Originally Posted by
AN2 Driver
AOB9,
But I do stand to my statement that NO training aid, even a full flight sim, will ever be usefull without instruction. I reckon this is where most of the negativism comes from. People who buy MSFS as a "game" and afterwards think they can actually learn to fly on it. That does not happen. Neither can you learn how to fly in a multim million dollar FFS without an FI present to tell you how.
AN2 driver.
Exactly and since it is unlikely you are going to have your instructor sitting next to you in your den while flying your sim, you should not IMO be using the flight sim as a "learn to fly device for the ab intio pilot".
My experience as an instructor has invariably been negative for abb intio students who have alot of flight sim time. Without motion and wrap around visuals they invariably become dependant on the instruments, so the instructor has to break them of this and other bad habits. I do not even feel they have much use for cockpit famil, checklist practice etc. IMO more value is found in sitting in a tied down aircraft and practicing the checklist and other drills. For ab intio students you will always be better off using your time studying the POH and your flight training manuals rather than playing on the sim.
Doea that mean flight sims are useless for flight training, absolutely not. They are very usefull for practicing instrument flying procedures that have allready been taught in the conventional way. I tell students to leave them on autopilot and work on the procedural aspects. I can give them
a series of execises and then they can print of the track history which I can use to give feedback. They can also be an effective (but painfull
) way to work on your basic instrument scan. Since all home flight sims are harder to fly than a real airplane, particulaly with a bit of turbulence thrown in, accurate heading and altitude control is a real test of your scan