Students and MS Flight Sim
- Thread starter Krieger
- Start date
bretthullrampage
Well-Known Member
I flew with a student last week who is about to drop some serious cash on his flight sim set up so he can practice his maneuvers at home instead of with me.
Crockrocket94
Well-Known Member
All being said and done, my students who had some MSFS skills prior to starting their private license actually had a pretty good concept for the four forces of flight and how an airplane reacts to control inputs.
z987k
Well-Known Member
Spins are pretty much outside of the Flight sim model.
gotWXdagain
Polished Member
That's the point
When I was first taking my private, I downplayed the crap out of my epic nerdlike (Probably ATP mins if you could use FS for that) flightsim ... "aeronautical"... experience. My CFI said it had helped me out alot. Take that with a grain of salt, I havent known if any of my students now have had any or alot of FS experience.
Chief Captain
Well-Known Member
They run the gamut. From the ones who think they know more than the CFI, to those who have really developed a firm understanding because of the sim.
Cessnaflyer
Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
I had one that said he didn't have to practice touch and goes because he could land the Space Shuttle simulator. He eventually washed out.
Krieger
Well-Known Member
Mine new one is pretty good. He's gonna solo is 15 hours.
Phantom017
Up up and awaaaaayyy!
I had a student who was WAY to into MSFS. This coming from someone who used to play daily growing up. He had a ton of "hours" flying for a virtual airline and refused to use time compression on a long flight and also would wake up and fly the flight at the actual time the flight was "scheduled" to fly. Like I said... waaaay to into it.
However he was a very good pilot and would of soloed at about 10 hours if it werent for the program he was in that didnt let students solo before a certain amount of flight hours. He had no real time flight experience until starting training with me. His knowledge and flight ability was very good. But any kind of external forces, ie G's, turbulence, wind gusts, etc made him extremely uncomfortable and sick at times.
Guess there are some things you just cant put in a sim. haha
However he was a very good pilot and would of soloed at about 10 hours if it werent for the program he was in that didnt let students solo before a certain amount of flight hours. He had no real time flight experience until starting training with me. His knowledge and flight ability was very good. But any kind of external forces, ie G's, turbulence, wind gusts, etc made him extremely uncomfortable and sick at times.
Guess there are some things you just cant put in a sim. haha
Apophis
Resident Iconoclast
Bud01
Welcome to the Jungle.
i had a guy come in one time convince he could get his ppl in 20 hours because he flew rc airplanes. He was even bold enough to tell me that he could fly any airplane out on the ramp because he had so many hours flying RC airplanes. I wanted so bad to take him up in the airplane and spin him.
inigo88
Composite-lover
My biggest flight sim "side effect" with my private training was the desire to fixate on the instrument panel. MSFS is a great IFR trainer but can't replicate seat of the pants flying or proper sight picture. For example in a steep turn, my initial inclination was to look at the attitude indicator to find 45 degrees and the inclinometer ball to coordinate the turn and not look out the window adequately. With some coaching though I was able to get the 45 degree sight picture of the horizon against the panel and "feel" when I had enough rudder to coordinate the turn, allowing me to better divide my time between looking out the window and making quick glances at the altimeter/DG/VSI. Where flight sim really helped was partly because I did some serious extra geeking out and learned to talk to ATC by flying on the VATSIM network. I ended up with a much better understanding of what ATC can and can't do, the 200 word ICAO pilot/controller vocabulary and was able to comfortably fly in congested/controlled airspace from the beginning, despite learning at an uncontrolled field out in the boonies.
Despite its negative stigma here on JC, past flight sim experience can be a beneficial and valuable tool IF your student is willing to approach their lessons with humility and an open mind. It's unfortunate that it seems to breed so many of these idiots that think they're god's gift to aviation because they have thousands of hours at xyz virtual airline (no doubt letting the autopilot land every coupled ILS approach) but like so many things in life you get what you put into it.
And for what it's worth I soloed at 16 hours, but felt like it should have been sooner.
Despite its negative stigma here on JC, past flight sim experience can be a beneficial and valuable tool IF your student is willing to approach their lessons with humility and an open mind. It's unfortunate that it seems to breed so many of these idiots that think they're god's gift to aviation because they have thousands of hours at xyz virtual airline (no doubt letting the autopilot land every coupled ILS approach) but like so many things in life you get what you put into it.
And for what it's worth I soloed at 16 hours, but felt like it should have been sooner.
I don't and never have had any students who were "too proud" of their flight sim skills. In fact, If I could hand pick my students, I'd rather have the students who have played flight sim than the ones who haven't.
justind0805
Well-Known Member
justind0805
Well-Known Member
I LOVE the students that spend time on Flight Sim. I had a guy that came out and was already talking to ATC in Class C by the end of the very first lesson. I was blown away.
They come in already knowing how to fly. Teach them how to flare a 172 and your good.
(exaggerating of course)
They come in already knowing how to fly. Teach them how to flare a 172 and your good.
(exaggerating of course)
1B9Pilot
Well-Known Member
I do think using VATSIM helped me become comfortable on the radios however I do not try to take anything from the sim and say that well I've done it here so I can do it in RW. The two (sim vs. RW) are very different and it annoys me when Virtual Pilots say that since they fly the 777 in the sim, then they could fly the real thing. NO they couldn't!
staledog
Well-Known Member
5.1 Hours. Proved.
Oh, SNAP!!!