Phoenix - realism of flying planes?

[aracer]

Got Phoenix to help learn to fly helis, but having got it find myself spending half my time flying the planes - I think in a way I'm actually more attracted to flying planes than helis (just that helis are slightly more practical for me as I can fly one almost properly inside my house after my sons are in bed). The question is, if I put the stick time in on planes in Phoenix, would it be realistic to take this experience outside and fly a real plane in the same way as a first timer?

The main motiviation being the idea that I could skip the basic trainer and move straight onto something more interesting, given I will have limited time available if I do ever get myself a real plane. Is this feasible, or is there something in the real life experience I'll miss out on? Bearing in mind I am flying a real heli, so have some idea of what is different in the sim, and how realistic it is for those.

[Levendis]

Real life handling is more difficult in that the controls will be more mushy/squirrelly, the plane is not always in the middle of the screen, and the trims and the center of gravity will not always be perfect. More importantly, plane takeoffs and landings are not modelled accurately on a computer. Being able to fly real rc-helis means you have good finger dexterity but while planes are more stable than helis "plane reality" differs from "plane-sims" in different ways...

I started on Phoenix, and after spending several hours on it, it helped A LOT to get me familiarized on flight orientation, tracking, basic behavior in winds, hovering, etc... However, the sim did nothing to prepare me for the interaction of forces on takeoff, how real wind behaves, how much rudder I actually need at different points of the takeoff, out of trim situations, noseover tendencies, the extent of slipstream effects and other aspects of ground handling, etc... Relative to reality, the planes in Phoenix take off as if they were on wheels. Once in the air, the sim does a pretty good job of simulator actual flight.

I've also used Reflex XTR, which feels a little bit more realistic on takeoff/landings but still nowhere close to reality. I haven't used Realflight 4.5 but web opinion seems to indicate similar issues.

Finding an experienced flier to do the test flights and flying trainer mode imho is a valuable transition tool.

If it were me though I'd make sure that the first real modelplane is not something I had spent a lot of time/resources on...Murphy's law.

Having said that I don't think a "trainer" type aircraft is strictly needed, (I think their relative stability is false advertising) you just need relatively expendable aircraft and very low rates for the flight surfaces... :eek: