How do flight flight simulators compare with the real thing in terms of functionality.?

zogizee: How do flight flight simulators compare with the real thing in terms of functionality.?
Let’s say I am very familiar with the latest microsoft flight simulator or even X-Plane and happen to be on a flight where the pilots suffer an incident that hinders or impairs their ability to continue flying. Do you think with my knowledge of flight simulators I will be able to handle the plane and bring it to safety, that is, land at a nearby airport?

Answers and Views:

Answer by Mig-31 Firefox
I doubt it.
Flight simulators come mighty close to depicting the real thing, but they are developed to be operated by a keyboard, mouse and joystick with a single CRT/LCD display. The real thing is something different, it will take considerable time for you to familiarise yourself with the location and feel of the cockpit, realtime response of the aircraft and for the first time, adapting to the fact that you got just one chance to do it right. There is no reload option and the controlled collision with planet earth is the most difficult phase in flight.

There is a chance, a remote chance, but then a competent flight attendent could probably have a better chance.

Answer by n_pendse
Unless you have been burning midnight oil on some pricey add-ons, you would not even come close to systems knowledge on a modern jetliner.

Second, if you have never felt the yoke before, it would be very hard to learn and make a good landing.

I think if someone knows the systems down cold because of reading and/or using flight sim addons, s/he might be able to program the autopilot to fly the plane, that could be your best chance … if an ILS/autoland is available at the airport chosen.

Answer by rhsaunders
I found it much harder to run a flight simulator than to fly my Cessna. Not sure why. Probably has to do with having a thousand hours in the Cessna, and less than one in the simulator.

Answer by Chris G
Think about looking at the cockpit in any flight simulator aircraft, where all buttons are, then times that number by about 100, then you might have something close to a real cockpit. Even “glass cockpits” still have over 100 buttons to press, and then theres the actual flight control stick, on a flight sim the plane moves as quck as your computer will let it, in reality the wings might just snap off or crack and cause a bigger problem.

Even proffesional pilots trained to fly one type of plane probably would struggle to fly a different type.

Answer by Av8trxx
Bring it safely to an unscathed landing with only MSFS experience?
Chances are slim, even in the best possible conditions.
Or a Ted Stryker style landing where you may need some repairs? Likely.

No matter what, MSFS is just a GAME. Learning real seat of the pants sensations and hand flying skills cannot be had via a desktop sim. Even a real full motion Level D sim is not quite the same as the real thing. Even that is much harder than one might expect, even for a hard core flight simmer and even THAT is still not the real thing .

Read this for “An Enlightening Comparison: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 vs. Full Motion 747-400 Commercial Level D Simulator” –