Flight Simulator
 

I am just starting my flight school program and have been told by my insturctor to invest in a FLIGHT SIMULATOR for my home computer. He recommended the Microsoft program. Are there other flight simulator I should look at? And how about "joysticks" or hardware, what ones work well with flight simulator programs?
I know using a FS does not replace flying, I just need to practice preflight checks and take offs and landings.
Thanks!

Microsoft Flight Simulater X is gonna blow everything out of the water.....Suppose to come out this October.....As far as Joysticks are concerned I just recently bought a Saitek Force Feedback EVO.....and love it....I had a Logitec Extreme 3D pro but over time its given me issues.....

FS is good for instrument work. IMHO its worthless for VFR / PPL training. I recommend actual takeoffs/landings - just keep at it and you'll get it in no time... Practice preflights / emergency flows / and the like in a plane not being used / early morning / late evenings where you are training.

-LAFF

I have been using MS flight sim in conjunction with VATSIM for about 5-6 years.. When I started my flight training my instructor he was amazed and what I knew without ever really flying before. VATSIM is very cool, it provides Air Traffic Control for your flights by real people. With it you can be a pilot or you can be a controller. VATSIM is free. But like LA said, I would not use it for takeoffs/landings because it is nothing like flying the plane. But scanning the instruments and communicating with ATC on VATSIM might help you out.. Check it out at www.vatsim.net

chair flying in general is great for getting procedures down in your head. I also agree though in sitting in the airplane, when going through multi-engine procedures it really helped w/ the flow checks ... but make sure you make the noises, or else it won't be realistic, lol.

with a simulator, i believe they're great for getting you in procedural habits, such as instrument scanning, instrument procedures and approaches, etc. As far as actually helping with VFR flying, its minimal. But, for your private you'll be required to have atleast 3 hrs of simulated instrument time (under the hood or foggles in the airplane). Getting good at keeping the dirty stuff down and the clean stuff up and developing a good instrument scan can be done w/ MS flightsim, and therefore could be beneficial to your private training.

Yes, Microsoft FS is good for instrument. It is highly accurate with positioning in the real world. As far as preflight checks, there is nothing you can do in the game. The rudder is unreal, stalls are unreal, takeoffs and landings are unreal, traffic is unreal.. I played it for a couple years before I got my PPL and I knew what all the intruments did before my first lesson, but other than that, it's just entertainment. if you use your charts with the game and set it on very dense fog, you can get good practice with navigation, as long as you don't cheat by using the GPS feature. Anyway, that's my opinion of the game. Fun, and for $44.95, it's as realistic as it cost.

It's really as real as your willing to make it. There are plenty of 3rd party addons that can help vfr to some degree. Megascenery publishes various area sceneries where the detail is so immense they say you can use a sectional for the area to navigate. I know if you want to fly the heavy iron PMDG(www.precisionmanuals.com) is about as realistic as you can get. While I do agree it doesn't really give you the feel for being in the real thing, it can give you an idea of the procedures and the ways to go about executing a flight. There are a few good 3rd party addons out there you just have to look carefully and be willing to spend some dough on them. However I would wait until you go for your instrument rating to use it as a real training tool, they practically require you here to use a sim for your instrument training when you aren't in the real thing.

I agree with you both. In my opinion, MSFS is about as far from realistic as it gets. But it did help me in that I knew 90% of the instruments before I started taking flying lessons for real, some procedures, ATC talk, etc. Also, it's the only way I can get at the controls of an airliner (for now :D). A lot of it just depends on the aircraft you get.

From what I can tell in the demo FSX feels a lot more authentic than FS9.

you agree with me twice.. wow thanks!! HA!! just kidding. :)

Hi guys. I'm thinking of buying MSFS2004, is that any good? A x.

My advice is save you money. If you want to practice preflight checks, get a checklist and go do your walkarounds, preflight checks, "flows", etc. in the airplane when it's not being used. I used to insist that my students do chair flying at a rate of AT LEAST 3 hours in the chair to every 1 hour in the plane. Chair flying is free and will allow you to get all the cockpit house keeping skills, and maneuver procedures down so that you can concentrate on flying to standards.

A computer program has the opportunity to introduce negative learning, and the it's really important to have good habits from the start. It's been years since I did nay flight instruction, but to other CFIs recommend using a computer sim for PRIMARY students?

A couple of questions-

HSLD- what sort of bad habits might develop?

What are some of new features of FlightSim X?

As a "wannabe" who neverwill" (at least for the airlines), I've enjoyed the game. I've been impressed with the fact that you could "go anywhere" and the airport layouts look generically the same. Granted they buildings lack detail, etc.

I'm teaching my son some things using it. Basic navigation, physics, etc. Of course, then I get the "Dad, could a 747 land in that field?" kind of question.
But at least he's thinking!

yeah, that's just it. you CAN land 747's on whatever field it can fit on. Hell, you could even land it in the middle of a pasture, and then take off again. There's no preflight stuff, when you runoff the runway, it makes no difference. When you fly over the white house, it doesn't matter. you can't do spins. you can fly and land into any military base and ATC will not "yell" at you. you can fly into class alpha airspace and not need an instrument flight plan. you can get clearance to land at a class Brave airport and an airliner will probably rear end you. you can put in any emergency code in the box and ATC will not ask you if you have an emergency. It's just for entertainment. If any program actually did all that stuff, it would cost more than $29.99.

Flight Simulator 2002, 2004, X, whatever...it's just a game and it's great as a procedures trainer, and is not meant to teach you how to fly a real airplane. When MS say "as real as it gets" I think they mean as real as they can get it compared to other flight simulators of lesser quality.

With regard to VATSIM, it's nice when there are actually controllers online. Most of the time I'm getting taxi clearance from some center controller. When there are plenty of controllers, VATSIM is great. Otherwise, eh.

Back to FS, you can definitely make it more realistic and applicable for VFR training if you get MANY monitors that encompass your visual availability in the real airplane. But if you add up all that hardware expense, you're better off just fly the real thing and log some real time on the books.

Check this out
http://www.sa-transport.co.za/aircra...ision/747.html

In regards to that link with the 747 landing on the small strip posted above by LeoSV.
Did you see the faces of those pilots :) I would be kissing the ground too after that landing. Talk about impressive. Imagine putting a postage stamp in the middle of the living room and make a running dive with your tongue to lick it.
In regards to Microsoft Flight Sims.. I would have to agree with the majority of people on here. It is a game, but a useful one for basic familiarity. I've been into it since the 98 edition and have upgraded each time a new version has come out. I'm highly anticipating the release of version 10 in mid October. There is a playable demo out there that gives a taste of what to expect.

http://www.microsoft.com/games/fligh...downloads.html

If you have Windows Vista..then fasten your seatbelts because it's going to be noticeably better that v9 in almost every regards. For one thing the environment is much more dynamic. The wet ground surface reflections are nice for example, extra ground traffic both airport and civilian, more interactive ATC and Co-pilot option. I haven't been able to get my 2004 Virtual Cabin to act like a swivel head but I've seen it done before. On the Demo for 10 it works very nicely.

Check out the flash website for all the skinny on FS(X).
http://www.microsoft.com/games/fligh...sh/default.htm

In the end there is obviously no substitute for actual flying. That being said, I am still a strong advocate of the Microsoft flight simulator legacy. Some CFIs swear by it as a tool to keep sharp even if it is dull in comparison.
Be careful it can be addicting.
:cool:

In regards to that link with the 747 landing on the small strip posted above by LeoSV.
Did you see the faces of those pilots :) I would be kissing the ground too after that landing. Talk about impressive. Imagine putting a postage stamp in the middle of the living room and make a running dive with your tongue to lick it.
In regards to Microsoft Flight Sims.. I would have to agree with the majority of people on here. It is a game, but a useful one for basic familiarity. I've been into it since the 98 edition and have upgraded each time a new version has come out. I'm highly anticipating the release of version 10 in mid October. There is a playable demo out there that gives a taste of what to expect.

http://www.microsoft.com/games/fligh...downloads.html

If you have Windows Vista..then fasten your seatbelts because it's going to be noticeably better that v9 in almost every regards. For one thing the environment is much more dynamic. The wet ground surface reflections are nice for example, extra ground traffic both airport and civilian, more interactive ATC and Co-pilot option. I haven't been able to get my 2004 Virtual Cabin to act like a swivel head but I've seen it done before. On the Demo for 10 it works very nicely.

Check out the flash website for all the skinny on FS(X).
http://www.microsoft.com/games/fligh...sh/default.htm

In the end there is obviously no substitute for actual flying. That being said, I am still a strong advocate of the Microsoft flight simulator legacy. Some CFIs swear by it as a tool to keep sharp even if it is dull in comparison.
Be careful it can be addicting.
:cool:

MSFS X vs IX
 

Found a video that shows some of that dynamic environment footage I was talking about for FSX.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...imulator&hl=en

From a standpoint of graphics these new implementations are light-years ahead of the previous versions. Advanced real time shaders and texture rendering allow for greater realism in lighting & weather effects. The term used in the video phong & bump mapping are graphic terms for getting specular highlights from a texture file to emulate depth of 3d without having to model it which takes up compute power. (getting a Masters in computer visualization currently) This all translates to more effecient game play without slow frame rates but while creating tons more options and quality at the same time. To get the most out of this new version you are going to have to have a pretty fast computer with a nice video graphics card. If possible, operating under Window's Vista will maximise your performance with 64 bit multi-threading processors.

ps... sorry for the double post above... was having technical issues.

OldAg,

I used to think it was great practice too. That is until I started instructing and saw every student pilot under the age of 30 not take their eyes off of the instruments. I get a sick satisfaction out of the looks they give me when I cover the instruments and make them fly with their eyes outside like they should as a private pilot. It's great for some procedures and instrument stuff (lots of great practice on holds and ILS approaches in various conditions) but for flows and checklists nothing beats the real thing. There are too many things like the layout, and avionics that aren't the exact replica on FS. I still encourage my students to do exactly what HSLD did way back when, sit in the plane and imagine they're doing the real thing.

I did the exact same thing :o