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Old 7th Nov 2021, 17:47
  #49 (permalink)  
MidlifeCrises
 
Join Date: Dec 2020
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Recently qualified PPL here, who used a home sim a fair bit. I'll stick to the points that I think will help you in your initial training.

Your thirst for knowledge and experience has lead you to playing with sims, this is really positive. Apply that same energy to studying the PPL syllabus and absorbing what your instructor tells you and you'll do well.
Forget all the jet stuff. You need that capacity for other things, like using a whizz wheel, quick mental maths, acronyms and rules of thumb.
Don't mention sims at the flight club or to your instructor, at least until you are nearly qualified and have earned their trust via many hours of safe flying & sound decision making.
Many pilots are luddites at heart with a healthy distrust of technology, not least because it might try to kill them in the air!

Nevertheless, I feel some carefully targeted sim time at home can help you to achieve specific learning objectives. Most of the relevant objectives are in the second half of the typical PPL syllabus.
The sim can't teach you handling beyond the absolute basics and may actually hinder you in that area. You might as well use autopilot in the sim.
The sim can't teach you how to land, you might as well start and finish each sim session at circuit height above your home airfield.

Get a sim that replicates your home airfield, training area and aircraft as closely as possible. I recommend P3D with the A2A Cherokee and ORBX TrueEarth scenery. This will cost a bit of money, but less than a single hour's lesson.
You need all the landmarks in your local area, especially chimneys and wind turbines, major roads and rivers, accurate boundaries for forests and settlements. Don't bother with MSFS 2020.
An ultrawide monitor would be nice, otherwise you're stuck with using the hat switch to look around (and you must be looking >180 degrees all around, all the time).

In the sim you can practice the following:

- Inflight memory procedures and checks (FREDA, HASELL, pre landing, EFATO, PFL)
- Getting the correct sight picture at various points in the circuit
- Visual navigation and DR. Fly all your routes in the sim first, note what you should be seeing when you do them for real. Practice applying mid track correction and unplanned diversions with real-world wind.
- Operating the radios and nav aids using real-world VOR/DME/NDB frequencies. VOR tracking
- Communicating with ATC via VATSIM. Speaking to a real person, requesting and obtaining services and clearances and making position reports. The syntax and terminology used is generally accurate and you will build confidence on the radio.
- The small "Instrument Appreciation" component of a typical PPL syllabus

I haven't used the sim since qualifying, however I anticipate that I'll continue to fly unfamiliar routes prior to embarking "for real".

Last edited by MidlifeCrises; 7th Nov 2021 at 18:27.
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