Just thought I'd pass on my experience today of testimonial proof that RealFlite really CAN save your bacon -- and your plane -- at the field. I figure the $200 or so I spend on RF has saved me at least $500 worth of airplanes!

Today while flying, my plane dipped behind a stand of trees at the head of the runway and it was completely out of sight for at least 10 seconds (seemed like MUCH longer). When last seen it was going down at about a 30 degree angle. Now I'm not an experienced pilot (or I wouldn't have been in this mess to start with) and normally this would have scared the crud out of me and almost certainly resulted in a total loss of the model. But for weeks now I've been experiencing the same thing in RealFlite (G2) and have gotten fairly good at flying a plane I can't even see! Anyway, today at the field, almost instinctively, I give it power and about 3/4 up elevator (luckily I had just switched to hi-rates on the elevator) and lo and behold up it popped into the clear blue skies! I think all the folks at the field were frankly amazed -- and I got to go home with my plane all in one piece. For a change.

--Don

You gorgot to add "and shaking really bad"

Great recovery

There is no question that RF is the best $200 a new RC pilot can spend. It allowed me to solo my first day out, and there is no telling how many crashes did not take place as a result of my training on it.
Glen

And your thread is a great argument for the way I fly. Do NOT stop flying the plane until 10 seconds after the "thud"!

I've had similar situations where my plane has gone behind the trees on at least 4 or 5 occassions, where I've managed to save it by remaining calm and continuing to fly.
Dennis-

I hear ya!

I had trained on real flight for about 15-20 hours before my first flight. I got a friend
to maiden my Big Stik (my first plane) and he trimmed it for me, I took it up next and
soloed my first time out. RF really is my best $200 I have spent so far.

Flyboy,

Glad to read some more posts from people that have soloed without a lot of instruction. I soloed a Nexstar the 2nd time I had it out. Did t/o and landings all afternoon. (On the first trip some helpful guys at my club trimmed it and did t/o and landings for me.)

But I had crashed the sim about a thousand times before then.

I read all the posts here from these guys who talk about 20-30 flights with an instructor on a buddy box before they solo and I'm just scratching my head. It ain't that hard. And I'm an old guy with diminished faculties. By the time I had 20 flights on my trainer, I was sick of it.

I have yet to fly an R/C plane into the ground, although I have yanked up just in time to knock a few grasshoppers off their perch. I attribute all of these saves to time on the sim.

I do find landing on the sim a bit harder than in real life, most of this to me is due to losing my place and
not being able to tell where I am in accordance to the runway. My real life flying site is not the easiest place
to takeoff and land either, the runway is an old road that has a lot of bumps and holes that we have tried
to patch up with cement, and is about 20-25 feet wide if it is even that wide! Hopefully that your site is
a little better than that.

I' not sure if some people pick up on flying easier, or if it was just easy for me, but I am almost a total
newbie to r/c flying and taught myself on RF sim. I did however have some friends at the field to help me
if I need it. The props and engines can be dangerous so I usually like to go and fly with other people
because the place I fly is about 30-40 minutes out of town and there is almost no one around to help.

I would say that it is better to have someone around with a buddy box just in case you are nervous and
still cannot land at all on a sim to help you out if you are not comfortable with flying yet.
(btw if this thread does not make complete sense I am writing this like 1:30am so bear with me)

All in all what I am summing up is that a sim is good for some things like helping you with the controls of the
airplane, and to teach someone to get confident enough to actually put their plane in the air (with supervision,
preferably a instructor), a sim is not absolutely necessary, but it is a great supplement though it is not at all a
substitute for a well experienced "hands on" person\instructor who will help you get some real flight time and
build your real experience.

I hope I did not ramble on too much and that you can get the just of what I am saying, and if I did make
any mistakes in what I was saying the more experienced pilots here on RCU will set the records straight and
put their 2 cents in.