Can THIS Help Me Earn My PPL? | Real CFI Shares His Thoughts 

I used flight sims for years before I went for my PPL. It definitely helped as you know the basics and more going into your training. In fact after the first lesson, my instructor says to me” yeah you need to be a pilot”

Before I booked a first flight in a 172, I had some flight time in Msfs2020, the instructor said I flew good, he took off, I flew and landed the airplane with his instructions. He told me his some of his students had more trouble following his instructions. I guess the simulator trains your eyes, checking outside and the gauges. For me the simulator compared to the real 172 is surprisingly realistic.

Thanks for the content! I had about 20 hours of sim time before my first lesson... I did well with straight and level flight, turns, as well as stalls. My CFI was impressed with my knowledge of the cockpit and my use of the throttle. When I got to take off and landings, I was ahead of other students that started at the same time. From a students perspective, a few things to watch out for: The honeycomb yoke has a spring that sends the yoke back to neutral... this can be confusing. If anything, when taking off especially, it is good to know if your yoke is fully forward because of the elevator gravity. The real feel of the rudder pedals can also be quite different. Right rudder tendency in MSFS 2020 could be a little more powerful. Be wary of the "Easy" setting. After you get used to the system, turn off automatic rudder. Good to learn with, but step it up and start using wind and even real time weather on the sim. For pattern work, pay attention to your training airfield's altitude. I practiced on the sim at 1000 and my field uses 800 feet. Had to adapt in real life. Be ready for instrument flying! I am sure most will have some Nausea, but it does get better.

When my daughter started flying, the instructor was a fan of simulation. She'd tell us from week to week what the plan was for the upcoming lesson and we'd go home and fly the mission. My daughter was 12 and flying complete lessons without the instructor's touching the controls at all after a couple of hours. Her comment was, "Daddy, this is so much harder than the real thing."

i recently passed my private pilot checkride and i just wanted to say that your videos were a huge help. thank you ✈️🙏🏾

Take it from someone who did it. YES! I took my instructor's lessons to FS and ran them over and over and over again (mostly landings). I was able to get my license in the minimum actual flight time because I was spot on with all the requirements.

Flying Sim a lot, one small upgrade I consider extremely important is the TrackIR. You'll be in about 200 dollars for the nice IR head mount, and it's an absolute game changer.

I have X-Plane 12 with VR goggles, that puts me RIGHT in the plane. also have yoke, peddles, throttle, prop and mixture controls. Also trim and flap. All look like the real thing. The investment in this was worth it. As a pilot, when I can't fly, I use this system to keep proficient. It really does help a lot. I'd recommend it to anyone who is learning or anyone who is already a pilot, not matter how many hours they have logged.

there are a number of what is called study level addons for MSFS and XP-11\12. there are performance and feature add ons for a lot of these planes. to bring them closer to thier real life counter parts. In my opinion and as a pilot. IFR and TWIN certified. the basic MSFS is a little to gamey to "teach you " how to fly. but some of the study level planes can really get you in the ball park.

Really enjoy your content and your teaching style has been super helpful as I work towards my PPL and hopefully commercial! Could you do a video on flight instruments? I've watched a couple other folks' and its just not the same:D Thanks!

I'm a CFI myself and I use MSFS and Xplane to practice my procedures, flows and just to have fun! I've been playing flight simulator since I was a kid in the mid to late 90s up until today. Absolutely helped me get my PPL. Got my cert in 43 hours and gotta say it's thanks to my experience flight simming.

Great video guys! From my experience, simulators are great for cockpit familiarization, especially learning how controls works and the effect they have on each other, but nothing replaces sitting in that left seat. Early on I used MSFS 2020 to practice cross country flying which was very helpful, but now I'm pretty much using XPlane 12. I will also point out that just not any PC will run a simulator like MSFS 2020 or XPlane, these programs need a fair amount of power. Once I received my PPL, I tended to use the simulator for my IFR training. Pilot Edge, which you mentioned, is also a great way to practice ATC. One feature I liked about PE is their CAT (VFR) and IFR Ratings. The VFR ratings take you all the way from radio calls at a non-towered airport to flying in Class Bravo. PE is not free, as you mentioned, it's $19.95 monthly or $34.90 for both coverage areas.

If used properly so no bad habits or incorrect procedures are taught should be beneficial. Forty years ago I had to use Cockpit Procedures Trainers(CPT's) for flight engineer training and a CPT for FO training before going into the full flight sim. The CPT were static boards with labels, dials, gauges, switches, and lights to teach procedures and flows.

Thanks for sharing, great informative flight ✈️ simulator video. Thanks for your great effort to help us learn better each and every day...!!

I tried tried to use Microsoft Flight Sim early on in my primary training, not knowing much about Sims I just used all the default settings which were way more sensitive than the actual plane so back in the closet it went... after a few months I set it back up and spent several hours tweaking all the controls until it was very close to the way the 172 I was flying felt. It was really good for working with VORs and listening for my tail number (which I changed to match the real plane). Once I started my Instrument training I used it a lot for approaches and practicing my scan, by then I was pretty familiar with the settings and would set up different scenarios for the weather...I really liked it for IFR work and still break it out once in a while just to shoot approaches or track a VOR sometimes even lost procedures

It's good for training. Especially visual approaches. I land at my local airport and use my house, and daughter's apartment complex as visual points lol.

Can we get a top 10 things to practice in MSFS from a CFI video? Walk us through some things to practice.

I worked Sheet Metal at The Rock from 03-07. Thanks for the content!

Love it! I’ve been wondering about the flight controls comparison and flight modeling “feel”. Obviously without full motion there are limitations. Would love to see you revisit this with one of the Cubs since getting your tail wheel endorsement.

I have the Logitech Yoke system with the Rudder pedals. Its pretty awesome on MFS. I plan to start my PPL training soon and Im hoping my hundreds of hours of MFS helps out.

The throttle qudrent in this video comes with GA throttle prop and mixture handles in the box - dont have to buy it seperatlly - it comes with ga and airline handles and they have it set up as the airline one - easy to swap them - just wanted to claify that (You can also get 3d printed extra handles from 3rd parties - look up honeycomb bravo throttle quadrent mods)

Really Thanks for you great videos. And he even answered me some my private questions on Facebook! It took me some time to find a video which I can tip, LOL

Not only Microsoft Flight Simulator, but using VATSIM as well is exceptionally informative. VATSIM not only provides ATC service while flying in the simulator, but their website also supplies full pilot training courses and covers pretty much EVERYTHING a person would learn in a classroom environment with an instructor. It's created by pilots and pilot instructors, and it's FREE. Everything from airplane part and airspace identification to IFR and VFR training. It's not FAA certified, but it's the same FAA information you'll learn in flight school, and you can literally walk into flight school knowing just about everything. This is how people can walk into flight school and get their certificate in the minimum 40 hour requirement. Know it before you even walk in the door.

I love to fly the C172 in MSFS. I use VR to get the immersion going. If you wanted to add more realism to your sim, I use the VATSIM network. It allows for that interaction between ATC and the Pilots. I am hoping to go for my PPL this year.

I’ve used simulators my whole life and only recently have started working towards my PPL but I still use MSFS. The other day, I used it to practice forward slips and when I got in the plane my instructor didn’t even need to demonstrate it for me and I nailed it first try. It definitely helps a lot with knowing the basics.

Great vid! Shout out from fort smith!

I live in Cabot - I am sooo looking forward to the air show this year at Jacksonville

Lately we have gotten a lot of study level ga planes the first coming to mind is the a2a piper commanche it has insane level of system depth , then there is The tmb 850, and the just flight piper 28 warrior , arrow and turbo arrow. Sure you can fly as arcade as you want or you can fly as hard-core as you want. The best GA study level right now is the A2A commanche.

Thank you for the content. Very informative. I’m in the process of building my home sim. I’m curious about the monitor you are using. Which monitor are you using ?

VR with yoke and pedals hands down best thing you can possibly invest in to help with anything from PPL to instrument training

VR is incredible in sims for PPL training. It helps develop the traffic scanning habits, it effectively teaches you to fly using the horizon and keep your eyes out of the cockpit. You can effectively do maneuvers like turns around a point, etc. in a VR sim rig in ways that translate into real-world flying.

Be sure to check out the assistance options. By default, auto rudder and stall prevention are enabled.

I love using this to immediately be able to practice what I have studied.

Thanks for this. About 13 hours into my ppl and have been considering setting up a sim for the 172. I’m a dad with a full time job and live in Ohio. Pretty much limited to flying the weekends with the daylight this time of year and weather cancels me most of the time. I really feel like this could significantly help me practice between actual lessons.

I have the complete turtle Beach set up to my xbox. And I am about to start flying over at North Little Rock Air as well. I think the simulator is helping out so far at least getting used to the plane. I did my Discovery flight over at Central and now I'm going to try North little rock..... Then I might see about the saline aviation club. . Hope to see you around, I saw your sticker over at North Little Rock are a couple of days ago. But until the weather gets good I'm just going to continue working with the turtle Beach complete setup. I'm going to do a review for the whole setup pretty soon.

Just enlisted Air National Guard over at Little Rock. Gonna be working as a crew chief till I get my degree. Hopefully, I'll be flying Hercs with you guys in the future.

Thank you for this demo. I’m a student pilot training in a 172. Only had 9 lessons so far. My husband and I are getting ready to buy a sim. I think it’s going to be a great tool to augment my lessons. Hoping it helps me practice what I learn after my lesson and prepare for the next. I wonder how the rudder pedals feel compared to the real plane. I struggle with taxiing.

When a person flys in Virtual Reality you get much more feed back from the control surfaces. Also the plane has to be configured in the software prior to a test flight. For example you adjust the sensitivity and response for each controller. Here is a hint. Just before you power up, use full input on the rudder controls three times. This seems to calibrate the voltage inputs from the rudder controller. Takeoff will be much better.

There are also free mods that give it a slightly better flight dynamics for it. Great video !

I had over 600 flight hours on Microsoft Flight Simulator before I had real flight instruction. The instructor pilot was surprised at how well I flew, and to me it was all very easy. The hardest part was actually stopping the aircraft once I landed, as on the simulator I was using one brake button for both wheels, while on the real aircraft I had to modulate between left and right foot. That was really the hardest part of my first few hours, and my instructor fixed that by having me taxi up and down the taxiway speeding up and slowing down.

Purchasing/building a set of good quality rudder pedals make a huge difference. Motion also helps allot in feeling what the aircraft is doing.

That throttle quadrant actually comes with all the various levers…etc, to fly either single and twin GA, commercial, and airline…I’m surprised they didn’t demonstrate that.

When i went on my first flight in a real cessna 152 my instructor said that the way I controlled the plane and speed and heading was so good. Also how my eyes are trained with the instrument flying and also looking outside and for traffic seemed more natural without him having to tell me to do these things and that’s why to this day I use my simulator whenever I get the chance. I have 1000s of hours on sims which actually is so much more helpful then people think it is.

As a curiosity, does Kyle have the premium version of MSFS 2020 installed (the premium version has the steam gauge skyhawk) ? On the forums, there's been a debate about the power-on stall characteristics of the steam gauge skyhawk. In real life, as long as coordination is maintained, a clean break stall should occur. I've been noticing that even using the Lindbergh reference, the sim will always drop a wing/ start a spin, forcing a PARE. I've gotten to the point I don't use MSFS 2020 for that maneuver (rather resorting to using the Redbird sim at the flight school) Thoughts?

I use a similar set up but use the sim in VR which makes it’s more Realistic. It great for turns on a point and step turns as well. A must try.

This what I use, microsoft flight simulator but my controllers are a stick and throttle that is used for figther planes and airbus. I don't have the pedals. I just adjust the sensitivity controls and like what I commented on your free training videos, i am still practicing the landing approaches..thank you for trying this simulator

My daughter's won't start formal in aircraft training until they are ready and 16 years of age. I did purchase the King Cessna Pilot Center Course and built out an elaborate simulator to expose them to the practical science and procedures of flight in a productive and logical sequence. This has been fun and rewarding family time.

Thanks!

I have an X-plane 11 simulator with a full complement of Saitek equipment, additional RealSimGear GNS 530, and a 3-monitor wrap-around set-up. There are some issues with sensitivity and stability that I haven't entirely worked out, but I am pretty proud of the system that I've rigged up. The main disappointment I have is that whenever I try to practice stalls, the stall only has an aural warning, no buffeting, and immediately goes into a spin which uncages the attitude indicator.

A great review

Turtle Beach's yoke is pretty cool.

I’m not a pilot ( I’ve always wanted to be ) but I’ve been building Aircraft and now I’m a test technician and I know that MS flight simulator is definitely a good place to start learning different things in aviation.

I've been loving your videos! I'm trying to decide whether to by an Xplane system from a friend but I'm worried about the bad habits a few people mentioned. I have no training other than RU-vid videos and reading. The one time I tried the sim I really had trouble remembering to use my feet. Money is going to be tight for ppl training so I really want to spend wisely. Would you use it ahead of time if you were going for some real training in a month?

VR is so much better. The responsiveness of the controls is 100% adjustable. It takes playing around to get them accurate. The type of controls makes a big difference. The redbird control yoke and rudder pedals are amazingly accurate. Dont forget the most recent update has some specific training tasks in the training section. You're guided through each exercise, for example, using power only on approach to control rate of descent. Basic flight maneuvers are each individually explained, demonstrated, and taught. Its a game format that assigns a score for how well you stay within parameters such as glideslope ect....

Remember the sensitivity of the controls can be set so the sensitive be less. As a student training on a C150 compared to the C152 in the simulator I found it very accurate. Obviously you don't have the sensation of movement. What is true is that coordination in turns is not very real, especially if you want to make a side slip.

vr buddy, get yourself the new pimax crystal and a dof reality motion rig and you will feel like you’re flying in real life, pretty awesome experience.

I also like the Microsoft simulation, it helped me a lot in my early years. Question: why is the earth plane, horizontal always level and the plane do not follow any curvature? the plane flys streat in many simulations, never nose down or up to compensate.

As far as actual flying goes. There is no substitute for the real thing. However. Procedurally, having even a really basic sim set-up can be super amazing. I definitely used mine a lot just to rehash things I'd done in lessons. And now with the accuracy of terrain in mfs20, xplane 12, even practising basic navigation can be done :)

coupled with VR it helped me a lot in becoming a PPL pilot, but it will never replace the real experience. I still use VR to repeat procedures or to familiarise with certain airports. Me personally, I will always preffer the real experience.

good review it’s for someone that doesn’t have an idea how to fly then it’s good to learn the basics, but not for me unless you find a real simulator which can cost half a million then it works

I just passed my PPL checkride last week after 44hrs and four weeks (plus about 30 simulator ones before starting training) at a super busy training airport with 10+ planes in the pattern all the time. I chose to buy a Xbox Series S and the Thrustmaster joystick - didn't want to go to the rabbit hole of building a gaming computer. It was plug and play. One of the early things to master is looking at multiple gauges at once to control airspeed/pitch/power etc and the inbuilt trainings in xbox are great for that. They are also great for getting to tighter tolerances with the training and ensuring you get a high score on each training - landings, cross-country, flying patterns etc. Nice step-by-step building of skills.

I am sure you can adjust sensitivity so controls are a little more stiff or resistant to mimic a little closer to the real thing?

After earning PPL, I guess a good way of utilising flight sims is simulating emergency procedures (say you lose an engine, or alternator, or the pitot tube got stuck by some gums), running checklists and emergency landing might help with the muscle memory for things you could not simulate when actually flying (would one practice the procedures by turning off the engine or stick a gum inside the pitot tube...?)

Would love to see you do one of these with Xplane using the Airfoil Labs Cesna 172 or the Simcoders REP 172. I think some of your complaints would be addressed in those flight models.

I have yet to find a yoke that works properly in pitch. I tend to stick to control stick airplanes to work around that. A Cirrus, for example. My real plane has a stick too, so that’s another reason I avoid yokes.

Hi, I have some questions. Where can I find a free Diamond DA40, Cessna 152 or Cessna 172G1000 checklist? Its because I want to start my PPL. And, do you have a video talking about traffic patterns? I want to recreate the traffic pattern in MSFS2020.

Hey! You should really try a sim flight on VATSIM. I would love to see your thoughts.

cool, thx!

For example learning VOR navigation in Microsoft flight simulator 2020 saves a whole lot more money than trying to learn it while you’re paying for a plane and the instructor in the air.

You would love it in VR! I can't fly it with a monitor anymore.

Flight Training devices are what I like to call them because they don't truly simulate flight. But they are great for learning procedures. I have one myself. What you can't learn how to do with them is get a feel for coordinated flight in your seat. You can also do instrument flying with them along with SIDS and STARS, but you can't feel what's going on like in a real airplane in whiteout conditions. I think when it comes to beginning instrument training, the airplane is a poor classroom because of the nature of having lost your references. Personally, I think it's a great idea to learn instrument procedures and then apply them to real-world conditions, which can only be experienced in a real airplane with hood time. You can log a certain amount of sim time when earning your instrument rating. This has to be supervised by a CFI. When I started on a flight Sim back in 2003 I didn't realize how important it was in Private Pilot training to look out your windows and take your eyes off of the instruments. My first instructor told me if I didn't stop looking at the instruments he was going to cover them up. I guess you can learn some bad habits with a flight Sim too. Unlike having one large monitor up in the front, I have two monitors in the front and one on each side. This helped me to keep an eye on things on both sides of me and in the front. Having a monitor on both sides is priceless when it comes to setting yourself up for final in the traffic pattern.

I am a big believer of using MS simulator in conjunction with your flight training, in a training aircraft, students perception can be narrowed by stress. If this tool is used properly properly, it will shorten your learning curve, repeats will be minimized, build confidence, invaluable tool for your instrument rating and beyond, highly recommend it, I'm ATP 5000 hrs, flying Airbus 320/321, enjoy your training and journey.

Is that a Quest 2 VR headset in the background? Connect it to the PC with a link cable and then hit Ctrl-Tab while in the sim to enter VR mode. Hit spacebar to recenter in the pilot seat, and prepare to have your mind blown.

what most of yokes and sticks for flight simulators miss is a force feedback mechanics adjusted to perform like in real cases.

How is the VR when using the controls? Sounds like you would need to do everything by feel. Do they make any sensors that track your head movement so you can have it look around a little when you turn your head side to side?

The Honeycomb yoke is very short on elevator travel, so it requires curves to get realistic elevator throw for "everyday flying" but then the extremitites are clumsy and oversensitive. Or you could buy something like boeing TCA from TM that has twice the travel, or something really highend like the Fulcrum yoke. The base sim is what it is, but it gets better all the time and 3rd party addons do add to realism even more. TrackIR or VR keeps your head moving in the cockpit, buttons are not for that, works for IFR tho. I think sims are great for so many things, but also, probably very easy to learn bad habits too! Also they need a little bit of "hobbyism" to get them right, to make the game->simulator transition.

Can you recommend a pre built computer in the market that meets the required parameters?

For pilot training I would definitely recommend X-Plane. It is a far better flight simulator allthough it doesn't look nearly as good as MSFS. From real life experience of flying the C172 i can say with certainty that X-Plane has a far more realistic flight model. I also recommend Vatsim very highly. It isn't always perfect but the controllers are on average very professional and you can usually find somewhere to fly with good atc coverage.

In the simulator it’s impossible to bounce the airplane on landing which is very very unrealistic but the rest of it, minus what other things you said here, is very helpful

Base msfs is great, but if you want proper realism, there’s a few outstanding addons which you can buy, which simulate aircraft systems and flight models to a so-called “study level” standard. They exist from your PA28s all the way to B737s and A320 (in the future, 777s and the like). For example, the Fenix A320 has systems simulated so deep that 100s of things can fail individually, and everything up to the wiring is replicated. Then, if you want radio simulation, you can join a network like VATSIM, in which you interact with trained ATC and hundreds of other pilots following real world procedures as accurately as possible. So if you want to be diehard, there’s no limit

Thanks 😊😊😊😊😊

For all my flight training, I use X-Plane 11 and I have a honeycomb yoke, throttle quadrant and rudder pedals. Version 12 has come out, but there are bugs in it right now. I find Microsoft flight simulator more like a toy. Most aircraft don’t have many systems working properly. With the X-Plane platform I am able to program either the G 1000 version of the Cessna 172 or the Garmin 530/430 combo with steam gauges 172. I can fly real flights, and it is more like a real airplane. If you’re into the beautiful arcade graphics, then stick with Microsoft flight simulator. I am keeping up with my instrument rating and I am in the clouds so I really don’t care what the scenery looks like. X-Plane is about $60. Unfortunately, it is very limited to certain aircraft unless you buy third party add on. So if you’re up to flying 747s, Learjet’s, TBM-930 and other different aircraft, including military, then you might want to play with Microsoft flight simulator. My goal is to keep current on procedures at practice for my IPC.

so Can we use Multiplayer platform like Vatsim / IVAO if I install MSFS With XBOX Gamepass ? Can you Explain it for me ?

His throttle, yoke are better than mine

You should review pilotedge

I was wondering if the simulation was a good investment. Thanks for the Amazon links too. Does atc practice with work the simulator?

Controls don't "mush" at low speeds. Rudder on the ground waaaaay too touchy. I want to think it's a simple algorithm to bring down sensitivity of the input devices proportional to speed. Been writing into Asobo for over a year to bring that to their attention. They claim the flight model was built using real world pilot input, but maybe they didn't control it on the ground, only in the air? Wonder if they'll ever fix that.

wow, thats amazing!

Is it a real good practice that I use this microsoft flight simulator to train myself?

Me and my 170hr student pilot logged hours and 5yr commitment. 🙃

I got everything for 80 Not top of the line, but yoke, pedals, and throttle

Can you log any of this as instrument instruction time?

If I had a decent PC I would definitely use flight Sim for at home practice. As it stands, I have to choose to spend that money on flying actual planes for training instead 😅 Perhaps one day..

How does anyone sit inches from a tv like that and not have serious eye strain? Or how does it not look so pixelated sitting that close?

Could we get a list of specific computer specs, control specs and monitor specs

No one realising when we fly in real time there is a stress factor that reduces our ability specially for low time students it plays a big role

I find that it helps with procedural training. But not really situational awareness because actually seeing and feeling the atmosphere through the controls in real life cannot be replicated. For example, on final approach the sim cannot replicate wind shear like real life.

Appears on Par

$850 for complete setup to go with Xbox series x or computer. And that’s with a stand. Look at Turtle beach hardware.

he should have used the model of plane that has just the steam gauges vs the G1000's to get the real think you would use.