From what I’ve read from posts by Alf5071h and Centaurus – I must agree with them both. Simulators are wonderful training, testing, and checking tools – but just like any good tool, you have to know how, when, and where to use it and, just as importantly, one must know when its not appropriate to use that specific tool. You can probably drive a Phillips head screw with the claw end of a roofing hammer, but I don’t know what you’d do to the screw, the hammer, or your patience!
Simulators are programmed with data that is gathered during flight testing of the airplane. Flight testing does not go much beyond the “normal” flight envelope of the airplane – something like 45 degrees left and right; 25-30 degrees nose up pitch, 12-15 degrees nose down pitch, and very, very small side-slip angles. Stay within those parameters, and the simulator is very likely to perform just like the airplane. Go outside of those parameters, and you’re in the middle of no-man’s land.
The good news is that if we specifically avoid discussing procedures and/or technique, we can use simulators to show pilots what the outside view of world looks like at all sorts of unusual attitudes, and we can compare that view with the instrument displays pilots look at all day. Using good common sense, we can talk about how to determine the shortest distance to roll back to level flight, what causes increased “g” loading (straight and rolling), and how easy those “g’s” add up when recovering from such an attitude. We can use operations within the validated flight envelope to demonstrate what the controls feel like when the airspeed is down around the stall. We don’t have to timidly approach that voodoo point and retreat from it like a scared rabbit. We can deliberately stay at that airspeed and maneuver the airplane (simulator) to see how it handles. We can set up high rates of sink and recover to see how the airplane (simulator) responds; how quickly it builds up “g” loading; how long it takes to arrest the descent; etc.
Yeah, teaching all the fine points of getting into and out of unusual attitudes in a simulator is NOT something we should be doing. But we don’t have to throw out the baby with the bath water.
Thanks for letting me put in my 2 cents.
AirRabbit