I wonder if anyone has experienced this.  I've been using flight sim daily for about a year now and finally went out for an intro flight in REAL C172, I've never flown before, I mentioned to the instuctor that I was a flight sim junkie, only so he wouldn't have to waste his time explaining all the instruments. To my amazement and total joy he let me fly the entire flight, taxi, takeoff, leveling and trim and finally landing.  He never once touched the controls.  I couldn't believe it.  He said the simulator is more difficult to fly than the real thing.  I couldn't believe how comfortable I was with the controls.  I'll be starting lessons as soon as I can afford it.

glad ya enjoyed it,:)
i remember the only time i wasnt allowed to touch the controls on my first flight was when we were taxing into parking and there was a few people round the instructor had to park it as the space was tight and he didnt need me turning the cheif exam testing dude into chopped peperoni:)
hope ya can get up into the skies soon

It's great isn't it when you've got the instructor sightseeing while your doing the routine.

Well, and intro flight is to get the hands on feel of the airplane.  Yes, it is rare that they let you take it from start to finish like that, but some instructors will.

He is right though, the simulator is harder to fly because of many reasons.  One being, did you notice the pressure you felt on the control surfaces? That is a big reason and also the fact in a real airplane you have a three dimensional view of the world, unlike with FS... where it is two dimensional (unless you spent a lot of money on video cards and monitors to make a 3D environment).

Glad you enjoyed, and good luck with saving the money to start lessons (they are becoming quite expensive), but the investment is well worth it!

I wish I had that guy take me up, my first time. The guy I had took about 20 minutes to explain EVERYTHING. "
I really wanted to just say shut up and lets go, already! But once we did get up, it was great!

Best of luck to you! Hope you make your dream come true.

I had a very similar, but not quite identical experience. I mentioned to the instructor that I was a FS2002 user and he said that that would serve me well. In his experience, simmers had a lot of valuable theoretical knowledge that translated well into the real thing. He didn't let me fly the whole way, but I did take off, fly around without assistance, plus land with some help. He took over while taxiing near the other parked aircraft. I've pretty much decided to take lessons, but I have to wait a while since I have a 7-month-old son who manages to take up the bulk of my free time, if you know what I mean. Plus, the pricetag of about $10,000 (give or take a little) sounds ominous. I'm not too eager to jump into more debt right now. But ... one day!  ;)

On my first intro flight I got to do a lot of the flying. This was way before flight sims but he did the take off and handled the throttle and mixture while I did everything else. On landing he talked me through it and took over for the flare and touchdown.

It was a hot summer day so it was pretty bumpy. We hit this one pocket that made certain parts of my anatomy feel like they were migrating to a different location on my body. I was handling the controls at the time and only comment I got from the instructor was, "Little turbulence there. Good recovery."

One thing is... I had SubLogic's Flight Simulator (1st one ever) and I found it to be quite poor in graphics, etc. and never bought another after that, it wasn't until I took up real flying that I tried my hand at another flight sim... and it was as easy ever.

wrote on Apr 17^th, 2003 at 5:54pm:

One thing is... I had SubLogic's Flight Simulator (1st one ever) and I found it to be quite poor in graphics, etc. and never bought another after that, it wasn't until I took up real flying that I tried my hand at another flight sim... and it was as easy ever.

Remember the Microsoft Flight Simulator designed for the TRS 80 Color Computer? Little twig of a joystick that didn't center (you used two joysticks, one for control and the other for throttle) and the graphics were green lines on a black screen. I still have that one laying around somewhere. Too bad I don't have a computer to load it on just for a comparison. I think I got it in 1986.

I have a friend who is a CFI and he's gonna take me up sometime soon and let me do most of the flying. He already knows i'm obsessed with flying, but as soon as he gets back... ;D

Unfortunantly, he lives in Florida, so it's not very often that he gets to come up to visit his parents :'(

Warren, sounds like you had great fun. I remember my first time at the controls as a 15 year old Air Cadet, first flight you aren't meant to fly or do aerobatics in the Chipmunk, so he asks me if I've flown before, I said yes without realising he meant actually on the controls! Boy was I wide eyed at the end of that. WOW!!!!
I know how you feel, its the greatest buzz.
Good luck with getting your PPL.

Ozzy