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The Best Flight Simulator
to
Learn to Fly

The best flight simulator to learn to fly is a great question. It is an exiting time in the flight simulator community with the choice of available sims growing with the release of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.

Your current choices of mainstream flight simulators are X Plane 11, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, Prepar3D by Lockheed Martin.

The newest and most graphically impressive is by far the MSFS 2020 with its use of Bing Maps imagery creating some very realistic landscapes as well as it’s impressive simulation of weather being the most realistic of all the sims currently.

The Best Flight Simulator to Learn to Fly – X Plane 11

IF your looking at a flight simulator for being the most realistic to fly then you can’t go past X Plane 11 in my opinion. The aircraft in this simulator simulate the airflow over the entire aircraft including prop wash and even down wash from aircraft ahead of you.

X Plane 11 uses blade theory which is the item that makes this sim stand out head and shoulders over the others in this important area. There is quite a lot of support with add on aircraft and scenery and well as options to easily create your own airports and more.

The Best Flight Simulator to Learn to Fly – Prepar3D

The best flight simulator to learn to fly could be Prepar3d By Lockheed Martin which is an adaption of the original Flight Simulator model. It is quite impressive with its array of scenery addons as well as aircraft. This flight simulator has had many upgrades from the original Microsoft flight simulator being a 64-bit program. The upgrade to 64 bit made a big difference to the performance of the simulator.

This simulators flight model uses a method of generalized reactions to flight control inputs and weather. The original MSFS used a single point of reference which is not going to create as accurate a flight model as the preceding offerings.

There are other flight simulators out there currently, but they don’t offer professional packages for flight training where the selection above do.

Certainly, Prepar3d and X Plane 11 both have professional training options and MSFS 2020 has a number of options, but none mention professional training.

Can you learn to fly with a flight simulator?

This question what is the best flight simulator to learn to fly could be argued by many but as someone who has flown for real, I feel I can give you a fair perspective in this point.

Flight simulators are fantastic to learn procedures and the basics in flight. Dealing with planning flights providing you have the correct maps and information which can be gained from your local pilot show or to maybe to a lesser degree of accuracy websites like Skyvector.com can give you the basics in weather and airport information while you’re learning.

It’s a great place to get started with your flying, getting use to speeds for take-off and landing as well as in the circuit. Getting comfortable with things like operating radios and setting the correct altimeter pressures. There is a lot of things you can learn for sure.

QFI – Get guidance from your Instructor

If you have an instructor, they can show you the basics of normal and crosswind landings as well as take offs. Remember, take offs are optional but landings are monitory!

What a flight simulator cannot do is give you the seat of the pants feel for flying and feeling the drift as you land when you’re not straight. The impact of the aircraft landing and its often unwillingness to go straight and stop!

Yes, one thing flight sims do not is give you the heart racing feeling you get when landing even when your confident. Your only as good as your last landing! Yes, believe me your confidence can take a hit in the real world which it does not on a flight simulator.

How realistic is a Flight Simulator?

Flight simulators in the commercial world come with full 6 degrees of motion and get as realistic as is possible without flying. When considering the best flight simulator to learn to fly at home there are amazing variety of commercial as well as home made options.

These have different levels with amazing graphics and detail to complete the immersion.  There are fully operational cockpits replicating actual aircraft built by many fanatical simmers just take you away from reality and the hours of dedicated work is impressive.

Building and flying these give an amazing experience and then comes the home cockpit builders of which there are many creating their own cockpits of their favorite aircraft to a very high degree of accuracy from Cessna 172’s to 737’s and jet fighters.

Beyond this comes the simple home PC and using your favorite choice of controller being a yoke or joystick complimented by a mouse and sometimes instrument and engine controls. These are all readily available for you to purchase from places like AMAZON.com. If you’re interested, please visit the pages of letsflyvfr.com for all the toys you may desire.

The Most Realistic Feeling Flight Simulator

But getting back to the question of how realistic a flight simulator is, I would say very accurate if set up correctly.

It’s rare that the world is calm with no winds or gusting as well as clouds or thermals to upset your dream flight so here is where the realism comes to the fore.

Setting up weather parameters is super important. Having some degree of crosswind is common as the wind rarely comes smoothly straight down the runway for you. There is often a small gusting element where the wind drops in speed or increases in speed over short periods.

As the day warms up there tends to be natural thermals that cause the aircraft to rise as the columns of air do something like hitting bumps in the road. Some will be gentle and now and again they can be very powerful.

The aircraft rarely just sits where you point it as all these things have an effect of the air frame moving it one way then the other even if only slightly. So, if the flight you’re on the aircraft does not need constant small control inputs it is NOT realistic.

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Where can a flight Simulator
be a negative when learning to fly?

When you sit don next to your flight instructor for the first time, he will know immediately you have a flight simulator by your general knowledge. I personally had this experience. I immediately felt at home in the Diamond DA20 on my first flight. I had some issues with taxiing as the aircraft needed differential breaking to steer it. A new concept for me. Once we got moving in the correct direction it was quite comfortable.

The instructor watched me after take-off when I was given the controls as we climbed out immediately after lift-off. I controlled the aircraft precisely and as I was given heights and speeds to maintain I felt it comfortable to do so. I needed to trim the aircraft and did so without asking him, it just was a natural thing to do so I thumbed the elevator trim forward to get some nose down trim. This got a raised eyebrow as we leveled out and accelerated. All was going well!

Then it came! The lesson and the failure of all of us that fly flight simulators and transfer to real world flying. I never looked around or really think to look outside much. We are focused on that single monitor in front of us on the computer desk.

I was, and you likely will be focused on the instruments! Yes, I was undone! Look outside was the request. Get to know the attitude referencing the cowl or the instrument panel to the horizon. VFR is a visual form of flying and we sim pilots don’t learn this. It becomes very uncomfortable not constantly watching the artificial horizon and the vertical speed indicator (VSI).

Virtual Reality – Game Changer

A saving grace here is Virtual Reality. This could be our savior as flight simulator pilots. This will allow us to look for traffic in the pattern as we are rarely alone. Even at Gawler where I flew a lot on a Wednesday you better be looking for gliders entering the pattern and be ready to get out of there way. Yes they have priority not you in your shiny prop driven speedster.

The second option is Facetrack no IR or Track IR V5 which allows you to control your view with your head. This is great but the VR gives you 3D depth perception. Something no flat screen monitor will likely do.

Conclusion

In conclusion you can get a very accurate flight experience no matter if its with real world flying in mind or just a realistic home flying experience. You can build the simulator of your dreams, even get an aircraft cockpit and these are not that expensive if the aircraft is scrapped. Certainly popular with many or stay with a desktop setup, simple to complex as you desire.

The MUST haves in my opinion are:

A computer that gives you a smooth experience:

Controls you would find in an actual aircraft:

                             Yoke/Joystick – Rudders – Throttle

When choosing a simulator program then this becomes very personal:

Consider:

The Flight model and does it suite your needs?

The weather engine & Options. Can you create realistic flight conditions?

Scenery Quality: It’s important for VFR flying where your looking for ground references to navigate.

The controls you need and other peripherals like Rudder, throttle and yoke/joystick.

Do you want to get more peripherals like throttle quadrants and engine controls for a more realistic experience?

Would you like flight instruments on a second screen/Ipad or physical units which are available.

Do you want to fly with a single monitor, multiple monitors for the wrap around experience or go to Virtual Reality?

There is certainly a lot of options when setting up a flight simulator at home and I would say many of the above are essential for that immersive experience. I hope this has been a useful guide to your first step into flying and the joy it brings! No one will ever understand the smile you have when you solo for the first time other than another pilot.

Enjoy your flying and remember to challenge yourself to make you better every flight.

Gunnie
LetsFlyVFR.com & Youtube Channel

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