Best Flight Simulator Software

Sara answers:

Same answer as before. According to FAA regulations, the FAA has to approve all flight simulators in order for them to be used to train pilots. I am not aware of any generic PC based ones that are approved.

141.41 Flight simulators, flight training devices, and training aids.

An applicant for a pilot school certificate or a provisional pilot school certificate must show that its flight simulators, flight training devices, training aids, and equipment meet the following requirements:

(a) Flight simulators. Each flight simulator used to obtain flight training credit allowed for flight simulators in an approved pilot training course curriculum must—

(1) Be a full-size aircraft cockpit replica of a specific type of aircraft, or make, model, and series of aircraft;

(2) Include the hardware and software necessary to represent the aircraft in ground operations and flight operations;

(3) Use a force cueing system that provides cues at least equivalent to those cues provided by a 3 degree freedom of motion system;

(4) Use a visual system that provides at least a 45-degree horizontal field of view and a 30-degree vertical field of view simultaneously for each pilot; and

(5) Have been evaluated, qualified, and approved by the Administrator.

(b) Flight training devices. Each flight training device used to obtain flight training credit allowed for flight training devices in an approved pilot training course curriculum must—

(1) Be a full-size replica of instruments, equipment panels, and controls of an aircraft, or set of aircraft, in an open flight deck area or in an enclosed cockpit, including the hardware and software for the systems installed that is necessary to simulate the aircraft in ground and flight operations;

(2) Need not have a force (motion) cueing or visual system; and

(3) Have been evaluated, qualified, and approved by the Administrator.

Sara answers:

You could buy the salvaged aircraft and cut out the flight deck area. It would cost you a minimum of about $375,000 for an old 747. After you remove the flight deck, you might sell the remaining airframe for $30,000 or so to a scrap buyer. So the first problem is money. If you have that kind of money, fine; go ahead.

After you cut out the flight deck from the airframe, you will have to cut it into at least 2-3 pieces so it will fit onto flat bed trucks for shipment. When it arrives at your home, you will have to reassemble it. Be sure to check your local ordinances and building codes to make sure it is legal to set this up on your property. It shouldn’t be a problem if you live outside city limits. If you live in the city, you will probably have to get a variance from the city planning board.

The next thing you need to consider is that the flight deck of an old airliner will have been stripped of everything you want. The instruments, yokes, control levers, switch panels, seats, doors, and cabinets will all be gone. Those airplanes are left in the desert in a condition such that only a scrap aluminum dealer would be interested in them.

I know a person who built a reasonable simulation of a space shuttle flight deck out of lumber and plywood, and constructed all the instrument and control panels. Did the whole thing for just a couple of thousand dollars. Went to a junkyard and bought “captain’s chairs” out of wrecked vans to simulate the seats. So projects of that type can be done, and it can be fun. It even has a slow-speed motor drive with cables and pulleys so he can tilt it down flat or straight up for “launching.”

Hate to paint such a negative picture for you, but realistically that’s the sort of situation you are most likely to run into. If you want to look into it yourself, try an internet search on “aircraft salvage.”

Sara answers:

I’d have to say that the chances of the airspeed indicator malfunctioning is probably GREATER at a low altitude just from the number of foreign objects, i.e. Bugs, birds, etc.

Aside from that, the instructor may just be trying to drive home the point that an aircraft’s attitude plus it’s power setting equals a certain view out the cockpit window–in other words, “With the power set here, and the pitch set here–this is what you should see.”

Additionally, the idea mentioned of having to use standby instruments or ancillary instruments such as Angle of Attack is a valid one. There’s too little time short final to dig into a checklist to select another Air Data Computer or worse yet, exchange controls to the other pilot.

Many airlines also require that a pilot know how to deal with flight instrument failures, and while the likelihood of it happening IS extremely low, the training still has to occur. Call it “checking a box.”