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Flight Simulator

Old 08-31-2006, 06:53 AM
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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!
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Old 08-31-2006, 06:57 AM
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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.....
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Old 08-31-2006, 06:58 AM
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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
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Old 08-31-2006, 08:52 AM
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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
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Old 08-31-2006, 09:06 AM
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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.
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Old 08-31-2006, 10:33 AM
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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.
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Old 08-31-2006, 11:10 AM
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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.
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Old 08-31-2006, 02:23 PM
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Originally Posted by LeoSV View Post
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.
Originally Posted by LeoSV View Post
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.
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 ). 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.
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Old 08-31-2006, 03:29 PM
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you agree with me twice.. wow thanks!! HA!! just kidding.
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Old 09-05-2006, 08:36 AM
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Hi guys. I'm thinking of buying MSFS2004, is that any good? A x.
 
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