PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Is there anthing to be gained by using a flight simulator?
Old 17th Jan 2010, 23:26
  #4 (permalink)  
MichaelJP59
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Retford, UK
Posts: 476
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
I was flight-simming for many years before finally getting round to getting my PPL. From the very first days of what became Microsoft Flight Simulator, when it was just white lines on a black background, and the scenery consisted mainly of Chicago Meigs field and a few miles around. Also have flown every combat sim going from WW1 to WW3, off line and on line.

Anyway I would say overall it helped me, I got my PPL in minimum hours. None of the sim time really helped with the physical side of flying, in fact I find real (VFR) flying much more natural than sim flying, you can see all around rather than looking through a small rectangle, and the seat-of-the-pants feedback is far better than just purely visual.

Where it helped was the procedural side, I did cross country flights on the sim before real life, and practiced making radio calls at the right time. If you have the photographic scenery it also gives you a good idea of what to expect as you approach an area you haven't visited before, though Google Earth is good for that now as well.
MichaelJP59 is offline