Well MX, I don't consider myself risking my life at all when I climb
into our airplane.

Without exception I am off on a wonderful adventure, confident enough
in my skill, my training and my aircraft to bring my passengers and
self back to earth safely and for me, all to soon.

Now re sims..

I was one of the Early " Airwarrior" sim pilots, the original WWII
air combat sim.

(90% of the "players" (poor term, but it will do) were "real" pilots,
private, ATP, instructors, military.......

I have flown on 2 - 3 hr "missions" escorting bomber groups, ground
attack missions and others that left me totally wiped but so wound up
that sleep was impossible.

A good sim can make you forget you are grounded.The fights were fast,
furious and the sim aircraft were accurately modeled, so you had to
know how to fly each different aircraft, it's strengths and
weaknesses. - and you could die without getting hurt!

Sims have their place. I picked a friend just after he went through a
"sim" session, (He was training in a new type, 737 I think)

He was a MESS! They had piled several failures on him, he had to
change his clothes, he was soaked, and actually shaking a bit, and
his voice was unsteady. Maybe a sim, but what they put him through
was "real" enough! (he passed)

I may just dig out my old HOTAS stuff someday...

Dave


On Tue, 28 Nov 2006 05:06:19 +0100, Mxsmanic
wrote:

Doug writes:

And that is why a sim will NEVER be like true flight. With a sim, if
you crash, you crashed and you are ok. With a real airplane, you
crashed, and that's IT! No more you. A different headspace, attitude,
whatever you want to call it.

A good simulator can very rapidly make you forget that it's just a
simulator. This is hard with MSFS because it doesn't move or provide
the physical environment of a cockpit, but if it did, you'd start
mistaking it for real pretty quickly.

Even as it is, it can be stressful when things go wrong in the sim
environment.

If you prefer risking your life for real, that's your choice.
Personally, I see that as a drawback to real flight, not an advantage.