The Sim World vs. the Real World

If you browse any of the Flight Simulator forums, you will often come across postings where people compare the simulator world to the real world. A fun discussion always revolves around the complex aircraft. For instance, Precision Manuals Development Group, develops a realistic Boeing 737 and 747 aircraft with close to 99% of the systems simulated. After many sim hours in the planes, the question always comes up on the discussion forums on whether or not a person could fly the real plane, should the pilot and copilot become incapacitated. Real world 737 pilots who have played with the sim have said that there is a good chance one would be able to land the plane safely given extensive experience with the plane in the simulator. While someone could land the plane, they would most likely not do it by the book and in all situations. That is where experience of real world airline captains comes into play.

Modern airliners though, are all about systems management and monitoring. The majority of any flight is spent with the autopilot flying the plane while the pilot and copilot monitor the progress and talk to ATC. In some of the most modern planes such as the 737 NG series, and the 767, the plane is even able to land itself with the pilots’ hands free from the controls. So the ability to land a 737 with just simulator experience is not a real test of flying but of systems monitoring, management, and programming. Now, I am not saying that airline pilots don’t know how to fly, on the contrary, they fly better than I ever will but it is not a realistic scenario to compare as there is no way to test the theory in real life. Not legally anyway.

A more realistic example would be transitioning from a simulator to a GA cockpit. This is easily done and in fact, it is the route I have taken. Before I took my first flying lesson, I had over 1000 hours of flying on my home computer running Microsoft Flight Simulator. After my last flight 5 years ago, I probably put in another 500-1000 hours on my simulator before I resumed my flight training. So, I am very familiar with the simulator world but, the question is how does it compare to the real world?

The first and most obvious difference would be in spatial awareness. Humans can take in a wide angle view of their surroundings though only a limited amount is in focus at any one time. The out of focus part of your vision, also known as the peripheral vision, plays a big part in submersing you in the world. With a computer monitor you would lose this visual element. However, I am here to argue that with the proper setup, you can increase the field of view so that it is around 90% of what you would get in the real world. To do this I use three computer monitors with the wide field of view seamlessly blended between them. I also have a piece of hardware called TrackIr which allows you to move your head slightly in any direction to rotate the view on the screen. This allows you to look out the side windows on final approach or move closer to the instruments to read them better etc. When I entered the real aircraft, I was amazed at how similar it looked visually to my flight sim.

Another big killer in realism would be the flight model of the airplane you are flying. Does it fly exactly like the real thing? Well, I managed to whittle down this realism killer by downloading a highly realistic simulation of the Citabria. The company that develops it is RealAir and after a bunch of hours in it, I would have to say that it flies very similar to the real thing. All the reference speeds I have been using in the real Citabria are the same. All the power settings and resulting climb rate and airspeeds are the same. All the buttons and instruments are the same and the sound is very close to the real thing. As I get more hours in the real plane, I may find a few more differences but, I would say that this plane is 95% accurate to the real deal.

So with not much difference in the plane behavior and the visual element, is there any difference between the sim and the real world? One thing that sticks out initially is control forces. I have a CH Products yoke and rudder pedals with an attached throttle, mixture, and prop control. None of the axes have much tension in them so there is very little control force on my home setup. That is what caused some of the initial problems on my first couple of flights. When steering on the ground, I was not pushing very hard and I expected the plane to turn more sharply given the control pressure I was applying. The same thing occurred when performing coordinated turns and trying to keep the wings level in a stall. I would apply a slight pressure to the rudder pedals, like I would do in my sim, but a slight pressure in the real plane does not have the same, exaggerated effect that it does in the sim plane.

Scenery and ground reference in VFR flight is harder in the sim, though this gap is shrinking due to all the real terrain, roads, and ground texture add-ons these days in the sim world. Weather is pretty realistic with add-ons in the sim though icing and turbulence are not simulated very well. ATC can be simulated by talking to real controllers in an online Vatsim environment. However, coverage is 100 times less than in the real world and I find that controllers outside the sim environments tend to talk a lot faster than the online controllers. Vatsim tends to focus more on the heavy iron as well so it is hard to get realistic VFR coverage but terminology is the same and it is a good, safe, and cheap environment to practice your skills.

So, in my almost meaningless opinion, I feel that if you set up your sim environment like I have it set up, you can get a very realistic simulation of flying in the real world. Why then can I not fly like a pro in the real world with over 2000 hours flying in a simulator in my life? Well the difference really comes in the teaching of technique. If I was handed the keys to a plane on my first day and told to fly somewhere and land then I could have done that similar to how I do it in the sim. The problem comes with doing it safely, talking to ATC, avoiding other traffic, abiding by all airspace rules, and not exceeding the operational limits of the aircraft. In the sim, you do not have to pay attention to anything except the operational limits of the aircraft to get from point to point. In all my hours I have never really played with stalls, slow flight, ground reference maneuvers, within the tolerances of the private pilot exam because, 1.) I didn’t know what they were, and 2.) Well let’s face it; it is plain boring in a sim, no pun intended.

Anyway, however realistic/unrealistic your simulator may be, it does provide a very nice, cheap way to advance your skills. Now that I know the airspeeds, altitudes, power settings for the maneuvers, I can easily practice them in my sim so that I need to spend less time paying to practice them in the real world. See you in the air...