And ice can bring down a plane quickly, but because you can’t fly in clouds without an instrument rating, ice can really occur only in freezing rain or flying through wet snowfall, an occurrence that you escape by turning around - immediately.When planning a flight, then, you have to completely avoid thunderstorms and freezing rain. Thunderstorms are certainly even more dangerous, but they’re really just a nasty combination of all of the preceding. The most hazardous weather phenomena that a pilot without an instrument rating will face are high winds, turbulence, low visibility, and clouds. Weather has always been an issue for real-world pilots, so in this chapter we discuss some weather challenges and show you how to deal with them. One of FSX’s cool advances over previous flight simulator versions is the weather, especially the realistic way FSX shows clouds. You don’t have to read these chapters in order, but at times we will reference something that we explained in an earlier chapter. The idea is to use Flight Simulator to give aspiring pilots the best head start possible, and help virtual pilots create the most realistic experience.These items are presented in a chronological order that starts with what a student pilot would learn and ends with a pilot preparing for an airline job. We also give you the collateral information you would get during real flight training, such as how to use checklists or examples of accidents that illuminate a point. Instead, we focus on the items that Flight Simulator teaches well. Judicious use of Flight Simulator can make that island getaway a possibility just a bit faster.This book mimics the path a person would take if they decided to learn to fly, but it does not contain everything you need to know to fly an airplane. Whisking your sweetheart away by air for a romantic island getaway sure beats banging out landing after landing trying to get it just right.

Flight Simulator lets you feed your passion when, for one reason or another, flying a real airplane is not an option or even desirable.Even when flying is an option, developing your skills and knowledge using Flight Simulator can make your flying time more efficient and a lot more fun.

From the introduction to the book:Flying is expensive, demanding, subject to the whims of weather and maintenance, and sometimes just doesn’t fit easily into the realities of our schedules.

Real fsx