Is Flight Simming Beneficial to Real Life Training?

[Syncop8r]

If you wanna do C Cat you apply for it separately after CPL so even if you start CPL this year you'll still have to fork out for the hour building part of C Cat up front I believe.

[benwynn]

Yeah, you apply for a Diploma Aviation in ATPLs, Management or Cat C. Unfortunately, the IAANZ signs everybody up for management, so you don't have much of a choice. So yes, you need to fork out for the C Cat.

In terms of percentage, I think you need 100hrs PIC for your CPL, so I guess around 50%. Apparently its around $30000 worth.

[Shamrock55]

I totally agree with the points here. Having used Flight Sim at home for years made my first flying lesson a lot easier from knowing so much about systems and procedures-but the actual flying part was a lot different and i also suffered from the problem of spending my time looking down instead of out the window. Things like just using the horizon/nose to control your height instead of using the instruments took a long time to perfect because i'd never bothered looking at the horizon before in FSX. One day we went over to Omaka to do some circuits and we played the "tea towel over the instruments game" Trying to maintain 1000ft and 70kts just by feeling alone was very hard, but great fun and an excellent lesson on how to fly if your instruments failed. So Flight Simulator is great for some things but will give you bad habits of not looking out at the world enough.

I did have the plesure of my instructor saying "its nice to go up with someone who can already fly for a change" after my SECOND lesson so I must credit Flight Simulator with getting my ahead very early.

I failed my medical so I didnt bother going any further then 7 hours with my PPL but this summer i'm going to get stuck into my microlight licence.