Are rc flight simulators worth the money and time to learn how to fly. Are they a valuable tool or more of a game ? I work during most of the daylight hours during the week. I was thinking about purchasing a simulator to give me a head start . What are your thoughts ?

When I learned they didn't have that stuff. I learned with a u-control plane attached to 75' of cable, it made all the difference, but for all the younger guys born into electronics flight similator software seems to be the hot ticket to learn with.

Hi I too first flew RC (first successful flight in i959 and controlline from 1954) so like the poster above sims were never an option.

However while I have had zero need or interest is sims now that I started messing with helicopters where I consider myself a complete newby and this especially so since I am a retired full scale rotor pilot. That fact alone put me at a complete disadvantage so I purchased the most expensive and capable sim I could find and that is the latest version of real flight I could find.

OK with diligent use of that sim and some first class on hand help at the field I have been reasonably successful with my .50 size glow ship and a smaller flybarless electric.

I do teach fixed wing a lot at our field and what I recommend to every fixed wing student is to use a good sim concurrently with hands on flying a real trainer and a competent mentor/instructor. Also here we use only cordless buddy systems and believe it or not the simple lack of a cord has a positive effect on the student and the results show.

John

Students with a sim learn quicker.....but I've never seem a sim takeoff and land quite right.....there is no substitute for stick time so I say fly fly fly....:::

In short, YES, they are worth the money.
For the best results, use them in conjunction with an instructor at your local field, as being that each model flies differently, you can adjust the physics of the model in programs like Phoenix and Real Flight so you end up flying something that feels as close as possible to the specific model that you are learning on.
What this allows for is more rapid learning, but as with any flight learning process, IMO you need to be structured with your learning approach (ie resist the urge to just 'play' on it). Set yourself specific goals, 'master' them then combine that skill within your next goal and so on and so on.
Mines saved me from numerous crashes with my heli, and helped the transition into planes no end. So if nothing else, buying a good one will end up saving you a LOT of money! And that's got to be a good thing right?

Yes they are definitely worth buying. My son-in-law and I both taught ourselves to fly on GP RealFlight G2 simulators about fifteen years ago. We had no choice, there was no one in the area to teach us. We both worked with the sims over the winter and when spring rolled around, we were both successful and were able to take off, fly and land without crashing. Maybe we were lucky, but the sims sure didn't hurt. I snow have RealFlight 6.5 and practice with it frequently. They are fairly close to the real thing. Add wind from differing directions and speeds, thermal activity etc. to add extra challenges, but also get help from an instructor of possible.
bhady

I bought a Dave Brown sim and "dummy" transmitter control back in 2001. After that I downloaded the free FMS simulator. Both were good for practice but no substitute for actualy flying. Recently I bought the RealFlight 7 and have it hooked up through my DX6i. MUCH better feel. Some of the models still are a bit "optimistic" in performance, but overall it is a great practice effort. The Big Stik on floats is MUCH harder to grease in than the real thing(??)

The balloon burst and spot landing challenges are great practice drills. Still no substitute for real time in the atr and take off/landings but I'd say worthwhile to keep your hand in and to practice at home.

I restarted my RC flying with the Nextar which came with a basic sim which I practiced on at least 3 times a week for about a hour,and after a minimal amount of help from the guys at the field I soloed the sim was a great help I have a Realflight 3.5 that I still use to keep up with my stick time when I can't get to the field for extended amounts of time its a great tool to just keep the muscle memory going I would recommend it to any beginner starting out in RC.

They are good for reflexes, getting accustomed to controlling aircraft in odd orientations, and practicing and learning new aerobatic moves in the sense that you can watch the flight instruction, try it, then when you fail pause and rewatch and understand what you did wrong.. but they aren't a substitute for actual stick time...

in general I find the planes all seem to fly significantly faster ( especially on smaller screened laptops ) .. all planes stall nicely and straightforward, and things like wind and the feel of actual flying are lost with a sim.. the physics are good, but not great. They are a tool, not perfect, but definitely have their benefits..and when its raining out and you want to go flying.. there is no substitute :-)

Big Yes to RC sims. I got into hobby in 07 and tried to go without and crashed and had alot of issues (early April) on advise from someone at the field I stopped trying and got sim. Flow it for 6 weeks went out in late June and soloed my electristar train and never looked back. I have now trained two other both did sim and was able to succeed.

I think they are a good tool and worth the money. Especially for stick movements, practicing different maneuvers, etc Plus you can keep your fingers and reflexes in shape when the weather is bad or during the long winters when there is no flying at the field.

For take-off and landings, mostly landings, they are really not substitute for the final approach and lining up the runway to land at the field. As in the sim you can land anywhere. Where as at the field you have to land on the runway. The other thing is you need to be careful on the sim is you can end up teaching yourself bad habits as well as good ones. If you fly on the sim like you are flying at your club field and following club rules you should not have a problem with learning bad habits.

You also need to make sure whatever sim you buy your computer system can run it with no issues. Try and look at the recommended requirements and not the minimum requirements. A sim that stops and starts or hesitates during flight, take-off or landing is not a good way to learn or practice either.

I bought a Phoenix 4 Simulator today off ebay. I want to practice on it before returning to the club. I am hoping it will teach me the basic skills so my time with an instructor will be short. The Phoenix is supposed to link up directly with my JR radio without an adapter. This will help me get the feel of my own radio.

yup, I've got that sim, and like it very much. (V 5 is now available, you'll be able to upgrade immediately if you choose to.)
ONE thing, that sim is capable of setting things like Expo and dual rates in the PROGRAM (so even if you don't have a computer radio, you can still use expo for example)
I'd suggest turning those features off and use only the radio's programming (otherwise you can end up with twice as much expo as you think you've got)
good luck!

I disagree with adding ANY expo or dual rate in the transmitter for use on Phoenix.

The best bet in Phoenix is to leave your transmitter settings at ZERO (just set up a separate 'sim' model in in your transmitter and use that), as you will need to edit a given model to get it to fly like any real world one you have anyhow, then you can save it as a "copy" and put the edited model in your 'favorites' section once your happy with it. By default my copy of Phoenix V5 has all planes dialed right back re their control responses anyhow, so I've had to adjust every one I want to practice on to get it to feel like my own real ones.
All adding expo to your transmitter will do is to add that setting to every single model in the program, and not all models require the same amount to feel right re the way they respond to your inputs so it will be an utter waste of time, and one that will cause nothing but headaches for you later on (I'm speaking from personal experience of doing just that).

^^ well, this is why we have forums KiwiBob I have to agree! I typically set up each Sim airplane in it's own profile, but it simply never occurred to me to just use one.
live and learn

Glad to be of assistance. And I agree that yes, forums can be a great place to learn - god knows just how much I've learned from them over the years!!

Wow, the Phoenix Sim is so realistic. I am not a gamer , so I was blown away by the realistic technology. My skills have picked up quickly. It will be interesting to see how my sim skills transfers to real life rc flying. I am hoping my instructor will see the difference from the last time I flew. I noticed you can even set the weather parameters for realism. Also you can set it up for a surprise engine or control failure. It is my beginner opinion that this will help anyone new to the hobby.

Just realize that the physics are not perfect on Phoenix (non of them are), I always find I need to tweak the specific model to get it as close as possible to my own - but then I'm totally anal when it comes to trying to get it as close as I can to my real ones in 'feel'.
It will never be a true substitute for real world flying, but will always help hugely in getting your real world skill set up there sooner!

All the best!!

I find there are two spots that flight sims are "lacking" straight out of the box
1. Most planes fly too fast. for example the J-3 cub can cross the entire field in about a second flat...
2. stall characteristics are all extremely forgiving on almost all planes compared to their real life model counterparts.. If you need proof go fly a p-40 or some other warbird that you would expect to drop a wing on stall...

You don't have the environmental feedback you have in real conditions. Like wind direction and speed, sun position, real life position indicators. Overhead perception, depth perception, etc. Good for stick control practice. I use RF 7 and I'm shocked by the lack of variety of plane-power combinations. If you want small or super large it's there. If you want planes, engines, & prop variety in mid-range do a software comparison first. I don't know about other products but RF has the ability to change a lot of factors but not much info on the effect and how to adjust. For example: want a 30 cc size plane? Not much to choose from. But, if you scale down 100+ cc plane what else do you have to modify?

In Phoenix v5, in the edit function there is a 'scaling' option (slide function with final WS being advised as you do it), which lets you scale a larger or smaller existing model to get what you want - I did that to get my 30cc Sbach to where I wanted it to be (default was a 50cc bird), and the weight etc all looks to have come out bang on in one easy step!
Quite handy I must say!

Simulators are GREAT BUT you need to pay attention to the Co. behind the SIM. I bought an Aerofly simulation by Ikarus for my Imac and after purchasing at their direction a Driver with flashdrive, and an extra cable the thing still does NOT work properly. To add insult to injury, they refuse to refund my money.. Caveat Emptor!

There IS quite a variety on what is available with the predefined engines.

You can easily create any engine based upon performance data for a particular engine/motor.

It is quite simple to do. Copy an existing engine that is close to what you want to use, give it a new name.

Adjust the power curve so that the RPM values in the editor reflect what the real engine puts out for a given prop in a static test.
Cut the curve ( make it drop to zero ) at speeds that are too fast for the real engine... and you're done...

I learned to fly by myself (no instructor) with the help of Phoenix RC. I don't even fly at an RC club but I'm luck to be able to fly almost everyday after work or during lunch time (my company is located in a very remote area). I'm very dedicated and focused when I learn something so this helps too. I watched a thousand instructional videos but have to admit that I started with 3D models (on the sim and real life) which is definitely not recommended.
I started at around 8 months ago and I'm currently flying a 3D profile I built from scratch (again, not recommending you do this).
Watch as many tutorials and training videos as you can (Phoenix has a few ones). Choose a plane on the sim which is similar to the one you plan to fly in real life. Train everyday (even for a few minutes) and you'll be amazed of how valuable this tool is.
Have fun!