Is real flight helpful?

[Kylepk]

I’m just curious if anyone thinks real flight is helpful for beginners?

[Randy Hills]

Hey Kylepk,

I believe Realflight is extremely helpful .
tt will never take the place of actual field experience, but it can be instrumental in establishing the muscle memory to allow you to automatically respond to unexpected events as well as learning to fly smoothly. Before using Realflight, as I was learning, I eventually spent more on repair parts than the cost of the planes. The cost of the program and the USB dongle was a fraction of the cost of continued repairs to the actual plane. It also allows you to use your own radio so you learn on the actual radio you will use in the field.

I started learning with a small Hobbyzone Cub S 2, which is an extremely easy plane to fly and I still crashed it so many times it was insane. I loved that the sim had most of the planes currently on the market including the Cub and the planes I was interested in buying once my skills improved. I actually bought a 1.2 meter F4U Corsair and put it on the shelf to await the day I had the skill to fly it. I plan on doing it's maiden flight as soon as the weather here in New England warms up, due in large part to having flown it on the simulator successfully a few hundred times over the winter. I actually look forward to using the simulator as it's a pretty detailed rendition of actual flight conditions.

I have used Realflight to "fly" all winter to improve my flying and to keep my skills sharp. You can adjust the physics to mimic real life situations and along with actual field time it has been a huge help for me. It is so much easier to click on "Esc" and then "Fly" to have a new model sitting on the runway; rather than going to the hobby shop or online to buy more replacement parts. It has saved me a lot of money too.
'
There are some negatives however..... I do feel the depth of field is not great, and it can be difficult to determine the orientation of the airplane unless you enable the binocular gadget in the menu. I also find the gadget that gives you altitude, battery voltage remaining, and distance from pilot helpful. As the plane fly's away from your placement on most of the included fields it get's too small too fast. I have the binocular gadget automatically come up if it gets too far away and that has resolved that issue. I have found that I need to narrow the field of view in "Camera" in the main menu in order to enlarge the plane on my laptop's screen, but if you run an HDMI cable to your television, most of the short comings of the program can be remedied.

So yes, it is definitely helpful. Short of having your transmitter buddy boxed to someone with the appropriate skill to get you out of trouble if you panic, (and you will !! LOL) it is a great way to learn, to understand the changes you make on your Tx and how the plane responds to the changes; it will help you when the weather gets lousy and you need to sharpen your skills. It's also a fun way to spend some free time and try out other planes you may want to get as your skills improve. If you do decide to use it, and have questions, I'd be happy to share anything I can with you. :)

Randy
"Professor Duck" my club call sign because it took me FOREVER to understand Spektrum's forward programming ! <grin>

[Philldee]

Extremely helpful and worth the investment!

[RRHandy]

I Third.

[Aros]

I became a much better RC pilot thanks to Real Flight. A very good investment. Muscle memory can be developed in RF, regardless of version.