"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
news
I don't do it a lot, but that is more because it is so awkward than
because I don't want to. I'd certainly like to be able to just look
off to the right or left, although the aircraft blocks a lot of the
view (you can turn the aircraft off in the sim, but that's cheating a
bit).

Still, you wouldn't get the effect of easily leaning over and looking
below you (unless you had a screen below you too. Which is an
interesting idea :-)

What happens when you need to look down to the right? When I do that,
all I see is the wing. In fact, the wing is a problem on the left
side, too.

In real flying, you can turn the plane to get a better view of something
that is blocked by a wing, strut, cowling, etc. You can also change your
position to get a better view by leaning forward or whatever. One of the
maneuvers that we do during training and FR's are turns-around-a-point, bank
the plane and put the wingtip on a landmark and circle that landmark keeping
it in sight; probably not (as) easy to do on a sim.

As we look out the windows while flying, we'll see a lake there, a railroad
track running that way, a town over there and can easily figure out from the
current view where we are on the sectional. As we pass the lake, town, etc.,
we'll pick out other landmarks to determine our current position. It's not
that hard to do.

GPS just makes it easier but isn't required.