Did a simulator helped you in learning to fly?

[colin]

First POLL of Helifever!

There's been a lot of debate on this topic before. Some people feel that a simulator doesn't come close to the real thing. And some people swear by it.

So, cast your votes above now and let's see what we have.

As for realism I think its impossible to make a sim that feels like the actual thing. Too many factors in real life make every second in air different (on the sim I can do inverted and loops and such, but in real life I havent even thought about trying those maneuvers yet )) But it is a very good tool to get comfortable with different heli orientations. I learned flying alone using nothing but sims, and Colins page , the second nature reactions I developed using sims saved my heli-*** allready a few times when the heli had other plans than me Orientation is a key necesity of flying helis in my opinion, if you have to think even 1/2 second wich way to move controls to get out of nasty situations, that will cost money .. It is there that the sim will be a great help


Thats my 2p worth on sims
Cheers

[Andrew]

I've found that using RealFlight G2 with a good computer and graphics card with all the realism settings turned on makes for a pretty realistic experience. I trained on the software for 2 months before taking out a real heli. It made my first flight less nerve-wracking.

[Daz(DJLFlapper)]

I have tried to learn the hard way(without the sim) and the easy way(with the sim)
No matter how I look at it when I got my first heli! I thought, Oh if I take it easy it can't be that hard. A few hundred pounds later and reading some of the advice on Colins site,(Thanks Mate)
I bough myself a simulator, It only cost me ?90 but it has scince saved me Hundreds.
The simulator I bought was the ikarus easy fly pico fly. It is bog standard and does not have any fancy things really but there is no doubt in my mind that it has helped me an awfull lot. I would even say that as far as realism goes it is very close.

I would definatly strongly advise any newby to get used to the carictaristics of flying heli's with a sim.
You can read some of my first stories on the pilots story board at the main page.

Regards Daz(DJLFlapper)