Hey, so here's an updated pinned comment based on what I'm seeing from some of the more recent comments. I should clarify that by "learning to fly", yes, I mean actually obtaining your first license - not just taking a discovery flight. A discovery flight is an introductory lesson - it's a fun ride designed to figure out if flying is really for you, and I recommend one for anybody who's interested in flying. But your chances of successfully completing one are not affected one bit by whether you've simmed or not, and frankly, you won't know much more in terms of really knowing how to fly after completing one than you will beforehand. Your instructor is there to ensure you're not going to put the plane into the ground or another plane in any situation that might come up - they won't be once you've got a license. Really learning to fly is about learning to fly *safely* on your own or with passengers. As I say in the video, we all pretty much understand the very basics of how flight works, but the 35 or so lessons you'll take before your PPL checkride exist to teach you how to fly without killing yourself or anyone else, which is a real and constant danger in GA flight. (Airline flight is very safe; general aviation is no safer than driving a car, and trust me, there are idiots in the sky just like there are idiots on the road.) Your PPL checkride is a combination of ensuring you know how to fly safely, know all the pertinent regulations, know all you need to know about how weather works and how to interpret aviation weather products, and are able to complete certain maneuvers in real-world weather to very specific tolerances. Can sims help with any of that? Well... that's what this video's about.

I learned myself to fly with a PC flight simulator (FS5 and up) I used a PPL theory book and practiced all the maneuvers and theories in the simulator. In flight school I never needed an extra lesson and I passed all exams in the minimum available time. Now I fly the 737-NG for a major airline. I still use these sims to practice for my bi-annual checks. In the end, my joystick and flight sim PC came out to be my best investment ever. So thank you MS-flights and X-Plane! For making my dreams come true!

When I started flying lessons in 2003, I already knew the function of all instruments. The only thing that flight sims lack is the "feel" of the real airplane.

It's 2019, almost 2020. Why does ATC still sound like ordering from McDonald's drive thru in 1983?

When I was going through pilot training I modeled my local airport and imported it into Fly! I'd spend an hour or so every evening simulating pattern work and shooting landings. I soloed at 10 hrs and took my check-ride at 42 hrs. Both my instructor and the flying school owner attributed my lower than average hrs before being cleared for both events to my simulator time. Yes, the feeling isn't there, you can get a simulated plane outside the envelope of it's real-world analogue easily, and (unless you're willing to spend big $$$) the control layout and feel is different. But, for getting down the intangibles like cockpit management, visually referencing your height over the runway by the orientation of the runway in your view, dealing with ATC, etc...these skills can be enhanced with sims.

I am a CFI and have to say that you absolutely nailed the benefits of a PC based flight sims as well as their inadequacies. They are great for IFR training, learning basic flight procedures, acclimation to systems and flight controls, use of checklists, landing pattern setup, go-around procedures, emergency operations, etc. All aspiring pilots and instrument students should have access to as good a flight sim system as their budget will allow. ESPECIALLY instrument students. I can always tell when a ‘0’ time primary student comes my way that has had access to a PC sim. They get in the groove MUCH faster than someone that never flown a sim. However, for realistic “stick and rudder” training....they fall way short. I have not seen any PC based system properly emulate stalls, spins, cross wind (re: cross control) landings or takeoffs or even realistic taxi operations. Tailwheel simulation on any of these platforms is a total joke which is too bad. Hopefully, someone, someday, will develop a PC program that faithfully replicates actual aircraft performance. Anyway, great video. Not sure where you are with your training, but good luck to you,

I’ve got my Privat pilot permit in 1970 on a 150. My first solo was in the biggest turbulence and they changed runway on me. I was too high, did a go around and landed fine. We had to do spins too. I learned to fly because I was afraid of flying. Rented 172s for about 18 years, stopped because it was too boring. Communication was the hardest. Bought a radio and listen to it for weeks, especially cause English is not my mother tongue. Good show, you are 110% right.

I am a real life airline pilot, I can tell you that even those Full Flight Level-D simulators we did our training in are not fully real. The control feel, the flight dynamics are about 85~90% close to a real airliner. I have both Boeing and Airbus ratings, if we only talk about the "flying" part of the simulator, they can only give you a general idea of what the plane will feel like. It will always be easier to fly a real aircraft. Every six months, we need to go back to simulator to do our recurrent training / check. All of us can immediately feel the difference of the real from the FFS Level-D sims.

Hey, so just like my earlier video on flight sims, this one seems to have struck a chord! That's good! I welcome all constructive comments - as you know if you watch the video, I took many suggestions from commenters on that earlier video and incorporated them into this one. All I really ask, though, is that you actually watch the video before commenting on it. That's only polite, and just good KZfaq etiquette. I've seen quite a few comments so far where it's obvious the commenter has not even watched the intro, let alone the whole video, and just a word of warning that those comments will be deleted and/or hidden from public view. Thanks!

Personally, I do think that home flight sims REALLY do teach you a lot for real world flying. I played around with flight sims for many, many years. One day, whilst visiting a Sunday market at a local airport, I saw a Flight School and thought, what the hell, lets have a look. To try and cut a long story short, I did a trial flight, then started taking lessons. My instructor was impressed about how I knew all the instruments, how fast a trainer plane (Piper Tomahawk in my case) descended and etc, etc. I did my solo at 20 hours, at the time, that was pretty darn good! There is no doubt in my mind, flight sims greatly helped me. I reckon it shaved off a couple of thousand dollars off flying lessons. Must admit though, after flying the real thing, flight sims have lost my interest. As good as they are, general home flight sims just cannot cannot fully simulate a real aircraft. But certainly go for them if you love the thought of flying and maybe one day do the real stuff.

Good to see you back sir! Always looking forward to seeing your videos.

Years of geeky flight simming has definitely helped me, my instructors did mention how quickly I was learning BUT I must say that when flying in the real world you use your whole body to feel the aircraft so much more than I would have thought! As a flight simmer I also have to learn to look outside of the aircraft as I seem to focus on the cockpit too much and look ahead instead of all around me... but used correctly it is a great training aid! Edit: great video btw!

The flightsimmers' pecking order: 1. Military pilots who also sim; 2. Airline pilots who also sim; 3. Former military and airline pilots who sim; 4. GA pilots who also sim; 5. Simmers who own a plane; 6. Former GA pilots who sim; 7. Simmers who have a PPL; 8. Simmers who used to have a PPL; 9. Student pilots who sim on the side; 10. Simmers who have become student pilots; 11. Simmers who have taken a discovery flight; 12. The rest of us.

I learned how to fly helicopters in VR and 6 months later I'm a legit helicopter pilot. I was hovering in 1.8.

18:06 I think the opposite of Captain Sully would be Captain Silly.

Did not expect to see a new video from you today when I was browsing the 'tube. So stoked. Welcome back.

Wow! Thank you, sir! That's a very thorough job you've done.

Thank you for a most informative video. Rarely do we see flight sym vs actual flying, well paced, no showboating, clear, precise point of view. excellent.

Great work (as always) love it! Keep them coming

Student pilot, just rigged XP11 with yoke and rudder, in real life learning on Cessna 172 and also Diamond DA40. Your KZfaq is appropriate and well-timed to my circumstances. Really appreciate your insight! Was about to subscribe to PilotEdge, didn't anticipate one could end up with grumpy ATC on the other end! Will look into Ortho4XP. Also will be more realistic about how much (or little) my XP11 setup will help me with my training. I like your presentation. Most others on KZfaq just rant without a prepared script, yours is well thought out and well presented, clear, and well edited.

A reasonable compromise between full VR and static is to use TrackIR. Having just got my PPL I agree with all your other points. For VFR the Orbx scenery is worth a look (at least in the UK).

Just finished my PPL last July and have. been an avid Flight Simmer since HS and must say that it does help. I used Xplane 11 throughout my training and ended up finishing up my check ride and FAA PPL in about 55 hrs total and my sim helped alot of those. My CFI even noted that I was much better prepared in the aircraft during lessons and also my solo and especially cross country portions were very painless and quickly done. That was because I used my sim for checklist items (engine start, run-up procedures, etc) but also flew each and every cross country at least 2-3 times before we actually did it on Xplane first. Often flew actual flights we had just flown again afterwards on Xplane as well. In that way I was much better prepared on what I would see and where things should be from an orientation standpoint when in the real plane. Helped my comfort level especially when I was on those solo flights as I had the confidence as I'd done it before. Agree doesn't help for weather and wind and other forces of flight nor ATC interactions mostly but can make timing and reflexes and the mental aspects of flying a lot better and less familiar.

Outstanding, Sir! Extremely helpful to me personally, as a real-life Diamond DA20 pilot since 2005, and as a DA20 flight simmer since 2006.Thank you so much!

I learned a lot about flying from my sims! Good video!

WOW! What a great video. Informative and to the point. It sets my mind in a different direction. Flying may require a lot more time to master to where you can enjoy it than I had anticipated. It also shows a good comparison between sim and real life flying. Thanks.

I certainly found Sims helpful in my Inst training. Really helped my instrument scan while flying approaches.

I think that PC flight sims does help with stick and rudder too. No simulated plane is a very realistic model of it's real counterpart, true (and mainly because the unrealistic feel of the joystick or yoke compared to the real life ones), but the general response of the plane to control inputs is correct, because the sim is just solving the physical equations of flight mechanics that the real planes fly on. So you can learn how power + pitch = performance, how throttle controls altitude and elevator controls speed, how you need MORE power to fly slower (and for example keep the approach path) below best-glide speed, how to crab to correct for crosswind and maintain the plane trajectory aligned with the runway, how you need to pull up to keep the nose from going down in a turn, and how a stall happens at a faster speed when you do that, just to mention a few. It will not FEEL the same when you get to the real plane, but you will experience the same phenomena and you need to do basically the same things with the controls to account for them. So even if you practice SERIOUSLY in a simulated Cessna 172 and then go and flight the real Cessna 172, it will not feel like you are flying the same plane, but you will feel like you are flying a plane! More or less like if you were transitioning from a different type. (except of course for the physical sensations of accelerations and rotations that cannot be simulated, not even (fully) in a real-iron Level D 6-axis-of-motion airliner simulator).

Well thought out and articulated. Many thanks for putting this together. As a lapsed pilot, it's been something of a burning question for me lately though I've probably reached a very similar set of conclusions. Cheers and thank you from Sydney, Aust - Dave

I agree on most of the points. For me the native VR was a huge change for more realistic experience using photorealistic sceneries and 'study level' aircrafts. VR improves massively your situational awareness making landings easier. The sight of the runway coming out of the haze feels just like irl. Of course touch gloves or similar things would still improve the experience in the future. What I'm trying to say is that VR simulates the flight environment in 3 dimensional space the real way which a flat screen can't do.

Really appreciate this video, very in depth and the message is conveyed well!

Enjoyed the vid - lots of good points and ideas - I did a lot of simming in general aviation planes (from the Sublogic days to present) well before training and did my PPL in the minimum amount of time required

Thank you for this video. It actually got me thinking quite a bit about the issue and how it has helped or hindered my own training. I'm training in a 172 and my sim is set up with X-Plane, Samsung WMR, rudder pedals and a CH yoke. Honestly, after having VR I can't really go back to the monitor stuff although I very much appreciate your comments about not being able to see physical things around you (controls, tablets, etc.). As you note, the virtual controls and tablets can be a bit hard to use in VR and the image isn't as sharp as I'd like it to be (however, based on what I've heard from others, my setup seems much better than Oculus) but the immersive experience makes up for the shortfalls in my opinion. I think the usefulness of the sim for training depends on what you are using it for. Does flying the sim make it easier for you to jump in the plane and pick things up more quickly? That's a hard thing to quantify. You'd have to know how you would have picked things up if you didn't do the sim which is impossible. I felt that it might have helped a little but I also felt totally lost at times in the real plane. I often felt I was learning all this stuff all over again. Where I'm finding the sim really helping is practice after I've learned something. I find it especially useful for practicing stalls, spins, spirals and side-slips to re-enforce the muscle memory. The key is, I'm using it after I've learned something in the real plane. Practicing before just builds bad habits. I found I've had to unlearn many things that I was doing in the sim (I still forget carb heat because my sim plane doesn't have that and P-factor is poorly modelled in the sim so I have to really think about using the rudder). If you have a reference to work from (the real world) then the sim becomes a great tool for practice. I really see the potential for the sim in instrument training and this has been confirmed from other pilots I have talked to. Usually, when you talk to a pilot and ask them about sims the first thing they will tell you is it's great for instrument training practice. Again, it's using it to keep up skills you have already learned. Not the other way around. In the end, everyone learns differently. I'm a deep learner. That is, I need to know how everything is working to have it sink in. The sim has really helped in that regard. I can try different things in the sim that I wouldn't normally do in real life and see what happens. Most of the time it helps reinforce the fact that the plane isn't going to drop out of the sky and that a Cessna 172 will probably know a lot more about flying than I ever will.

I only saw your FSX video last night and was surprised to see the XPlane one today. I’ve used sims from the very early days and currently have FSX, P3d and XPlane 11. These sims are alll expanded with detailed scenery and photo realistic scenery. The planes I fly are only planes that model the systems accurately so I can fly them accordingly. When I was training for my PPL, my CFI was constantly singing my praises and promoting the simulator I use as evidence of the progress and skills I demonstrated in my lessons. I now fly VR in addition to non-VR flights. I agree with the resolution issues but with high end computers, you can achieve much better resolution and there are new headsets that are improving on the original Rift. On the second point you made, there are addons that allow you to use and call up charts - paper or live in the cockpit along with POH details, checklists etc. I appreciate simming has a way to go but it has come so far and who knows what’s around the corner. I agree you can learn bad habits. But if you decide to get serious and learn to fly correctly, the sim can be so much enjoyable and support your passion to fly. Thanks again for presenting this information to us in a well balanced manner. Regards, Paul

Great video. I thought you explained very well what one of this home simulators can and can not do for you. Thank you.

When I was learning to fly real aircraft, I would use Flight Sim prior to my flights to get a basic idea of the flight prior. I found Flight Sim to be a good supplemental tool for me. I had the opportunity to log quite a few hours in a C141 Full motion Simulator that was nighttime only. The instructor was quite surprised at how well I did. I think this was due to practicing instrument night flying with flight sim. Practicing engine outs and other scenarios in my opinion made me a better pilot.

Good video, I've been In and around general aviation most of my life and your video is accurate and is realistic about the PC vs real life...

Very good job. You incorporated a good many pros and cons in a very objective manner.

Excellent perspective (Best I seen) between flt Sim and reality on many levels. I started with Sub-logic in the 80's now running MFSX . When I was younger I thought I would like to get a private pilot licence but I never got to do it even though I enjoy my flight sim's. Thanks for this enlightenment video.

Imagine how much more real MSFS 2020 is going to be, compared to the past.

I’m a real pilot, and everything you said is true.

Great video !!! In my opinion I think you're correct on all your points. To me the most difficult thing in flying is talking and understanding ATC. Talking, flying, understanding what ATC wants you to do is what's going to get you in trouble in real life if is not done right. I hated every time I had to ask ATC to repeat last transmission. Flightsims can teach you a lot of good stuff, but ATC "crap" is not one of them. Again, awesome video!!!!

I’ve done some turns around a point over that fountain. It’s impressive!

This is a pretty good overview. One thing I will add though is that some speculation about Flight Sim 2020 is that it will be done via streaming from a central sever network, and so all of the fight dynamics and physics may well end up being computed remotely with your local client maybe not doing any calculations or rendering at all. Or it may be some sort of hybrid scenario where the server is telling your clinet machine what the advanced physics are while also streaming terrain data but letting your local machine do the graphical rendering and primary physics work. It's hard to say, but it does seem like it won't be long before everyone will be able to log in to access a flight sim with the same sort of computing power as any of the big professional sims. Also with things like Hololens (which is also an MS product) there's a real chance that we'll see augmented reality coming to the sim world. Build your 'cockpit' and see your hands using it in real time, but with the graphical overlay of what's missing still shown. That sort of setup will be the real killer combo for flight sim in the 2020's. By 2030 who even knows.

Hi Jason - I have to say this is an exceptionally well-done video. Most pilots await a truly high-resolution sim that could help us maintain proficiency in all facets of flying. Technology that most of us can afford just isnt there yet. Perhaps someday... Thanks for your comprehensive discussion!

First. Good video! Great insight for someone with the new Intrest in flying!

Loved the bad habit part about looking outside the aircraft. Something worth trying if you can get a loan unit is TrackIR It's a compromise with a lot less of the issues of VR. If you ever do try it it is essential that Track IR is *DISABLED* in XP11, install X-Camera and use TrackIR via that instead. Default XP11 TrackIR is horrible. It's great to be able to look for traffic on final before taking the runway with just a simple thought and turn of the head.

Nice video. Good overview for people wondering what translates in the real world and what does not.

Very well said, Mr. Captain. I am a fly sim enthusiast myself and I must say that in my personal experience with other sim enthusiasts is that they truly think of themselves as pilots and are very quick to point out any procedure errors you make. They live in a world of fantasy. While some elements of flight simulation can help you in gaining familiarity with real flying, it’s not even close. They need to get over the fact that they are not pilots!

Awesome commentary. Also spot on pros and cons

This was very informative. Thank you :)

re: pilotedge, my 2c, ff PE controllers didn't act like they expected you to be a pro, there wouldn't be much training value in the service similar thing about the airports covered, the goal is for you to learn the system not memorize the procedures at a single airport... you want to build your skills in a complex and potentially unfamiliar environment so you can apply them anywhere you fly in the US definitely not for everyone though... great video, thanks for sharing!

Really great point of view. Balanced and from pilot and sim point of view. As a fellow youtuber and low hour LSA pilot i agree with everything you said. :) Often the criticism comes from those experts that have never flown at all. Thanks for the video. Subbed ;)

i have been taught in a combat tank simulator, and had learned all the procedures and operation of the buttons! in any case, you're not going to practice with a multi-million dollar vehicle, afterwards there is also a training tank with double control. But the knowledge in flying with these flight sims has proved its worth in many emergency situations when the pilot suddenly became very ill! even though they were helped through the traffic control!

Great Video, really enjoyed that thanks!

For VR users I highly recommend voiceattack. Its a cheep game saver. I’ve been using it on X-Plane and dcs. Works amazing for comms commands.

Very professional and informative video.

Really interesting video. Great explanations.

Awesome amount of information thank you

Excellent presentation and explanation of your feedback. I just subscribed. Thanks! ✈️✈️✈️

For VR, maybe one day they will invent slip on gloves, this way you can actually use your HAND to touch everything in the cockpit and that will make VR complete IMO. Wonder if this is on the drawing board or in production somewhere. Great video! Thanks for the upload.

i am also new to xplane 11 and i am loving it the graphics so amazing on the airports and runways

How did you go about getting your two smaller size screen to line up properly when running the sim in triple monitor mode? I always have alignment issues when dealing with different size screen in my triple monitor setup. Also, do you think your perception of how the sim "feels" would be different if in a motion simulator with Xplane? Even one of the smaller scale ones that you can buy for your home? Also, force feedback yokes/sticks.

I enjoyed your video. I got my ASEL ticket a long time ago but I haven't flown in a long time either. I'm not using any flight sim software right now or since MS Flight died. I liked MSFSX as well and have used just about every rendition of their flight sims up until then. Disappointing that they are gone. But I have a question for you. What sort of computing muscle do the drone pilots use in their military pilot training to fly drones? It would seem that our (MSFS, etc) flight sims might come close to the military versions, sort of... Those pilots are in unmoveable seats so they don't get all the bumps and dips that real aircraft pilots experience. Thanks for the good vid.

VERY good video! I learned a lot!

I got my PPL a few years back. While taking flight lessons I did lots of sim time at home including ATC. It definitely helped me with procedures, navigation, instruments and G1000 operations. Of course, real flying has a different feel to it, and you can't learn to land in heavy crosswind on sim. But it definitely helps a lot!

Welcome back!

Excellent and fair discussion. You pretty much nailed it.

I am a commercial pilot who has also spent a good bit of time messing with simulators. I think you nailed it. I have seen people who used them well and flourished and people who used them poorly and actually were worse off for it. I used them in private training to help me to figure out the sight picture during maneuvers and during instrument training.

Thanks for the video. For someone who has never flown or had a flight sim, do you know where i can get started to learn about flying on P3D?

Your mismatched monitor sizes set off my OCD... I understand the use of a cheap Logitech stick, as they tend to be closer to realistic than more expensive ones... But a yoke controller was the biggest difference in getting closer to realism that I ever made. Even more so than adding extra monitors, or any other peripherals.

Thanks, always wondered about this subject.

I fully agree with you. Learn to fly is a large term. Stick and rudder can only be learnt in a real airplane. But when it comes to procedures, ATC with PilotEdge (for me that s the only viable option to get in ATC skills and training), instrument flying, building muscle memory (I have a full replicate C172 cockpit, you can check in my KZfaq channel), and train for emergencies...then flight sim whatever the version, is absolutely a nice way to remain proficient and gain confidence in the real cockpit. It helped me to get my PPL with lower amount of hours and even though I don t fly anymore since 2 years now, I m sure I won t be lost if I have to fly again tomorrow!

I learn driving in a driving simulator 'Gran Turismo" and it gave me an idea how to do it correctly i real life. It made my senses a little bit sharper when it comes to maneuvering and using the brakes when in traffic. It made me a better gamer and a better driver...

Very well said, completely agree, especially with the point about all the forces in play, I’ve been saying that for a while now.

Nice setup for flight sim !!!

Great job with the video my friend I only found one issue with this entire video.... Your a Met Fan!!!! Lmao... of course I live in New York and I'm a New York Yankees fan. And I love X-Plane 11, however I've been in FSX user for many many years. Once again great job my friend.

using the Avitab plug in in VR you can have all the checklists and maps and charts you could ever want btw

Arizona guy, too? Nice video. Ortho4XP is an amazing program. I just completed the entire states of AZ, UT, CO, and CA. AZ is Home. KGEU by EZrhino is amazing, and look up Blu Arrow for a couple cool sceneries like Pleasant Valley south of Lake Pleasant. For about a year before I started learning to fly, flying with pedals in FS2004 and setting my tail draggers to 180 degree true castoring wheels taught me to use differential braking extremely well. In 2007 when learning to fly, My CFI and father were amazed as to how well I could taxi, takeoff and land the Cessna 120; as he said, like a pro or as well as he did. Never even came close to ground looping it.

A flight simulator for Cessna 172 ( exactly what we see in this video ) , how much does it cost to buy ? Just practice at home.

I think if you spend enough time on it, have a genuine interest in flight dynamics and meteorology you can almost certainly get a head start over a student who had never touched a sim. I already knew about most if not all controls for example before my first ever flight training. Unfortunately I could not afford to go much further past a student permit, but I did join a sail plane club and got a few hours flying Sailplanes/Gliders. So i think Sims are great for having fun and learning some stuff.

I’m retired airline after 33 years in that environment. Soloed in 1967. Flown 75 different aircraft types. Just recently started flying x-plane and found it useful in route and airport familiarization. Really liked it for low weather conditions and instrument approaches into unfamiliar airports. You can even screw up on an instrument departure and fly into the side of a mountain without getting hurt. 😁 Good review by the way. I don’t use the ATC function of x-plane because it’s so unrealistic. If they talked that slow in the New York area, traffic would be flying into each other.

It does certainly help :) i am a flight student and enthusiastic simmer :) even our teacher recommended it

Noticed you have the DA40 set up there. Like you I have very few flight hours. Hoping to get back up there one day but finances unfortunately get in the way. I started in the 40 and went to 20 for cheaper lessons... still to expensive. Good video!

I know they can. My father is a private pilot and I'm a rec pilot and we've both used it to practice all sorts of procedures when the weather is bad. Both of us have been complimented on our flying and asked how we practice our answer is MS Flight Simulator X

Your comments are well thought out and presented. I was glad to see your emphasis on procedures. You can learn a lot in a sim but some people develop some very bad habits. Most guys I know who play with sims fire up the engine, takeoff (sometimes on a taxiway) and find the nearest bridge to fly under. That's fine if you never plan on touching a real airplane but terrible if you do. The cockpit makes a poor teaching platform; study and prepare to make the most out of every hour of flight instruction. A minor correction about f/o's taxiing- most airliners aren't equipped with a nosewheel tiller on the right side. Happy landings

Thank you, very thorough.

"Well, they're in their seat, just not the right one" 😂

Starting to use REP for C172 in 11.40b2. It's really getting there insofar as the flight dynamics and mechanical failures are concerned. I was using Just Flight and NHAdrian's mod for C152 during my student days. They weren't too bad actually, but sideslips/fwd slips just couldn't be replicated. Stalls and stall recovery are getting more realistic.

I think it's great for practicing procedures. One key is to have a buddy there (another pilot) to act as a pseudo instructor. So you can plan an IFR flight, execute the plan, practicing diversion, and other problems. This works well since it's not stick-and-rudder where the small sim issues mess up the realism. If you plan your flight to Topeka and you end up at the runway in topeka you did it right (well other than wanting to go to topeka for some reason, I guess), so it's really good for those kinds of things. And particularly if you live somewhere where a lot of the year just isn't flyable, then this allows you to practice this stuff without paying for "real" sim time.

A full-blown flight sim has just been added to my wealthy toy list

What was the old computer case he had? Or if he still has it

I would like to ask about the Hardware you are using. Impressive to see two ipad! working with monitors, all together!! And software also. Please advise.

I flew a dreamfoil bell 407 on x-plane 10 for about 3 years getting a little over 500 hours on the aircraft. I then stepped up to an actual simulator for the bell 407 with the full cockpit and stuck my first auto rotation with minimal help. I'm not saying sims are a 1/1 representation, but they can sure get you close.

I can’t agree with you more, except about the VATSIM controllers, sure there are regions like the Middle East on VATSIM who require little to no training at all to become a controller and probably even more regions, but the UK not sure if it is the same in the rest of Europe VATSIM controllers go through a really long course and it is as close to real world procedures as possible, sure you can’t replicate the real thing, but it has helped me to get rid of my push to talk fear and has made me a lot more fluent when talking to ATC.

Hey thanks for the fresh water bucket, I am a bit numb with all options, we are a bit forgetting that reality has many factors to consider, I wish to learn flying choppers , do you know any good platform to start training. Best regards Fernando

YES. I literally in middle school learned for 1 year to fly on Flight Simulator (90s). Then we moved on to flying, taking off, but not landing single engine planes. They are literally that easy if someone can help you find the non keyboard controlls. Now rules of air....no.

I’ve been flying for 16 years and have worked as a flight instructor. I’ve also always had a love of flight sims on PCs. I can tell you from first hand experience that being in the air in a real aircraft is far different from being safely inside your living room on a computer. I’ve also seen the effect on many of my students who were proficient in flight sim, but have trouble in a real aircraft because of sensory overload. The simulators are good for teaching you what instruments do what and what the controls do, but that’s about as far as they go. They don’t teach you about proper safe procedures, ATC, airspace, weather and so much more. Flying is more than just taking off and landing, real world pilots have to be able to have a mastery of the aircraft and to fly with precision by holding altitudes, speeds, headings etc to tight standards.

Thanks for the video fantastic information. Just wonder how you linked your ipads many thanks...

I can tell you that yes it can. In 2002 I was a student pilot and had FS 2002 and was able to set up an approach to my home airport and do it over and over again using pedals and yoke. I was able to grease landings after that. Sort of. Still took real world practice to get it down right but using the sim knocked off a bunch of time it took.

I'm just starting out, but I always find Track IR with a multi monitor to be better than a VR headset. I want to feel and see my control surfaces.