Can You Learn To Fly After Playing Flight Simulator?

"Oh, I'm losing control..." What happens when a regular person flies a plane having only trained in Microsoft Flight Simulator? We sent Sylvie to find out...

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EXTERNAL CREDITS
Academy of Aviation
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Sylvie Borschel

[gstrdms]

"I can confidently say that i can fly a plane" **moves throttle, mixture and prop at the same time**

[michaelramsey]

Can confirm: even with years of experience, 80% of time in flight sims is spent looking for the airport.

[BellaFlayme]

My father-in-law has thousands of hours on this game and has flown everything (on the game) from the little Cessnas to the 747s and he has the whole setup in his office including the yoke and as many controls as he was able to get. He has also taken every instruction class and course out there. I am confident that with a little bit of guidance, he could fly a real plane. But 6 or 7 days? No.

[jamielord]

I feel like of you spent 6 months training on flight sim you could do it. Not 6 days

[caskraker]

In fact real flying is easier than FS. You feel every movement which makes it a lot easier to correct if needed.
After some years of serious simming I took an introductory lesson in a Cessna 172 and flew the thing from engine startup to shut off all by myself. The only time the instructor corrected a bit was on final, with a bit of rudder. It was a very quiet day with almost no wind, that really helped.

[ArmadusMalaysia]

I could feel the camera man shaking throughout the flight.

[airste]

It's at least a little cheesy on the part of AOA (Academy of Aviation) to put her on the passenger side instead of the left side where students normally sit. The perspective in the simulator is from the left seat, so now after getting used to that, she is given the disadvantage of an unfamiliar perspective.
Real pilots often need extra training and practice in order to become proficient in right seat flying.

[ClayCaviness]

One of the most surprising things to me when I was learning to be a pilot was how hard it was to spot airports. You'd think a mile-long strip of asphalt with a bunch of taxiways and hangers around it would be hard to miss, but man it's surprisingly hard to spot an airport if you're not familiar with the local area.

[tonchecker]

How do you expect to Fly a plane confidently using a external view?
This does not work.

[jonsfilms_]

Ah yes the yoke yaw and rudder, the main controls of a plane

[TankEsq]

If you're that bad at MS simulator won't you be bad irl too? Because logic?

[shyammenon]

This hurts on a whole different level...

[EastonLach]

Microsoft flight simulator is very accurate, it has helped me navigate the g1000 172 Skyhawk,

[elise]

"If I were a runway, where would I be?" I died.. 😂
I actually got a bit anxious when they were supposed to land in real life 😅

[dvircafri]

I can say from personal experience that the sim is an amazing tool for a student pilot. When I took my private pilot lessons, after spending hundreds of hours flying in the sim, I did everything almost within the minim amount of time required in the air. In between my practical lessons I practiced in the sim as well, and kept demonstrating high level of performance.
When I fly the Cessna 152 in the sim I always treat the airplane like I treat the real one, including comlete preflight check, engine runups, the works. I don't treat Flight Simulator like a game. It is a learning and practicing tool for pilots. You can play with it if you want, but its not a game to me.
And by the way, Microsoft isn't the only sim on the market. I tried X-plane as well and its also an amazing piloting tool.

Apology for being sarcastic, but I really don't think spnending a couple of hours in the sim without any form of training and guidance can be any indication to whether you can use MSFS to learn how to fly a real plane. I know its possible, I did it myself. It just takes a lot of learning and practicing, just like in real life.

[McQueen]

They say a good landing is one you can walk away from. A great landing is one after which you can use the plane again. :)

[cherryocola]

You dont even have a trim wheel for your sim, which a majority of the pitch is controlled through. So no, you wouldnt be able to fly without someone teaching you on the side.

[fouksk]

Can't believe she landed with an extreme runway excursion, called that "average, " and then thought she was fit to get in an actual plane.

[NoelKerns]

Absolutely you can. I learned an incredible amount back in the late 80's, even with the primitive versions we had then, especially about navigation . Got my private ticket in 44 hours.

[mumblic]

Your instructor is holding the yoke and then really feeling good about yourself, that's next level.