Flight Training

Hello,

I am sorry if this question has been answered. I have searched the forum and cannot find anything.

 

For someone buying the game with no flying experience there isn’t much you can do with this sim. The 8 flying lessons will teach you to take off in a Cessna and land somewhere nearby if you can visually find the airport.

 

How do I get beyond this and start using my instruments to navigate and eventually learn to fly the larger aircraft? Is there anything available 3rd party at the moment? Should we expect an update that will expand on the lessons? I would have thought if they wanted to expand their fanbase that this would be a priority.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Tommy

Have you looked below at the Real Aviation Tutorials & FAQs section of the forum? There are a number of helpful posts there about flying and navigation. In addition, on the FAA's website at: https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/faa_regulations/ there are numerous aids, handbooks and manuals, including the Aeronautical Information Manual, the Airplane Flying Handbook, the Instrument Flying Handbook, the Instrument Procedures Handbook, the Pilot’s Handbook of Aeronautical Knowledge, and more.

 

There are likely other resources available out there, including Wikipedia where you can look up surprisingly complex and detailed information about the various facets of aviation.

If you think 'taking off in a Cessna and landing somewhere nearby' isn't much, I have to wonder how it came to be that you owned MSFS in the first place. You don't seem very interested in flight. You do know that 'flying' is tucked in there between taking off and landing, don't you?

 

Even if you live in Iowa, I would think it would be fascinating to explore neighboring towns and your neighbor's farms from the air. If you live in a mountainous area, the view from the air would give you a whole new understanding of your region; I know it does me. Then there is the fact that you could do your taking off and landing in Rome or Hong Kong; I flew the Darién Gap in a Cub at about 200' elevation and 65 knots all the way, and was fascinated by the terrain, but maybe that's just me.

 

If you really want to learn to "fly" a plane you might do some reading to go along with the sim, here's the only book in the world that actually teaches one to "fly", you could start here:

https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/stick-and-rudder-an-explanation-of-the-art-of-flying_wolfgang-langewiesche/251767/item/3876503/?mkwid=%7cdc&pcrid=474981229867&pkw=&pmt=&slid=&plc=&pgrid=117539251328&ptaid=pla-988288505448&gclid=CjwKCAiAlNf-BRB_EiwA2osbxUgBr-Sw2EAT7pEmt8V3YWncL1lXIGgly3sK83BhffhLHS4Fkh1tRRoCPNoQAvD_BwE#idiq=4361423&edition=2335143

 

After you finish that, you might want to go further in 'learning to fly' and start practicing some aerobatic maneuvers (the 172 rolls, loops and will do hammerheads just fine and is easier to stay ahead of than the Pitts special).

https://www.amazon.com/Roll-Around-Point-Duane-Cole/dp/B0006WFZTS

 

Imo, learning 'instruments', is completely unnecessary for learning how to 'fly', and actually has little to do with 'flying'; for me it is a separate subject from 'flying' and mostly consists of memorizing a bunch of technical procedures.

 

The Squirrel's tutorials in YouTube will teach you how to use an autopilot enough to do cross country flights while you're cooking dinner or whatever. That's enough 'instruments' for me.

Hello,

I am sorry if this question has been answered. I have searched the forum and cannot find anything.

 

For someone buying the game with no flying experience there isn’t much you can do with this sim. The 8 flying lessons will teach you to take off in a Cessna and land somewhere nearby if you can visually find the airport.

 

How do I get beyond this and start using my instruments to navigate and eventually learn to fly the larger aircraft? Is there anything available 3rd party at the moment? Should we expect an update that will expand on the lessons? I would have thought if they wanted to expand their fanbase that this would be a priority.

 

Thanks for the help.

 

Tommy

 

Tommy

Sometimes this sim and flight simming in general can be daunting to those who are not familiar with the basics of coordinated flight. The beauty of sim aviation is its a lot less painful and expensive when you mess up. The best advice I got here many years ago back in my fsx days is that nothing beats seat time. In other words, fire the sim and go fly and if you crash or mess up...Start over....And so on and so on until you find what works with which plane and what doesnt. Follow the forums and read what the more advanced members recommend. Eventually it will start to click, if i do this that happens and so forth and most importantly if its something you really want to get into invest in a good yoke or joystick system. It makes a world of difference..Read books, watch vids, those all help especially the vids but nothing beats good ole fashioned seat time.

As I read it all TommyPaulk said was he didn't know what to do once you get past the intro flight lessons. I don't read his post in any negative light toward the sim which is incredibly complicated and the intro lessons are barely adequate. If I hadn't flown for real I'd be pretty intimidated by it all.

 

If you search Flight School, Passing FAA Flight School exam and such in YouTube you will come up with dozens of flight training videos. Some are better than others. Some are basically infomercials for their flight school. You can search other sub topics like Route Planning, Radio Navigation, IFR navigation, and so forth. Google is your friend. I think with an investment of time you will find most everything to get started.

 

In fact if you've never flown in a light plane I'd encourage anybody to get to an airport and pay for an hour or so intro flight lesson type ride. The sim crams a 3 D experience into 2 D. Flying a small plane is as much feeling as it is seeing.

Thank you for all the responses. I didn’t mean to come off as negative about the sim. What I have enjoyed so far has been fantastic and the visuals have been amazing. I just feel that the sim has so much more to offer and no direction on how to use it.

 

I appreciate the advice. My biggest obstacle right now is time. Having 2 young children doesn’t leave me a lot of free time. That’s why I was hoping for more in-game tutorials so I could enjoy the sim and learn at the same time.

 

I will look at the links that were given. Thank you.

There is a lack of content and detailed training videos for newcomers to flight simulation in MSFS beyond the absolute basics. I'd almost recommend buying FSX, since it had a much more complete in-flight training section than this game does. Otherwise, I've started a YouTube channel to teach the skills newcomers need to enjoy playing the game. I'm not that far a long yet, but I plan on covering the questions you're asking in the coming weeks. Link is in my signature.

Thank you marcroussy. I saved the link and will following what you post. I appreciate it.

I would second the suggestion from marcroussy, about getting FSX for the lessons. Any of the previous versions of MSFS (FSX, FS9 otherwise known as FS2004) had some fairly complete lessons, taught by one of the great aviation educators in the real world - Rod Machado.

 

Now it may be tough to get hold of FS9, although you can probably find the disk sets on eBay. But FSX is still available online from Steam - FSX Steam Edition. Around the holidays they often discount it to around $5 - I got my Steam copy a few years ago for $4.95!

 

This all is simulation, not really a game per se, and you will more or less teach yourself to fly as you progress through the process. I teach CAP cadets to fly real airplanes, and the best among them come to real airplanes with a lot of flight sim time, and they stand out among their peers right from the moment they step into the airplane, because they know what the instruments are telling them and they know what the controls do.

 

So seek out all of the aids that are available, particularly on YouTube. Flying is, to a large extent, a visual art, and the best of the videos, like those from MzeroA flight training and Gary Wing will show you what things look like, in and out of the cockpit. And the mention, above, of seeking out an introductory flight lesson at the local flight school will be of great value as well, and it will only cost about as much as a good joystick!

I teach CAP cadets to fly real airplanes, and the best among them come to real airplanes with a lot of flight sim time, and they stand out among their peers right from the moment they step into the airplane,

Do note that there are many folks who have been simming for a rather long time who still have misconceptions about aviation, so for many people additional study is needed to minimize that problem, even in spite of the FSX lessons (yes, Machado is good).

 

But those cadets have the added advantage that aerospace is part of their advancement training, and studying about the four forces of flight and some of the other ground school items that are part of their program also play a big part in their understanding.

 

So seek out all of the aids that are available

Absolutely right -- those things can, once understood, help make the sim more enjoyable. TANSTAAFL

There is a lack of content and detailed training videos for newcomers to flight simulation in MSFS beyond the absolute basics. I'd almost recommend buying FSX, since it had a much more complete in-flight training section than this game does. Otherwise, I've started a YouTube channel to teach the skills newcomers need to enjoy playing the game. I'm not that far a long yet, but I plan on covering the questions you're asking in the coming weeks. Link is in my signature.

 

Just subscribed to your YouTube channel. Thank you for a much needed service.