Flight sim and real life hours

[Billbixby]

Hello,

I'm new to FSX and I wish I had gotten into these types of Flight Sims a long time ago after playing for just a few days. I used to play Falcon 4.0 but I'm enjoying this much more. Anyway I remember seeing about Flight Simulator a while ago and I could swear I read that you could apply your hours in Flight Simulator toward real life hours and getting a real life pilot license. Was this the case with an earlier version? Is it still the case? Or is my imagination running away with me? Thanks for your replies in advance.

[mrzippy]

Imaginations run wild! You can do the searches through the different forums and I think someone has mentioned this before, but this is only a game and is good fun and some pilots actually use FSX or other versions for practice. No credits towards the real world I'm afraid!

[JSkorna]

No to everything but the last question!!

[ReggieF5421]

In the US to use 'simulator' hours toward your PPL, they must be on an approved flight training device. They must be monitored by an instructor and the 'flight' must follow a specific instruction lesson. They are seldom much cheaper than doing the same thing in a training aircraft with an instructor.

The FTD I've used never simulate takeoffs and landings. Instructors want you doing those for real in real aircraft. I was charged full rate for the instructor time and approx 70% of the aircraft rental rate.

We did approaches, and some other lessons like navigation.

Flight Simulator was very useful for me to review the lessons I completed, to repeat my flights and see where I could have improved.

[Schnell14]

(The following may be considered off-topic--If so Jim wll skewer it.)

You probably did see this somewhere.

I know that I have, and it comes up even more often in regard to X-Plane. That is because some versions of that company's software (not the one you get in the game) are used in some approved Virtual Trainers. The answer is again no. You cannot earn credit towards a license with the game.

In fact, even the approved Virtual Training devices can only be used for something like two and a half hours of credit toward a Private Pilot's License. The message in the regulations seems to be, Learn to fly using a real airplane first, then you can make use of the computer stuff.

Regards