Keeping Current

[Capt Kremen]

Our full-size airline aviation folk, keep their skills honed, and of course legal, by regular sessions in the Sim.  Feeling I needed a similar refresher after the weeks/months 'grounded', I dug out my Phoenix flight sim to brush up and hopefully improve the rusty stick movements. 

I'm disappointed, the various models tried, including those I have examples of in my R/C fleet, really don't feel or respond much like the real thing. Yes, I know you can tweak the weather and play with rates, expo etc. but I still don't find the experience very realistic. I would very much like to try a few aerobatic manoeuvres currently not in my repertoire but feel I may be wasting my time as any experience will not directly transfer realistically once we are allowed out again.

How do others feel? Would splashing out on 'Real Flight No.##' or other new flight sim make a huge difference?

[Kim Taylor]

You can tweak the level of difficulty somewhere in the settings on Phoenix. I found the same as you did before I realised that the default setting is 50%.

I just upped mine to 100% and it make it all much more responsive.

Of course you may have already changed yours, in which case forget everything I just said.?

Kim

[Lima Hotel Foxtrot]

I absolutely recommend Realflight. I have found the physics to be very close to reality (especially if you get the Horizon Hobbies edition with the full catalogue of their planes) but a sim will never truly replicate the experience of standing in a chilly field with your spatial awareness being disrupted by "helpful" comments from clubmates as you fly a breakable model.

I find that using my 32" TV as a monitor is better than the laptop screen, and to make up for not having skin in the game I always turn the wind up too far and in an awkward direction, the turbulence to max and the failure rate to always. If you can land a Wot 4 foam-e in a 15mph crosswind with a stuck elevator and radio interference, you're doing ok.