By J. Mac MCClellan
If you are fortunate enough to move up to flying a jet, you’ll almost certainly complete your initial type rating training and checkride in a simulator, not the airplane.
And I have yet to meet a pilot new to advanced simulator training who doesn’t lament that “it doesn’t fly like the airplane.”
That statement is true, even though the Level C and D simulators used by all the major training services can be used for flight training and practical tests.
You will most likely never fly the actual airplane until after you have earned your type rating.
The first simulators in business aviation to duplicate the flying qualities of the real airplane enough to replace training and checking in the airplane were developed in the early 1980s. They were called “Phase II” sims then.
The airlines had introduced sim-only training and checking a few years earlier.
SimuFlite in Dallas had the first Phase II sims, and they were remarkably better than the full motion “visual” simulators in use for business jet training at the time. The FAA approved the “visual” sims for most training, and the largest portion of the type rating checkride. The deal was that you trained on all standard maneuvers and emergencies in the sim, and then were checked. Then you got in the real airplane for several hours of training and flew another brief check including an engine-out approach and a few other critical maneuvers in the jet.
The first Phase II sim visual presentation was night or dusk. The computer technology wasn’t capable of replicating a daylight scene. As the computing power increased, the FAA developed new criteria for full-motion sims with Level A through D capability.
The daylight visual display was the most meaningful and difficult development, and Level C sims must have it. But as the technology advanced the FAA became more demanding on sims to have faithful duplication of the airplane on the runway, and in critical weather conditions such as thunderstorms, turbulence, and icing. That, in general, is required to move to Level D from Level C.
I’ve never known a pilot who has mastered the sim who does a less than great job in the real thing. Frustration awaits all of us in the sim, but I know it makes us all better pilots.To build a Level C or D sim, the airplane manufacturer collects a complete package of data defining the flying qualities of the real airplane and provides that to the sim manufacturer. The data is collected by experimental test pilots in airplanes equipped with hundreds of channels of recording parameters to trace the airplane’s response in all conditions. Gauges and sensors on the cockpit controls record how much force and movement the test pilots make to generate the attitude, altitude, airspeed, and other changes in the airplane’s response.
Among the most difficult qualities to replicate is runway performance. How much force on the rudder pedal is needed to correct for a crosswind? How do the brakes respond to each level of pressure a pilot applies to the pedals? And for the highest level of approval the sim must duplicate how the airplane behaves on a wet or otherwise contaminated runway.
So, the sim really is responding to conditions and pilot inputs just like the real airplane. It’s all been very carefully measured. When the sim is completed, a team of pilots experienced in the airplane type being simulated—including some from the FAA—fly the sim and decide if it really is faithful to the real thing.
I guarantee that the first few times, or maybe even the first many times, you fly the sim you won’t agree. The sim is simply harder to fly than the real airplane. Why is that true?
Having had the opportunity to fly dozens of sims and their real airplane counterparts over my career, I’ve decided that there are at least two major reasons sims are harder to fly well.
First, no matter how good the motion and sound duplication, the sim just can’t provide every small, subtle cue of changes we subconsciously absorb when flying a real airplane. The motion base of the Level C and D sims is very good at replicating what we feel as small, or large, G-load changes, but not quite the same. And the wind and engine sounds that provide subtle but important cues of changes are good, but not quite as useful as in the real airplane.
The other big difference between the sim and real flying is what we see outside the windshield. The sim visual displays are incredible and become more lifelike every year.
Surface details around the airport are excellent, and clouds and other sky conditions are realistic. But looking “outside” in the sim—except on landing—will make it harder to fly with precision. The flight instruments are absolutely the most faithful replication of the real thing in a modern sim. You need to look inside all the time. If there is any deficiency in your instrument scan, the sim will reveal it in minutes. In the sim, no matter what the visual display is showing, you’re always flying instruments.
Exotic and hugely costly Level C and D sims are simply more demanding to fly. They are different than the actual airplane for sure, and you will be tested—and probably frustrated—by those differences and demands on our skills.
The bottom line is that I have known many pilots who fly the real airplane just fine but have a tough time in the sim. But I’ve never known a pilot who has mastered the sim who does a less than great job in the real thing. Frustration awaits all of us in the sim, but I know it makes us all better pilots.
J. Mac McClellan is a corporate King Air 350 pilot with more than 12,000 hours and a former aviation magazine editor.
