Training Value From Sims?

You decide...

I found this on one of the simming forums I follow. Hardware is X-Plane 11(beta) on a PC. Guy (apparently a CFI?) just recorded his sim flight and narrative....


I pass it along FWIW...ymmv.

Jim
 
When I started taking flying lessons I hated so much my sim which had Sitek yoke, throttle and rudder that I sold them for a fraction of their price. However now that I am licensed and intend on getting IFR rating I'm regretting selling all the Sitek gadgets. I'm now looking to buy ,again, what I had plus some other pieces that will make my sim as real as possible to the Piper PA28 that I fly, for IFR practices.
 
My husband bought me x-plane, yoke/rudder and new powerful computer to run it all on for Christmas. Just messing around with a little bit last night... wow. Kind of impressive. Obviously not as good as the real thing, but certainly better than not flying at all and I can definitely see value in using this to practice instrument flying. Hope to officially start working on that rating in the spring and I see this being helpful.
 
For me, the kind of sims you have at home on computer don't work well. I don't get much if anything out of them. However a full motion sim, such as at flight safety is whole different animal.
 
When I started taking flying lessons I hated so much my sim which had Sitek yoke, throttle and rudder that I sold them for a fraction of their price. However now that I am licensed and intend on getting IFR rating I'm regretting selling all the Sitek gadgets. I'm now looking to buy ,again, what I had plus some other pieces that will make my sim as real as possible to the Piper PA28 that I fly, for IFR practices.

Splurge for a GoFlight or PFC yoke. Saitek is fine for the other stuff.
 
Splurge for a GoFlight or PFC yoke. Saitek is fine for the other stuff.

.....or do this...
(just one of many videos detailing the Saitek yoke mod). Makes a whole different animal out of the Saitek. I did it maybe 3 years ago, and still on my first set of rubber bands. :) It takes the 'pull toward center position' out of it.

Jim

Edit- Wow....all I did was include the link in my text, and the video window came up....technology!
 
There is some value to flight sims for instrument flying. (There is little to no value for primary students.)

... But the value is mitigated and possibly even reversed without the assistance of a knowledgeable CFII. Put another way, I've spent more time unteaching bad habits from the flight sim "self-help" crowd than reinforcing good ones with applicants who utilize the sim properly.
 
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