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What IFR flight simulator software should you buy?

A pilot named George has recently posted a question on on Ask a CFI about what the best flight simulator software to buy for home computer use:

My set up now is CH ruder CH yoke CH avionics panel windows XP.
Looking for software to practice IFR
Don’t care about the big airplanes just single engine steam gages user friendly.

Carl Tyler responded by writing that he personally uses Microsoft Flight Simulator (FSX) because it supported all his plugin accessories right out of the box e.g. rudders, radio panel etc. He had also tried XPlane but he didn’t like the user interface while trying to get it to work with his pedals and other accessories was “way too difficult.” Of course, Microsoft has ceased development on the Microsoft Flight Simulator but Carl still thinks its a great piece of software and perfect for practicing those IFR approaches.

A quick Internet search reveals a few other sources for commentary about flight simulators for IFR practice, including a Best IFR Sim software thread from the Pilots of America Message Board and another webpage entitled Using Flight Sims for IFR Practice which appears to date from over a decade ago but made the interesting observation that:

In real IFR flying, radios must be retuned in real time. Sometimes there isn’t a lot of spare time to do this. You can’t pull over and stop while you twiddle knobs. (But you may be able to activate an autopilot, which is almost as good.) Very high end sims have radios that work just like the radio stack in a real airplane.

Finally, another good and very comprehensive source for information about flight simulator software is AVSIM Community Forums which calls itself the largest repository of flight sim information available as it has over 2 million messages and over 200 forums.

Should pilots get an iPad or an iPad Mini?

The iPad Mini is scheduled to ship on November 2 and should provide pilots with a whole new level of information and apps to use in the cockpit but if you don’t yet have an iPad to use in the cockpit, might now be the time to start thinking about getting one? Moreover, should pilots go for an iPad or an iPad Mini?

To begin with, AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli recently conducted a podcast interview with Foreflight’s Tyson Weihs about the iPad Mini and it was noted that everything will scale automatically downward in the new device with the pixels being the same. Hence, Weihs said that there is nothing extra that Foreflight needs to do to get their app to work on the iPad Mini and that’s probably true with all the other iPad aviation apps out there. That means it also sounds like the only real difference between an iPad and an iPad Mini for pilots will be its size (plus any performance issues that become apparent after the latter’s release).

In addition, Sporty’s Pilot Shop’s Vice President John Zimmerman recently gave a seminar entitled “iPad 101” at the AOPA Aviation Summit a few weeks ago and there is a summary of his talk posted here. Some of John’s key points included buying what you use and that budget conscious buyers who don’t need all of the “bells and whistles” offered by the iPad 3 should find the iPad 2 to be sufficient.

John then noted some of the iPad’s limitations in the cockpit, namely glare and the fact that the device can overheat. However, tilting the iPad screen can usually solve the glare problem while not leaving the device in direct sunlight will help prevent it from overheating. John also added that you should make sure everything is up-to-date, downloaded and the battery is fully charged before a flight so that you don’t find yourself stuck in the air lacking important flight information or worst – no flight information at all because your battery is dead. Likewise, John gave some very specific instructions for how to avoid GPS interference (usually by turning on “Airplane Mode”) that are a must read for any pilot who has an iPad but has concerns about using one in the cockpit.

If you still aren’t convinced about the whole iPad as an electronic flight bag idea, you might want to just borrow one and go flying. John also added that most flight apps are either free or come with a 30 day free trial for you to test them out before committing to buy.

Finally, it should be mentioned that Sporty’s Pilot Shop recently hosted an hour long webinar on Advanced iPad Flying that’s well worth listening too as its full of useful tips for using the iPad in the cockpit.

Cirrus touchscreen simulator

I fly a Cirrus SR22 and I have tried a few simulators over the years, but I think this one looks pretty cool. As GA aircraft become more and more complex, the buttonology is going to get ever more important. Available near London from IP Aviation with or without an instructor.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cK7GFEYQXsY&w=480]

Flight simulators: Useless for practicing landings?

Paul Bertorelli has recently written an interesting post (Johnny Can Read, But He Can’t Land) for AVWeb covering landings that brought up some interesting points about the use of flight simulators to practice landings and whether they do a good or bad job of simulating one. Paul began by writing that landing an aircraft may not be particularly difficult but doing it well consistently isn’t easy either and year after year, this inconsistency gets reflected in the NTSB accident database. He also noted the greater use of flight simulators as a primary teaching tool.

However and for landings, Paul is not so sure how useful flight simulators are because:

Of all the tasks in flying, landing requires the most refined motor skills and hand-eye coordination in reaction to a stream of subtle cues. Some LSAs require more of that rather than less.

Paul then went on to mention that when he was at Oshkosh last summer, Jerry Gregoire put him into Redbird’s J-3 simulator which got the flight dynamics mostly right but it did not bounce on the runway the way a real Cub aircraft would.

And without the bounce dynamic built in, Paul concluded that you don’t have a flight simulator but rather just a video game because not all bounces are the same as the “small ones you get on a three-pointer can be ignored, but the 10-footers with roll excursions have to be dealt with aggressively.”

He also added that:

What separates an acceptable landing from one that’s bound for the ditches are often subtle cues related to seat-of-the-pants sensing of acceleration, turning and slipping moments. You feel these in your butt or see them through the windshield and you respond with the appropriate control input. Sometimes that’s gentle and subtle, sometimes not. But the airplane moving in three dimensions helps you discern the difference.

Flight simulators may get close to that but Paul concluded that they don’t yet nail it just yet.

Hence, we want to see what you our readers think about flight simulators in general along with simulated landings: In other words, do flight simulators do a good job of simulating landings just yet? Moreover, did flight simulators help you become a better general aviation pilot while training?

iPhone Weight and Balance App

When I was a PPL student, calculating a weight and balance (W&B) schedule for a flight took about 20 minutes using a form, the POH and a fair amount of mathematics. It wasn’t difficult but it was fiddly and time-consuming.

Every year there are accidents where pilots wilfully or accidentally overload or unbalance their aircraft with tragic results so W&B definitely matters.

I’m slowly moving all my aviation workflows to my iPhone and iPad. I use SkyDemon (VFR flight planning), LogTen Pro (log book), AeroPlates (approach plates and Pooleys) and RocketRoute (IFR flight planning and flight plan submission).

Now I have added Aviation W&B Calculator to handle W&B calculations.

It’s very simple to set up. Just download the plane template for your aircraft and the empty weight from the POH and confirm the arms for the different stations from the POH and you’re good to go. For the Cirrus I fly, it shows take off and landing envelopes so I can calculate fuel required and fuel burn. It replaces and Excel spreadsheet and makes it easy to do W&B for every flight. I only wish it could do passenger weights in kilograms and fuel loads in litres but apart from that it’s perfect.

Tank Timer app for iPhones

Tank Timer is a tool for pilots who want to monitor fuel consumption during flight. I haven’t looked at myself – the Cirrus does a pretty good job of reminding you when to change tanks and tracking fuel consumption – but back when I used fly PA28s, this app might have been very useful.

iPhone Screenshot 1

iPhone Screenshot 2