Flight simulators are great tools for training but also for flight preparation. Any PC can easily be turned into a useful tool for any pilot. If you want to make it really beneficial for YOUR flying it’s better to first identify your objectives. Answering the following questions should help you:

1. VFR or IFR ?
2. Manual flight or autopilot ?
3. Radio-navigation only or full drills ?

The IFR vs. VFR question determines what for software and graphics card you’ll need. The requirements are really different. If you want to train for IFR you need to see all the basic instruments, all the radio-navigation gauges, and possibly the radio-navigation boxes as well. Having to switch views to access the radio stack or the RMI is really painful. As a counterpart, a minimalistic outside view is more than enough. For VFR the basic 6 instruments are sufficient, but the outside view is critical. A large size landscape with sufficient details to make VFR navigation possible requires a very good graphics card, whereas drawing a cockpit is a much easier task. Using two monitors can be a good advantage for VFR navigation.

If your goal is to practice your navigation skills only you can reach it with minimal hardware. Almost all simulators can be used with keyboard and mouse only and this is fine for training navigation skills using the autopilot. This is true for both visual and radio navigation. You can use the autopilot and work the throttle, gear and flaps for take-off with the mouse or even use the “set position” feature to place the aircraft in the air with sufficient speed to avoid a perilous mouse take-off.

It is also possible to practice hand-flying with a simulator, but it is not so easy. The biggest problem is the absence of realistic force feedback via the joystick you’ll use. Simulating the forces in an actual aircrafts’ control column requires a serious assembly and quite powerful motors. If you ever trained in a certified simulator you know how strong these things are. This is not something that can be achieved with a simple yoke or joystick. The force as felt in the controls is an important part of the flying sensations. Achieving a good flare in a simulator is much more complex than in an actual aircraft with full view and forces in the yoke. During one of my G1000 training session the instructor forgot to turn the force system on. It was simply impossible to fly.

Another option between “mouse driven” and “full force feed-back” is to have sufficient hardware to simulate the most important aircraft controls. Having throttle, propeller, mixture levers together with flaps and gear controls make possible to simulate a complete approach and go-around without having to use keyboard or mouse. There is also some good hardware for radio-stack. This makes possible to tune navaids or program GPS with quite realistic boxes. This is important if your goal is to fly IFR procedures in a realistic way and even more if you want to keep all your drills up to date. A few extra switches can help to simulate things like landing light, carburetor heat, cowl flaps, fuel pump or other items that’s part of your checklists.Once you’ve set your goals you can select the hardware you want to use.

If you go for the “mouse driven” option you don’t need any extra hardware and can skip this section, but you can read my previous post about using “pont and click” simulators. I used a CH-Products yoke for a while. It is fitted with the usual power levers (throttle, propeller, mixture) and enough buttons to control flaps, landing gear and cowl flaps. It does not have any force feed back but a constant spring loading. Flying the simulator manually with it is fine but pitch control is not as stable as in actual flight. Click here or on the picture to read more about it or buy one from amazon.

CH-Products also offers pedals and a separate power quadrant for twin engines which comes with extra switches for lights or other purpose. If you use it you can also buy a simpler yoke.

If you’re looking for a good radio-stack you should have a look at the ELITE products. ELITE was first designed as an IFR training environment. It ranges from low-end personal simulator up to fully certified FNPT-II. Their new hardware is compatible with other flight simulators, particularly with Microsoft Flight Simulator X. The last addition to the their offer is a hardware module to control the simulated GNS430. The display itself is on the monitor, but the unit can be controlled using dedicated buttons. Click here to read more about the ELITE radio-stack simulator.

One you selected your hardware comes the software question. I used three different flight simulators: Microsoft Flight Simulator, X-Plane, and ELITE. ELITE is clearly oriented towards IFR and was desinged as a professional product from its inception. Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane are addressing a more general audience but once tuned properly they offer interesting training possibilities as well.

Once you’ll have your simulator up and running the next step will be to use is as a tool and not as a toy. Turn it on, take-off and play in the air is fine, but you won’t learn a lot doing it. If you’re serious about training with your personal simulator you must establish a training plan. Define goals, prepare your flights as you would do for an actual flight and try to evaluate yourself using the recording features of the simulator.

The simulator is just another tool and it’s as good as the pilot using it. Fly your simulator seriously and it’ll help you to remain safe…

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