What is the difference between Flight Simulator aircraft and real life aircraft?

Question

What is the difference between Flight Simulator aircraft and real life aircraft?

Answer 1

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Answer 2

Your question is very broad and a complete answer could fill a book. The subject of simulators is very complex.



The main differences between Flight Simulator and real flying include (but are not limited to):



1. There's no motion in Flight Simulator. This is an issue for aerobatics and high-performance maneuvers, and in a few specific circumstances for visual flight. It creates a slightly different environment for IFR—still potentially disorienting, as in real life, but in a different way (lack of motion instead of misleading motion).



2. The visual field in Flight Simulator is quite limited compared to a real aircraft. In FS, you have only a window that shows the sky ahead. In a real aircraft, you typically have large windows on at least three sides of the cockpit, offering you a much wider view. You can also move your head and see things from different angles in a real aircraft (although gadgets such as TrackIR allow this in the sim, too). The smaller visual field is mainly a handicap for VFR flight.



3. The detail of terrain is much lower in the sim than it is in real life. This is mainly a problem for navigation by pilotage and enjoyment of VFR flights. The major landmarks are there in the sim, but the small details are lacking. The main reason for this is the size and cost of the database that would be required to provide fine detail for the entire planet's surface.



4. Many aircraft systems are missing from the default aircraft. Add-on aircraft do much better, but they almost never reproduce every system accessible to the pilot(s).



5. There are differences in flight dynamics and the way controls behave (no control pressures for trim, for example).



Nevertheless, if you stepped into a real cockpit after flying Flight Simulator, especially if you use advanced add-ons, you would not feel out of place, and you'd have a significant head start on learning to fly the real thing.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

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Answer 5

When you crash a simulator, you re-boot and start over. When you crash an actual airliner, you and everybody on board gets buried. A simulator is a toy for those whose ,as a rule, do do have what it takes to be a real pilot. As Woody says to Buzz Lightyear in Toystory: "You are not real, you are a child's toy".



Additional info: Pilots fly aircraft in which they never have flown before. My first flight in my Navy attack bomber was a solo. There were no 2-seat versions of the plane.

Answer 6

assuming you mean a desktop pc flight simulator...



the fidelity of the simulation is highly variable. the x-plane cessna 172sp handles much like the real thing (i've done spins in it), but the piper cherokee 140 falls out of the sky if you try stalls or slow flight.



the visibility is inferior to the real thing.



zero "feel". you tend to fly on instruments far more than you would in a real plane.



in the real thing you know you will be in trouble if you get it wrong, and you tend to take your flying a *lot* more seriously.

Answer 7

Flight simulators you mention are actually electronic games -

They are no part of the training process of airline pilots -

They are just designed to convince teenagers that they can fly -



You do not learn to drive cars by playing "race car" games -



A real simulator (multi-million dollar) is an entirely different thing -

And indeed are used to train pilots -

When I trained to fly 747 aircraft years ago, I had simulator training only -

My first 747 flight (was as captain) I had 300 passengers...

And never had flown a 747 before in my life -



Edit (Sarah) -

Seems that you are not aware that "all simulator training" (no touch and goes) is existing with US FAR 121 air carriers since the mid-1980s - In my instance it was with PanAm in 1988 - all training for type ratings and initial check is commonly done in simulators and does not include any requirement for check in airplane - An additional requirement is that the simulator training includes a LOFT (Line Oriented Flight Training) - It is the case for all air carriers following the US/FAA programs.



The regulations require full simulator and airplane "base check" for the FIRST type rating and upgrade to captain with 121 carriers (i.e. a first time captain qualifying in 737) requiring 3 takeoffs and landings - For all subsequent type ratings and qualifications, no flight check in airplane is required -



Of course - when you do this, your first officer is actually a check-captain/instructor for the first 25 hours of operations in the new type of aircraft - I actually flew 3 flights USA to Europe and back before completing that requirement - and yes... there were passengers on board -



Other thing - you do not seem to be aware that you do not need to be a "co-pilot" first in a given type to qualify as captain - During my career, I have flown the 747 and the DC8 types without having had any prior time on type as first officer - Note that I had been captain on 707 and 727 before qualifying as captain on DC8 and 747...



And... inform yourself first before showing your lack of knowledge -

See "Level D Simulators" - "zero flight time"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_flight_simulator

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_flight_time

Answer 8

Very much the same in theory. Practically, totally different.



PLay Wii golf and get real good at it, win the Fed Ex cup and millions of dollars, then go out and play a round on a real course and get ready to be humbled.

Answer 9

Generally, there are noises than may or may not be there.



There are vibrations that may or may not be there.



There is cold seeping in through the windscreen and possibly ice there.



There are people involved in allot of real life. Yet I don't know one simulation program that trains you for a mechanic with an "issue" (happened to me, I've got the glasses with neurological tissue dried on them to prove it).



There is politics involved in real life. So seldom does your plane get shot down by the IRA with a stinger to both engines; but it happened to me (and we used to be such good friends ~ and with some I might still be... but did you read the bit above about the mechanic and the safety clip with "issue"(s)...? People are like that...).



Thank God Almighty so few "terrorists" (people, really ~ and I mean seriously REALLY) actually are that nuts.



Nothing generally breaks or malfunctions on a flight simulator; and nobody comes on the earphones to give you really dumb advice that gets your wings iced over at 120 miles per hour 7 miles from the airport and loosing altitude, because of an issue that has nothing at all to do with safety, until, hey, you aren't going to be there after all... and he / she, or it can't leave early cause your plane didn't get there on time even with that "little white lie", cause YOU CRASHED.



And people are THAT NUTS. That's why pilots take advice in flight safety with a grain of salt and learn to trust their gut and then ignore it and do the safe thing anyway...



So there's no PTSD from flight simulators. So seldom does one get a heart attack... but not loose a passenger...



And you can bend the stick on some planes if the hydraulics fail. This is to keep the pilot from breaking the control system, which is not designed to lift the Brookline Bridge as some weight lifters might try. Cause on many systems your controls actuate a pump, primarily. The plane is lighter that way, and there are thus less mechanical issues; it's a great system, unless you've got no time cause some *** shot both your engines out. That won't happen in your cushioned chair at home. You won't get pried out by Police divers. You wont have twisted your seat into a pretzel. There divers won't note the dents in the cockpit floor where your feet pushed the floorboards in.



You see, buying that pot from that fellow who purchased from a guy getting protection from a rogue IRA fire team (or Al Qa'ida, no difference really, except Al Qa'ida is into this as thier primary business "opportunity" and the IRA really wants not to bwe that stupid ~ generally ~) you have funded people that hunt other people for a living.



Yeah, I know, pot makes you paranoid, so your looking around to see if someone is watching...



No, I'm retired in Maine. I've been kicked off food stamps but they tell me I might not get shot again (over 33 times in Federal Service 15 in State and local service, having started out in drug interdiction just as Ron took office). No, I've no pentions or medical care; I'm pretty sure I'll die soon... You've nothing to worry about me, voting conSERFative has protected your pot. They framed me when I had a FEW fresh head wounds in California for "transporting" ((my father in law for what turned out to be an arranged marriage asked the mentally 12 year old regressed me to move a bottle of perscription pills twenty feet ~ and I was prosecuted, and found to be stuffed full of dope by my "fellow prisoners" who "just about" gutted me... but they never put two and two together (?yeah right ... wing ! ~ Saying to the Leftist Cop just die already...) so I never got paid for the 26 bullet, stab and shrappenel wounds from one bad day in Iraq, the one to trough the chest for the other bad day... or the the stab wound from the other bad day... or the five bullet wounds from the other bad day...))



OK so I'm wrong ~ I'll bet that happens in the majority of homes while people "play" video games ~ and smoke pot shoot heroin and do cocaine or other illicit dope... it just doesn't happen THERE...



It happened instead to the real guy in the real plane...



Was that the answer you're looking for?

Answer 10

About the only things that are similar are the very general performance characteristics of the simulated airplanes, and the accuracy of the modeled "world" in FS. When FSX came out it was updated to include most airports, radio navigation stations, waypoints, and land masses that exist in the world today. But in the real world, things change. Some waypoints get erased or relocated, runway magnetic headings change to reflect the shifts in the magnetic north and south poles, airway routes get added or renumbered, and airports add runways. So the "world" in FS isn't really current anymore, unless it has a feature to update all new world aeronautical data...which I doubt.



Thus if you takeoff from KLAX in a Cessna 172 and fly to KSFO, the route and time it takes to get there in FS is going to be basically the same as it would in real life.



As far as the accuracy of the performance of the aircraft, it's sort of accurate, but in a very simplified way. The payware aircraft I've played with do a decent job of modeling the systems. You could use these sims to get a general familiarity with cockpit procedures. Changing the aircraft weights and fuel loading generally deliver the performance you would see in the real plane. For example, I've never flown heavy jets but I do fly the Citation X, and there is a Citation X sim for FS that behaves and responds fairly accurately to the real plane...takeoff distance, climb rate, power settings, fuel consumption rate, V-speeds, etc.



But FS cannot model stresses on the airplane, the difference in handling due to weight shifts, the effects of crosswinds, tailwinds, reduced runway traction, rapid meteorological changes, physical control inputs, or any number of malfunctions very well.



You get a basic introduction to what flying's all about in FS. But that's all. It can't teach you to fly a real plane to save your life.



Edit: But since you're giving thumbs down to people who obviously tried to give you good, honest answers, go warm up a hot pocket in the microwave and hit "Reset Flight" and have a jolly ol' time with your online buddies.

Answer 11

Skipper, please clarify: My first 747 flight (was as captain) I had 300 passengers...

And never had flown a 747 before in my life.



You don't get to the left hand seat without sitting in the right hand seat first.



And your 1ist flight in a 747 is when you are completing your base check (touch and go), and are empty of any passengers and non flight crew members.

Answer 12

You can't die in a sim.



You can't hit pause in an airplane and go pee or get a snack.

Answer 13

You wont die in flight simulator when you crash.