Is a flight simulator hardware bundle worth it for a new student?

[Shawn]

Howdy Gang!

Just got "clearance" (from family/work/finances) so start my PPL training this summer after two years of delays! Met with the school and I have a few months before I jump in a seat of what will probably be a 172 and want to spend the time getting as much prep time in as possible.

My question is are the flight simulator hardware/software packages worth it for a new student to get some familiarity with the systems and how it all works? Something like the package below:

http://www.marvgolden.com/saitek-vfr-gold-cessna-flight-sim-bundle.html

I am a very hands on visual learner. If I just read it, I have a hard time retaining. If I see it and experience it, it burned in my brain like a picture forever...so would this be a helpful tool prior to and along with flight school? Of course nothing could take the place of being in the seat but if it helps me to be better prepared, I would be all over that.

Cost doesn't bother me unless it would be a complete waste of money.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[Jim Logajan]

I can find no studies that show use of home flight simulators create subsequent learning problems for students who first tried to learn flying on home computers. All I can find are personal anecdotes from CFIs.

I have found studies that show either no advantage (in terms of average time to learn vs control subjects) to such use or some actual advantage. The most significant positive result I could find was that of the U.S. Navy which way back around 2000 issued customized versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator to all its student aviators. http://www.baseops.net/flightsimulators/

It isn't clear to me how long they they continued to do that or the amount of advantage they thought it conferred.

There appear to be a handful of things that a home simulator doesn't simulate well, though some are fundamentally important to stick and rudder skills.

If a student is aware of the most common problems (e.g. fixation on flight instruments) it is possible for them to take corrective action. In all the simulators I'm aware of one can actually remove the instrument panel from the display.

Once a student is made aware of the possible common problems and how to avoid them, it makes no sense to me why they should still be warned away from such a tool.

 

[Jim Logajan]

Re: Yes! Get it!

Simmers fly heads down as a rule. This is an excruciatingly bad habit

Any studies you are aware of that support either claim?

Also, are you certain that students will revert to heads down even after being made aware of the problem? That this issue is unavoidable, making use of home sims wasteful for most students?

 

[Jim Logajan]

Re: Yes! Get it!

It's impossible to control a study like that. The one you cited has a crucial error.

Using a simulator with a flight instructor present is fundamentally different from using one at home BEFORE starting training. The question was about the latter.

If no valid studies have been done to test their effectiveness at self-teaching, then there is no study to support your opposite assertions.

If you want to play, play. Sims can be fun. But don't pretend they have benefit, especially with irrelevant studies.

Sigh. You are being obstinate on a cause that makes no sense. For the record, I'm one person who used Microsoft FS to resolve two issues on my own initiative during training. One use was to wean myself from using ailerons to pick up a wing during stalls. There was a nice way for me to quickly repeat a scenario that caused me to crash if I did the wrong thing and allowed me to recover if I just used rudder until the wings were flying again. On my next live training session I no longer did the wrong thing.

Habits can be unlearned with effort, but that effort takes time and money.

Again: do you have any evidence to show that simmers exhibit a greater number of bad habits than those who did not sim prior to instruction? If not, why do you insist on repeatedly making this claim?

 

[Jim Logajan]

My own search of the net for formal studies on home simulators doesn't yield anything about simmers who attempted to self-train prior to training from a CFI, but I found one partially relevant study because it deals with sim training prior to actual flight training:Abstract
Two groups of ab initio student pilots were given training on a flight simulation package running on a desk-top computer prior to performing some basic flight maneuvers in the air. One group interacted with the computer using a representative set of flight controls. The other group used only the computer's cursor and function keys. Both groups exhibited superior performance compared to a control group who had no computer-based training. Students with prior training who used representative flight controls also experienced lower in-flight workload. The results suggest that PC-based flight simulators do not aid in the psychomotor skills required to fly a light aircraft. Their benefits lie elsewhere. However, even very low levels of simulator fidelity can be beneficial in the initial stages of pilot training.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327108ijap0803_6#.UZu8JMoSafU

Nothing surprising here - the abstract doesn't mention any negative aspects (such as instrument fixation.) Not sure why they even tried keyboard input! This next one isn't directly relevant to new students, but does address a realm where I would expect flight control fidelity to be important to success:ABSTRACT
Three groups of novice pilots received training to fly aerobatic maneuvers in a light aircraft. Trainees in the control group received in-flight instruction and were given the usual briefings before each flight. Trainees in the two experimental groups received extra training: each in-flight lesson was preceded by PC-based simulated flight. A total of 2053 maneuvers were analyzed on the basis of both flight-data recordings and instructor ratings. We hypothesized that complex manual flying skills, learned on the ground, transfer to the aircraft. The results provide no objective support for this hypothesis. There were no significant differences in flying skills between the three groups as measured by the flight-data recordings. However, both experimental (PC-) groups managed to fly significantly more maneuvers in the same amount of flight time in the aircraft. Differences between flight-data recordings and instructor ratings are analyzed in detail. In the discussion, we compare the findings with published transfer-experiments with PC-based simulation.
http://ftp.rta.nato.int/public/pubfulltext/rto/mp/rto-mp-msg-035/mp-msg-035-14.pdf

I am surprised that anyone even tried to use PC based simulators in teaching aerobatics. I don't think even the most ardent fan of simulation would expect any useful results (though it looks like it helped reduce ground instruction time.)

EDIT:
Found this study, again of some relevance (I don't think ELITE was even intended for this sort of thing):
Abstract
PC-based flight-simulation effectiveness was analyzed through a transfer-of-learning study. Sixty college students with no previous flight experience performed a designated-aircraft maneuver. Thirty of the subjects were trained in a computer-based training device (CBTD) before flying; the remaining 30 were taken directly to the aircraft. Chi-square and t test analyses on the data revealed a statistical advantage at the .01 level of confidence for the CBTD-trained experimental group, which performed significantly better than the control group. The CBTD chosen for this study was AzureSoft's Electronic Instrument Flight Rules Environment (ELITE™), run on a Zenith personal computer. Cessna 150 and 152 aircraft were used for the flight portion of the study. The incorporation of CBTDs in flight training is recommended because they have the potential for reducing the amount of hours spent in the airplane.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15327108ijap0403_5#.UZvSacoSafU