Flight Instrument Simulator – Making The Most Of Your Time On The Ground

Whether you are an aspiring pilot or you already have your pilot’s license, then you may inevitably encounter some downtime during which you are unable to fly, such as during harsh winters or during periods of overcast clouds and rain.

Unfortunately, for many general aviation pilots, this is idle time that cannot be spent in the air.

But rather than just sitting it out, why not keep up with your skills by investing some time in a flight instrument simulator?

A flight instrument simulator can help you bridge the gaps in between those extended periods of time during which you are unable to fly. If you are not able to fly regularly for whatever reason, then it pays to maintain your proficiency using a simulator.

Flight Instrument Simulator – Now You Have No Excuse Not To Fly

The advantages that a simulator provide are:

• You can fly any time you want at your own convenience, 24 hours a day.
• Flying a simulator is way, way cheaper than renting an aircraft, paying for an instructor, and getting out there and flying.
• The simulation is practically true-to-life, down to the minutest detail. The entire instrument panel of your basic training aircraft is replicated identically.
• The behavior of the airplane simulation is identical to the way the aircraft behaves in real life, in virtually every respect. This includes aerodynamic forces in response to the influence of weather as well as in response to control inputs and even weight distribution of the passengers and cargo load within the aircraft.
• A flight instrument simulator can also save you time overall, in your efforts to get your license. You are basically spending more time practicing, so your skills will only get better and more perfected this way.

Flight Instrument Simulator – As Real As It Gets

Is flying a flight instrument simulator anything like flying the real thing? Absolutely yes!

Modern computer software engineering technology has evolved to become so sophisticated, so advanced, that even on your home computer, when you fly the flight instrument simulator, you will quickly realize that the lines between the experience that the simulator provides and the experience that an actual aircraft provides will have been blurred.

The only real major differences between the two are:

• You don’t get to feel any of the effects of turbulence, wind shear, or G-forces. Obviously, if you are banking, climbing, or descending, your chair will not move.
• A flight instrument simulator is not nearly as noisy as a real propeller-driven aircraft!
• If you crash the aircraft in a simulator, you will most probably not die.

Beyond that, the experiences are virtually the same. Even the global landscape that you can fly in a simulator is true to life. Distances traveled across the virtual world of the simulator mirror that of real life. If it takes you 6 hours to fly a single engine Piper or Cessna from Chicago to Newark in real life, then it will take 6 hours to make the same flight in the flight instrument simulator.