Flight Sim as Real as it Gets?

[FSTipster]

It sounds like a terrific experience Greg!

Where's the "Green with envy" smiley...

[Craig.]

sound like you had a great time,:)

[imchief]

I feel the same.  You just can't get all of the real world experience from FS2002.  Grant it FS2002 is very real there are just so many things that happen in real world that there is know way to effectivly emulate unless you have a cockpit in your house.  

For example when in the pattern  it is much easier to tell when to make your turns in real flight because you get a real view on the sittuation.  You also don't get to feel the "wieght of the aircraft in the sim which does make a difference.

Also, I notice that when I fly say a 172 in the sim I pull some pretty extream turns with very little trouble.  If I did that in a real 172 i would be feeling the Gs.  

However, I still think fs2002 is cool.  I still get the same joy from fly the sim.  Sometime even more because I can do stuff that I can't do in real life.  I don't have my instrument rating yet so I can't fly IFR.  I can't fly a twin which results in a 4-5 hour flight time max.   I still prefer real world but simming is MUCH cheaper.  

Just my thoughts.  I could go into more detail but there really isn't any point.  FS2002 is pretty cool.  I can't wait untul I get a better computer so I can experience all FS2002 has to offer.

[GreG]

Yeah, I had a great time, first time I had ever been in anything smaller than a 767-200!  If I did things that I do in the FS2002 C172, in the real C172, I would pass out cause the G's would be so strong!!  Nothing will stop me from getting these flight sims, nothing!  I will be buying them until they get so real they just can't get any further!

Greg

[packercolinl]

I'd been flying not long before I got FS2K2 so I was very annoyed that I had trouble with trimming etc in sim  when I don't have any bother in reallife.
It annoyed me to the extent I was yelling at the screen,
'YOU STUPID COMPUTER I ALREADY DO THIS!! WHAT DO YOU WANT?? WANT ME TO GET THE INSTRUCTOR ON THE PHONE AND SPEAK TO YOU!!'
That's when I realised it was only a sim. I do like it and fly every day but its still only a sim.

[bobdeep]

Speaking as a pilot and owner of all the versions of Flight from 98 until now, actually Microsoft is a bit lacking if you ask me.

I've always been impressed with the lack of realisim and the way the ground never looks right.  Sure Microsoft has expended a LOT of effort with fancy gadgets, sounds, pictures and flashy videos.  We have trucks that move and other airplanes that fly arround, towers that talk and flashing lights at night.. All of this is nice, but landing even a 172 on a clear day has never looked even close to the real thing in the real places.  It has proven to be much more difficult for me to take the 182 into the pattern and run touch and goes than in the real thing.

Flight is billed as some great visual experience, but it's not.  I've seen combat simulators that far surpass Flights visual impact, and some freware simulators that are better visually near the ground.  Flights seceanry is too tiled and not detailed enough where it counts, near the runways.  I suppose Microsoft must be careful to have a product that can run on almost anything while not taking up too much space, and that drives them to dumb the product down, but I'm tired of the hype and running a simulator that only requires a P2400 or better.

Flight is great for knocking arround the sky, flying instrument procedures and the like, but it's a poor platform to do any visual flying like combat, stunts, or just plain "learning how to land" VFR.  Get a real plane to learn how to fly, use flight for procedure training and investigate the various other options... (Falcon 4.0, with some freeware patches for the combat folks, and perhaps flightgear for those who want a visual experience.)

All simulators suffer from the same thing, they are simulators..  Flight suffers more than some.

[ysteinbuch]

The bottom line, as far as I'm concerned, is that for the price, FS2K2 is quite remarkable. There are full-scale simulators that cost who knows how many hundreds of thousands of dollars, but this is an off-the-rack, very affordable program that caters to the masses. I'm always amazed at how addictive it is and how it make you imagine like you're flying -- the suspension of disbelief, if you will.

[Smoke2much]

I agree with steinbuch.  Fs2k2 cost me

[phil509]

What I have learned so far is this:The better the computer,the more realistic.Just like every thing else-you get what you pay for.I like this because this program/forum has tought me how to use a computer.Im not quite ready to give up my rotatry phone and vacuum tubes,but Im close!Ill say that no formal school could be this mutch fun

[GreG]

One thing that I would love to see in future sims is:

Airports with elevations!  I don't think that there is one airport in the entire world that is dead flat!  Like in the current sim, I think that is one thing that makes the runways not too real.  At the airport I'm doing my PPL at, the are 2 runways crossing each other like an X, and there's a bit of a hill right in the middle, so when you line up on the runway, you can just see about 400 metres down the runway, then sky, cause of the hill, and lots of heat waves on the runway in this African heat!  You can only see the whole airport from about 50 feet AGL.  And one other thing I'd like to add, I'm pretty sure all, or at least most planes can taxi at idle thrust without accelerating, and you don't need up to 70% of engine thrust just to get moving.

Greg

P.S.  I'm thrilled, cause I flew my first solo flight on Monday!!  And it's a good feeling, just wanted to let it out.

[Redwing]

I think I've seen this "How Real are Flightsims" topic in just about every related forum on the internet.

Are Flight Sims real ?? ........ yeah, they are Real Flight Simulators!!

When I want to fly a real plane, I go to the airport and buy some time in a Piper or Cessna. The sims are a heluva lot more convenient and less expensive. I've found that I do get many similar visual and sound sensations with a sim.....if they were totally lacking in these, then I wouldn't bother with them. Also, with a sim, you don't have to breathe any gas fumes, or get your hands messy checking the oil and taking fuel samples!

[Sky_Shark]

In FS2K, unlike combat flight sims, the graphic ground details are awfull. But on the other hand you have WORLDWIDE elevation data and positioning.
I cant even enumerated what I've learned in Geography using Flight Sim 2000 and 2002.
I always have my comprehensive world Atlas and I love to explore the Globe. When something hapens in the world (Iraq war for example) I like to go there in a Portuguese (my country) Air Force Hercules C-130 to get the feeling off how far it is from here. I like to fly around Bagdag, Kerbala, Kirkut etc etc to really get the grip of where things are and what does the landscape look like (on average of course).
FS series are amazing! It's a truly Global Scale game cause all countries are represented. They even bother to put all 30 or 40 portuguese airfields. Even the smal Santa Cruz  (near my home) is there. And the reall weather provided by Jeppesen is the Icing on the cake.
It's more acurate than Meteo news on TV. I want to go windsurf I usualy check the wind with a Cessna before driving 100 km to the beach  ;D

Of course it cant be REAL, but you learn alot. You learn to understand how planes fly (theoreticly), you learn the altitudes, the gauges, the procedures, etc... It's very educational.

I always feel sad cities are so poorly depicted. I mean, Paris isn't just the Eifel Tower or L'arc du Triomphe you know? But Paris IS there.

On the first sims I used alot more imagination than I do now. I'm shure in 10 years, sims will be unbeliavably more real and still afordable.

[Smoke2much]

Sky_Shark is right.

As real as it gets for

[Roy]

Right, I think I'll stick my nose in here too (Oh boy, I am in a mood tonight), my father, a chopper pilot is constantly getting on at me about my sim time, and as there are times I have to share a computer with him (shudder) it's not a pretty site, doing a aproach to Lukla in Nepal and all of a sudden it's his turn, and he's not even a simmer, he rekons that flight sim is a waste of time as the Bell 206 (What he flew) is not modeled correctly, now I am just a couple of hours away from my PPL, written test and flight test to do actually, and I can remember when I started flying real time I stall would freak me out, I hated them, then I'd get home and try stalling the default C-172, next day instructor asked for a stall, he got it, right on the button. (Truth is I now love stalls so much that I want to try a loop, poor C-150). So my vote is Yes, FS2002Pro is realistic, and as the majority agree, for less than C$100 it's value for money.  But the other half of me has to say as well that it is billed as a 'game' nothing more, yes it may be 'As real as it gets' but I feel it's as real as YOU make it. That said where did I put that Lockheed C-130???
Roy

[Roy]

By the way, Congrats on the solo Greg, great feeling innit?
Roy