Most productive use of sim time for a beginner?

kec

New member
Hi All,

I'm trying to get started with the hobby, don't quite yet have the nerve to take a plane out just yet. After reading numerous suggestions here and elsewhere I've invested in a sim (aerofly rc 7 on the mac), which I've gotten set up with a transmitter.

My problem is... I don't really know what I'm doing in the sim either! Take-offs are ok, I can stay in the air (although not in and particularly panned out pattern). Landing happens maybe 1 of 10 times, never really lined up with the runway or where I planned it to be.

All that said, and this may be a strange question, but does anyone have any suggested drills or resources for learning to fly in a sim? I feel like I might be missing the "step two" of this process, that just messing around as I am probably isn't teaching me much (or at least isn't as efficient as it could be).
 

Userofmuchtape&glue

Posted a thousand or more times
kec I would suggest taking of, flying for a minute or to and then just practise landing. basically if you get it on the ground in one piece its successful!

But really, all the sim can teach you is orientation and basic control so if you have those mastered then a real plane may be your step 2.

Abe
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
The best use for a SIM is to help you develop "Muscle Memory".

Fly as much as you can and even on the most aerobatic or twitchy designs or models that you can until your reflexes are such that you do not have to think about what you are doing.

Then buy, build, borrow or steal a trainer aircraft and crash the heck out of it.

Soon enough you will find you have the ability to fly almost anything!

At the same time learn all you can about setting up a model, (Expo, differential, control mixing, differential thrust, and the like), and you will save yourself a great deal of heartache.
 

Bricks

Master member
When using the sim try and be very specific with the plane you are flying. Pick a spot on the runway and try and land exactly at the spot you pick. Fly the length of the runway exactly down the middle doing maneuver's loops I want to exit the loop at such an such a height. Try and keep the plane exactly where you want it instead of just random places.
 

Tench745

Master member
I find that flying from a view over the tail of the aircraft is helpful in understanding how your inputs relate to the aircraft's behavior. Fly around a bit and teach your muscles how much is too much stick movement. You can start with a 3-channel plane, throttle, elevator, and either rudder or ailerons for turning. Get used to flying that way, and then in time you can move up to 4 channels and practice feeding in rudder with your aileron in turns. Using a slow-flying plane lets you see what's happening much easier than a fast one.

From the on-the-ground pilot position you can practice maintaining orientation, learning what a plane looks like at a distance facing toward, away from, and any other direction relative to you. I woudn't even worry about landings until you know how to maneuver the plane in the air and make it do what you want. In real life takeoffs are optional and landings are mandatory. In a sim the opposite is true; use this to your advantage.

Try to fly down the center of the runway, wings level, both from left to right and right to left. Now combine these by making a nice smooth turn on each end. Play with turning tighter and see how the plane reacts. Does it stall or slip sideways? How would you avoid that in the future?

Now that you're flying down the center of the runway, reduce power and pull back on the stick some. See how the plane starts to sink, even with the nose raised? Now add power in slowly and smoothly, see how the rate of decent slows until the plane is flying at one altitude even with the nose raised? This is how you control decent rate on landing.
Now do the same thing, but reverse it. Fly along, wings level with just enough throttle to keep the plane at the same altitude. Now raise the nose without changing your throttle setting. The plane slows down. Lower the nose again and the plane speeds up. This is how you control your speed on landing. Practice this for a while until you're comfortable.

Now you can combine the two. We'll be practicing touch-and-goes in the air. Don't worry about landing on the ground yet. Use the horizon as a visual runway. Adjust your speed and sink rate as you practiced before until you can settle down with your wheels skimming along the horizon in a landing attitude. Or, if landing on and imaginary runway is too weird, try it with the actual ground. It's a sim, so you're not really risking a plane. Practice this until it's easy. Mix it up and combine everything you've done so far. Do touch and goes where you just skim along the ground and fly right back into the air.

Hopefully this helps get you started.

I'm lucky in that I learn by reading as easily as doing, so I read through full-scale pilot training manuals to help understand the process and actions they take. They practice things like s-turns over a road and turns around a point.
 

donalson

Active member
for me it was largely landing, i've only made belly landers so far but my landing has gotten more and more exact... the other BIG thing is muscle memory and keeping my mind on what way to turn especially when having the plane come to you as it reverses what your eyes see and what your fingers are doing...

and lastly trying stunts... flying inverted in real life I ended up nosing into the ground plenty but practiced rolling out over and over on the sim and it's gotten much more consistent... which goes back to what someone one above said "muscle memory"

part of the muscle memory is that I've gotten much more comfortable and controlled flying high rates... sometimes I'll land and only when I look at my TX do I notice that I forgot to put it in low rates...

when I build or buy something a bit more 3d based i'll spend a lot more time on the sim again practicing tricks... but now i'm to the point that i'd rather go fly... but if weather says no... it's still fun to derp around with...
 

Namactual

Elite member
I would also mirror Hai-lee's advice about muscle memory.

This is how I started. I put a lot of hours in a simulator over the winter before I touched a real plane. Once you get comfortable with a plane in the sim, take it to the next level. Pick the fastest most unstable thing you can find and fly it until the wings fall off.

Get to the point where you are flying the plane without thinking about your inputs and you can fly anything. The one thing a simulator will not help you with is hand launches. That you will have to learn the hard way unfortunately.
 

Julez

WOT and going nowhere
If you can mess with the CG, do it. Try the plane tail heavy. Try it nose heavy. Know how the aircraft feels in the air when it's balanced wrong or when something's screwy so that you know how to control it and can fix the problem when you're actually flying. My biggest gripe with sims is that the aircraft are always perfectly set up: you don't always get the feeling of trial and error that you might when you first take a new plane to the field.