@ScottCookseyModandTraFlyTying
When using the same radio as you would flying for real and flying third person or line of sight, it basically taught me how to do it without spending thousands replacing or repairing crashed models. Before I had auto launch or if the settings were wrong in the stabiliser/flight controller, or a complete fpv video failure I could confidentially get the model in safely. Because of all the modern perks of stabilisation and automatic flight I actually learned backwards as it were. A sim was the top tool in helping me do that. I got so confident I started flying models line of sight aswell as fpv.
1 month ago | 10
Sims are great in my opinion, they are not perfect. But still give you a lot of muscle memory for many scenarios!
1 month ago | 6
I've been flying maybe 15 years, but if I'm going to fly a twitchy model and haven't flown for a while I occasionally will go on my PC flight sim the day before. IIRC RAF Harrier pilots used use a simulator at times because it was such a demanding plane to fly.
1 month ago | 3
How you use the simulator makes a difference. If you plan a specific route and try to fly that precisely, maintaining a specific altitude, you'll gain more skills than if you just wander around in the sim.
1 month ago | 1
Sims are massively useful, and the free ones are fine. I've taught loads of people to fly fixed wings at our club. It's really common for some people to take up flying when they retire, only visit when the weather is nice and doesn't conflict with family events, and only manage a couple of flights at each visit. It takes them a year to clock up the hour or two of experience that it takes to learn to fly - and they forget some of what they learn in between lessons. By comparison, those who have done a few hours on a sim only really need my help for the first couple of minutes. I usually need to trim the model, and maybe catch one or two mistakes that are mostly due to nerves. On the second flight, I don't expect to need to take over, and sometimes don't even bother with the buddy box. I learned without an instructor, with just a sim, and with only one minor crash. Having watched others, I can see that experienced help is useful for checking the model set up, and knowing when the weather or location is not suitable, as well as coping with first-flight-nerves. Later the sim was the only way I could learn new helicopter tricks. I didn't find it nearly as useful when learning FPV quads though.
1 month ago | 1
When I learnt, I thought it would be simple as I have full size experience. Not so - each time it came towards me, I moved the aileron the wrong way! I just kept flying in Real Flight, merrily crashing and over thinking it till one day i did a circuit and landing without thinking about whether it was coming towards me or away from me. With that part of my brain finally calibrated, and a thousand models saved from the black bin bag of shame, I can truly say sims help a lot. I still use it occasionally to practice an aerobatic manoeuvre as it still helps with muscle memory. It does hit a natural limit though ...
1 month ago | 3
I'm pretty sure, "actually I know" if I didn't practice with a simulator, I would have crashed right away. Most definitely sims do help.
1 month ago | 1
When I joined a flying club years ago, they was teaching me a bit each week and I played on a SIM at home without them knowing, second week I was flying around inverted and they was gob smacked 😅 I'd say it helps a lot with confidence and understanding when getting started or trying new thing
1 month ago | 4
95/5 is my ratio and I rarely crash because of it. 95% of my stick time is done on the sim. The rest is played out in reality. Almost all my quads have original props because of this.
1 month ago | 1
I tried to fly my first ever fpv drone without practicing on the simulator but I instantly crashed... After a few days on the sim I was flying... So yeah its a must and it helps big time...
1 month ago | 4
My theory is the people who say that Sims don't help are people who learned to fly without a sim, doing it the "hard way" and don't want to others to learn with "training wheels". Sims help 100%. Are they an exact replacement for real flying? No. But they teach you so many good habits before every breaking a plane....
1 month ago | 4
Helps muscle memory. Keeps your thumbs exercised and most of all, it's enjoyable ( when the weather is very poor)
1 month ago | 2
I have found it extremely beneficial. Physics on FPV sims is much better. velocidrone greatly improved my racing. Fixed wing physics aren’t nearly as good, but still very useful especially for 3D. learning things like rolling harriers, torque rolls, KE spins worked well. Hard part was finding aircraft that respond somewhat close to the real thing. I still use sims for both FPV and fixed wing everyday.
1 month ago | 1
It’s a proven fact that visualization makes you better at any eye to hand coordination related tasks. A simulator is taking that concept to the next level. I think the better question would be, how would a simulator not help you get better?
1 month ago | 0
Really depends on what simulator, I fly liftoff for drones and realflight for everything else. I find that as long as I use the sim as a tool to get rust out of the fingers, I keep my real life aircraft intact longer lol.
1 month ago | 1
My first rc experience was with helis equipped with self stabilization/6 axis gyros. This made me over reliant on stabilization. Transitioning over to 3 axis collective pitch was not easy. Hours of sim practice on phoenix rc and AccuRc helped me get comfortable with my heli orientations and stable hover.
1 month ago | 2
It was incredibly helpful when I learnt to fly helicopters back before they flew themselves. There is no way I could have mastered inverted hovering without the Sim.
1 month ago | 1
It depends where you are in your development. It helps for the first couple hours but once you get flying for real, that’s where the true learning starts.
1 month ago | 1
You can’t even learn rc helicopters without a solid fundamentals on the sim
1 month ago | 1
Painless360
I had an interesting question at the weekend about how much does simulator practice help you when you fly an R/C model for 'real'. I have my own opinion, but wondered what the consensus was...
1 month ago | [YT] | 74