flight simulator

Simulators have had a major impact on our society in creating safer and more cost effective ways in which to train pilots. Flight simulators are basically just the cockpit of a particular plane with all of the electronic instruments and simulates the same capabilities of a plane in flight. The pilot would then sit in the cockpit with all the controls of an actual plane and an instructor would then go into his own compartment where the pilot cannot see or hear him. In the cockpit the instruments and gauges give the exact same information to the pilot as real planes instruments would in real-time. In the instructor’s compartment, “A flick of a switch and the instructor can give the pilot almost any sort of trouble an airplane can get into. And there is no warning to the pilot before he reads it on the gauges” (New York Times (NYT), Electronic Device to Test U.S. Fliers). This way the pilot won’t experience the dangers of an engine failure or have the oil pressure drop in a real plane. The pilot will have experience with these situations and will be better prepared to deal with them when flying commercially or residentially. With simulators taking the risk out of training a pilot there is now less chance of having an inexperienced pilot taking controls of the million dollar planes. An instructor can also now test a pilot when he is grounded due to weather conditions, “ Dayton, Ohio, Jan. 13 – Two astronauts who have been to the moon – Col. Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. of the Air Force and Capt. James Lovell of the Navy – could not get off the ground today at Wright Patterson Air Force Base here. The astronauts went to the base for a flight on the Air Force’s only total in-flight simulator aircraft, but rain and fog prevented the flight and they had to settle for a briefing on space shuttle techniques and other experimental systems” (NYT, Fog Grounds 2 Astronauts). The instructor won’t have to wait on the weather to get a chance to see how the pilot operates under different situations that can occur on a plane in flight, taking off, or even landing. With the simulator in use even the most experienced pilots can still test themselves when they cannot actually fly or are in-between flights as well.

The simulators also have lessened the cost of training a pilot. In 1972 the Air Force started to push more towards simulated flying to cut costs. The Air Force also lowered the amount of time spent in an actually plane 12 per cent and more than doubled the amount of time in simulated flight. “It is now possible for student pilots to learn as much as 60 per cent of their flight skills in ground simulators, according to pentagon experts” (NYT, Trainee Flights Cut By Air Force). With flight simulators the cost has lowered greatly and has made it easier for the pilots to get their allotted flight time simpler and faster. The original cost was from $200,000 to $900,000 depending on how complicated the plane was. This price was also expected to increase with the more complicated planes in development like the F-15. The time spent learning to fly these complicated planes on the simulators was, “3,030 flying hours and more than 594 man-years for the 19 courses taught in the 1970 fiscal year” (NYT, Trainee Flights Cut By Air Force).

Flight simulators are not only used for pilots but also the study of flight. One article in the New York Times is about a 67 year old woman who flew a plane on a simulator so that she could be in a sense “cleared for flying” to help controllers study air traffic patterns. “Her Western jetliner was in fact a flight simulator, one of the 108 simulators the Federal Aviation Administration uses to study air traffic patterns at its flight test center here 10 miles northwest of Atlantic City” (NYT, Women Simulate Traffic jams in Air). The simulator she used was one that can project traffic patterns of any plane type and record the flight the plane takes under any condition. With these simulations the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) can simulate the problems at existing airports, test new navigational equipment, and give advanced training for air controllers to use.

Flight simulators like Sublogic’s Flight Simulator II and Microsoft’s Flight Simulator are not only for the professionals but also the average citizen. The games themselves are so realistic that the average person has to learn how a plane is flown and what all the instruments mean. These people are referred to as armchair aviators and have created a kind of a society of people where they can relate to each other through the simulator. However some of these simulators for the personal computer are not quite as realistic as the ones pilots use because the plane can make turns and stops that would send real planes to their ultimate doom. The simulators also have a shoot’em up feature where the player can be in a dogfight fighting air and land units, which gives the game more pace and action for the average person to keep them entertained. These simulators also don’t have every instrument in the plane’s cockpit just a reduced set so as not to confuse and discourage the players from playing. Another feature in the personal computer simulators is, “… the ability to link two computers, either directly with a cable or over the phone lines with a modem, so that two people can fly their own planes together” (NYT, Call of the Dogfight Beckons Armchair Pilots).

The skies are not only being made easier to reach and control with the simulators but is entertaining the average citizen and creating more hobbies from people to join in on. Flight simulators are getting more and more advanced with new planes to fly, different types of enemies to fight, and more scenarios to play out. Simulators are also being used to help prevent problems and accidents in the skies above before they happen. They are also helping to reduce the cost and make training pilots much quicker and simpler than ever before. These uses help the government in having a safer and faster training program along with giving the armchair aviator the chance to test his limits in the sky safely from his own home.