Not sure about others but in my personal case, most of my sim time I try to follow the habits of the real live flights.
What I miss most is the haptic feedback and motion.
I think, MSFS can and will certainly help you out a lot if you want to obtain your PPL.
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As it could be some time before I get my first lesson (depending on some circumstances) do any of you have suggestions for what would be the best thing to practice using the sim which wouldnt be possibly harmful to my future lessons?.. I noticed a few things were mentioned such as navigation and getting familiar with intruments.
How “into” aviation have you been up to this point? Some people understand and/or absorb quite a bit more than others, sim or not, because they watch videos, read books, are around people that fly, etc. Maybe they’re mechanically or technologically inclined, or they’re just super gung-ho about aviation.
Maybe you’ve played a bunch of video games and already understand the hand-eye coordination necessary to maneuver and stabilize something, anticipation, dividing attention, etc.
If you’re getting close to making the transition and if/when you have an instructor lined up, you might want to ask him or her. Otherwise, the only thing I’d recommend at this point is sitting in the cockpit, real (with permission and supervision) or virtual, of the same type of aircraft and just getting a feel of the layout. Knowing where things are, etc. Possibly get a checklist and just understand where the referenced switches, etc, are (don’t touch them in the real plane!).
You can also start reading various study material, but again, careful that there are things you might not understand and I’d bookmark those for further reference and not really go beyond those if you don’t understand the prior concepts the next block builds upon.
So right now, I’ve got about a solid 10 years worth of flying video games under my belt… but only as a gamer, not as a simmer. Now Im becoming interested in actually figureing out how this stuff works… (Not just punching the throttle, doing a few barrel rolls and then… landing? never heard of it lol) Ive always just been interested in aviation in general though… Ive done rc plane flying… and its not the actual “flying” part im worried about… its all the technical stuff… such as navigation, instruments, atc… just all of the procedures. And at this moment I am just at the brink of taking a look into actually flying fr… I havent looked at instructors or anything. Im very fresh. And im not the engineer type of person thst really good with numbers and science… which is not helpful… but nothing a little determination cant solve.
Also… to be noted i have an uncle im close to who flys large navy aircraft and he is a good source of information and will help me.
That’s a great place to be! There are days when I feel envious of the folks who are just beginning the journey and all the awesome things you’re going to learn.
I would highly recommend booking a one-hour-ish “discovery flight.” If you do it with a CFI, and have the right prerequisites (like an aviation medical), you can log it as a lesson. Either way, you’ll get some “stick time” and some of the things about flying small GA aircraft that aren’t apparent to simmers can show up there and you’ll quickly learn whether it’s right for you.
Then, outside of the learning process itself, it’s determining the pace (and resultant cost) of lessons that works best for you.
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That sounds like a great idea and I will definitely look around to see whats available near me! Thanks for all your help.
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