Since I've recently returned to the Outhouse...

[rdaniell]

.....I didn't know exactly where to post this, so I posted it here. What I wanted to share was the fact that FS flying can be a great help to real world flying. Back in 2008 I got back into using my PPL largely because a friend bought a Cessna 140 and made it available for me to fly whenver I wanted. Well, I got my medical renewed and took a biennial flight review. Then I decided that I wanted to fly down to Sun and Fun as I had never been. The FAA publishes a procedure for flying into Sun and Fun. I spent a lot of time practicing that flight on the sim using Brian Gladden's Cessna 140. I didn't have any trouble on the actual flight a few days later.

FS 2004 ROCKS...

 

[Sunny9850]

Glad you are back in the air...both virtual and real.

I got my PPL after I moved to California from Germany where it was simply financially impossible. At that time I had probably 2000 hours of simulated time.
When I did go on my first flight in the Warrior with my CFI it was pretty much a well known entity and he never even touched the controls on that first flight, including the landing.
While there are of course a few things that FS can not truly simulate, there is a lot it can do quite well.

I went on and got my IFR ticket once I had the required time logged. At that time I was flying a Piper Archer with my partner so I found a good FS model and tweaked it to match our real airplane and it really made a huge difference in that training. Especially for things like the standardized procedures of a IFR arrival or departure you simply can't beat FS.

Now we fly a PA32-301 and I still use FS to pre-fly a new to us airport to get a sense of what the environment is going to look like. It really does help to be able to see where the airport is situated in relation to terrain features and where one may not want to go.

Cheers
Stefan