Flight Simulator: The Virtual Flying Coach

The power of flight has changed the course of human civilization to the greatest extent. For our ancestors, the sky was the final frontier and flight was the power needed to conquer this. They looked to the sky with absolute admiration and wondered what if they could fly and reach the heavenly bodies. Well, their dream of flight continued through the generations – the concept of flight was redefined through the invention of first operating gliders by Otto Lilienthal in 1891 and the first manned aircraft by Wright Brothers in 1903 (Grc.nasa.gov, 2015).

World War I and II played major roles in the modernization of aircraft. Started with the early propeller-driven biplanes, we’ve finally conquered the sky with the modern day jet engine powered aircraft. With the advancement of flying machines, pilots started to face lots of brand new challenges for learning new techniques of efficient flying. And that’s where we need the flight simulators.

Basically, flight simulators are integrated devices that provide a trainee pilot with an understanding and feel of real-life flying through extensive audio-visual projection (mostly through CGI), a comprehensive operational resemblance of the aircraft’s cockpit and other instruments and motion rendering mechanisms (Allerton, 2009). Industrial flight simulators are extensively used for training pilots. The use of such simulators is widely popular because it’s very risky for both the person and the plane to put a trainee pilot on a multi-million dollar aircraft for solely training purpose (Dargahi and Putze, 2001). Today’s largest simulator is situated at NASA Ames Research Center, named the Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS). This simulator provides a real-time solution related to the airplane and spacecraft design, piloted simulation and realistic sensory cues (Aviationsystemsdivision.arc.nasa.gov, 2015).

Now the question is whether these simulators can actually teach you to fly? There are debates regarding this issue but according to the specialists and trainers, simulators do help the trainees to some extent. Trainee pilots can get a very good understanding over the cockpit, complex sets of instruments, navigational equipment and basic operations. The virtual flying experiences would reduce their stress and anxiety while they’re on their own in real time (Williams, 2006). But, no matter how sophisticated these programs/devices are, the real training is always crucial. That’s because flight simulators are not capable of providing 100% physical feedback and also the real-world situations can’t be replicated there. Flight simulators lack real-world adversaries and would never make a trainee fully confident before the actual flying with real aircraft (Lee, 2005).

According to the US Air Force’s Air Combat Command (ACC), currently, there is no data to accurately quantify to what extent simulators can replace live flying for Air Force fighter/bomber training (Flightglobal.com, 2012). This statement shows that both physical and virtual training is needed where the right mix is yet to be determined.

There are other means of learning about flying. For instance, the flight simulations games. However, training hours with this kind of simulation games don’t add up with the pilot’s personal portfolio and thus create little value to his career path.

There are other video games like World of Warplanes and War Thunder where you can further test your flying skills in historical battlefields with legendary warplanes. However, these games are not flight simulators in particular and would be better used as a reference for warplane designs and historic aerial battles. There are other flight simulation programs like X Plane 10 that can sharpen your flying skills in case you are bored of playing those games.

It’s true that flight simulators are amazing learning tools. But these can only create a real-life pilot when assisted with experienced trainers and practical flying lessons. If you’ve got your eyes on being a pilot, keep playing those simulation games but always remember, you’ll have to finish the practical part of your learning from an experienced instructor with a real-life plane out in the bright blue sky before you hold the sticks of that amazing aircraft in real-life!

Disclaimer: This article was written for Project EduGaming. It’s republished here as the project website is not accessible these days.

References

Allerton, D. (2009). Principles of flight simulation. Chichester, UK: Wiley.

Aviationsystemsdivision.arc.nasa.gov, (2015). NASA Ames Aviation Systems Division: VMS Main. [online] Available at: http://www.aviationsystemsdivision.arc.nasa.gov/facilities/vms/index.shtml [Accessed 20 Dec. 2015].

Dargahi, N. and Putze, D. (2001). Ultimate flight simulator pilot’s guidebook. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide.

Flightglobal.com, (2012). IN FOCUS: Simulation seen as key to cost-effective military training. [online] Available at: https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/in-focus-simulation-seen-as-key-to-cost-effective-military-379182/ [Accessed 4 Jan. 2016].

Fox News, (2012). Can a home computer teach you to fly a real plane? | Fox News. [online] Available at: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/01/27/can-home-computer-teach-to-fly-real-plane.html [Accessed 4 Jan. 2016].

Grc.nasa.gov, (2015). History of Flight. [online] Available at: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/UEET/StudentSite/historyofflight.html [Accessed 20 Dec. 2015].

Lee, A. (2005). Flight simulation. Aldershot: Ashgate.

West, J. and Lane-Cummings, K. (2013). Microsoft flight simulator x for pilots. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

Williams, B. (2006). Microsoft flight simulator as a training aid. Newcastle, Wash.: Aviation Supplies & Academics.