I wonder if anyone here has used FSX as an aide to developing/honing their real-life piloting skills?

I got an annoying little child inside me that keeps on pestering me to go for my pilot's license so I was wondering if getting a few FSX goodies and diving into it again would be of any help. I've always had trouble with the Garmin GPS units and the autopilot in the sim, I've never fully understood them, so aside from takeoffs and landings and sightseeing, I've never really given FSX much attention.

Thanks!

Actual post
Start with the basics, open FSX and go through the learning center, learn the basics from there, its one of the
best resources you got available to you. However always remember default FSX is dumbed down (complex addons naturally go way beyond but always start at the bottom and walk before you can run) for various bits and pieces though much of the principles will remain the same for real world.

Then get a 1 hour session at your local flying school (Now your in the UK the tasty hour sessions and what not are regular stuff up and down the country so easy to book in) for a taster session. With the FSX learning center and the 1 hour taster you should have a pretty good idea of what its like - where it will go etc.


Warning self product Plug, optional read
With the upcoming A2A Simulations C172 we have been working directly (more so than normal during development) with some big name real world aviation people (more on that in coming days/weeks) including redbird simulations who actually contacted us to produce the c172 in the first place. Our sim will be in many flying schools all over the world. There was a time when real world aviation often snubbed sims and esp computer sims. That is changing though now and as the complexity of study sims and what not evolve and also become more affordable for the flight schools and even the user at home they are being more and more embraced as a great aid. The underlying message is always though, real is real and sim is sim so don't be stupid. Real doesn't have a pause or end flight button

Thanks for that. Yes, I've done the learning center lessons back in FS9 and if there GPS-navigation usage was there, I don't remember taking it. Last lesson I recall was using the VOR stuff to navigate radials and such.

One reason I ask this is because in one episode of Ice Pilots, the new pilots were actually using FSX to practice their turns and landing skills. I wonder if this is actually true and useful or just hype.

not hype at all, it all helps.

The "Virtual Flight Academy", of which I am the lead USN instructor, is using FSX with the "stock" C172 for USN student Naval Aviators (RW) to assist with the IFS program, then the T6 for SNA's awaiting training at NAS Whiting Field.

We have "flight stations" at high school, Military prep schools, CO Springs with otheers coming on line soon. The USAF is using it big time.

It is great for teaching voice comm, course rules, cockpit FAM, and using some photo realistic scenery, becoming familiar with VFR entry points!

Nice, thanks for that confirmation, oldpop. I wonder how you practice voice comms? I assume it is easier with a knowledgeable person acting as ATC but is there a way to do this for your average at-home simmer?

Hey Ice,

Concur with the rest here. Especially for starting out, FSX can really be a great introduction to real world flying. As you get more experienced, there may be value in more complex additions to the sim. But even relatively stock FSX can still be useful for the simplest of things like getting comfortable with the layout of an unfamiliar airport or flying a complex approach.

The one caution I'd give you though, if you intend to use FSX for real world flying, is to use FSX as a Supplement for real flight training, rather than a substitute for it. I don't mean that I think you are going to try to go take your private pilots exam after having only flown FSX (you can't). But if you try to fly a lot of "real world" flight training in FSX without any sort of guidance from an instructor, you can definitely develop a few bad habits that will be hard to break...depending on how wedded you are to them.

Here's a simple example. The FAA Airplane Flying Handbook says that for basic VFR flying, you should spend 90% of your time outside the cockpit and 10% of the time inside. But in flight sims, it's so much easier and endlessly tempting to fly off the instruments. That's going to be a hard habit to break. And failing to do so will not only make you a poorer pilot, but also a potentially less safe one since your primary VFR collision avoidance instruments are located to either side of your nose.

Understand, I am totally not saying that you should shoot your computer to avoid learning any bad habits from it. I'm just saying that, if you intend to use FSX as a tool for learning to actually fly, it will be more effective to learn from an instructor that it's "pitch, power, and trim" (and practice that in FSX) than it will be to learn from FSX that it's "power, pitch, and trim" and then be forced to break the habit.

After that though, and with your choice of add ons, there is virtually no limit to what you can learn from FSX. I've used FSX for everything from practicing my 737 cockpit flows to practicing my low altitude dive recovery rules with the HUD. FSX is a great sandbox in its adaptability.

As for the voice comms, even if you don't hook up with virtual controllers like VATSIM, the stock FSX ATC does a pretty good job of giving you appropriate voice comm for basic things like clearance delivery, taxi, takeoff etc. In real life flying, the secret of understanding what a controller is saying often depends on knowing what he is supposed to say.

Any IFR pilot knows the IFR clearance mantra like some kind of Indiana Jones Temple of Doom chant...

"Callsign", you are cleared to the A airport, via the B departure, then as filed. Climb and maintain C thousand feet. Expect D thousand ten minutes after departure. Departure frequency is E. Squawk F.

Deacon


Oh, at the risk of making a long post longer, I for one am planning to get the A2A C172 when it comes out to help me with MY currency since I haven't flown a light plane in many moons. If it's half as good as their other products, it'll be the best light civil in FSX.