Pilot’s Evaluation of the Usefulness of Full Mission IFR Simulator Flights for General Aviation Pilot Training

Professional pilots, including flight instructors, who had participated in multiple session line-oriented flight training (LOFT) Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) simulator flights differing in task difficulty evaluated the value of such flights for the training of general aviation pilots. These flights, which employed a relatively low cost simulator (Frasca 141), were judged to be quite useful for instrument student flight training, for instrument rated pilots with moderate instrument experience, and for experienced pilots. The aspects of flight that were seen as receiving the greatest benefit from the flight scenarios were practicing responses to problem situations, attitude instrument flying, practicing instrument approaches under varying weather conditions, and navigation and communications for student pilots. In contrast, the simulator was not seen as useful for Visual Flight Rules (VFR) recurrent training.