- [Stephen] There´s a whole lot of bunker fish down there.
(upbeat music)
Hi. I'm Stephen.
And I'm a flight instructor at the Academy of Aviation,
in Farmingdale, New York.
And I'm here to show you
the difference between flying a Microsoft Flight Simulator
and flying the real airplane.
I have been flying since high school,
altogether I'd say a little, almost 10 years now.
I started out kind of following my dad,
turned out I wasn't too bad at it.
And I've been keeping going ever since.
My expectations? I would say pretty high.
I'm thinking that video games have come a long way, no?
But I'm going to see what it's like.
A 72 S model
G1000
Just like we've got at Academy of Aviation.
What, do I got it right, on the left or doesn't matter?
I've got radio coming in and everything.
Well, here we go.
I got cleared for takeoff,
so, I'm going full throttle.
Here's some engine noise, which is good.
And put a little bit of rudder here.
It doesn't require a whole lot.
Might be a little misleading to the student.
Is normal that when you add full throttle
on one of these things,
it's gonna wannna yaw left
´cause of a lot of torque forces.
Ooh.
(chuckles)
I'm curious now, if we have flaps down.
And that's how you take off with full flaps
and not stall the airplane.
A little squirrely, I'm not gonna lie.
Button's definitely switched up.
The shape of it. Pretty similar.
They got, they nailed that part.
I'm used to having rudder pedals,
so, my feet are a little confused here
not having to do nothing.
But it is pretty to look at.
The graphics are cool.
I like how I can flip back and forth between the cockpit
and the plane behind me,
like any true video game should let you.
Let's see if I can.
There we go. Flaps are up.
We should be normal here.
All right. Let's not do that again.
Crash an plane? No, I have not.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be here
if I answered yes to that question.
Those bugs can be worked out in something like this,
before you get in the real airplane.
All right. I'm gonna go for some of these trim controls
and see if I can get this thing to stop being so squirrelly.
All right. Now it feels like climb speed is almost normal.
I´ma level off,
up here somewhere and, I don't know,
do a couple of maneuvers.
Rudder is there to keep your nose pointed
where you need it to go
and correct for the aerodynamics that are setting off
when you use the ailerons for a turn.
On the yaw here,
turn the yaw this way and that creates role.
This is back in the airplane.
Using those ailerons and moving the controls
forward and back is gonna pitch the airplane.
And then finally we have yaw.
Let's see if I can get this to,
yeah, there we go.
We have plenty of yaw,
that may or may not be a rotor trim.
´Cause it feels like it wants to stay that way.
This is funny.
I see some kind of checkpoint over there.
I'm going to start aiming towards that.
Your visual landmarks are kind of like checkpoints,
bridges, tall towers, the coast,
the mountains, trees, towns,
high populated areas, not so popular areas.
Anything roads you navigating based off
of what you see around you
and then also what's on the chart.
Then you have dead reckoning,
which is a little bit more calculation involved
for time, speed and distance.
Now, all you do is measure it out on a map,
plan out a heading to fly, correct for wind,
and then time it.
Before you know it.
If you fly that heading for that amount of time,
you're going to end up there.
Hopefully.
And sit on this game
it looks like I'm just heading towards some kind of a
big blinking post in the sky.
All right. I did my best.
I mean, it's pretty realistic actually.
I would prefer it not to be so squirrely and sensitive.
You know, when you get in the real airplane
that over controlling feeling
it's not going to work well
Let the airplane do what it wants to do
and then just apply general control inputs
and guide it along its way
and let it fly.
Now we're gonna hop in the airplane
and show you the real thing.
(uplifting music)
The plane we're about to get into is a
Cesna 172 S model,
Elite Model, G1000 equipped glass cocked aircraft.
I'm about to take you guys on a regular training flight,
so we can compare it side by side to
the Microsoft Flight Simulator.
I'm excited to take you guys up there.
Let´s get in the plane.
(uplifting music)
(ATC on the radio)
Alright, we are crossing a runway, it´s not active.
We´re clear to do so, flipping on the lights,
look at both ways, nobody approaching the party.
We can move it around with these rudder pedals.
Look, if I push on the left, it goes left,
push on the right, back on that yellow line.
All right, so, basically I am guiding us on
to the runway to center line.
Normally the simulator starts you off right on the runway
so, there's not a whole lot of taxi involved.
However, you know,
I didn't get too deep into the game. Maybe it does.
I'm gonna add full power slowly and smoothly.
All right, normally the airplane wants to
sort of yaw to the left,
so, I'm adding some right rudder here.
On triple power, I'm just kind of
guiding us along right about here.
Just start pulling back enough to keep the wings level
and just hold the nose right there on the tree line.
That's your normal takeoff.
So, we'll have little tiny control inputs
here and there just to correct for wind,
hold the nose right where we want it.
But for the most part, when you had full power,
and you keep your nose pointed right here
almost near the horizon,
you almost have your...
your best way to climb speed.
- [ATC] Just keep it climbing, there's traffic inbound.
- Roger keeping it climbing 5-2 Charlie.
And we´re headed out.
So, this is basically the same view that we had
when we took off at the stimulator.
And right about here, we're going to start to level off,
end the cruise.
All right, cruise check is complete and we're flying.
(soft jazz music)
So, the sun is peeking through
and directly heating up the ground
that we're passing over right now.
Different paved surfaces
absorb and give off heat a lot quicker
than, you know,
surfaces covered with vegetation or water.
That's why flying over the land right here
can be a little bit bumpier,
and it´ll probably smoothen out a little bit
once we get over towards the ocean.
But yeah, this is what it feels like.
The most part,
you have the line straight out here of the horizon.
Might be a little hazy out there,
but you're using that as a major reference.
So, you hold yourself
until it feels like you're not climbing
or descending and that's your
specific visual, straight level point.
It's always good to cross-reference your instruments.
Mean, they're gonna be the major indication
as to, whether you're at the correct altitude,
whether you're coordinated, what your airspeed is.
Though, for the most part,
when you're flying in visual conditions like this,
it's 90% outside and kind of 10% inside
with quick little glances every now and then.
Now, I´m just level here at 1,600 feet
and I'm gonna bring myself right in here,
parallel to the runway we're going to land on.
And maneuver ourselves around when we're cleared to do so.
So, what I'm doing is just reducing power slightly,
help us keep on coming down,
keep our pitch attitude pretty constant.
Thankfully, now this time we have rudders.
As we come in over the ground,
straighten out a little bit, especially with rudders,
power comes out.
Just gently flaring the airplane.
Making our way back in
and we made it!
I think as far as the flight simulator goes,
that's really the most we get out of it.
You could take some things home with you to practice
and then, you know,
eventually.
Hopefully that'll turn into
better performance in the airplane.
So, we just touched down
and as you guys can see
flying the Microsoft Flight Simulator,
just a little bit different here and there
from flying the real airplane.
But overall, I think it's a great experience
for people to have
before they ever set foot in a real airplane,
especially because of how similar it looks.
Some little things like the flight controls
and being able to use the rudder
and things being in different places.
But, I think it's a great experience for someone to have
before they set foot in the airplane.
So, I had a great time.
I´d go catch another flight.
See you guys.
- Hey everybody, thanks for watching
and if you liked this video,
then make sure you subscribe.
And you know what?
Check the playlist out,
there's plenty more.
Go on, have fun, keep watching.
I´ll just be here.
(upbeat music)