In article . net,
Dudley Henriques wrote:
So damaging can the use of the simulator be during this stage, that it's
use can actually retard the progress of a new student.

My experience is completely the opposite. I was having trouble with
crosswind landings (I had to think about what I had to do to stop the
drift, and it was of course too late by the time I'd come up with the
answer - this is something you have to do automatically). With a flight
sim with a yoke and pedals, I could practise doing crosswind landings
with extreme crosswinds over and over and over again until I'd
automatically put the control inputs in the correct way. This was with
FS95.

The next crosswind landing lesson may not have resulted in perfect
landings, but they resulted in no overshooting of the centreline when
turning base to final, and automatically using the correct inputs to
stop the drift, and no sideways movement on touchdown. Worked great for
me.

Of course, for instrument training there is no question it's valuable
(the best ones are the 'PCATDs' with the right physical controls
including knobs you can twist on the radios, but a normal FS 'game' will
do the trick - and of course you can simulate conditions you'd never do
in real life training because they are too dangerous, such as engine
failure on takeoff in a light twin in low IFR, gyro failures - with the
slow failure of the gyro that might go un-noticed. We had great fun with
the PCATD with the separate instructor console as the poor pleb who we
are torturing has no idea what will happen next.)

--
Dylan Smith, Castletown, Isle of Man
Flying: http://www.dylansmith.net
Frontier Elite Universe: http://www.alioth.net
"Maintain thine airspeed, lest the ground come up and smite thee"