Set the timing for early morning flights, twilight flights, night flights, etc.Īnother 'fun' area where flight simulators can be slightly helpful is in emergency procedures. Configure yours to pull from real-world weather sources, or add some clouds, a variety of winds, and don't always fly at noon. The flight simulators typically come pre-setup with zero wind, good weather, standard temperature, etc. Its annoying, and adds little practical value) (However, I do keep 'Gyro-Drift' turned off in my sim. When adjusting your controls, set all 'null-zones' to zero, set 'Sensitivity' to maximum, turn off helpers like 'auto-mixture' and 'auto-rudder', etc. Unlike a video-game, this is not 'plug-n-play'. If you're going to try to incorporate flight sim into your training, there are some basic things you should do: (You can learn the 'procedure' in a simulator. This is dependent on your simulator, some perform certain things more realistically than others.īecause of these limitations, I would NOT use a flight simulator to try to learn takeoffs, landings, or certain maneuvers. The flare doesn't feel like reality, and touching down (or bouncing) is not realistic at all.Ĭross Control, Slip, Spin & Unusual AttitudesĪnything beyond basic maneuvers up to 30 degrees bank or 20 degrees climb doesn't match reality. Ground effect is difficult to observe in a simulator. The application of power and left-turning tendency on the ground just doesn't feel realistic at all. That said, in my opinion there are some things simulators do very poorly. Based on the landmarks, timing, views, etc, I knew exactly where I was, and I was confident that everything was going right. The next day, it really felt pretty much like making the same flight all over again. The night before I did a student flight from KBFI to KVUO, I flew the entire thing in FSX. And I've generally found the simulator, with good terrain and textures loaded, can be pretty close to reality.

I can follow this valley all the way to the airport.' etc). You can look at a map all you want, but its still not the same as sitting in the simulator, and looking around ( 'I see the mountain on my left. Maybe a new answer will be appropriate after using MSFS for some gave a very good answer, and I'll add a few bits to that.Įven after having gotten my license, I still use flight sims (mainly Microsoft FSX and X-Plane 10) for some practice.īefore flying into an unfamiliar airport, or over an unfamiliar area, I'll often load it up in a simulator, and fly it.Įspecially when I was a student, I found this incredibly helpful for my long cross country flights. Parts of the answer probably apply to the new Microsoft Flight Simulator (2020 release), but that isn't what I had in mind when writing this. This was written about Microsoft Flight Simulator X (FSX).

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