Three ways to get more from your flight simulator
A flight simulator can help you log time, stay current, and keep training on bad-weather days. But it offers more than a substitute for the airplane. By letting you control conditions, introduce challenging scenarios, and pause to analyze what happens, a simulator creates practice opportunities that are hard to replicate in the air.
Here are three ways you can take advantage of what flight simulation does uniquely well.
Stop and analyze your mistakes
When you get behind the airplane, it keeps moving. Workload builds, leaving little opportunity to slow down and evaluate what went wrong.
“There’s nothing better than the classroom of the simulator,” said Michael Phillips, a CFI who has been teaching since 1975. “You can push the pause button and say, ‘Okay, let’s think about this for a few minutes.’”
The next time you make a mistake during a simulated approach or another high-workload task, pause. Identify what went wrong. Where did your scan break down? When did you lose situational awareness? What could you have done differently? Adjust, then run the scenario again.
Practice what you can’t easily practice in an airplane
“There are things that simulators do that airplanes can’t do as well,” said Bob Hepp, founder and chief flight instructor of Aviation Adventures in Northern Virginia.
You can repeat tasks without flying back around the pattern or to the practice area. You can also introduce scenarios that would be difficult or unsafe to create intentionally in an airplane.
“We can simulate emergencies with much greater fidelity,” Hepp said.
When you are in the simulator, ask your instructor to surprise you with variables you could face in the real world—deteriorating weather, a system failure, or another unexpected change in workload. The controlled environment of the simulator allows you to practice scenarios that challenge your decision-making when things don’t go according to plan.
Connect knowledge to real-world flying
For Michael Lee, director of the aviation science program at Berkshire School in Massachusetts, the simulator helps connect ground instruction with practical experience.
“You can do the ground school and then relate it to a real-world flying situation by flying a scenario on the sim to back up what you’re teaching in theory,” Lee said.
This bridge between learning a task and performing it in the air helps you move beyond rote memorization toward a deeper understanding of how to handle a situation. Building simulator scenarios around procedures or concepts you’ve recently studied allows you to put that knowledge into practice.
The bottom line
The most valuable simulator session isn’t necessarily the one where you log the most time, but the one where you use the simulator’s unique capabilities to practice something intentionally.
Connect knowledge and procedures to real-world situations. Tackle scenarios that challenge you. Pause when you need to analyze a mistake.
The airplane is where you ultimately put those skills to work. However, used well, the simulator offers something the airplane can’t: a controlled environment to practice, make mistakes, and try again.
Looking for ideas for your next simulator session?
Explore Redbird’s free eBooks and training guides for practical exercises, scenario ideas, and resources tailored to all experience levels and stages of flight training.
