(I guess you could use a simulator to help teach pilotage and dead reckoning... but that normally gets sprinkled in with the other lessons along the way.)
On the other hand, simulators are useful for IFR training, when you're focusing on procedures. But you're not looking at the scenery in that case. ;)
I agree but I wasn't talking about stick and rudder skills, I was talking about cross country VFR preparation (learning landmarks etc.). I guess you can do it just using Google Maps, but it would be fun to do it in sim IMHO.
PS regarding the expression "VFR students": there is a preconception where VFR skills are just something that you learn as a beginner pilot, and then once you have enough experience, you start focusing on IFR. I think this mindset is wrong. There are some very experienced bush pilots who regularly - and sometimes mostly - fly VFR; aviation is not just airliners.
Foreflight has 3D mode now for the same purpose. But MSFS would certainly be more fun, and an instructor could mix in other navigation skills. It would be a good exercise to drop someone into an unknown area to practice VOR navigation.
(And 100% agreed about the "VFR students" thing. Poor choice of words on my part.)
> an instructor could mix in other navigation skills
Yes you made me realise that my initial comment was not very clear, I said “VFR” but really I meant visual navigation.
Completely agree about stick/rudder skills though...
I have TM's Warthog system which is presently collecting dust due to lack of triple screen support (Nvidia Simultaneous Multi-projection or SMP, AMD has nothing) - in my space/flight titles, but hopefully not forever.
It's not anywhere able to convey forces affecting the plane in the way my DD steering wheel system does for driving. The feedback I get there combined with transducers is truly sensational, especially once you've had the time to become attuned. I'm becoming half competent now and it's an amazing thing to be able to do from the home.
Whilst there might be limited stuff to simulate in higher end fbw planes, for anything hydraulic there ought to be some options. I once had a Microsoft FFB joystick but considerable time had passed since.
Price levels compare with DD wheel base.
An LCD touchscreen and a plastic overlay would do wonders and still be a reasonable compromise.
I also agree with you that X-Plane still gets an edge in terms of flight model, even though the gap is not as wide as it used to be between X-Plane and FSX/P3D.
The one obvious shortcoming of X-Plane, when compared to MSFS, is the lack of accurate world scenery, on the one hand we could say that it's just eye candy but on the other hand accurate scenery could help students prepare for VFR flights. Yes, you can generate high detail scenery for X-Plane using Ortho4XP, but it's time consuming and it requires a lot of disk space.