Does flight simulator actually help with real flying?

I play Fight Simulator 2004: Century of flight and Flight Simulator X Deluxe Edition, I want to be a pilot, Do flight simulator games like them actually help me with flying?Does flight simulator actually help with real flying?
Lets use a little common sense. If you think playing flight simulator can teach you how to fly a REAL airplane, then logically it should also follow that playing "Fast and Furious", or "Grand Theft Auto" should teach you how to drive a REAL car. Well that's silly, isn't it?



ALL the flight simulator computer games are designed to be PLAYED for your personal entertainment, and are NOT meant to be a teaching aid. Some will actually teach you some bad habits that could be fatal if done in a REAL aircraft. Have fun PLAYING your GAME. That is all it is intended to do.
YES. Flight Simulator can help, but ONLY when you are using it to reinforce correct procedure as supplied by a Flight School, Ground School, or Flight Instructor.



Without that, you are literally just playing a game. Its inevitable that you will develop bad habits or perceptions trying to figure out how to fly on your own!



Want to get really good really fast? Ask a flight instructor to give you a visit to demonstrate a few lessons, and get some course material from the Flight School.



With correct instruction you can practice and reinforce procedures for,



Climbing and decending

Coordinated turns

Navigation

Stalls and Stall Recovery

Landing (Short Field, Power-On, Power Off)



Note that for many ccritical maneuvers, such as landing, steep turns and stalls, learning to adjust to the feeling of the airplane is KEY. A flight simulator is very limited in initial training for these maneuvers. Some would say its of little or no value, but the truth is that it DEPENDS.



HOWEVER, once you have successfully completed the real deal in a REAL flight training course, Flight Simulator is an excellent way to stay sharp or sharpen existing skills in almost all maneuvers.Does flight simulator actually help with real flying?
It helps learn the basics of flight control inputs, and can help learn the spatial orientation of using three dimensions, and the basics of traffic pattern work. I recommend using it in conjunction with the procedures you learn with your instructor, since if you learn them on your own, you may develop habits that have to be "unlearned" later.



While it will not replace the airplane, it does help keep your mind "in the game" during times when you're not flying.
Yes, they do. Despite the differences between simulation and real life, simulators are more real than not-real, and so you can learn many useful things from simulation, even with a desktop simulation program.



The main drawback of desktop simulators is that visual flying is more limited than it would be in real life: the scenery isn't as detailed as real life, and you have less visibility because you have only one "window" in front of you, instead of windows in front and around you in a real airplane. And of course a desktop simulator doesn't move, so you don't feel anything, so it's hard to fly by the seat of your pants (although that's not always a good idea, anyway, even in a real airplane).



The strong points of desktop simulation are in instrument flight and procedures, both of which can be simulated with a very high degree of accuracy. Instrument flight in conditions of low visibility can be very usefully practiced in a desktop simulator like Microsoft Flight Simulator. So can navigation techniques (including pilotage, to a surprising extent) and procedures.



To get maximum benefit from the simulator, you should consider payware add-on aircraft for greater realism. The default aircraft work well enough to practice basic flying and understand the principles of flight, but add-on aircraft offer so much more realism that it's like using a new simulator. Add-on scenery can also add to realism and can make pilotage easier.



All of this simulation should be accompanied by study of flight from good books. You can download many useful books for free from the FAA's Web site, and you can find many good books on flying at bookstores and on the Net. "Stick and Rudder" is a classic book, for example, and even though it's a bit dated, it describes many important principles of flying, which you can practice in your simulator.



With a fast computer, products like Microsoft Flight Simulator are quite accurate for normal flight maneuvers. They are much less reliable for things like spins and aerobatics; they can give you basic ideas for this, but if you ever practice these in real life, you'll see substantial differences. For ordinary flight, take-offs, landings, and so on, it's very close to real life. The real thing will obviously be different in a number of ways, but you'll be able to adapt quickly.



If you want to learn how to interact with air traffic controllers, Flight Simulator has a built-in simulation of ATC, but it is of limited realism. For maximum realism, join a free online flying network like VATSIM or IVAO, where you can connect with your sim and fly in the presence of other virtual pilots and air traffic controllers, and communicate with them by voice, using real-world air traffic control procedures that are just as they would be in real life.



Overall, having simulation experience will put you ahead of the pack when you start taking real flying lessons.



The main problem is dealing with other pilots who have serious psychological issues concerning simulation. Some pilots intensely resent the idea of anyone using a simulator鈥攖hey like to think that there's something magic and special about real flight that makes simulation useless (even though flight training schools, airlines, and the military know better). Most of them have never tried well-configured desktop simulation with quality add-ons. Their strident naysaying should be taken with a gigantic grain of salt. You can't learn to fly in real life using a desktop simulator exclusively, but there is no doubt that using one puts you in a better position to learn real flight than not using one would do.



So, if you want to be a pilot, go ahead and use and enjoy Flight Simulator; you'll learn a lot. And read good books about flying to learn even more. Eventually you can take real flying lessons when the opportunity comes, and you'll be much better prepared thanks to your study and practice with books and simulators. If you encounter a flight instructor who rants against simulation, change instructors, as the rational ones understand the value (and the limits) of simulation and do not go off the deep end when they hear that a student has used it.Does flight simulator actually help with real flying?
There is definitely some disagreement about the utility of flight simulators for flight training. I myself do not support their use for primary flight training, except for very specific purposes.



The single biggest problem I have with simulators is that people will use them at home before ever once receiving proper instruction in a real aircraft, and then they will show up for flight lessons later with the notion that they know what they are doing. A new pilot's first experiences are so important in setting a foundation for good habits, and if those experiences come while alone at home on the computer there is a very real possibility of bad habits, or at least a lack of good habits.



When I teach new student helicopter pilots, the first lessons include some very basic safety habits like safety around the aircraft, the importance of a good preflight, never ever letting go of the controls except in a specific manner, properly clearing the tail before doing hovering turns, scanning for traffic before maneuvering, completing certain takeoff and landing checks, always looking for places to land in the event of a problem, how to look for and avoid wires, etc. The good habits that can help prevent accidents come at the very beginning, and they would not be reinforced if you try and teach yourself on a computer.



In terms of the controls themselves, it is already easy enough for students to have sloppy inputs even in a real aircraft. Without an instructor to correct problems early, you make it that much harder to remove those problems later. In my mind there is also no simulator accurate enough to teach hovering maneuvers, and I shudder to think of people using them to teach themselves how to perform autorotations. Even if you say that they are perfectly accurate, the lack of an instructor is a very real problem.



Therefore, I suggest the following examples as types of good uses for simulators:



- learning the function and appearance of basic flight instruments

- learning navigation, both pilotage and dead reckoning, and instrument navigation such as VOR or GPS use

- transitioning to a new type of aircraft and learning systems and procedures

- learning IFR navigation and procedures

- practicing for severe emergency situations that would be unsafe in real aircraft



In all of these cases you are taking a pilot with at least some real flight experience and instruction and teaching them a new skill set in an area where the simulator is most useful. I cannot recommend that someone use simulators at home while unsupervised thinking that they will learn good techniques before ever actually flying.



I agree that instructors shouldn't freak out if their students use simulators, and they could even suggest certain uses of those simulators. However, the first thing I ask people prior to flying with them is if they have had any aviation experience, and if their answer is that they have been using Microsoft FSX all the time, I can't help but see that as a handicap rather than a benefit. I have no idea what in the world they have taught themselves and what they think is the right way versus the wrong way to do things.



The bottom line for me is that simulators can be useful for certain purposes, but your first experiences with aviation should be in a real aircraft under the supervision of a real instructor. Simulators should be used after gaining some experience, and in a manner prescribed by a flight instructor.
no...the only way that you can help yourself with flying is actually going to the airport and signing a contract with a flying school....flight simulator only shows you what the controls of the aeroplane do. i made the mistake of trying to fix up my landings over flight sim (let me tell you it doesn't work) and plus on flight sim the aeroplanes do things that are physically impossible
it should teach you the theory, for example it will expand your knowledge of cockpit layout and give you basic understanding of what the controls do, and what procedures take place before and after landing, airspeed, altitude etc but oviously wont help with practical experiance, im sure the real thing is very different. ignore stupid films like 'snakes on a plane' where that guy lands a 747 by playing flight simulators! but it would do no harm to play them
I have been asking about this with friends that are training some of the new USAF pilots, specifically in the F-16 since there are some really kickass programs out there for the Viper. The guys are not only using them on their own, but if you go back and read the history, Falcon 3.0 was developed from the software that used for ANG pilots to have something to practice with because budget cuts were not allowing them to fly.



They were corny back then, they are quite excellent now.. with exact photo realistic cockpits. You can simulate engine starts complete with failures to allow the student to execute memory items to shut down and secure the a/c and systems. For that.. they are quite excellent.



I am not familiar with the MS Flight Sim that is so popular, so I cannot say... but from what I have seen and read, when you have an exact copy of the cockpit, the knowlege gained as far as locating gauges, switches etc is excellent. As far as actually flying the plane...



Again.. assuming that you are using a realistic cockpit display, even someone with no ratings... that can learn to "scan" the instruments and fly the airplane and maintain altitude and heading withOUT visual reference to the horizon (in clouds) is a tremendous leg up. Think of it this way... if JFK Jr. had learned that basic skill, he and those two girls would be alive today. Sad but true.



You obviously do not get the physical input and sensation which in the above case... the more he pulled back.. the more pressure he felt that caused him to think he was pulling UP and out of the dive when actually.. he was only making the spriral tighter. That type of sensation causes the inexperienced pilot to not trust his instruments... which is a fatal mistake.



You make the gauges read correct,and you will be correct. I have seen guys that have NO flight experience at all, go up for a FAM ride in the F-16 and are able to fly the airplane on course, climb descend, rolls are easy... nothing to it... actually anyone can fly these planes as long as it's a clear day and everything is working. Taking off and landing are more difficult and the sims NEVER teach you how to land.



Most checkrides we take in the full motion sims (which ironically cost MORE than the actual airplane) are down to 50' landings are NEVER graded in the sim because they are unrealistic.
i'm convinced that these pc flight sims do more harm than good if you hope to become a pilot. i've never seen anybody advance because of such playing and i've seen many get confused by something that has nothing to do with basic flying. for instance, who the hell needs to know how to program a decent profile in a 777 before you can land a 172?
it helps to familiarize with some aspects of flying. however, it is not a complete source. after all it is only a computer game.... proper training and real hydraulic simulators do the job. and that is what training pilots practice on. the more hours spent, the better they get at the job.
It will help some, if you use the same dash panel as the plane you train in. And it will help with instrument training. But, it should not be seen as a substitute for dual training.
Yea it does !!!



It gives you experience - training for all weathers and situations when you finally become a Pilot...



Its too expense to train people on planes especially in all the weather situations..it wold be too expensive..



I think they work..
It will help you be familiar with some things, like how the various control affect flight and so forth, but it's not any where near the same as sitting in the cockpit of an actual plane.
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It can kind of, It gives you some helpful hints and information about planes but not with actually really flying a plane