With my current medical issues - don't cut yourself or fall over\off anything ( great news for a knifemaking biker ) I've been bored out of my skull.
Until I remembered I'd still got a crapload of flight sim software I hadn't used for ages. Now I'm flying with a Virtual Airline ( I'm glad my biker mates don't know that
) and reading Boeing manuals...The software I use ( FS2004 ) is from about 2 computers ago and I wasn't much impressed by it then. On my current machine though I can add as much scenery as I want, turn the display sliders up to max and still get good framerates.
Which has made me think about the value of PC flight sims as training aids. When I first started real world flying I had been prepared by countless hours of sim flying and it helped not one bit. Sure, I knew an aileron from an elevator and what all the buttons and dials did, but it was no help landing a real aircraft.
Eventually I twigged that due to the limited graphics of the sims of that time I had been flying on instruments without realising it - in the real aircraft my instructor actually had to keep reminding me to look out of the window...
It did pay off when I did some real instrument flying ( which isn't a normal part of the syllabus for private pilots, but I was struggling to convince a doctor to give me the medical certificate I needed to go solo due to still being in a wheelchair and the flying club were finding me something to keep my interest up and my money coming in ) - that was a piece of cake.
With the current incarnation of the sim though I'm starting to think that it might actually help a VFR pilot. There are enough 3D objects to give you a sense of speed and perspective and the virtual cockpit ( I use a PSIII game controller just for moving the viewpoint around ) allows you more than fixed 3/4 and left and right views - so you can fly a circuit properly, keeping the runway in sight and knowing when to turn for each leg.
Combined with a non-Microsoft flight model aircraft ( I can't believe anyone who programmed that sim ever flew a plane in their lives - or had and didn't care. The stock Cessna 172 has zero pitch stability, if you take your eyes off it for a second it'll try to enter a vertical climb or descent ) the result is pretty damn convincing.
What do you real and armchair pilots ( come on, there must be a few, given the Guncounters inherent geek level
) think ?PS - In the end I stopped flying for two reasons. One was the reluctance of the CAA doctors to give a medical certificate to someone who couldn't walk ( ever heard of Douglas Bader doctor ? he had no bloody legs. If a double amputee can knock the cream of the Luftwaffe out of the sky I'm sure I can make it from Derby to Sheffield in peacetime in a Cessna that still flies itself if you let go of the controls )
The second was that I wasn't enjoying it as much as I thought I would. Or rather the fun\cost ratio wasn't right for me.
If I had my time over I'd go gliding instead.
