It’s very common for real pilots to have issues with sims. The feel is very different, both in what you feel the plane doing and how the yoke reacts. Often controllers have a much smaller range of motion than the actual yoke or stick in a cockpit, so there’s that translation, too.
Practice, and small movements, just like in the plane, really. It’s just easier in a plane because you’re pulling against a force. Here, there’s nothing to hold you back.
Proper speed control is huge, too. It’s a lot easier in a real plane because you’re “in” it. Here it’s easy to let it go. I’m not saying that’s what’s going on with you, it’s just a common issue.
(you likely wouldn’t be talking to us if you weren’t a good pilot )
(and yeah, the logbook leaves A LOT to be desired, haha!)
Really appreciate the feedback from guys with a pilots license as is my dream to actually fly.
It is valuable to know that in actual flying that runway lights are not as bright as in the sim and I was wondering if that is the same for the street lights as often I rely on street lights for situational awareness.
Kind of remembering my parents’ story of them being flown back home during rain and fog and the pilot relying on street lights on highways for direction. This was during the 1960’s.
So, I don’t know about these guys, but, from the air, I can certainly see HIRL (High Intensity Runway Lights) lights from 5 to 10 miles away depending on altitude and air quality at night. Much further than 10 mi in fact. Just take a look out the window when you’re at 8,000 to 5,000 ft in an airliner at night, and you can likely see runways all over the place depending on where you are (flying down rt 2 across Massachusetts for instance, even way out west). During the day, yeah, not so much. Most of the time the lights aren’t even on during the day.
When approaching an uncontrolled airport (or maybe its towered and the controllers went home to bed as well), you tune to the CTAF frequency and click the mic button 3, 5, or 7 times for low intensity, medium intensity, and high intensity (lighting capabilities vary by runway, not all runways have high intensity capability) light levels respectively.
Well, when the approach lighting rabbit lights are on high intensity, they get blinding as you fly to/over them to the point you feel happy to get past them and you can finally see the runway, so it’s a good idea to think about that if you’re turning on the lights of a runway at night, sometimes it’s best to set them to low or medium intensity if the runway you’re landing at has approach lighting.
Very nice to understand this as it is nice to know that it would be realistic to fly a Ziln Cub in Alaska at this time of year with short daylight hours on the main land following street lights and being confident of finding the runways.
There are some plus some strips like Chistochina Airport, CZO located right next to Glen Hwy that seem to have bright street lights that I used as landing lights if this is realistic.
Flight plans need to be carefully planned and I also use Bing and Google maps if realistic.
Kind of why I asked about the realism of traffic lights for situational awareness on a calm clear day even with high overcast.
My comments are specific to the Cessna 152 as its the only one I have done enough hours on yet to make any informed comment.
First thing I have noticed is that the rudder is not needed to fly the plane - only on the ground. This is quite different to my real life experience.
2nd thing that really hit me was how the flare out seemed to be quite different to real life. THe controls on the SIM seem to need a lot less pull back than in real life.
Apart from those 2 issues I think its a pretty good simulation
I really miss being able to see airport beacons from long distances. It’s kind of like they put the distance way down (for the bush challenges maybe?). In real life, you can spot a beacon from 25 miles or more, but you can’t usually see the HEILs that face the other way. You have to be within 45 degrees or so. And the PAPI / VASI lights need to be brighter on approach, but not from a large angle, either.
This was one of my big writeups to zendesk over the summer beta. The lights should be directional- hell, in FSX I believe this effect was modeled as you made your way to aligning with final.
Also, I’m noticing that FS2020 doesn’t get the “inertia” quite right- on the jets especially as you come to rotation speed and pull back to rotate, the plane seems to just jump into the air- usually it takes half a second as the flight control change you just made has an effect on the airflow and then the aircraft’s motion/pitch- especially at low speeds.
My Feedback is … You don’t need a whole bunch of Simmers or Pilots , or whoevers, in a forum, telling you what needs to be fixed in the flight modeling.
What you do need are some selected Aviation professionals, pilots, CFI, etc to sit down with, (or teleconference with) and discuss these issues, and follow their professional advice.
Decide that needs to be done, prioritize them, do them and then have those professional re-check the results, and suggest any improvement or mistakes to be corrected.
But not my place or job to tell anyone what to do - only to say, this is what I would probably do, if I was tasked in getting this sorted out…in a timely manner, with some degree of certency I was going in the correct direction.
What about the cost of all those ZenDesk staff, sorting through the piles of “bug reports”… and trying to make some sense of what is good and what is bad …
Suddenly, hiring a few professionals starts to look a lot less costly !!, and a lot more efficient.
I also find it amazing that the Big Companies like Garmin , Boeing, Airbus, are not a little concerned about the way their products are being incorrectly portraid in the sim.
(maybe they already are). You would have thought they would be eager to get that corrected , and money would not be the major factor.
LOL I agree! I also wrote to zendesk this summer asking if I could meet with them via zoom and explain some stuff that would really make a difference. But I also think that if it was a sim purely designed by pilots, it would be a lot more boring and less pretty. When I attend recurrent training for my airline, the view out the window is not one of the things I marvel at.
Yes, but that Sim Cockpit, with every switch, knob, and gauge, fully operational and 99.999% real world, is the “Hand Candy” l … you don’t need fancy MSFS “Eye Candy” to fly a plane , unless you are in MSFS, and just want to “swoop around in 90 deg banks” “sight seeing”
As I private pilot, the rudder has been the hardest to get right. I do have a set of rudder pedals, but when you fly an airplane, you get a “feel” for a slip or skid that the sim can’t provide. So I have to spend more time looking at the turn coordinator than I would in real flight. Also in real flight, you can look away and read something or operate GPS more easily, because you can use the rudders to fly by feel. In the sim if I am not on autopilot and spend too much time monkeying with GPS or radio controls I find the plane in an unusual attitude or way off course.
There is not much to look out of the window for anyway with RVR 300 m and overcast 100 ft who cares about the visuals, it all looks like milk . I’m going to be in the hell-box the next few days. The projectors will mainly be white for most of the flight .
That is a really good idea. I fly with a Honeycomb you and a Saitek throttle quadrant. If I am not using the pro lever (mostly 172 and 152) I can use that as my trim! That could be much more accurate than the button on the yoke. Thanks!
Most of these deals are with the Marketing arms of the companies. All they care is that their name is in front of as many faces as possible. The more name recognition they get, the more they’ll dominate in the market for sales. You’re at the store, now you see a Garmin Watch… “Hmm? maybe I should…”
Anyone here ever hear of Avidyne? Yep, nope!
IOW, they don’t really care if it works or not in the sim, as long as you recognize their logo.
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. I’m going to be in the hell-box the next few days. The projectors will mainly be white for most of the flight 
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