Oh really and why is that? Saw too many beginners brag on the simulator time they had only to crash on their very first flight. Simulators are just that they simulate and that never equates to the real world. I never got my pilots license graduating from a simulator.

I have X-Plane 10 and have been practicing on it for about 3 months.<div>
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One really great thing about rc is that it is a mature technology. There is no need to reinvent the wheel as a beginner. Get an instructor and fly a glow trainer until you have the skills, then advance in whatever direction you want.

Well then, I guess the US Air Force and the airlines should pull the plug on their simulator programs and go back to burning fuel and time. I have a private ticket, and I learned GA the OLD FASHIONED WAY TOO. Now I have several RC & GA flight simulators and can practice and learn without crash and fuel expense. I can get three or more times as much flying done in the same amount of time... I don't have to drag planes and equipment to the field. I don't have to repair ANY flight or landing damage. I don't have to wait for good weather or schedule time off for flight. I don't have to wait for a flight instructor to show up. When I show up at the field, I am current and can have a great time flying.

I fly all the major simulators from RC to GA. I will not ever go without them again. You can do what ever the heck you want to do. It works...your post is immature and unrealistic. X-Plane is NOT an RC simulator no matter how much I love it.

I think the point flycatch was making is that simulators don't replace actual flying experience. They are a great tool to augment the instructor's work by practicing the maneuvers you've been taught, but simulator time only does not guarantee good piloting skills in a beginner pilot. The right way to use a simulator is to get instruction so you know what to do, then set it up in the simulator and do it a few hundred times. You try different ways and different inputs to see what works best to get the right result. that will speed up the learning process dramatically, but without an instructor beginner pilots can wind up learning the wrong methods or get rattled when the real plane doesn't respond the same way the simulator one does.

Link Flight Simulators was just on the edge of town when Iwas in High School. We had a tour and got top play in a "demo" simulator. Even back then the sophistication of the simulators was astonishing. The cockpit view was from a camera mounted on a robotic arm that skimmed a model of a landscape. Little 1" houses mounted sideways on a wall that was probably 150 feet wide and tall. But the main use of simulators was the instruments. And also to teach you where to find the 200 switches and knobs (and now screen selections and parameters) a pilot has to touch in a heartbeat.

R/C pilots don't use instruments.

Sure, video simulators get you used to moving your thumbs as necessary to move the proper linkages and control surfaces. But it is only a crude representation of live flight. No distracting pit activity, bugs behind your glasses, wind gusts, stale fuel, wild pilots flying against the pattern, poorly tuned engines, badly trimmed models, binding linkages, loud noises, blind spots from looking at the sun, etc.

Ihave a couple different flight simulators. I'd sayyoucanlearn 25 to 30%of what you need to know from a simulator. Certainly helpful, butnot a full substitute.

I have to agree with some of the posters here... You cant really go from Sim to flying..
Training/Flying + practice on SIM when weather is bad/instructor is not available is definitely beneficial but a lot of people make it sound like Simulator is a must before flying. I highly disagree.

And they don't emulate a BEE STING right on your face as you're flying!!!

That was an experience...

Simulators are GREAT tools, and greatly reduce the amount of time required to learn.

Nothing replaces actual stick and field time however.