I have found that beginning Fixed wing pilots that have never flown and RC plane before, that have been on a flight Simulator
( one with a controller such as a Futaba /Airtronics etc.) have their learning curve cut in half or more. It teaches the sensitivity of our planes, and the directional problems that new pilots suffer from. This being the case the instructor does not have to take the plane away from the student as much and allows them more stick time per flight. What are all your thoughts on the subject?
The DiBo

Multiply that ten-fold for helicopters! In fact anyone starting with a heli who doesn't use a sim first is wasting a LOT of time (and their money!!)

Cliff

Cliff

Our Heli instructor said that exact thing to me. I could not comment on the helis because I am not a heli flyer ( I would like to start and is what he told me to do ). Have my hands full with the fixed wing stuff and instructing now. But I hope more look at this.
the DiBo

I've been flying airplanes for 15 years, helis for 6.

I recently obtained G2. Love it. A few comments, though.

As for beginners (those who have never touched a stick), G2 is a great tool to learn the controls and responses of the airplane. In my opinion, when it comes to the landings, G2 falls short. I don't really feel that the sim captures the true life art of landing an airplane. I've had friends, who have never flown before, try the sim and were able to successfully land the airplane on the first try. I know, from experience, that these "successful" landings would have resulted in a damaged real-life model. Point I'm trying to make is that even though the G2 sim is a great learning tool, it doesn't eliminate the need for a good instructor. I would hate to see a newcomer get a false sense of security from the sim, neglect to find a instructor, and end up quiting the hobby because "it wasn't as easy as the sim made it seem."

P.S. I learned to fly helicopters without a sim and without ever crashing.

Same here... Self-taught R/C plane pilot. My FIRST crash was when I was starting my SECOND year flying with my THIRD R/C plane. The first two were STILL in good flying condition, only switched to a different plane because of wanting more performance. My second plane was a Goldgerg Eaglet 50 which after a few months of flying, I shifted the CG almost TWO INCHES BEHIND the farthest back limit marked on the plans. I also put a solid sheet stab on it with more elevator area, then increased ALL control surface throws to as much as I could get without causing control binding. That Eaglet could develope a spin tight enough that if directly under it, it looked like the engine was falling straight down with the plane spinning around the engine.

I also SELF-TAUGHT myself to fly R/C helicopters WITHOUT any expensive crashes until my third season flying the heli's.

I didn't have any flight sim's until AFTER I could fly heli's enough to do loops, rolls, and other mild aerobatics with the heli.

R/C experience: 23 years airplane, Started R/C heli's in 1993, but due to job conflicts, only really have 8 years R/C heli experience.

R/C airplane flight instructor from 1986 until 1996. Instructing MOSTLY with my own plane & radios until 1995.

1996, Was flight instructing with student's equipment enough to fly nearly EVERY DAY, and only taking MY OWN aircraft out of the house TWICE the entire year.

As far as simulator? If I'd have never "upgraded from RFG2 to RFG2 w/Interlink USB controller, I'd have no problems recommending RealFlight. HOWEVER, with all the problems I've had since "upgrading" and the COMPLETE LACK of honest help from both Great Planes AND Knife-Edge Software's Tech support, I no longer use RealFlight, and CAN NO LONGER HONESTLY recommend RealFlight to ANYBODY.

Have a problem with RealFlight, and REGARDLESS of WHAT the problem is, Great Plane's tech support does NOTHING, and Knife-Edge Software's tech suppoprt blames your problem on "You need to upgrade either your video or sound drivers"
They gave me THAT SAME ANSWER when I notified them that I had just UPGRADED ALL drivers, and the upgraded drivers DID NOT make RealFlight work any better, but had made several other applications on my system STOP functioning correctly.

I do not think that the idea of learning to fly on a flight simulator was to remove the instructor from the equation. I agree they are sadly lacking in the actual landing department. It is really only a prep for the basics of the controllers movements, sensitivity and the orientation of the controls as to the movements of the aircraft. To insinuate that you can learn to fly without a qualified instructor is ludicrous. I have yet to see anyone that could fly and RC plane the very first time, without any help at all, and no prior RC experience that did not suffer some kind of crash.

The DIBo