Flight Sim as Real as it Gets?

[ysteinbuch]

I agree with all of the above. FS2002 is quite tremendous for a $60 program. Obviously, it can't replicate the real forces exerted on an aircraft, but it does afford the illusion of real flight and provides a good learning tool. I just wonder what Microsoft's product will be like in a decade or so -- with much more powerful computers and the expected quantum leap in programming capabilities.

[Tequila Sunrise]

For a

[phil509]

Lets never forget that the terrorists that took out our twin towers got the "feel" for heavy jets using this very program.(Not political,Ozzy-fact!) How mutch more real does it have to be?

[BRAD BANKS]

IN 1960, AT THE AGE OF 14 I WAS ABLE TO
FLY THE AIRFORCE'S B52 SIMULATOR. BLACK&WHITE
PICTURES, TWO MILE WIDE VEIW. SPEED AND ALTIUDE
CONTROL ONLY, FS2002 IS 40 LITEYEARS AHEAD OF THAT!!! TEN YEARS AGO IT COST $2000 "PER HOUR" TO
FLY A B17. FOR THOSE OF US WITH EYE PROBLEMS
FS2002, CFS2, ARE A BLESSING THAT NO PRICE TAG
CAN BE PLACED, AND SITES LIKE THIS ONE ARE
THE GREATEST CANDY STORE ON EARTH!!
 
THANK YOU, GOD BLESS YOU, AND MAY THE  FORCE FEEDBACK BE WITH YOU

[phil509]

Hey,Brad-Stick around

[phil509]

As I was about to say(sorry about that last post,Its been a long15hr day)Get the B52-H found here,(Bonzonnies)And stand by for FStipsters exellent,forthcoming panel.You`ll really agree this is the future! I`d like to chat more, but SR-71A is ready for takeoff to look at Damascus-Syria that is!( )

[MattNW]

[quote]I'm getting taken up in a C182 tomorrow to see if I like it better than the C172, if I do, I'll do my PPL in it, I heard from my instructor that the torque is absolutely amazingly difficult to control, especially on the takeoff roll when you have to have full rudder!

[MattNW]

i'm not saying it isnt amazing, because it is, like others have said it gives people as much realism as possible which is enough, but i just dont feel the same flying it now i have tasted the real thing. am i spoilt, perhaps am i going to give up on flight sim no:)

Solution: Fly the real thing whenever you get the chance and when the weather is bad or your bank account says, "no way" you'll always have the sim to fall back on. Besides it's pretty valuable for things like practicing procedures and instrument flying.

[cwloew]

Here'smy two cents, ...

I have some stick time in the Huey UH1D and friends, they can't make a simulator for the PC that can make you fell like you just swallowed your feet at full pitch .. elevator ride north in no time, or hovering in the wind trying to place a skid on the side of the mountin on a medevac mission.

[Smoke2much]

My Instructor told me that whilst the flight dynamics are not perfect FS2k2 is ideal for VOR navigation training and he uses it to practice ILS approaches.

Will

[packercolinl]

I think I would have been disappointed if I had bought a FlightSim before this. There is nothing to replace  strapping yourself into that cockpit,putting on the headset,adjusting the pedals---I could go on but I won't because I'll just upset myself.

[codered]

Of course actual flying is very different than flight sim.  I have been flying real Pipers and Cessnas a lot longer than I have been using the flight simulator.  The flight simulator is a great tool for learning how it all works from a navigational standpoint, but nothing comes close to the real thing.  I prefer the real thing over a simulation anyday.  But when money grows on trees, then I will fly more than simulate....

[Cherokee_6]

[quote]Of course actual flying is very different than flight sim.

[Splash]

I am not a pilot, but a boss of mine was the Department Head of Flight Simulators and let me fly the CP140 Aurora (ASW).  It was truly awesome, but I still didnt get into Flight Sims until FS2K2.  Now I am hooked and am interested (no make that very interested)(no make that I am)  getting a computer system built for Flight Sim. (Ask Tipster)  lol  I am hooked on this sim and after experiencing the MS FF2 stick, knew I wanted to go further with this.  Oh how I wish I had my ppl but unfortunately I cant now and will always regret it, so Flight Sim is all I have.  I say, if you love flyin, Man go for it.
Splash (Ed)

[GreG]

Well, I got my turn in the C182....  I loved it !!!  It's harder to control and there are more things to remember than in the C172, but I love that power!  You climb at 500fpm in the C172 at 80mph, then in the C182, you climb at around 100mph, landing the 172 went quite well, landing the C182, took lots of power in my arms, yikes those bloody elevators can get really heavy, trust me, you need big strong arms if you want to fly it!!  The funny thing is that I'm always having bloody crosswinds at my local airport where I'm training, which ever runway we take off or land on.  You should have seen the bloody crosswind I had today on takeoff, in the C172 at lunch time!  As I left the ground the wind took us off the side of the runway, had to add lots of rudder!  Lucky I had left the ground, otherwise I would have snagged a few of the runway lights!  One thing I can say about crosswinds:  in the flight sim, you are forever having to turn the plane back onto the runway while rolling, whereas in real life, it doesn't make a hell of a difference, only really when you are at higher speeds.

My instructor did stalls and the 360 degree turn today.  I loved the stalls!  LoL  Especially when you get to the part when you're literally falling out of the sky, it was easy to recover in the C172, when you hit full throttle, it pulls you right out of the stall in matter of seconds!  Cause it's nice and light.  The turn wasn't bad either, the cool thing was when you pull back on the yoke while in a 60 degree bank, your head feels really heavy!  As if you had a hangover, but worse!  Very different to a flight sim!!!  It's also cool when you suddenly just drop out of the sky a few feet, in turbulence and wind!  It's a great feeling, leaving you stomach hanging about 10 feet above you!

One other thing that I noticed is that in real life it feels so much higher than in the flightsim, at 500 feet it's amazing how much you can see.  My favourite is watching cars driving on roads way down beneath you!  But near this airfield there's only 1 main road, and lots of bush, and farms.  So if anything went wrong, you could really land anywhere.  As long as you avoid the trees!  And especially when you're coming into land and you're just getting lower and lower, over buildings and trees, then touchdown.

I reckon the hardest part of flying, is definately the ground school!  For those of you wanting to get you're PPL, You get a textbook about an inch and a half thick, that you have to study, thoroughly!  The hardest is the bloody Air Law, like for instance, learning all the different types of airspaces, the resticted ones, the danger zones, the prohibited airspaces, all the different types of ATC units, an basically that type of stuff.  Then meteorology and weather, different weather and stuff.  Then you have radio, which is slightly more difficult, especially when, here in Zim, the bloody Air Traffic Controller is listening to music!  Or something when we are trying to hear what he's trying to say.  They also talk bloody fast in a horrible accent and in a low tone, so you have to listen so carefully!  Lucky that the airport isn't that busy.  That's why you need good eye sight, so you can look around for other airplanes and all sorts.

I was scared I was going to fail my medical cause the colour blind test was quite difficult, cause they give you different pictures, with circles of different sizes, and you have to read letters or numbers off the page, the letters are made using the circles, in a different colour, very close to the background colour, so it can get confusing, I couldn't see about 3 of them, out of about 10, all you really need to be able to do is distinguish between greens and reds.  That was the first time in my entire life when I thought that I could have been colour blind, I guess it's cause I sought of panicked cause I thought he was gonna fail me, I got really scared, cause that's probably "the" major thing, that you have to pass!  Ah well, I only have to take that bloody medical again in 2 years time.  Ah well, sorry about going on and on, but I got carried away.  Now, this has to be one of the longest posts I've typed out, and my fingers are tired so I'm stopping now, even thought I could go on for a good 1000 more lines!

Happy flying,
Greg