The difference between a sim and reality

Hello everyone,
I would like to invite my fellow real life pilots to speak about the difference between a sim and real life.
Simmers are obviously also welcome :wink:
I want to see what people have to say on this topic!
Please don’t do this about msfs specific bugs as this has already been discussed on another thread.

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So I will pitch in,
The obvious, not every airplanes are equipped with a toilet.
One day I personally had a very bad time and had to find an alternate becose that morning I drank too much erm, water :wink:

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You don’t die when crashing in a sim.
That’s one of the reasons why these stupid can-a-simmer-land-an-airliner experiments are nonsense.

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If you fly a real plane badly it can kill you, unlike a simulator. You also don’t get the seat of your pants feeling or gforces sat at a computer.

Winds, gusts, updrafts and downdrafts are less predictable (or more in some cases).

If you fly in controlled airspace when you shouldn’t you may be hauled up in front of the CAA (or FAA) on the other side of the pond

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There are a lot of differences. The environmental effects on the airplane are a lot different. Like the updrafts that you get while transitioning from flying over the trees to flying over the concrete runway when its hot and sunny out. The wind gusts that come out of no where that alter your approach, in particular that little feeling you get in the pit of your stomach right in your round-out when you catch a gust and you start drifting well away from centerline.

Air traffiic is certainly different. In the Sim, i’m not much bothered by other people out there flying, but when I’m actually in the air, I want to make sure I have eyes on any aircraft that is near mine.

I’ll also add that the importance of rudder is felt in the air much more than it is felt in the sim. If you are in an uncoordinated turn in the sim, you don’t really notice and nothing bad can really happen. In real-life, you can feel it and you know you need to correct it else you could end up in a bit of a pickle.

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Yes, I hear you !
Once, at 7000’ I opened the window of a Cessna 177XP to relieve myself.
I trusted the auto pilot and it was totally functional, unlike our..o well. It is amazing how the flow of air can suck things right out the window.
Now, Do not repeat this story…

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The biggest difference for me is how it feels on the body. I can do aerobatics in the sim all day, but in real life I struggle with airsickness. Maybe you’ve gotten a little queasy playing Flight Simulator, but have you ever stuck your head out the window of a 172 in flight and heaved into the prop blast and slipstream down the side of the plane? That would be a good one for the home cockpit builders to try lol.

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HAHA, gotta bring that jug !
This brings some other memory back.
my grandfather was a pilot and when he died he requested that his ashes be thrown on top of the mountain near his home. Unfortunately in the last few years the government decided it was illegal.
So my uncle paid for a flight in 172 and in mid-flight wanted to throw the ashes out the window without notifying the pilot … let me tell you that the pressure in that situation was not going out…
When they got off the plane they looked like miners in a coal mine :sweat_smile:

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Excellent input with the toilets. I want a simulated toilet in some payware aircraft :smiley:

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Ha, that is hilarious ! Wish I had been there to see that.
Your Grandfather would have been proud and I bet he got a chuckle out of that !

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Does it have to be a ā€œFunctionalā€ simulated toilet or just look the part and be non functional like a few instruments in our current Sim ?

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LOL :smiley: Please, sir, with Nvidia physX toilet paper and high quality sounds included, oh..and don’t forget the hostess that knocks on the door after 15 minutes to check if all is well. The full experience really..

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Simulating Hostess or turbulent passenger, in turbulence landing a CATIII to minima while first officer is having a gastro-entheritis
That is some extreme simulation query.

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Well… Just a small difference. :smiley:


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Airplanes always start right up with no issues in the sim. Anyone who has ever started a traditional aircraft engine like the ones you’d find in a Baron or Cessna knows that they can be fickle sometimes, especially depending on the ambient temperature and whether the engine had been running in the past several minutes. On a cold day it might take several tries or action such as pumping the throttle to get the engine to fire. There’s really a technique to it that seems to be unique to each engine type and I think the sim really falls short in representing engines in this way and in general. Cowl flaps have no effect, engines can be run at full power 24/7 without overheating, leaning the mixture is wonky. Third party addons make up for this shortcoming with custom coded engines like the DC-6, but as far as I know there are no GA addons that match the fidelity of that, yet.

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The Extra tend to not start if it is still warm. Always a nightmare if they are used by more than one pilot in competition and they need to fly one after the other.

I’ve seen the same on DV-20 (DA-20)
if hot, wont start, if cold wont start.

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No barf bags in the sim.

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If you do a spin in a sim, not a big deal. Try a three turn spin in a real aircraft, and you will remember it for a long time.

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Flight planning!
You want to check that meteo and those NOTAMS
Calculate the fuel required and much more :thinking: