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Comment by dimastopel | Hacker News Reader

I just got my PPL a year ago. My instructor did a survey among all students who got the license and among other things asked 1) how many flight hours did it take you to get the license 2) did you play with a simulator in your spare time. There was a clear inverse correlation between the two, meaning that those who did play with the simulator had to use less hours to get the license.

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Another 100% (dangerous) anecdote: once upon a time, a boss of mine took me for a flight in his Cessna. As is tradition for him, he let the passenger up front to control the airplane in the air for a minute or two. Apparently, he thought I was good enough when controlling the airplane in the air that I should attempt a landing. As I was young and dumb, I obliged and successfully landed the airplane. Even have video evidence of this happening which is a fun ~10 minute video of me lacking composure while landing my first airplane.

And yes, I attribute this to me spending 1000+ hours in various flight simulators since I got my first computer. And also yes, I know this was reckless and dangerous.

Neither reckless nor dangerous, not sure why you would think it was either when there was an experience pilot right there who could have taken controls at any moment if necessary. As a sibling comment points out it's the equivalent of him holding your hand while you're controlling it. It's you would have been able to put in any dangerous control inputs without intentionally overpowering him.

I don’t think it’s that reckless.

Landing an airplane like that is basically a step by step checklist and there is a lot of indicators along the way if something is going wrong.

Also he has a second set of controls in his hands. He’s basically holding your hand.

The best part of that story is that at least for small planes, I feel like landing is one of the things simulators are worst at simulating and least useful as a replacement for experience in a real plane. Maybe the whole approach and decent is simulated OK, but I don't think I've ever flow a sim (even the "real" ones) that quite captures the last part settling gently down onto the ground. But trainers can also take some pretty rough landings :)

As someone who’s never flown IRL (but has played around in a few simulators), do you have any idea/reasons why this is so? I’d imagine it partly down to the “overriding” of senses (forces/g’s) in actual flight vs simulation, and perhaps the lack of stereoscopic vision.

Would this also extend to navigation landing?

Reckless, dangerous, and AWESOME.

I can concur with personal experience : I learned to fly at a young age (14-15 year old) and was able to go solo and get licensed with the minimum required hours and age due to hundreds of hours of sim. Even to practice every procedure that has to be memorized while piloting, it was worth it.

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