Flight Simulators. Do they help?

[Foxfan]

Kids are amazing!

But this big kid just tried attaching a downloaded file of the Vulcan for the little lad and it won't appear on the list. Any ideas what Gramps is not doing?

I might be OK on the sim, but I can't work pootahs very well.

And although I wouldn't blame you in the least, please don't tell me to ask the grandson...he's in bed!

Martin

[Colin Anderson]

So, which sim to get? What are the pro's and con's of Phoenix and Realflight? Should I buy Realflight 6.5 or wait for version 7?

[Mark a]

I didn't use my Phoenix sim to teach myself to fly I did that at the club with the help of an instructor. I do use the sim if I haven't flown for a while just to get my eye in again before I fly my models and of course you can crash as many times as you like and It doesn't cost a penny.

Edited By Mark a on 27/11/2013 20:10:58

[buster prop]

I'm also a sim user, I have Realflight G3 on my old XP laptop and 'fly' if I can't get to the field for a while. It helped me learn to fly towards myself, push the rudder the right way to do knife-edges and fly inverted circuits and 8's. The G3 supplied Tx is wired to a USB plug. With respect to the OP, yes simulators are a great help for learning. I'm no computer expert but the old laptop has ATI Radeon Express graphics and this newer one (Windows 8) has onboard Intel HD graphics so I doubt that it would run a quality simulator like Realflight. I did get a cheapo sim, Easyfly 3 which does run on this laptop but its nowhere near as good as G3. For now I keep flying G3, at the moment I'm into slope soaring with it, great sites, 3 gliders to choose from and I can set the wind strength and direction. If the old XP laptop dies I'll have to find a better sim that will run without a powerful graphics card.

[Colin Anderson]

At present I'm building my first radio control aircraft; I've never flown R/C before. I'm planning on joining my local club and getting help there, but in the meantime I've been advised that a flight sim would be of benefit. The best flight sims are not cheap and on an NHS pension I don't have a small fortune. This means that if I crash my first model it will be a while before I can afford to build another. So while I'm building I'd like to improve my hand/eye coordination.

I've tried Realflight 6.5 at my local shop; this version has a controller that pretty much mimics a Futaba TX (which I have) so seems ideal to me. I'd just like to hear the opinions of those who use this sim or similar.

[primecut]

My son learnt to fly on the very first rc simulator ever produced. This was RC Aerochopper on the Atari at a cost of £199!! The graphics were very very basic with no photographic type background to speak off just triangular trees and brown for the ground and blue for the sky. Later on we bought an upgrade for PC which made the graphics a little better. He started out practising flying planes and very soon mastered it. One time we went out to our local flying club and he kept asking me if he could have a go at flying our Super 60. I told him it was too difficult but in the end I let him have ago. Well he took off, flew a couple of circuits and landed it successfully and this was his very first attempt. Obviously tiime on Aerochopper had proved invaluable. Later on he started practising flying helicopters on the simulator. He very soon got to the stage where he was able to fly inverted, loops, rolls, nose in circles etc. He then went on to practise doing auto rotations. I decided to buy him a Concept 30SR for his birthday as he had shown so much flare and when he took this model out he was hovering and flying small circuits with a training hoop attached. However the hoop was removed on the third outing and he started flying big circuits, rolls , loops. Having mastered autos on the simulator he went out and performed his very first one with complete success. First steps into autos usually result in quite a few crashes!! He got to the stage when he would fly the helicopter until it ran out of fuel and then auto it down. I would say that using a simulator is an excellent way to learn how to fly..

[Colin Anderson]

This is indeed encouraging! It might take me a little longer - I'm 60! I bought RealFlight 7 and have pretty much got to grips with it. I mostly fly the Cub in the sim, as that's what I've built. However, I have also flown some of the others, including the 3D stunt planes, which I can fly well and actually land! How well this is going to translate into reality in my case remains to be seen! When I first tried RealFlight I kept crashing, now I don't.

My Cub has now been flown several times by two of the club members (one of whom is an airline pilot), they have pronounced it flyable. One of the members (the pilot) has offered to teach me to fly! Yea... I can't wait! Now we just need some good weather!

[GrahamC]

I took my lad (17) to indoor flying a few weeks ago. I've just started flying helis, and had my MCPX with me. Now my lad is a good fixed wing pilot, and has a Hubsan quad, so I asked him "do you want a go with the MCPX" of course he did!

"Alright" I said "keep it tail in as it's very twitchy."

Well he did for about 30 seconds and then off he went flying controlled circuits round the hall having never flown a real collective pitch heli before.

What I find galling is that I find the heli really difficult when it is coming towards me. I never struggle with fixed wing, but helis are a different matter.

Anyway, it turns out that he had been practising on the simulator, and I am now too!

The sim is great for teaching your brain orientation and automatic responses.

We are using Clearview