DaveSims wrote on Mar 16^th, 2010 at 5:25pm:



You forgot the "pause" button too

Matt

I’m going to disagree and say the flying in real life is not easier than flying in the sim… no matter which way you slice it. I agreed that aircraft control is easier in real life than in the sim (extra sensory input, as mentioned). However, this is only on part of what it takes to operate an aircraft. In a real aircraft, even seat-of-the pants GA, you have to be well aware of airspace, weather, other aircraft, communications, navigation, monitoring systems. All of which can be easily ignored in the sim.

When you step up to more complicated operations, even more things fall off the table. There is no communications menu in the air with a list of responses and frequencies. Even with failures turned on in the sim, it isn’t very realistic as the failures in real life failures are often subtle or intermittent (fouled mags, poor radio reception, etc.). Systems, especially jet systems, are poorly implemented. You are not worried about managing complex electrical, hydraulic, pressurization, autopilot, and other systems as you would be in a real jet.

Anyway, I guess the point is that there is a lot that goes into “flying” beyond aircraft control.  There is a non-stop flood of information that you need to understand, process, and take timely and decisive action on; none of which is well represented by the sim.

Splinter562 wrote on Mar 18^th, 2010 at 12:58am:

I think all of that goes without saying, as well as the knowledge required to qualify for any kind of pilot certification... but the OP, as far as I can tell, was about "flying the plane" as opposed to "flying the plan".


When you slice it that way, I still maintain that real flying is easier.

And you can certainly get into all of the things you mentioned using even a modest non-certified simulator program... if you want to... but that's beside the point.

On a side note: you mention the lack of an ATC menu in real life... for me, I find that to be absolutely maddening in FS9 and would prefer realistic comms.
For example, you can't contact whoever controls a controlled airspace until you penetrate said airspace, and you can't just say "wind check" on final at a towered airport... those little things make flying much easier, even in complex aircraft on complex flight plans.

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.

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.