Learning to fly is not only hands and feet. I'd argue it is the easiest thing to learn. Thinking on your feet and managing time are things people, from personnal experience, have difficulty with. Using a sim to manage that is a good way without having to pay 150$ an hour.

How does a flight simulator help with those things?

Running checklist under compressed time, going through procedures etc... it sure helped me through training.

AuxBatOn wrote:Running checklist under compressed time, going through procedures etc... it sure helped me through training.

I agree, very useful for instrument work.

But to really benefit from the lower cost simulators and the environments they are found in
It takes a well disciplined individual to actually benefit from it.

For more than a few the recreational aspect/quality of the home simulator software
makes it difficult to net any benefit.

AuxBatOn wrote:Running checklist under compressed time, going through procedures etc... it sure helped me through training.

Right. But you can do that with cardboard cutout cockpits like airlines do. Even better than with a keyboard-and-joystick PC flight simulator. If any students want to go and use something like a cockpit poster as their "simulator" then fill ya boots, I say.

Somehow I don't think the OP had in mind years using X-Plane, $2000+ of computer hardware, top of the line graphics cards and force feedback yokes and pedals assiduously and exclusively to run checklists when he was asking if his use of a flight sim would shorten his training, do you?

photofly wrote:Like Trey Kool I'd love to see some evidence about whether simulator use shortens or lengthens PPL training time.I don't think it's any bloody use at all in the initial stages, but that's mostly from anecdotal evidence. I can say I wouldn't bother learning to juggle by using a juggling simulator on my computer nor would a PC-based bicycle simulator be much use for learning to ride a bicycle.

Good example... I have used a juggling simulator to learn advanced juggling tricks (helps to see them to duplicate them) but learning to juggle initially would be pretty hard from just watching a simulator.

As a ground school teaching aid, you may have a point. The assumption is that the original question was about using a simulator to replace part of the in-aircraft teaching.

The original question was how useful a sim would be in getting a PPL, not would it replace anything. I read it as "would it help me understand things" rather than "could I do it instead of flying". I agree, until you have *something* under your belt with an instructor, as a basis for comparison, you'd be lucky to recognize the things a sim could help you with.

I used X Plane during my training. I feel it allowed me to use procedures that I trained in a real plane. Especially on start up. I never really "flew around" a lot but it helped me do the mechanical stuff. I just used a real checklist and followed it start to finish. I also felt it help me as I had reached a plateau when I started instrument work. I was ballooning all over the sky and wandering as well. It really helped me with my scans and was easy to put in a few "hours" after the work day ended. I know that transport allows simulator hours as flight hours but I never bothered with that. I wanted to fly not sit in a room pretending. I used the program as I used any computer aid such as you tube it was a tool to help me be better at flying. I would say go for it. Don't bother with a yoke and all the pedal crap. Just download x plane demo and get a cheap joystick off Kijiji. What can it hurt.

To answer the OP question, yes, flight simming is a good tool for your PPL training IMHO. Sitting in front of a small screen barely seeing anything makes you rely a lot on your instruments and situational awareness in the end, which as a pilot builds skill and character. I started flight simming when I was 14 and continued until I was about 25. I think it helped me excel mainly on my IFR, specifically my holds, IFR approaches and a general good situational awareness. I got top marks in flight school, specifically in my IFR and I thank flight sim for that. In aviation, use whatever tools you have available to you and use them to help you in any way possible. The more tools you use, the more well rounded as a pilot you are. 14 years later, I still use stuff I learned from purely flying the flight sim for current and new pilots that I train at my company.