Microsoft Flight Simulator X For Pilots review

by mark.avey on July 3, 2007

Microsoft Flight Simulator X For Pilots Real World Training

This is part 1 of a review by Paul Webster For FlightSimX. Part 2 to follow shortly.

Authors: Jeff Van West and Kevin Lane-Cummings

Publisher: Wiley (www.wiley.com)

ISBN: 978-0-7645-8822-8

Price: $29.99(USD) : $35.99 (CAN) : £19.99 (UK)

The blurb On The Back

“It’s the next best thing to being up there – Why use Microsoft Flight Simulator for real world training? Because it gives you the best possible head start and enables you to learn at your convenience. Flight Simulator provides scenario-based training that lets you practice handling in almost any situation. It offers advantages you don’t get in a real plane – the option to set up any kind of weather or equipment failures, stop midway and redo a procedure, or get the view from outside the airplane. FSX isn’t a game. It’s a training mission for virtual and real aviators alike.�?

What you get

A 725 page paperback book (yes 725 pages – a full inch and a half thick), downloadable flights to do in conjunction with your reading along with the necessary charts in PDF format. Also available for download are a couple of bonus chapters and the practical test standards for each of the license ratings discussed in the book.

Why I purchased the book

1) I like to use Flight Simulator X (FSX) as a true simulator, and have tried to mirror what happens in the real world by starting off in the types of aircraft trainee pilots would learn the ropes in with the aim of progressing up the ladder to finally mastering the mighty 747. The main enjoyment I get out of the hobby is the satisfaction of learning each new aircrafts systems and procedures and being able to fully utilise these with well modeled payware add-on aircraft. I am hoping that this book will aid my attempt at mirroring the training and progression of a real world pilot and be a single point of contact for the learning involved rather than have to search disparate Internet sites for the information I need.

2) I am also considering putting some time in on real world aircraft at one of my local training schools and would like this book to help me make the most of the time I do manage to afford to get to spend in real world aircraft.

First impressions

The book certainly is big, and as it’s available to purchase online from £9.99. Just the amount of paper and ink makes it seem like good value. Talking about paper and ink, the paper is of a fairly low grade and the book’s illustrations are all in monochrome. The book does say that colour versions of the images used are available on the web site but I was unable to locate the link for these. The number of chapters and subjects is impressive taking a full 13 pages to list. Looking through the subjects covered certainly whets my appetite to get straight in.

Getting Started

First things first you’ll want to download the 3 zipped files of missions / charts / details etc from the publishers web site. I downloaded and installed them whilst I was waiting for the book to arrive. The books introduction tells you exactly where to get the files from and where they need to be installed. The first chapter deals with getting FSX set up properly for the rest of the book. It discusses PC specs and how these effect the performance you can expect to achieve within FSX, the different types of controllers used for simming and the best settings within FSX to use with the tutorial flights. The book also assumes that you will be using it in conjunction with lessons at a real world flying school and so also gives hints and tips on finding the best school and instructor for you. The authors do suggest that finding an instructor with FSX experience would be beneficial especially so if they can set up scenarios for you to go through that you will be dealing with on your next lesson. They also suggest that as FSX now has support for multiplayers within the same aircraft if rain stops play and your instructor is amenable you could go through your lesson virtually with you at home and them at the flying school. I wander how long it will be before real world instructors will be offering virtual lessons online.

The First Flight, The First Drawback And The First Revelation

Chapter two first discusses the principles of flight in sufficient detail to explain the basics without getting too technical and then introduces us to the default Piper Cub. My initial feelings about using the Cub for training were to swap it out for a Cessna during the simulator training sessions as I have no interest in or access to a Cub in the real world. However the authors explain that the main shortfall with using FSX as a training aid is the lack of peripheral vision which real world pilots rely on to inform them of the attitude of the aircraft in flight. Simulator pilots rely much more on the instruments because they lack the real world cues. The reason for using the Piper Cub is the distinct lack of instruments to look at and a more open uncluttered cockpit so you can focus more on the horizon and get used to relying on it as you would do in a real aircraft. The initial flight within FSX raises the initial drawback, unlike the missions included in FSX or Rod Machado’s training flights there are no in-flight instructions included. You basically load the saved flight and then have to fly with the book in one hand and your joystick in the other. Concentrating on both at the same time is impossible so prepare to become intimately acquainted with the pause key. On the plus side the authors do include saved video’s of many of the flights so you can get an idea of what you are expected to do and how to do it prior to undertaking the flight yourself. That being said this section has revolutionised my flying. Previously I had no idea of the intimate relationship between trim and flight speed, something which the first flight gets you to discover. I shall certainly be practicing this particular aspect of the lesson a whole lot more. As you would expect the rest of the first flight deals with the basics, taking off, basic maneuvers and landing.

Part Two - Drawback Two

Part two of the book is entitled Sport Pilot and introduces the next drawback of this book. The Sport Pilot rating is a recent US innovation which covers “Light Sport Aircraft (LSA)�? of which there is no UK equivalent. It would appear that the Piper Cub falls within the aircraft covered by the LSA bracket but the Cessna 172 does not, another reason why the Cub is used extensively throughout the early chapters and flights of this book. So it becomes obvious that the book is designed with the US market in mind and that not all the information contained will be relevant to UK pilots either real world or Sim Jockey’s. That being said the principles will be much the same and after the book covers the Sports Pilot rating we move on to the Private Pilot’s License in part three, Instrument Rating in part four, and Commercial License in part five.

Conclusion And Things To Come

Despite the fact that the tutorial flights within FSX are not as friendly as I would have liked, and that the ratings discussed in this book are based on the system used by our American cousins, I am pleased with my purchase. Already I have been taught an important aspect of flying that I’d missed out on previously which has motivated me to put in some more practice time, and I’m sure that there are more revelations in store. The next part of this review will deal with the Sport Pilot section and how I got on with the lessons contained in it.

Technorati tags: Flight Simulator X for Pilots review