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Flight simulators bring massive levels of realism and fun to any home based flying enthusiast. They are setup to emulate multitudes of different aircraft and locations around the world. Flight Simulator development over the past thirty years has been nothing short of astonishing. Starting with a simple black and white program in the early 1980's to lifelike scenery and perfect flight models in 2012 they have certainly come a long way.
If you are interested in finding out exactly what it takes to be a pilot in the real world, then a modern flight simulator will give you a great insight to the challenges pilots face.
I am going to have a look at some of the challenges pilots face in the real world, and then compare those challenges to what we can emulate on a flight simulator. Training for any pilot is obviously the first challenge they will encounter. Training to become a commercial pilot takes many hours of flying training in many different aircraft and in many different environment types.
Training is something we can easily recreate in most flight simulators, all you really need is a training guide and some goals relevant to what you are looking to achieve. Flight simulators will easily recreate many aspects of a typical pilot training course.
You will start with basic flight dynamics and aircraft handling followed by circuit after circuit to hone those landing skills. Your next challenge will be navigation, this is arguably the most complicated part of any training schedule yet this is also the easiest to recreate on a flight simulator. Instrument flying is completed with little or no reference to the outside environment, instead pilots will spend their time with their heads 'inside' the cockpit, ie; looking at instruments. Once you have achieved both aircraft handling and mastered the art of navigation you can essentially take an aircraft anywhere you like. This training in real life will award you with a private pilot's licence and the ability to carry passengers (non paying) anywhere you like.
Once you are a fully fledged pilot the challenges you face will shift slightly, whilst everything you have learned in training will be extremely relevant to your day to day tasks, the focus is now on a successful flight with an aircraft of paying passengers rather than a successful flight check and additional study towards the next training module.
Typically pilots will face ONE considerable challenge on a day to day basis. This challenge is simply the outside environment. If weather did not exist on our planet flying an aircraft would be a completely different job and loads easier. Pilots face numerous challenges daily due to weather, visibility departing or arriving at airports can provide a challenge as can the wind on a final approach.
Recreating environmental challenges within a flight simulator can be a bit harder, however, it has got much easier as flight simulators have developed. In 2012 with a leading flight simulator you can expect to see realistic scenery and weather effects outside the cockpit, and you can also expect to experience realistic environmental effects on the aircraft you are flying.
I love the challenge of an ILS approach and crosswind landing on my home simulator, the elation of completing this task successfully and knowing that it is close to what real aircraft and pilots endure on a day to day basis is fantastic.
If you are interested in setting up a realistic simulator and need some help, I am happy to point you in the right direction, from finding the best flight simulator to setting up your flight simulator hardware and finding training guides to follow. The above links will give you access to a free pilots mini course I have also created.
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How do you know when you have picked a GOOD flight simulator? Finding a good simulator is becoming harder and harder as a large number of flight simulator games have hit the market in recent years. I remember when flight simulation began and ended with Microsoft Flight Simulator '95. Today, Microsoft is still a BIG name in the flight simulator game despite their last release being a few years ago with FSX. What keeps these giants in the market are simply third-party software releases which enhance your experience in various ways. I have previously installed gigabyte after gigabyte of extra scenery, extra aircraft and various small additions to aircraft and airport realism. My main gripe with this has always been - to run this properly I'd need to spend literally thousands upgrading my computer. YouTube is a classic example of this, a brief search will yield some amazing videos of almost lifelike graphics and ultra smooth visuals; however, the hardware setup to achieve such graphics is simply out of most people's budgets.
There are a number of factors to look for in a good flight simulator:
Realistic flight model Realistic scenery Something that is able to be run on your home computer Challenging - flying is always challenging so why should flight simulation be any different?
Getting a simulator with a realistic flight model is a HUGE must for most flight sim enthusiasts, the best flight simulator to date which achieves this (for me anyway) is Professional Flight Simulator. NASA flight dynamics are hard to beat and they are replicated in spades with this flight simulator, now don't get me wrong, I have purchased quite a few excellent aircraft add-ons for FSX which have a fantastic flight model, but until now have never had the pleasure of it being built into the simulator.
Realistic scenery, this is a huge bone of contention amongst many within the simulation community. How much are you willing to sacrifice for pretty visuals outside the cockpit? The sacrifice you make or at least that I have made to date is frame rates. There are some FANTASTIC additions to scenery available now and the developers have done an absolutely magic job of creating these. However, again I find myself stuck with ridiculously low frame rates, so what's the point? There is a school of thought out there that scenery really doesn't matter, as long as the aircraft behaves like the real aircraft would then graphics are just a waste of time. To some extent I agree with this, however, I can't help but be a wee bit jealous of those people who have spent thousands on a simulator setup that runs these visuals perfectly.
So this leads perfectly into finding something that runs well on your home computer, and no I don't mean something that runs on a computer that cost 6000 dollars to build. Something that runs on my machine and your machine yet gives us that elusive realism that we keep looking to achieve. Pro Flight Simulator does that thankfully, I've found that as flight sims develop the requirements for a high-end PC progressively gets stronger. Something new has happened lately, developers of ALL games have realised that to reach the full potential of their target markets, they need to create something that will run well on EVERYONE'S computer. So there is a lot more work going into simulators that whilst still look GOOD, will run on your average PC.
So let's say we have achieved all of the above, we have a flight sim that runs well with our computer hardware, and looks fantastic when we manage to drag ourselves away from those instrument panels. The last thing I want is to be challenged! Challenge in a flight simulator is the ONE thing that keeps us flying. The challenge of that ILS approach, or crosswind landing, or setting up a flight plan that WORKS from start to finish. There is an immense sense of satisfaction for me when I achieve the above, a perfectly planned flight that results in a (landing I can walk away from) and a 737 full of content passengers. After fifteen years of struggling to achieve all of the above, I think I'm finally there, I genuinely hope that you are as well.
Happy Landings!
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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Pete_A_Harris http://EzineArticles.com/?Finally-I-Have-Found-My-Way-To-Flight-Simulator-Bliss---The-Best-Flight-Simulator&id=6850685
