flight sim - real pilot - advice

ssharp59

ssharp59

ssharp59

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3 Nov 2009
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ok, little bit of a strange one here basically im an average lad (23 years old), have done a few flying lessons in the past, speant a lot of younger life in the ATC, however after Alevels i did the usual, got the first job i could get and ended up being an autocad boffin for a building product manu.
Anyway over the next few years i plan to do my private licence, then commerical and all the others inbetween and follow my original career path of becoming a pilot, at the moment the industry is on its arse, and im going to be self funding so its a slow training schedule however im commited (mainly because its my £££) and i plan to do it. Flying time is very expensive and therefore im spending as much time that i can doing ground studys..

Anyway sorry for the long boring story above but it may have a bearing factor.

I have purchased flight sim fsx, and require a yoke/stick bundle, ive looked at the various choices and the saitek setup x52 is what i almost went for until i noticed it did not have forcefeed back which just seemed crazy. therefore i decided it may be best to ask on here for advice on the best controller setup, also any extras for fsx i should get hold of.

Please note i dont intend to spend ££££ to make sure i have overhead displays yada yada yada, just really the best realistic setup, after all i get to fly the real thing every couple of weeks.
 
Hiya,

My best mate is currently looking for his first airline job after doing exactly what you are planning to set about doing.

He has mentioned on more than one occasion how he believes Flight Sim helped him immensely during his IR training and to some degree using the more complex addons helped him with a recent sim check he was asked to do.

On his FS setup he currently uses a Saitek Pro flight yoke, with throttle quad and CH rudder pedals & TrackIR.

Hope this helps.

P.S Best of luck in your flying adventures!
 
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x52, force feedback is not really used if you are using it as a training tool as you shuold be using your ap. Just looks snazzy if you have FF and you see the stick moving on its own. trackir is amazing.

Good luck with flying, got my ppl a few years ago.
 
I use a Saitek yoke/throttle/rudder combo for my FS setup as well./ It's really about the best you are going to get without spending hundreds and hundreds of pounds on hardware.

Also thought I might as well mention that I did my PPL in Florida as part of an intensive JAA approved course. The whole thing only took a little over four weeks (should have been three...thanks hurricane season!) and only set me back under £3000. Might save you a fortune! When I was there they were training on Liberty XL2's which were a step above the haggard old 172's you'll get over here. Not sure if they still use them however.

Anyway, here's a link to the school if you're interested -

http://www.flyeasa.com/
 
Prrevious lessons have been in Cessna 152's which quite rightly as you say are a little haggad. Thanks for that flight school link, its amazing just how much cheaper it is over there, my biggest problem is keeping my current work happy and unfortuantly that wont give me the ability at this stage to travel overseas to complete my ppl, fortunatly i have ea local flying school who are good however the cost will be almost double the cost over in florida. Plans are once i have the ppl is to take a share in a small aircraft for hour building. Out of interest did they provide accomodation on the intergrated program or was this at an extra cost, i couldnt quite work it out on there website.

Im pleased to here there is evidence in flight sims offering themselves as a valuble practical training tool, and half expected to get shot down when i mentioned it , however it does make perfect sence. Im going to look at the above setups and decided which one to go for.

Thanks for the advice, its much appreciated.
 
They provided accommodation for 3 weeks as part of the package, although I did have to pay a little extra for the remaining week it took. Really great experience actually to be living with loads of other people who are doing the same thing as you. It's not the Ritz, but it's good enough for a few weeks. Also Vegas was only a short flight away to celebrate after passing!

FS was an amazing tool that greatly helped me (and still does) in the real world. Although it doesn't come remotely close to simulating the real sensation of flying or controlling an aircraft, it is absolutely invaluable in teaching you procedural flying and aircraft systems. Also thanks to VATSIM, I was already an old hand on the radios before I had even made my first real world call. If it weren't for years spent on flighsim, I seriously doubt that I'd have managed to pass the course in the set time.
 
Why on earth would you be concerned with force feedback when you've picked something as unrealistic as a joystick as a learning tool to fly with? Surely any aircraft you will be learning on in real life will have a yoke?
 
Dano said:
Why on earth would you be concerned with force feedback when you've picked something as unrealistic as a joystick as a learning tool to fly with? Surely any aircraft you will be learning on in real life will have a yoke?
Click to expand...

For the smaller aircraft that's correct but aren't all these modern airliners flown with a sidestick (Joystick on the side)?
 
Save your money and put it towards flight school. If you really want to be a skipper get a loan and go to a flight school and get it over and done with. Though, I don't recommend doing it right now, as you rightly said, the industry is on it's arse at the moment.
 
Dano said:
Why on earth would you be concerned with force feedback when you've picked something as unrealistic as a joystick as a learning tool to fly with? Surely any aircraft you will be learning on in real life will have a yoke?
Click to expand...

muttclugg said:
For the smaller aircraft that's correct but aren't all these modern airliners flown with a sidestick (Joystick on the side)?
Click to expand...

There are as many styles of flight control as there are aircraft manufacturers. Whether you fly with a yoke or stick and whether you're left or right handed are going to make no difference. You learn a set of skills and transfer those skills from one aircraft to the next.
 
MTA99 said:
There are as many styles of flight control as there are aircraft manufacturers. Whether you fly with a yoke or stick and whether you're left or right handed are going to make no difference. You learn a set of skills and transfer those skills from one aircraft to the next.
Click to expand...

I'm not disagreeing, I merely stated that bemoaning the lack of force feedback when using a control system unlikely to be found in training aircraft seems quite frankly ridiculous.
 
As a military flight sim engineer, a lot of the desktop training tools use generic saitek style stick and throttles. The trainers mostly allow the students to practise operating switches, comms, basic flight instrumentation familiarity with little concern to correct stick feedback. The stick is there on the desk as it helps the student.
When the student progresses onto the "bigger" simulators (full 360 degree visual full kission sims) they are assessed (and tutored if their Instructor is experienced) on various situations, from basic flight (t/o & landing) to full emergency situations.

So I wouldn't worry too much on the 'feel' of the controls, but concentrate on the principles of flying - comms, navigation, aircraft characteristics and have fun with emergencies.
 
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