Flying Lessons

About two years ago I came into some money that I was not expecting and decided to carry out a life long ambition, and that was to learn to fly. I joined a school at Birmingham airport in the UK early 2010 and qualified as a Private Pilot in early 2011. I am now free to enjoy the pleasures of flying whenever I want within the constraints of my licence.

When I say the constraints of my licence, I have to have certain criteria to be able to go. Mainly good weather and visibility up to 10Km so you can see the horizon and navigate under the visual flight rules I have to follow. The weather is not always that good here in the UK and our weather reports are not that trustworthy either, but 9 times out of 10 it's OK. But what happens to a newly fledged pilot if things get a little rough up there on your travels and the weather deteriorates meaning you no longer have this visibility or horizon to see where you are going?

During your training to gain your PPL licence you spend some time learning how to fly on instruments. Professional pilots fly this way 95% of the time, even if the weather is perfectly good. Flying on instruments basically means you do not look out of the cockpit window for your bearings but mainly at six instruments on the panel in front of you, giving you information such as speed, height, how level your wings are, whether you are climbing, descending or flying straight and level, direction etc. You have to develop what is termed a scan rate where you constantly take in this information and mentally process it to adjust and physically control the aircraft along with other instruments such as navigational aids, engine temperatures and pressures and of course speaking to air traffic control. This can take a lot of practice to get right and it has to become second nature to you, you have to learn to trust what the instruments are telling you.

Pilots who are not fully aware about flying this way can get into serious and dangerous trouble and become what is known as spatially disoriented where they no longer recognise which way is up or down, left or right and with no outside horizon or visibility available to re-orient themselves can end up in a life threatening situation and spin uncontrollably into a dive. Not good, especially for your passenger who has put total trust in your abilities to give them a pleasurable flight.

The training you get when you do your PPL course is very basic and only designed to get you out of trouble should you get yourself into that predicament, if the weather reports were accurate you shouldn't have to worry about this too much, but it can happen, and if not properly trained and ready for it, it can quickly turn into a very nasty situation. A way to compensate for this is to carry on after your PPL and gain further training and confidence using instruments. This however is costly, the initial PPL course swallowed up most of the money I had and I am not a wealthy person, but there is light at the end of the tunnel, i.e., practice on a flight simulation game.

The Cockpit

Flight Simulation games these days are so true to life regarding the functionality of the cockpits that all controls actually work and gauges and displays tell you real data. I decided I wanted to carry on and further my training but at as little expense as possible. Now I know that playing a game is no substitute for real training, but using it to improve your scan rate and mental processing was a great help for me. By carrying out a few hours a week on the flight simulator, it better prepared me for my actual costly lessons and I managed to pass my Instrument Rating in a very short time compared to a lot of the other students on my course. I reckon that 20 hours or so "playing the game" was probably equivalent to 3 - 4 hours in the air. Of course we are only talking theory on the simulator here, but understanding the theory and getting your mind-set right will give you good foundations for the real flying lessons. Of course, this kind of simulation training can also apply to all manner of emergencies and sy stem failures which can all be faithfully reconstructed in the simulator.

Even now if I am planning a short trip this weekend, say from Birmingham down to Bristol, I will prepare at home a few days before, completing my flight plan which will include two diversion airfields in case of trouble or emergencies, and then I will fly them out on the simulator putting in some bad weather or maybe a system failure, this is all good theoretical practice and keeps these mental processes fresh in your mind.

Conclusion

So, in answer to the question "Can Flight Simulation Games Help Train Pilots?" my answer is a definite yes. Along the way I have found it to be an invaluable tool in helping me get to grips with the theory side and also to train my brain into coping with all the mental processes and them becoming second nature to me.

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