FSX Instrument practice

bigred177

bigred177

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bigred
I recently bought FSX and have been using it to just play around with but started looking at the lessons and was wondering how it would work for learning and practicing instrument procedures. I will be pursuing my instrument rating next time the funds come available and was thinking this could help get a decent head start. What do y'all think?
 
I suggest waiting until you get tought so you don't have bad habits to unlearn. It is a useful tool for practice during the lessons.

Just my thoughts- others with more experience will be along shortly...
 
There are the built-in Rod Machado lessons for IFR that you can do. A friend I work with uses FSX to refly things after his lesson in the air.
 
No simulation device is worth a thing without a good instructor to teach you using it. OTOH, just about any simulation device worth a darn can be a useful training tool in the hands of a good instructor. The biggest mistake one can make is trying to teach yourself before you start training. In my experience as an instructor, students who try to teach themselves just make training longer and harder once they engage the services of an instructor.
 
Ron Levy said:
No simulation device is worth a thing without a good instructor to teach you using it. OTOH, just about any simulation device worth a darn can be a useful training tool in the hands of a good instructor. The biggest mistake one can make is trying to teach yourself before you start training. In my experience as an instructor, students who try to teach themselves just make training longer and harder once they engage the services of an instructor.
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What, like you'd know? I think he wants the advice of someone who's taught more than a few hundred people how to fly instruments and who has more than a few thousand hours! :D:D:D



(In other words, LISTEN TO RON!!!):yes:
 
I flew instruments in flight sim from about 8 years old and up. I did my instrument rating last year with the minimum hours and really didn't have any issues throughout the entire thing.

Some people can easily be taught to do something differently and others can't. For me flight sim has been a very useful tool and all those years of using it did not slow my training what so ever.

That said, some people, cannot be easily reprogrammed and it may hurt those people.
 
jesse said:
I flew instruments in flight sim from about 8 years old and up. I did my instrument rating last year with the minimum hours and really didn't have any issues throughout the entire thing.

Some people can easily be taught to do something differently and others can't. For me flight sim has been a very useful tool and all those years of using it did not slow my training what so ever.

That said, some people, cannot be easily reprogrammed and it may hurt those people.
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Plus, you're exceptional!
 
Cap'n Jack said:
I suggest waiting until you get tought so you don't have bad habits to unlearn. It is a useful tool for practice during the lessons.

Just my thoughts- others with more experience will be along shortly...
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+1 - MSFS is a terrific tool once you know what you're doing. Until then, you'll likely be training yourself to "bad" habits.
 
BigRed..I say use the sim!
Personally Ive seen alot of "novice" sim users be great instrument students. The only "bad habit" I can spot right off the bat is panel fixation early in the PPL training. I probably owe much of my scan to all the hours I spent on MSFS even prior to my private training.. Students that are motivated to teach themselves when possible usually end up being top tier in my opinion . I have never in all the hours of teaching instruments come across someone who has "hurt" themselves by employing a sim prior to training, in fact it helped them. good luck to you


Clay
CFI/II/MEI
 
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I'll try again, since I can't post today for some reason:

Flight simulators are a great thing. Use 'em, love 'em. I had more to post, but PoA doesn't like me today.
 
Hmmm...

I passed the IR with 40.3 in the logbook.

I didn't log my MSFS hours, but the time spent saved me significant hours and dollars.

While primacy is a powerful factor in learning, most humans can replace previous learning with new learning.
 
Ron Levy said:
I agree, but there is a cost in time, effort, and money for the unlearning process.
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Absolutely.

Therefore the question is -- is the "free" learning acquired through desktop simulation cheaper than the increased cost to unlearn bad habits?

In my case, I can say yes. But my use of the sim typically followed a lesson (I waited until we had done ILS before practicing ILS approaches on the Sim).

MSFS helped me prepare for the actual sim (here: http://rkaplan.hypermart.net/main.html ) where I logged 8.3 towards the IFR hour requirement.
 
I don't feel that it will teach you bad habits IF you use it as a training tool and not as a game. I have over 100+ hours in FSX and I feel it helps greatly in my real world flying. JMHO
 
Ron Levy said:
I agree, but there is a cost in time, effort, and money for the unlearning process.
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I wish someone had beat the living crap out of me for thinking otherwise. I bought the Garmin G1000 simulator, which was an excellent tool for learning the G1000 functions such as how to load approaches, etc. I spent a lot of time messing with it and figured I could just get a safety pilot and go right into flying practice approaches on my way to my instrument ticket. I spent somewhere between 10-15 hours and finally realized I wasn't flying approaches any better than when I started. I finally got a good instrument instructor and we started from scratch on basic attitude insrument flying. It was another 10-15 hours of progressively harder drills before I ever saw another approach plate. However, once I developed my attitude instrument and scanning skills, flying approaches became much easier and simply a matter of figuring out how to stay ahead of the approach.
 
MikePapa said:
I wish someone had beat the living crap out of me for thinking otherwise. I bought the Garmin G1000 simulator, which was an excellent tool for learning the G1000 functions such as how to load approaches, etc. I spent a lot of time messing with it and figured I could just get a safety pilot and go right into flying practice approaches on my way to my instrument ticket. I spent somewhere between 10-15 hours and finally realized I wasn't flying approaches any better than when I started. I finally got a good instrument instructor and we started from scratch on basic attitude insrument flying. It was another 10-15 hours of progressively harder drills before I ever saw another approach plate. However, once I developed my attitude instrument and scanning skills, flying approaches became much easier and simply a matter of figuring out how to stay ahead of the approach.
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ONCE you have the basics down, a Garmin simulator on the desktop can save you a ton of dollars burning avgas.

So while you got the order wrong, the more efficient route is to use simulators to learn and explore after you know what you're supposed to be doing.
 
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