This will help to get ATC communication right.

- Join a virtual airline that also is an Authorized Training Organization for Vatsim. You may be able to talk to real pilots, and you will learn more about procedures. ATOs offer training for online flights, which mimics training for real world operations regarding ATC. Pilotedge also offers training. I am not sure about IVAO.

- Get a very good airplane addon that will penalize you if you forget something. For GA aircraft, I would recommend Milviz, A2A, and Flysimware. Also, use a good weather program, such as Active Sky.

- Read books about the physics of flights, or go through the training manuals for a private pilot license. I think FAA training material is available free of charge.

- Use an addon program that will monitor if you follow regulations, such as FSCaptain.

Peter

 

 

Thank you both for chiming in! I will look up those resources. Thank you very much for sharing them! 

@Chock Those ring binders sure do look nice. When I want to get into airliners I will have to invest in those. It's just hard for me right now. I want to fly and look around at the scenery and you really just can't do that flying those. I hope Ill eventually grow into them though. BTW, everytime I see your profile pic I think its Cary Elwes! 

Edited June 4, 20206 yr by Lotharen
spelling errors

I second those books, and for general GA, I liked the Rod Machado one, also available in print and in pdf (have both)

Rod Machado’s Private Pilot Handbook is outstanding.

Cheers, Pete

Here's a really good site for learning the basics of navigation:   http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/index.htm   . The Cessna he provides has never been updated for P3D but the default Cessna works just fine (if you're still using FSX I'd recommend using the modified Cessna he provides as the panel is quite simplified for the purpose of learning)..........Doug

9 hours ago, Lotharen said:

I want to fly and look around at the scenery

you mean, look at the scenery to confirm where you are .... then if timely you might look around & admire !!!

2 hours ago, vadriver said:

you mean, look at the scenery to confirm where you are .... then if timely you might look around & admire !!!

Right!

Again, thank you all for the resources. I've got a good place to start and somethings to save up for now 🙂

Guys, 

If I can help with the 75/76 or the Airbus 319-330, please let me know. 

-Bill