PC Flight Simulators
 

Guys,

What is the general view on PC based flight sims as training aids? How can I make the most of some like MS Flight Sim throughout my training?

Any recommendations for software that can be a real aid?

Thanks in advance,
Kef.

The acutal flying is nothing like it which I am sure you guessed.

But can be quite helpful with Radio Navigation,
VORs and ADF.

Well assuming the frequencies are correct and the beacons are in the correct place :)

You guessed right :) For sure the flying it self is not real. But the procedural aspects must be identical? I think I am actually asking if it is possible to develop the right habits in a similar functioning yet completely different environemt that is a PC based flight sim.

Have any IR holders actually found this kind of home practice useful or just a distraction?

I used it a lot early on while doing my PPL, and found it very useful. However, later on in the the PPL process I also found I was getting rather casual about crashing, and severly limited its use after that. Has anyone else experienced this?

Don't know about the crashing bit, but I used a PC flight sim around the time I first flew in the circuit, and it really messed up my landing technique. Stopped using the sim and it was fine again, and I soloed pretty soon afterwards. The home computer ones are good for a bit of fun I guess, but shouldn't be used too seriously...

I used FS2000 when I was doing my IR to help learn the local procedures, and found it helped quite a lot. You have to try to be fairly disciplined in terms of identifying all beacons and such like.

It's absolutely nothing like flying, so using it to practice aircraft handling is pointless, but you fly can IFR procedures from the actual plates, so it's as real as you want it to be.

The beacons all seem to be in the right places, but some of the morse idents are wrong, but that's good practice too.

I can only speak from the instructional viewpoint: In the mid 80's, when the IBM P.C.was relatively new, I was ground instructing far from the U.K's shores. I had a colleague who had no flying experience but was involved with teaching our (military) students all about computers. We were not allowed to fly there, but he started to get interested so I lent him a copy of the old FS2 for the IBM P.C. He practiced assiduously every lunchtime and after about six months, when on leave I suggested he try the real thing. Within about five minutes of airborne experience in a C152 he was able to fly it like he had had about 3 or four hours of instruction. Then, in another fully equipped aircraft, he demonstrated that flying V.O.R.radials was no problem and we finished the detail by him flying an ILS down to 200 feet with no interference of any kind from me!

A few years later the I.M.C. syllabus was upgraded to include ILS and ADF approaches and increased to 15 hours training to cope. I always found that with 15 hours training students could only just get up to the standard required. However if, when they started, you suggested that they got a flight sim program for their computer, their standard in 15 hours training approached that of the I.R.

These days flight sim software is much more sophisticated thus I expect that when used for procedural training, even higher standards should be attainable. After all, how do those competitors on the Krypton Factor sometimes manage to fly B737's and so on so faultlessly?!

I used Jep Flite Pro leading up to my IR. Found it very usefull, it helped me become familiar with the prcedures and plates that I was likely to fly during the test. Also, it helped me increase my multi tasking capacity and my ability to look at the 'big picture'. As for using it at PPL level, good fun hooning around the skies trying to do barrel rolls on the ILS and such. Personally I think it would have led me to concentrate too much on the instruments and not fly visually.

I'm rotary.
There is one recent development which may make PC simulators of value in the X-country part of PPL.
There is new add on scenery available for FS 2002 which is actual photographs from 2000'. Not generated but real photos.
Get it from RC simulations.
I wish it had been around when I did my qualifying VC - maybe I would not have got lost.

They're good fun, and can be useful for some things - e.g. when I was doing my stall training I really messed it up first time (incipient spin, yukk) so I went home and nailed the procedure on FS for about a week...following weekend my stall recoverys were perfect :)

However it does lead to both a false sense of security - it really does make a Boeing 737 seem so easy! - and laziness in my case - autopilot on, let the a/c fly itself etc...

However, as has already been said here, more than one instructor has commented on how useful the navaids are & how you can set it up for approaches, holding points & other IFR scenarios.

You should take a look at X-Plane. It's been certified by the FAA for use in some full motion flight simulators, and some smaller aircraft companies use it for testing their designs.

Flight Simulators for Macs?
 

I am planning to buy a new computer that will enable me to practice IFR procedures and would prefer to remain with Mac. Several instructors and DFTEs have recommended this and have suggested Flight Simulator 2002. I recall last year seeing in print that FS2002 would be released in a Mac version, since when nothing seems to have happened. Has anyone heard of a planned release date for the Mac version of FS2002?

As an alternative, I have heard that X-Plane, which is developed on the Mac, is also very good. However, I have not been able to track down a demonstration or a pilot who actually uses it. Is X-Plane as good as FS2002 for practising IFR procedures and does it have all the major airports worldwide, complete with every ILS, VOR, NDB for practicing approaches?

I will appreciate your comments.

Hey,
If you are going for IFR Procedures, got for Fly!II!! Advanced cockpit simulations! www.iflytri.com and if you want a really good 757 or 777 got www.precisionmanuals.com! The 757 and 77 are highly realistic with FMC/Overhead/everything really...
And it works ont he Mac!! Haven't heard of a Mac version of FS2002!!
Regards,
Matthew

realistic flight sim
 

dear all

could anyone help in finding an up to date sofware and ads-up,at the present I have FLY2K and B737-500 ads-up excellent graphics but very hard to use properly...

many thanks..

Forgive the intrusion of a non-pilot. I may be way off here as I don't know what you mean by an 'ads-up' but if you are looking for a replecement for fly2k you could have a look at http://www.x-plane.com and see if that does what you need. You can ask questions about it on the forums here - http://www.x-plane.org

You might like to look at this thread..

Tim

Flight Sims
 

I want to get a copy of Microsoft Flight sim. I would go straight out and buy 2004 but for the fact that i think i may lose out due to my computer. I've got a 1GHz processor (not normally a problem), but i've heard there can be problems running 2004 on a 'slow' system!

Should i just go and get it anyway, or will i find my computer a real hinderance! Upgrading the computer will not really be an option as its a laptop. I'm considering putting a desktop together anyway, what price would i be looking at if i wanted to run flight sim 2004 with no probs at all???

Cheers

Tigg

Tigg,

The CPU is just one step of the equation. Please tell us which motherboard, Video Card, amount of RAM, and Operating System you have.

Take Care,

Richard

Give www.x-plane.com a try.
It'll run on fairly low-spec machines okay (I run it just fine on a ~three year old P3-600 laptop with a 32meg video card) and it flys a lot better than FS.

Think you might find this thread of use.

Tim