How Far ?

[thomas salisbury]

I have a cheap simulator after a little bit of a nightmare I finally got It going and have been putting some practice In which seems to be paying off I'm actually landing now and taking off pretty ok...

 

So I added a some wind In the options and servo failure etc and glided In for some landings which took some getting used to..

 

My question Is this how far can a simulator take you and what else can be learnt or have you learnt from these ?

 

Cheers Tom..

[Tim Mackey]

That depends on several things - not least your own ability and learning curve etc.

Very hard to say how far it takes you....if I was pushed for an answer I would say for a raw beginner they are good for teaching orientation etc, and not much more.

For a competent flier, they can certainly make you better.

Trust me, just because you can land on the simulator does not mean you will be able to do so in reality.... nerves and weather etc will make it far more difficult, and the real thing is also usually far less forgiving.

IMO there is no substitute for the real thing.

Of course - this is just my opinion

Edited By Timbo - Administrator on 04/01/2010 23:19:41

[Bob Moore]

nerves and weather etc will make it far more difficult, and the real thing is also usually far less forgiving.

IMO there is no substitute for the real thing.

 

Agreeing with Timbo here.  Nerves can be pretty bad when you actually 'do it for real'!

I have found myself almost shaking!  That said, once you calm down the nerves, experience on a flight sim IMHO does give you a feel for a model flying away from and towards you.  Best thing when you start is get someone to take off and trim the plane, then when it has LOADS of altitude, take over and get the feel.  Eventually you will move on to taking off and landing.

 

 

As Tim said, FS is much more forgiving.  I have only used FMS free, but with that sim I find taking off much easier then real life.  With FMS, you open the throttle and the model tracks straight down the runway, in practice (with my tail draggers) I need to use some rudder to keep it tracking straight?  And in real life wind isn't that steady and you get rotor over trees and other problems.  Still it's better than no practice at all!

 

Keep at it.

 

PS  there is no substitute for the real thing. as Timbo said...

 

I got 1000 feet above take off, 1600 feet asl paragliding Saturday at Woolacombe, coastal site N Devon.  My first flight of the year!  Awesome.

Edited By Bob Moore on 05/01/2010 01:14:25

[thomas salisbury]

I guess I will just keep practicing then and maybe Invest In another sim with more options E.T.C. and just keep at It until I manage to get out there and fly for real...

 

Tom.

[Ross Clarkson]

My first ever flight of an RC plane Tom, my legs were physically shaking together so much because of nerves i had to land after a couple of minutes to calm myself down!!!!!!!

 

I didn't get that feeling on the sim!

 

And to be honest, if i haven't flown for a while, i still get very nervous just before my first take off!!

 

Agree with Timbo and Bob, for orientation they are brill, for how it feels it real life, nothing compares!

[John Privett]

I learnt long before the days of sims,  however I think they're very useful at various stages of learning - and I did find mine useful more recently when I started to fly helis.

 

For the basics eg. "left is left and right is right, but when coming towards you left is right and ...etc." I think they're a big help, and then probably also for learning to fly inverted and basic aeros, knife-edge etc. though FMS isn't realistic enough in my experience for this.

 

With my heli I practiced hovering for ages on the sim before trying it for real, similarly hovering nose-in.  It's certainly more difficult doing it for real - but that's partly nerves and partly the thought of the cost of making a mistake!  I can loop the heli with no problems on the sim, but still haven't summoned up the courage to do it for real  £££ signs flash up in front of my eyes just at the thought of it!

 

You can suffer from nerves on a sim as well...  I had a go on one at an exhibition in Earls Court a few years ago just as I was starting to fly helis.  The display was projected onto a large screen and it felt more real than actually flying my own heli.  My knees were knocking despite reminding myself several times - it's only a sim!

[Tim Mackey]

Yeh but those nerves were more about making a fool of yourself in front of others, on the big public screen, as opposed to the nerves you get knowing that when you crash the real thing .....its gonna hurt / cost more than it does on the sim!

[John Privett]

Well yes,  and having the club "heli guru" watching too didn't help - but on a huge screen it did feel worryingly real... 

 

I guess in my mind small PC screen=game,  so anything bigger must =real.

 

[Paul]

I found Phoenix very useful for teaching me how to fly electric helicopters.

I progressed much faster once I had the sim and was able to progress to circuits and nose in.

 

I don't find the sim as useful for planes, as I don't think the take off and landings are as tricky as the real thing! Still good for learning the basics and  learning aerobatics

[buster prop]

I happily fly all sorts of aerobatics with the E3D on Realflight G3. Although I try things with it that I wouldn't attempt in reality it has improved my general flying. No way would I attempt inverted passes at 3 feet agl! 

[John Sheehy]

I flew trainers and a big old vintage style 96" span plane many years ago, before sims or personal computers were available and, being self tought, flew very carefully and in planned circuits.

Since returning to the hobby recently I've used various sims to practice on and I find I throw the plane around in a way that would have horrified me in the old days.  I believe this is a direct result of using sims.  Mostly, I get away with it but I'm just now forcing myself to fly more smoothly.

I think sims are a great boon to model fliers but they can teach you some bad habits eg; point the plane into wind, throttle full on and wait for the plane to take off by itself.  This worked for me for a while till my first taildragger and later the seagull pioneer which apparently requires plenty of right aileron to get it airborne (wrecked that one).

I've tried realflight 4.5, phoenix, Reflex XTR and areofly professional and find the Phoenix the best for power planes.  If you fly gliders or PSS you'll find Realflight has a wonderful slope with bags of wind (read lift) where you can fly any power plane as a PSS since there is a key (K I think) to switch off the motor as soon as you're airborne.  The Reflex XTR has areas where you can't fly (over farmhouses and behind the flight line) which is very irritating as if you wander into these areas the flight ends and you're back at the start.

I recomend the Phoenix as the best all round sim I've used.

John.

 

Edited By Chris Card - Moderator on 06/05/2010 10:28:32