Real vs Simulated. Which is easier?

[expat]

[quote]Flying for real is much easier than in the sim.

[SeanTK]

Simply echoing the others sentiments. Flying in real life is so much easier than the sim due to the greater availability of physical clues to help ascertain your situation. Peripheral vision is one notable factor here!

Plus, you always get great frame rates! 

There are only three downsides of flying in real life I can think of:

No pause button
Birds
Possibly a higher risk of death (although as Mr. Henderson said....the lethargic nature of the majority of the gaming population must be considered. Also consider that the drive to and from the airport is probably going to be the most dangerous part of your day.)

-STK

[Splinter562]

I

[SaultFresh]

Splinter, I think it totally depends on the type of simulator you're using. Personally I find flight sim difficult, and you're right, there's all sorts of things that it takes care for you, FS gives you all the frequencies you want, failures only if you set them up and such. If you hop in a real sim though, that's a different story. I mean, my school has three sims, all using actual airplane cockpits, and two of them being level 4 simulators (I think, they're a level under actual moving simulators). I mean, that's pretty close to as real as you're going to get to the actual real thing. And the instructors hand out all sorts of problems, engine failures all over the place (during multi-training), partial panel approaches, pitot/static blockages, runaway trims, generator failures, and insane weather... not to mention partial panel in those things are ridiculous... when all that adds up, and when it all gets thrown together (usually some at the same time, and usually a lot of problems done in succession, depending on the lesson) flying the airplane becomes the easiest thing to do. That's just my experience with simulation and the real world though. Everyone's will differ.

[beaky]

[quote]I

[SaultFresh]

I definitely agree with Rottydaddy on that, that atc menu bar can be maddening at times. I mean, when I'm studying something, and I've got a flight running in the background, I'm not really paying attention to what's going on there, I'm more focused on the material I'm studying. But if I'm trying to get a feel of something practically, and flying or an instructor aren't near at hand, then FSX is usually what I'll have to go to. It can be pretty maddening when you're trying to make it real yet you can't because the radio's don't want to cooperate. Like an IFR approach for instance, you're supposed to contact wherever you're approaching at at least 5 minutes before you conduct it, but in FSX, you can't do that, it won't let you, the only thing that the radio's will let you do, is listen to the ATIS, aside from that, you can only monitor one radio at a time regardless of how many radio's you have, which also gets me going a bit, but that's just FSX I guess.

[machineman9]

And AFAIK there are no emergency radio options....

'We have an engine fire'
'Oh, just follow the aircraft on approach' 'You've gone in too fast, go around and try again'
'We're finally on the ground'
'Just leave the runway when you can, it's not as if anything different has happened here compared to a regular landing'

Which kind of kills the realism. I don't bother using failures because there's usually no difference, atleast not when it comes to landing the thing.

[beaky]

I definitely agree with Rottydaddy on that, that atc menu bar can be maddening at times. I mean, when I'm studying something, and I've got a flight running in the background, I'm not really paying attention to what's going on there, I'm more focused on the material I'm studying. But if I'm trying to get a feel of something practically, and flying or an instructor aren't near at hand, then FSX is usually what I'll have to go to. It can be pretty maddening when you're trying to make it real yet you can't because the radio's don't want to cooperate. Like an IFR approach for instance, you're supposed to contact wherever you're approaching at at least 5 minutes before you conduct it, but in FSX, you can't do that, it won't let you, the only thing that the radio's will let you do, is listen to the ATIS, aside from that, you can only monitor one radio at a time regardless of how many radio's you have, which also gets me going a bit, but that's just FSX I guess.

An interesting dilemma, but there's only one thing you should be studying, IMHO, while flying: the flight. 

Also: in FS9, if you have an audio panel in the model, you can monitor more than one channel at a time, as in RL.

[SaultFresh]

I definitely don't have FS9, haha, and it's pretty much a miracle that I can run FSX on my laptop. Anyhow, as for the studying thing, I leave flightsim running... like I'll choose a place somewhere in the world, and a destination a few hours away, and pretty much leave the whole flight on autopilot, doing little things here and there, and focus most of my attention in a From the Ground Up book, or more recently the Canadian Instrument Rating Workbook. I don't always study like that, but sometimes I do. I don't have to pay attention that much to the flight, because it's flight sim, don't get any emergencies, the weather's always good, stuff like that. I would never study in an actual airplane that I was either in control of or right seat in, that's just asking for trouble I think.