Budget Flight Simulator

My introduction to the world of Flight Simulation came back in 2003 (yes, I am still new relative to the other folks I know on some of the forums out there). I purchased a spanking new copy of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 (the first edition to include AI aircraft and ATC communications). My goal was to become a real certified Pilot so I decided to become acclimated to the peculiarities of aircraft handling before I dealt with the real thing.

I also purchased a pair of headphones with an attached mouthpiece, a Flight Yoke and Rudder Pedals (courtesy of CH Products) and optimized my stereo sound system for surround sound. It felt like a religious experience even from early on! I then went on sites like Avsim and Posky to download add-on aircraft. I then experimented with sound file replacement so that the airplanes sounded like the real thing!

I learned later on that even though I could now be considered a hardcore simmer, there were folks out there with far more impressive software AND hardware! I saw a couple of uploads of images of Simulators with multiple monitors to simulate 3D views of the outside cockpit environment, and stacks of manually workable flight instruments! I began to feel rather inadequate with my single monitor and my yoke and pedals! I could only look around outside the cockpit as far as the hat switch on my yoke would allow!

I noticed some issues arising as I transitioned from Flight Sim to the real thing…

There was the real issue of my constant tendency to become fixated inside the cockpit. Whilst learning to land in a real airplane with an instructor, I also had to unlearn some potentially dangerous habits I had picked up in teaching myself to land using the Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Flight simulators can be fun and exiting as a basic learning tool, but I am still out when it comes to analyzing them for the danger they could present in terms of developing flying habits that could prove difficult to undue once you decide to fly in the real world.