How realistic home flight simulator programs are? and how can they help with real-life pilot training
As an aviation enthusiast, flight simulator fan since 2005 & ex-airline pilot. I always get questions about how realistic home flight simulator programs are. Well, here I will explain everything I know about flight simulators, and also how it helped me with my pilot training.
These are the 3 most famous Home Flight Simulator Programs :
1- Microsoft Flight Simulator :
MSFS is one of the longest-running, best-known, and most comprehensive home flight simulator programs on the market. an early product of Microsoft. Microsoft Flight simulator is 37 years old and started with MS-DOS!
The latest version available is FSX and expecting FS2020 Soon.
Microsoft Flight Simulator is only available for Microsoft Windows users.
2- Lockheed Martin Prepar3d :
P3D is a new enhanced flight simulator based on the Microsoft Flight Simulator X SP2. P3D is also only available for Microsoft Windows users.
3- X-Plane :
X-Plane is a flight simulator produced by laminar research. It’s the only flight simulator that’s available for the three platforms: Microsoft Windows, Mac OS & Linux! However, X-Plane may not offer a wide range of addons as much as MSFS or P3D.
I’ve personally tried all of them and I can say they all offer the same physics & aerodynamics.
Back in 2005 when I first discovered flight simulator, I was 15 years old. I was impressed with the amazing graphics and real look and feel of everything. Starting from the cockpit with all the gauges & switches, to the deep details in airports with apron vehicles and texture. But I had no idea how realistic it can get.
A couple of months after discovering the Microsoft flight simulator, i came across add-ons.
Here is a list of add-on types available for the simulator to take realism to another level :
- Professional Versions of Aircrafts
- Real-time weather add-ons
- Airport & City Sceneries
My first and favorite add-on was the PMDG 737NGX, the professional version of the Boeing 737NG for FS2004, FSX & P3D. ( Similar to Zibo 737 for X-Plane )
The most interesting part, online flying networks.
A friend of mine who I met back in 2006, introduced me to this amazing world & community of the online flying network, VATSIM.
As per Wikipedia, ( Virtual Air Traffic Simulation Network ) is a non-profit organization, operating a dedicated, worldwide, Internet-based network. Users can connect to the network to either fly online as a pilot using flight simulation software such as FSX, P3D or X-Plane, or direct traffic as an Air Traffic Controller (ATC) and participate in what has been described as a close approximation of real-life aviation procedures.
Similar to VATSIM, there’s also IVAO (International Virtual Aviation Organisation). But I’ve always been a VATSIM fan & user.
is a huge community of aviation enthusiasts who take it very seriously, applying real-world flying rules and regulations. Most of them have a lot of impressive & detailed technical information and knowledge about aviation that some real-life pilots might not have! It’s really interesting and fun being in that community. We used to fly all the time, either group airline flights with virtual airlines, long-haul flights, CTP ( Cross The Pond ) events crossing the Atlantic, World tour flights or even just some VFR group flying in a Cessna 172 discovering small interesting airports!
There are even some enthusiasts who build home cockpits for their sims! you can start with a flight yoke, rudder pedals & maybe a Main Control Panel ( MCP ) for your favorite aircraft or even a small communications panel! or take it to the pro level like this one below.
Now, let me tell you how flight simulator worked so well for me during my initial pilot training :
Flight simulator was the biggest reason why I wanted to become an airline pilot. When I was in flight school, I was so familiar with ATC communications. I didn’t have any fear of talking on the ATC frequency, instead, I had confidence. Knew what I had to say and expected the response, thanks to VATSIM and its huge online flying network. I even used to practice my flying lessons with the Cessna 172 on Microsoft Flight Simulator with my joystick, practicing everything from the startup, different maneuvers, VOR, NDB & ILS, cross country flights and ATC. all of these made my flying lessons much easier and made my progress faster and more impressive for my flight instructors.
Even during my airline pilot training :
When I got hired in our flag carrier airline on the Boeing 737–800 as a first officer, that was a totally different story. During the training, I was so familiar with the aircraft systems, automation, switches, FMC and screens ( Thanks to the PMDG 737NGX ). I remember during the very early stages of my type rating, my instructors were really impressed with how I was familiar with the FMC pages knowing where everything is and never got lost with it. They were also impressed with how I knew a lot of airport’s ICAO codes, METAR & TAF decodings. In my first flight on the Boeing 737 as a first officer under training, I was also super familiar and confident with ATC communications and most of the procedures, Again, thanks to VATSIM.
After a couple of years of flying the Boeing 737NG as a real-world pilot, I thought to give it back to the aviation enthusiasts and flight simulator community in any way I can, so I created a full youtube tutorial on how to fly the Boeing 737NG on flight simulators just like real-world pilots do. it’s applicable to all versions of flight simulators and Boeing 737NG add-ons, You can find it here.
I Couldn’t judge how realistic flight simulators are until I started flying an airliner jet for real.
And now I can say, if you use professional aircraft’s versions, and apply as many real-world manuals and regulations as you can, home flight simulation can be realistic enough to help you with your initial pilot training and also with your airliner jet pilot training ! in other words, it can get up to 80% realistic, and the remaining 20% would be for motion!
To this day, I’m still flying on flight simulator and VATSIM and I always will, It’s my passion. I’m glad and thankful I belong to this amazing community.
Originally published at https://the-rebellious.com on April 9, 2020.