Ever since I began flying sims from FS whenever to P3Dv5 I found it more difficult to land a sim aircraft than a real aircraft.  How about you?

Noel

Edited September 10, 20214 yr by birdguy

Yes, the big difference is that in the sim you don‘t sit in the cockpit, but in front of a flat screen. Try VR and landing the aircraft is suddenly much easier, just like in the real aircraft.

The only thing I've ever flown in RL are C172's but, like you, I think it's a lot easier to land the real thing.  

I concur.

 

Even under tricky weather, in gliders, it's either way more intuitive IRL, an thus easier, than in a simulator that does glider flight dynamics plausibly.

Everything about flying a plane in the sim is harder for me than it is in real life. Expect for using the pause bottom to go the restroom.

Yep, been saying it for years.

Lots of reasons why. In helicopters especially. This is why when helicopters are simulated, I've always believed that instead of having the flight dynamics configured by the numbers, it should be by degree of difficulty. In the sim we don't have the sensory information you get in real life, the peripheral vision, the sensation of movement, feeling the aircraft sink, climb, yaw etc.

Edited September 11, 20214 yr by martin-w

Except, with the enhanced depth perception and awareness, it becomes easier again in VR.

The lack of sensory input, depth perception and peripheral vision make flying on a computer sim difficult.  I don't have a VR headset, only Track IR, but I can see its benefit when it comes to the visual aspect of flying.

Edited September 11, 20214 yr by stans

Same with all computer games/sims from combat FPS games to driving games; they can teach you the knowledge - which goes a long way of course - but the physical 'actual doing it' can really only be perfected by actually doing it. Although I daresay most people who are familiar with flight sims could probably get a real plane up around and back down okay, because it's not that exactly rocket science. The plus point is that I reckon a lot of sim pilots would be pretty good IFR pilots.

Edited September 11, 20214 yr by Chock

My Transition from sim racing to real world motorsport driving feel very smooth and natural, I really didn't feel all the Gs and vision depth what so ever when I first pushing my time on track...I can and do only focus on what I already familiar with on desktop sim.

Same as I made my first landing on Full Simulator with thousands of hours on desktop..... didn't feel anything special...haven't done one on a real plane though...

• landing a GA is not "hard" IRL (like Alan wrote, is not rocket science)
• landing a GA is not hard in a simulator 

BUT I very seldom have two landings that are exactly alike IRL. But I can make carbon copies of my FS landings without much effort. A desktop simulator is (surprise! surprise!) artificial, and very much a predictable affair when it comes to landings.

 

Noel,

 

This will disappoint you to a certain degree and I would like to share with you the following.

Even the multimillion-dollar simulators (either factory or airlines) are not 100% as is the real airplane. Basically, they are procedural trainers with some limitations, many times during sim sessions you can hear pilots saying "the airplane doesn't do this" or "why is doing this?" and next is from the instructor "let's reboot/reset" and try again. 

As a comparison for visuals between Boeing and Airbus simulators, Airbus is a winner.

You get the idea.

 

Now coming back to desktop "simulators", IMHO visuals wise MSFS2020 is in the first place (even they need more fine-tuning), the other game I have is DCS, P3D, and XP-11 in that order as graphics (no add-ons) out of the box.

 

Unfortunately, as flight dynamics, MSFS2020 is the last one with a few exceptions that I can notice is the 152, 172 without mods, I don't fly small ones but they feel right as I can remember. I wish that someday they will understand that airplanes are not so unstable and oversensitive in normal, calm wx conditions.

My first preference is DCS followed by P3D as flight dynamics and on the P3D airplanes like PMDG, FSLABS, or Madog I found to be very nice.

 

If you don't mind me asking, what are the issues you are experiencing? What do you do so differently than the real aircraft? 

 

I'm not al all disappointed.  I had no preconceived notions when I started the thread.  Also I was a general aviation pilot.  The largest aircraft I have actually flown was a Piper Aztec.

The most difficult thing for me is lining up on the runway.  I find if I focus on the far end of the runway instead of on the numbers I do a better job, but still not as good as I did flying real aircraft.  I find myself correcting to center on the runway even after I passed the threshold.

Noel

 

At our age Noel we should be grateful that we can even find the runway........😃

1 hour ago, birdguy said:

I'm not al all disappointed.  I had no preconceived notions when I started the thread.  Also I was a general aviation pilot.  The largest aircraft I have actually flown was a Piper Aztec.

The most difficult thing for me is lining up on the runway.  I find if I focus on the far end of the runway instead of on the numbers I do a better job, but still not as good as I did flying real aircraft.  I find myself correcting to center on the runway even after I passed the threshold.

Noel

 

I understand the issue.

IMHO there are a few issues that can lead to this instance.
As an example, what I witnessed myself is when I switched from a 32" monitor to 49" this issue was reduced significantly. On a small monitor, small deviations are less pronounced to be detected far away versus when approaching (1 NM or so) or on a very short final.
As an example (in my case) I compared it with a cockpit picture while I was holding on 31L at JFK and adjusted the outside view to match somehow what I was seeing outside. I came to the conclusion that somehow my correct outside zoom to be between 67% to 70%, on P3D. After that, I adjusted my cockpit zoom to be as close to what I see inside.
This issue that you are witnessing (as I did) was tremendously reduced by playing around with these values in (P3D, MSFS2020, etc)
I hope that it can work also for you.