Reflex Improvement
 

I have been a novice flyer for a number of years now. I want to improve my hand to eye coordination because it is not good. Is there a way to improve this?

Reflex Improvement
 

Practice. ;)

Play some "real-time" video games. Especially good, are flying combat sims, or R/C flying programs.

Any flight sim that lets you operate the plane from the perspective of standing on the ground can be helpful. MicroSoft's Flight Simulator is good. (I used FS98, which is cheap now...) ther's a downloadable R/C sim called FMS.... lots of others to look at.

If you have a 1980's style joystick (similar to a single TX stick) its almost as good as using one of the simulated R/C transmitter boxes such as you get with "Real Flight G2" or R/C Pilot Pro." I picked up one of the old style joysticks at a garage sale for $1 a couple of years ago. :)

Your initial flying practice mainly needs elevator and aileron control. Its easy to add rudder and throttle training when you get to the airfiled with your model. Do some taxi practice... figure 8's on the runway... or in the parking lot, and you'll get used to throttle and rudder. ;) A yardstick taped to the top of the wing, along the main spar and sticking up will prevent take-off in case you get going too fast.

Reflex Improvement
 

Someone suggested Great Planes R/C Flight Simulator. It has a controller style interface. What do you think of this product?

Reflex Improvement
 

You mean Real Flight? Great Planes makes it. It's a good sim, but it was designed for the graphics. A friend and I have gotten some of the planes to fly EXACTLY like the real ones we've flown at the field(he and I are instructors so we fly other peoples planes more than our own). Don't get me wrong, Real Flight is pretty good, but it isnt very accurate on some planes like the funflys or aerobatic planes. Plus you cant see the ground in it unless you are flying low. I've had it over a year and I still loose orientation to the ground. I flew a copy of Ripmax RC Simulator once, and it was the most accurate I've seen. You knew exactly where you were all the time, and the planes flew perfectly. Plus when you hit something, your plane actually breaks up. If you hit the fence, you can snap the wing off, and then see the plane fall down and break up more when it hits the ground. The sound is more realistic aswell. The engine sounds exactly like the ones in real life. There is a more limited selection of airplanes and flying fields, but it covers almost every kind. You can still download airplanes like Real Flight, and customize them.

Reflex Improvement
 

Yes That is the one I was referring to because I went and bought it. I got the Gen-2 Lite version which was a lower cost. I like it so far and it does seem realistic but you are right about losing the ground easily. I have to fly low. But it seems to be good to for general practice with the controller.

Reflex Improvement
 

It is good for practice, but the big problem I've had with mine is with the aerobatic planes. You cant get any of them to flat spin, and you have to really mess with them to get them to hover.

Reflex Improvement
 

This "losing the ground" problem is easily fixed by clicking "view" then "ground". If you have more than one view window open, make sure you click somewhere in the main window before you do this.

This will keep the plane and the ground in view all the time. It really should be this way by default, but it is an easy setting to change (you will have to redo this every time you change planes or airports)

This is by far the biggest complaint about RealFlight I hear, and it is so easy to fix it's unbelievable. It makes the sim much more realistic.

Reflex Improvement
 

That view gives me a headache in about 2 seconds. :(

Re: Reflex Improvement
 

You've already heard about SIMs and video games... still, a problem that I see more often is the plane itself. Fly a really good plane that is really well setup and you might be surprised how good your current hand to eye coordination actually is. :)

Reflex Improvement
 

Oh, then I guess you are kinda screwed... I love that view. Hopefully I helped someone...