Microsoft Flight Simulator X For Pilots Real World Training 1st Edition

As I write this review, I think back to when I was a kid who had a passion for aviation in the early/mid 90's, and taking off in the Learjet from old Meigs Field along the Chicago waterfront. It was nothing fancy, and there were no yokes and rudder pedals connected to the computer...just the arrows on the keyboard, F4 for full throttle, etc. And what felt like 5fps if you were lucky (rolling eyes). But in 2002, when I started pursuing my PPL, I was able to take basic concepts from even those times of clicking the arrows, and applied it to real flying. At 10.5 hours, my instructor signed me off for solo flight, since I had been able to pick things up so quickly, and I definitely give some credit to the flight simulator growing up.As I skip ahead to the present day, I think about what it would've been like to have this book growing up. It's basically like having a certified flight instructor sitting next to you at all times, whose brain you can pick whenever you have a question. I bought this book about 4 years ago since I hadn't flown in real life for awhile, so I could refresh my memory on things that I knew I had started to forget, but also I bought it just to have. I never imagined the amount of information it'd have in it. The book begins with the most basic information from the physics of flight, to teaching you how to conduct a GPS approach. You will also learn how to read an approach plate and land in one mile visibility with an ILS approach. It also is such a great source of reference for just anytime you want to read-up on something you already know about and apply it with practice on the simulator. It also has a really good section for helping to learn some of the basics of the "glass cockpit," in the event you're about to be transitioning from the old gauges to the Garmin-1000!!!I now have twins who will be sitting behind the yoke in the computer room soon. My boy has actually already grabbed it a few times, but at 19 months he's not quite there yet...haha But when the day comes, this book will basically allow me to be his flight instructor. The information in this book is worth thousands of dollars when you consider the cost of a flight instructor ($22 an hour in 2002-03 was cheap compared to what they probably are now). I recommend buying this book for any person who has a simulator, whether you're new to flying or a veteran. If you're planning on pursuing aviation in real-life, it will save you A LOT of money long-term, since you won't have to practice so much on a real plane!

I highly recommend this book to anyone that is serious about flying and wanting to obtain their Sport or Private Pilots License. This book begins with a simple explanation of how aircraft work and what makes them fly and takes you through the steps to get you airborne and flying.The book continues teaching you flight maneuvers, what to do in the case of emergencies and how to anticipate emergencies and act to prevent them from happening in the first place.The book teaches you to operate all the equipment inside an aircraft from the standard 6 pack of instruments, (Airspeed Indicator, Attitude Indicator, Altimeter, Vertical Speed Indicator, Heading Indicator, Turn Coordinator) to the advanced glass panels being found in aircraft today.The book teaches you to use the radio stack (Audio Panel, COM1/NAV1, COM2/NAV2, Automatic Direction Finder [ADF], Distance Measuring Equipment [DME], Transponder and Auto Pilot) for basic navigation before continuing on to teach you to use both the Garmin GPS 500 and the state-of-the-art Garmin GPS 1000 for straight line navigation from one place to another.It helps you to understand how to read and use aviation charts, teaches you how to fly in Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) and advanced flying techniques.What is more, the book uses flights / missions that are all ready set up and downloadable from the web for free to fly missions teaching you various points in the book. The flights are easy to understand, fun to fly and teach you a great deal about what flying in real aircraft are like.If you are looking to get your Pilots License or just want to know and use all the same tools and techniques that pilots use, get this book. You won't be sorry!!!

When I first looked at this book what really came out was the fact the authors recognized that Flight Simulator 10 (FSX) offered limited ability to view your surroundings. A reality which resulted in many users of FSX focusing excessively on instrumentation which is the exact opposite of expectations in real world flight unless of course your flying under instrument flight rules.Upon getting started with the book I decided to take things from the beginning even though I had previously mastered the basics of flying real airplanes. I can without doubt tell you this book brings a new vision to FSX and presents learning how to fly from a far different perspective than the tutorials and missions alone which come with FSX.The way the authors have presented the material teaches the importance of focusing on whats outside the aircraft. This is so very critical if you plan on flying real aircraft. Critical for your safety, getting to your destination (VFR), and the safety of your aircraft, other aircraft, and everything on the ground including other people.I can only applaud this approach to flying with FSX. Frankly I believe the way the authors present development of flying skills is a better approach than that deployed with FSX because it brings the importance of focusing on activity outside the plane into primary consideration. Isn't this why we fall in love with flying for the most part anyway? Think about it when you made the decision to learn to fly was it based on the planes dash board and controls or being able to sail effortlessly through the sky and marvel at the beauty of the clouds and the scenery below?The one thing which I did have a desire to change when first beginning to read the book was to use a different plane other than the Piper Cub. A plane which was more sophisticated, faster, and complex to fly, but that's when the reasoning of the authors became fully understood. Picking the Cub as the trainer was more a necessity to teach us focus on the skill and art of flight and in the real world.I was also very impressed with the fact that the book went beyond FSX and simulator flight by providing the details of differences between simulators and flying real airplanes. Simple things like the actual engine start procedure for the Cub were pointed out for example as was discussion of back pressure on the stick or yoke differs away from simulation in a real plane. Discussion of readjustment of FSX control settings were presented to help readers master the skills being taught. All of this is essential to those using FSX who desire to fly the real planes. This kind of instruction helps us understand why simulators are a great learning tool and also where they fail to paint the whole picture of flight.For the downside I felt it would be advantageous to have had color photographs of images in FSX. Those color images however were presented as downloads from the publishers website along with simulation scenarios to be loaded and used while practicing what the book presented.If the photos had been in color and a few other small details of how to setup of the down-loadable files had been present I would have given the book 5 full stars. Let there be no doubt as to the teaching intent and presentation of the words, for that I do give this book a full 5 stars relative to the audience to whom it is targeted. This is a should read for anyone who has an interest in learning to fly a real plane and who desires to use FSX to help them augment the learning process. Sharing what you are learning with your flight school instructor is a great idea and giving them a copy of the book to read and follow along with you is even better.This book along with the instruction which came with FSX will go a very long way to helping any new pilot and it is also a good refresher for those who have already learned the flight skills.