First, some background:
I'm working on an instrument rating. I've been working on basic attitude instrument flying in the sim at home (X-Plane, for me). That's been pretty useful on developing the scan, etc.. However, as anyone that's done some instrument training knows the real challenge is part of flying in THE SYSTEM.
Being a part of the national airspace system and talking with controllers all while staying ahead of the airplane is a challenge. Developing the mental muscle to do that takes practice. Lots of practice. Doing it up in the air, while the clock is ticking and you're burning money ratchets up the stress level quite a bit.
So I was quite intrigued when I found out about PilotEdge. What is it? It's a means of using your sim at home to practice being a part of the system. The amazing thing about it is you're actually talking to real people serving as controllers and they're excellent. Some are current controllers that do this part time on the side for extra money. Some are retired controllers. Some are just sim enthusiasts that know enough to serve as controllers but they really do handle traffic just like real controllers. Phraseology is correct and they follow the rules (and expect the pilots to as well).
You file flight plans just like you would in the real world. You tune your radios in the sim and call them up. Pick up clearances, talk to various controllers, etc.. They will vector you, sequence you, clear you, and, when appropriate, scold you!
And it's not just you in isolation. Other pilots are on the network and you all share the same virtual world. This world is, however, limited to Southern California, Vegas, Phoenix. It's a big enough universe for you to fly around in and work yourself in a busy section of airspace.
The nice thing about it though is that because lives aren't actually at stake, they are extremely accommodating of newbie, dumb dumb mistakes. They do, however, make an effort to keep sim pilots that aren't ready to work as part of the system out of the system. This is nice as it prevents things like very young children from playing and gumming up the works.
They offer a free two week trial that I'm currently taking advantage of but I will be continuing my subscription. It's pretty great to be able to really work the system at home without burning 100LL.
Technically, PilotEdge is a plugin that interfaces to your flight sim of choice (X-Plane, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, or Prepar3D). Once installed and you connect to the network, you use your headset just like you normally would. Another great feature (with x-plane at least) is that X-Plane can send position and ahrs data to ForeFlight to simulate your position and attitude info as if you were using a Stratus or similar. PilotEdge takes this a step farther and sends the traffic data to ForeFlight so you see the other pilots in the network. It's a pretty slick way to practice with your real world toolchain.
Overall, I'm really impressed. I never thought I'd say this, but flying the sim this way at home is actually fun. It's not just for instrument students or pilots. Lots of VFR folks work the system, too. If you want to practice being a part of the system, I'd strongly recommend you take a look at PilotEdge.
http://www.pilotedge.net/
I'm working on an instrument rating. I've been working on basic attitude instrument flying in the sim at home (X-Plane, for me). That's been pretty useful on developing the scan, etc.. However, as anyone that's done some instrument training knows the real challenge is part of flying in THE SYSTEM.
Being a part of the national airspace system and talking with controllers all while staying ahead of the airplane is a challenge. Developing the mental muscle to do that takes practice. Lots of practice. Doing it up in the air, while the clock is ticking and you're burning money ratchets up the stress level quite a bit.
So I was quite intrigued when I found out about PilotEdge. What is it? It's a means of using your sim at home to practice being a part of the system. The amazing thing about it is you're actually talking to real people serving as controllers and they're excellent. Some are current controllers that do this part time on the side for extra money. Some are retired controllers. Some are just sim enthusiasts that know enough to serve as controllers but they really do handle traffic just like real controllers. Phraseology is correct and they follow the rules (and expect the pilots to as well).
You file flight plans just like you would in the real world. You tune your radios in the sim and call them up. Pick up clearances, talk to various controllers, etc.. They will vector you, sequence you, clear you, and, when appropriate, scold you!
And it's not just you in isolation. Other pilots are on the network and you all share the same virtual world. This world is, however, limited to Southern California, Vegas, Phoenix. It's a big enough universe for you to fly around in and work yourself in a busy section of airspace.
The nice thing about it though is that because lives aren't actually at stake, they are extremely accommodating of newbie, dumb dumb mistakes. They do, however, make an effort to keep sim pilots that aren't ready to work as part of the system out of the system. This is nice as it prevents things like very young children from playing and gumming up the works.
They offer a free two week trial that I'm currently taking advantage of but I will be continuing my subscription. It's pretty great to be able to really work the system at home without burning 100LL.
Technically, PilotEdge is a plugin that interfaces to your flight sim of choice (X-Plane, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, or Prepar3D). Once installed and you connect to the network, you use your headset just like you normally would. Another great feature (with x-plane at least) is that X-Plane can send position and ahrs data to ForeFlight to simulate your position and attitude info as if you were using a Stratus or similar. PilotEdge takes this a step farther and sends the traffic data to ForeFlight so you see the other pilots in the network. It's a pretty slick way to practice with your real world toolchain.
Overall, I'm really impressed. I never thought I'd say this, but flying the sim this way at home is actually fun. It's not just for instrument students or pilots. Lots of VFR folks work the system, too. If you want to practice being a part of the system, I'd strongly recommend you take a look at PilotEdge.
http://www.pilotedge.net/