Just a curiosity… I know we are about 11 million pilots, or so MS say , but is there any statistic on how many are real life pilots?
Unfortunately I’m not one of them… But I like to know the differences between these aircraft and their real counterparts, so their opinions are very valuable from my point of view.
Well, I am one and I am not sure how many are here but I can tell there are a number of retirees like myself. I have a Commercial License and did aviation research in simulators primarily on cognition and aging as well as drug effects. I stopped flying at ago 60 when the glass cockpits came out for the 172… (G1000)… passed my instrument competency check and said good by… was trained on analogue gauges…
Seems the training is keeping this sim alive given its major defects… must be fun and I hope gamers get out in real planes… but it is so expensive now!
You know planes fly differently and they are IMHO a lot easier… if you can fly MSFS 2024 you are ready for anything 
I believe the FAA publishes the number of pilot certificates in the US. Not sure how many are here, CPL single and multi, former CFI-II and MEI 
PPL here with my IFR check-ride scheduled a few months out
I think you can search for the annual Navigraph poll results. They list a pretty comprehensive picture, including how many IRL pilots there are among simmers.
Ex Gliding instructor here…just the sim now!
Which aircraft and what differences interest you most? And why would an IRL pilot be better able to speak to that than an experienced sim pilot? After all, it is a simulation game meant to provide enjoyment, what more do you need to know to have fun in MSFS? Also would help if you let us know if you are flying in 2020, 24, or both. There will be no shortage of opinions!
I’m a real pilot.
My perspective: FS2020 really is the best simulator ever made (2024…maybe when they fix all the broken stuff). Others might be more accurate “by the numbers,” but the total package of 2020 is the closest to flying a real airplane. Most of the default airplanes are inaccurate in one way or another, and yes, other sims have a higher average systems fidelity. But the combination of systems, flight dynamics, environment, visuals, and, for lack of a better word, “feel”, is highest in FS2020. Get something like the Fenix or the A2A Comanche and the systems/flight dynamics are so close to the real thing you really can train on the sim.
Procedural accuracy (such as ATC and ops) remains very poor. I am constantly worried that bad procedural habits I pick up from the sim will bleed over into the real world, but so far that hasn’t happened.
The biggest remaining difference is that ephemeral “feel.” Flying a plane is a kinesthetic experience. Most pilots seem to agree that flying real aircraft is easier than flying sim aircraft, because you have your inner ears, your peripheral vision, your situational awareness, the seat of your pants. None of that works in the sim. Even something like A2A, which does a really great job of simulating the way you, the pilot, move as an airplane moves, is fundamentally constrained by the fact that you’re still sitting in a chair looking at a screen in a room somewhere.
Example: one of the planes I fly, a Bristell NG5, weighs only 800 pounds empty. When I first started flying it, I was trying to fly it like a sim aircraft, by visuals and instruments. I got by, but it felt squirrely and even the minor gusts felt like a hurricane. The plane is so light that you fly over a parking lot at 2,000’ and get a 500fpm climb. As time passed, I realized I had “learned” the plane and there was a whole layer of kinesthetic reaction and control I was using to fly the plane before even using my eyes to look out the window or down at the instruments. You learn which gusts you need to react to and which the plane will ride out, you’re making a thousand tiny, almost imperceptible corrections every minute, and there’s just nothing in the sim to compare to that - turbulence in the sim feels like Star Trek shakeycam by comparison.
I’m honestly not sure how much better it can get, without us all getting full-motion simulators in our basements. Everything else (except procedures, which still has so far to go) is so close it’s mind-boggling.
I’d love to hear more about your research. Sounds fascinating. Is it publicly available anywhere?
Agree with the comment from ThorCoolGuy regarding the feel of flying, which is a fundamental piece of aviation experience. Obviously missing from PC simulator, and even to some extent not fully reproduced in six degree of motion Level D simulators.
I have 40 years of flying in my logbooks, CPL/MEL/IFR with last decade in a Cessna twin C-414 Chancellor. Had to give it up entering retirement from engineering for the simple reason of economic reality. Flight simulation is my primary hobby, one that I participate in as much as practical. For the past 24 years I’ve been beta testing PMDG products which has opened a whole new world of learning and information. I’m still having fun with aviation in that sense.
Flew the 414AW yesterday from Sky Harbor up to Flagstaff to check out the update and take a look at some scenery. Love that airplane! I flew right seat in a 402 charter many years ago with my instructor as PIC and so the Chancellor really tugs those heart strings!
Moved to Discussion Hub > Real-life Aviation as this was originally in a User Support Hub section.
It depends on the aircraft I’m flying on each moment. Normally I fly a lot with an aircraft and when I have some practice I begin to ask myself how realistic it is. Would I had break the gear in real life with THAT horrible landing? It is REALLY so easy to take off with this aircraft? Things like that. Sooner or later I’ll move to another aircraft and I’ll ask other questions.
I’ve asked some of these questions in this forum now and then and always I find someone that knows the real thing and is willing to answer. I appreciate the opinions of people that have flown the real birds. For instance, when I was flying the C310 I (dramatically) found out that it was very easy to fall like a rock on the last feet before landing. I thought it was a design issue but then I read someone that had flown a real 310 and said that the flight model was accurate, that this was really the behaviour of that aircraft.
I believe that flight model and aircraft behaviour is the core of this application (I resist to call it “game” 
a game is Civilization VI) The closer to the real aircraft the better. Comparing the sims with the reals is useful to me.
Totally agree. I rembember long time ago MS created a version of the japanese WW2 fighters for its Combat Flight Simulator 2 and let Saburo Sakai (he was still alive) try a virtual Zero. He said that the virtual aircraft behaved fine, climbs and descents and turns and all the rest, but in the real airplane his arm was stuck to the leg in every turn because of the centrifugal force. We will never get that sensation.
But I think that we can ask not for realism, but for fidelity. I don’t think is so complicated to create a C208 that has a yaw dumper that works.
I’m an inactive instrument rated private pilot. When I was younger and getting my training, I so admired the Beechcraft on the flight line that were either too expensive to rent or not for rent at all. Recently, Black Box released all my dream aircraft for Xbox, and I just completed a flight in the Grand Duke a few moments ago. Good flying to you, keep asking questions!
CFI/IFR here since 2013. Been using the FS actively since the FS2004. It’s has always been a precious source to practice IFR. I’m sure many other (real) pilots will agree about the importance of this tool. Of course the more advanced the aircraft in the sim is, the better it will be once you get in its real life counterpart. Familiarization is everything and can speed up the process in a eventual training session. But again, it’s the most precious tool to keep up with IFR.
I hold a commercial certificate with aircraft single and multi engine ratings, plus an instrument rating. I also hold a ground instructor advanced and ground instructor instrument certificate. Most of my flying has been GA, a handful of Piper and Cessna models from bare-bones analog panels to G1000NXi. I stream twice weekly, mostly GA stuff, scenario-based IFR stuff, and guided tours. I love to chat all things aviation, weather, and geography, trying to answer whatever questions might help bridge the gap between simming and real-world flying.
I’m also a real world pilot. I’d been simming for almost 30years, and finally had the time and money to pursue my PPL which I got last year.
FS2020 I truely believe helped me get it in less than 40 hours…. A great PROCEDURAL trainer to sure.
Now I’m working on my CPL with plans to become an instructor as part of my retirement plan.
I’m current on the Long-EZ, and the IndiaFoxTecho version flies quite a bit differently than the one my dad built. But because they’re all homebuilt aircraft and can vary substantially in their configurations, they each have their own unique characteristics.
Still, I find the aircraft usable for real world training purposes. At a minimum I can do a simulated walk-around, practice procedures and checklists, sight picture, and even get a feel for how a flight is going to go and look like. And I actually use the sim all the time for these purposes. But I can even do some maneuvers, as the aircraft will let me match airspeeds, and its stall and landing characteristics are close enough that I can pretend I’m flying the real thing. I treat it as a different Long-EZ than my own, however.
The sim in general is like this. It’s close enough that it’s really a real simulator. I use the 172 and PA-28’s for real world practice as well. But I always treat the sim and real variants as separate aircraft types with their own unique characteristics. When I’m in the sim I don’t think, “Is this realistic behavior for this aircraft?” I just think, “This is how this aircraft flies, and I need to handle it as such.” Because there are substantial differences between these variants too. Even high priced third-party aircraft aren’t necessarily clones of the real thing, or even more realistic than “lesser” copies. For example, I find the real PA-28, the Just Flight PA-28, and the Carenado PA-28 all handle differently, but for simming I actually prefer the Carenado. The JF variant is the hardest to fly of all three, and harder than real life. Sometimes I think “hardcore simmers” conflate difficulty with realism, but this isn’t necessarily the case.
What I can’t use the sim for is actual currency, not just legally of course, but I can’t get the feel for the aircraft either. If I go 9-12 months without landing a real 172, but practice all the time in the sim, and then jump in the real plane and do some pattern work, my landings are really REALLY bad. I have to learn how to land it again essentially.
PPL here and training currently for the IR.
Also have a night rating.