Good luck,but i dont think anything will replace hands on learning.forget about the sim and get in a real one and learn from there with a good instructor is the best way.and is tried and tested since the first time an airplane took to the skys.but i dont trust a programers thoughts of how it is.but the ole tried and true way of learning to fly in the last hundred years has worked and trained many pilots.and theres an ole saying if its not broke dont fix it.thoughts of a real world pilot trained and taught how to fly by an ex WWII B17 bomber pilot.my Dad.

Ole yes. JBaymore i saw that and gave the man my thoughts on what has worked the last hundred years before sims ever came along.what can you learn from a sim that you cant learn in a real airplane?.i am bias i would not agree to a sim teaching someone to fly in the real world unless its made or certifide by the FFA.and as long as theres real aircraft sitting on the ramp in the parking lot.i doubt the FFA would waste there time with it.but only time will tell if that ever happens or not.FS9 may aid in some areas of learning some things but will not give you what a real aircraft will give you.but i have read time after time in the post.this is only a game.even mirosoft will tell you to not use there product for real world training.but thanks for trying to correct me when you thought i was wrong and i wasnt.

Thanks for your responses. But I think you missed the point.

Ignore everything else I said, but can anyone tell me the answers to these question:

Is it possible in FS2004 to change such things as wind direction, visibility and initiate nav aid or engine failures during a flight, without pausing the game? Also, less importantly, is there anyway to change the take-off weight and the centre of gravity of an aircraft and would these changes affect the flight characteristics?

Hello Sami,
the USAF already use MS FS2K for flight training on the T-37B Tweet produced by 3rd parties. My name is in the credits.

See:

http://www.t37sim.com/

This is the site for the civilian version which is on sale to the public. There may be an internal version of the E-3B Sentry for the USAF in future.

Of course these don't have to be FAA licenced but they may be a precidence for them.

Ian

I believe that new US navy pilots get issued a copy of MSFS so they can practice things before they do it for real.

I bought 2004 for that very reason (to cut down on flight costs), and It works for certain areas like repetitive approches and those damm holding patterns and their entry's.  Other than that though.......

JBaymore, you've got my attention.
But could you tell me a little more about these files and programs? Where can I get them? Or do they come wih the instructor utility in FS2004?
I've got no idea about these things. ???

Sami,

FSUIPC is a program that was written by Peter Dowson for allowing external programs and panel gauge programs to access the data stream that fs200X is generating.  It is two way...... you can not only access the data being generated,....but you can write to the data stream. 

So this allows a programmer to utilize FSUIPC to not only display values or control external devices..... but also allows an external action to control what happens in the simulation.  For example by writing a new value to the memory location that controls the electrical supply to say a fuel pump........ it goes "blooey".  Want to fail the nose gear?  Easy.

You can do more elaborite and more subtle failures than the "failure generator" that comes in the fs2004 program itself....limited by your imagination and your programming abilities.

If you can program in Visual Basic or C++ the code is not too hard to figure out.  The program has an extensive SDK with it.  And the stuff is being modified and upgraded all the time.  There is a support forum too.

The version for FS2004 is a payware program.  Versions for fs2002 and before were freeware.....but are no longer being supported.  Bundled with WideFS (which runs FSUIPC across a network for the kind of thing you are thinking) the current version is about $35 USD.

The main website on FSUIPC is to be found at http://www.schiratti.com/dowson.html


There is also a new freeware product for fs2004 that does the same kind of thng.... but I don;t know all the details about that one.  I think it is called FDSConnect or something like that.

A lot of what you are thinking is being done by simpit builders already.  The REAL issue is can you get it approved for what you want. 

Hope this helps.


best,

...................john

PS:  Just posted some new pix of my own simpit project down in the "Homebuild Cockpits" forum.

Thanks guys, I'll check this out.
Unlikely I can get this approved by the authorities, but I will try. Have to build a simpit, so I'll be checking the simpit forums from now on. Thinking of using equipment from aeroplanestaff.com
By the way, I'm not the first to have this idea, appearantly there are more and more people thinking that it's a viable option.

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Just do a search on Google for FSUIPC and the other. You should be able to find them fairly easily. FSUIPC is payware for Fs 2004 but it's well worth the cost. It's a utility that allows programs outside ACOF to access variables inside the flight sim. You'll probably either need knowledge in programming or someone who does and you'll especially want to check out the SDK materials in relation to FSUIPC.

I had my PPL some years ago long before the advent of flight sims and a program like ACOF would have been a huge assist in training. I haven't flown a real plane since I've started flying sims but even so I've learned to rely more on my instruments in the sim than I ever did in a real plane even with some training on an old style analog type instrument simulator and some time under the hood.

ACOF is good for some things and not so good for others. As an instructor you'll have to be the one to decide which skill can be bolstered with the sim and which cannot.

I'm not sure whether you can convince the FAA of ACOF's value as a training tool but even without it being a certified training aid it's still a good training aid when used properly. I'd suggest that even if you can't get it made "official", you at least suggest it to students or if possible include it with the course materials. For $49 extra it's well worth it.