GA is priceless

Mxsmanic wrote:
True, but for many types of aviation, this is irrelevant. Instrument
flying doesn't require it; indeed, you're supposed to be _independent_
of motion when flying on instruments (so to some extent a lack of
motion can be useful).

Useful to keeping the dirty side down, but that just hilights one of
the ways simulation is different than real flying, right? The MSFS
simulation doesn't provide the (misleading) physical cues that ARE
there in instrument flight. The fluid in your ears isn't tumbling, you
instinctively "know" which side is right side up, etc.

I flew simulators from the very first sim on the Apple and pretty much
every version to MSFS 9 today. I new some of the developers from that
company (name escapes me) in hampaign that used to make the product
before MS bought them (An aside, one of my fraternity brothers had a
job in QA. His entire job was to slew to various airports and verify
that the radio frequencies worked at that location....) I'ts amazing
how much of the real world we've been able to compress into off the
shelf consumer class hardware.

I used to love it. I did the vatsim thing etc. I twondered how pilots
such as Kennedy could "lose it" on a night flight. I intellectually
knew about spatial disorientation, and that the cure was to just "be"
on the gagues. But it wasn't until I actually DID it, in a real
airplane, with real mass/inertia, real turbulence, etc, that I found
out it was nothing like my imagination or my experience in the sims.

I remember reading an article within the last couple of years on IMC
flying about a instructor and a student pilot with respect to control
forces. I believe it was called something like "the unseen hand of
god". it was a good article that mentioned the control forces we as
pilots will exert on control wheels simply by gripping the yoke too
hard. And we won't even REALIZE that we're putting those forces into
the system. The plane will feel like someone ELSE is flying it. I.e.,
the unseen hand of god.

The solution of course is to simply relax. But our eyes giving us
different cues than our bodies make that hard to do. We have instincts
built into us. Feeling like your falling (less than 1 g) causes you to
try to "hold on".

I've never been able to recreate that feeling in a sim. I have a hard
time recreating it in the airplane with a hood on. It's not the same
as being able to see the clouds whizzing past your windscreen.

The best I've been able to explain entering IMC is like when you first
dive into a pool. The world you were in changes. The rules of gravity
seem to change, your senses change, etc. It's funny, I find myself
holding my breath when I do it in my real airplane in real clouds.

As a computer engineer, I've often sketched out in my mind an add on to
MSFS or otherwise that would change the flight models to recreate that
"unseen hand of god". Something akin to random control inputs forcing
the pilot to concentrate and disregard his physical cues of sitting
straight and level.

I, like Jay, do not belittle your questions on the group. I don't
consider you to be a troll. Just someone that wants more information
about the real world of aviation. I do think its strange when you ask
questions, and when the answer doesn't seem orrespond to your simulated
worldview you seem to take issue with reality instead of the
simulation.

And while the whole "simming vs. reality" superiority argument is
subjective anyway, it is also simply silly. If you want to represent
yourself as an experienced pilot because you have thousands of hours on
simulated barons or boeing business jets, then great, have at it.

I'm going to be one of the rare ones on here and say DON'T go get a
real flight. I'm not sure how you'd react to an actual comparison.

Brian