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Re: As for Aircraft and Air Traffic Control... by pinback 01/05/2017, 4:47am PST
Commander Tansin A. Darcos wrote:

Since you're a licensed pilot, let me ask you, do flight simulators give some realistic "feel" to the actual effects of flying in a plane or a simulator?


Great question! Microsoft Flight Simulator (the only one I've kept very familiar with over the years) does a wonderful job of conveying the "ideas" of flying. Moving the control surfaces (ailerons, elevators, flaps, etc.) makes the plane do pretty much what it does in real life. In particular, the navigational aspects have a great enough fidelity that if you do it well enough in the game, you can almost (almost) show up for flight school on navigation day and say, "I got this".

What it doesn't convey, of course, is the physical experience of sitting in a cramped, hot, loud Cessna cockpit, with everything bumping and shaking and the dials whipping back and forth instead of sitting there with pixel-precision. So, having played MSFS since the early 80s, during my first "intro flight" in real life, I understood most of what was happening, but more than that, my mind was screaming get me the fuck out of this thing I am never doing this again AIAGHGUGHGHH I'M GONNA BARF AUGHGghh.

So yeah. They give realistic "feel" to the concepts of flying, but not to... flying.

Also, have you ever done a sit down with or gotten permission to watch actual flight controllers in action, say at a small airport like Hagerstown or College Park? (For everyone else, I used to know Pinback when he lived in Maryland.)


As part of training, we spent 15-20 minutes in the tower at Manassas Municipal (KHEF).

If you've actually been in an ATC site do ATC simulators give much of an accurate depiction of what is involved?


Having only been in a tower at a small airport, and not being very familiar with any hardcore tower sims ("Airport Madness 3D", from my Games of the Year post, is not really a simulator, it's purely a game), I cannot speak to that. However, having listened to hours of LiveATC, I am virtually certain that ATC simulators are a lot closer to the experience of the "real thing" than flight simulators are.

Have I answered any of your questions satisfactorily? Can I provide any additional information?
PREVIOUS REPLY QUOTE
 
I have a lot to say about Air Traffic Control simulators. by pinback 05/03/2016, 3:39pm PDT NEW
    Here are the sims I will be commenting on. If you know of others you'd like to by see covered, let me know. 05/04/2016, 10:11am PDT NEW
    Here are the sims I will not be commenting on: by pinback 05/05/2016, 3:29pm PDT NEW
    Alright, let me just get this out of the way. by pinback 05/11/2016, 1:59pm PDT NEW
        Article this! NT by A Message From Caltrops Cares 05/12/2016, 9:25am PDT NEW
            Nah, don't encourage him. NT by John de Lancie 05/15/2016, 9:23pm PDT NEW
                Is this the new mysterio name? by laudablepuss 05/16/2016, 4:10pm PDT NEW
                    Were you, or a loved one, or acquaintance... by John de Lancie 05/16/2016, 7:50pm PDT NEW
    I am dinging ATC Pro back to a 9 out of 10 for now. by pinback 05/16/2016, 9:24am PDT NEW
    As for Aircraft and Air Traffic Control... by Commander Tansin A. Darcos 01/05/2017, 12:26am PST NEW
        Re: As for Aircraft and Air Traffic Control... by pinback 01/05/2017, 4:47am PST NEW
 
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