"Dave Stadt" wrote in message
et...

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
Neil Gould writes:

Intro flights are typically well below $100.

I've already logged nearly a hundred hours in my simulated
Baron, for far less money than that.

But you have not flown for even one minute. 30 minutes in the
air is worth hundreds of hours behind a game.


Not to encourage the village idiot, but you are completely wrong.

Tell that to the military which makes extensive use of simulators. The Navy
uses MSFS to train new pilots.

"The Navy says that students who use Flight Simulator achieve "significantly
higher flight scores and fewer below-average and unsatisfactory flight
scores" than those who don't."

http://www.aopa.org/members/files/pi.../prod0006.html

"Have you heard of Herb Lacy? In 1998, the ensign and U.S. Naval Academy
graduate saw a lifelong dream fulfilled when he was accepted into Naval
flight training. But Lacy, who had never flown an airplane, found himself at
a disadvantage in the extremely competitive program?many of his classmates
had previously received flight instruction, and some were certificated
pilots.

Lacy decided to level the playing field. He bought a copy of Microsoft's
Flight Simulator 98 and used software tools to create a representation of
the Beech T34C Mentor in which he would learn to fly. Lacy even added local
landmarks near Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, Texas, to help him with
situational awareness. He spent more than 40 hours flying the customized
simulator before climbing into a Mentor cockpit.

His efforts were so successful that not only did Lacy graduate near the top
of his class, but the Navy investigated the idea of using computer gaming
software for training. An experiment showed that when pilot trainees
practiced with Flight Simulator, 54 percent more received above-average
flight scores. So the Navy decided to issue Flight Simulator 98?modified
with a software shell, much like Lacy's version to all of its flight
students."

http://www.aopa.org/pilot/features/future0004.html