Microsoft Flight Simulator For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech))

Maybe not hard core simulation. A good read though, with a lot of solid information on Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.

I wanted to evaluate whether the program is something I would use and enjoy before actually purchasing and installing it, and thought the book would help me do that better than any review, as well as being useful if I do get it. I haven't yet made up my mind. Having actually flown, I knew how much there is to keep in mind. This takes time and repetition. The book will help you to decide whether you want to make that commitment.

Great book, good detail, wish I had purchased it sooner.

Nothing better than a book socked with water

This item was a gift

I am a MSFS, VR and Dummies enthusiast and also a real-life private pilot. Therefore, when I discovered this book, I was very excited and curious to see who was chosen as the author, given that the Dummies management choses proven experts to write their books about a given subject. My pick would have been two co-authors with one being a real-life pilot with experience with different types of airplanes, and the other one having a deep knowledge about what’s behind the cutting-edge software technology used in MSFS, providing us with valuable insights how to improve MSFS performance. To my great surprise, the author is actually a journalist and gamer, who’s main credential for writing this book is that she has “logged hundreds of flying hours while writing this book.”In case you don’t know, amateur flight simulators have long been more of a niche product for aviation enthusiasts like me who frown upon using the word “game” instead of “flight simulator” or using the word “joystick” instead of “flight control stick”. Geeks like me take the piloting part very seriously. For us, it is more important that the airplanes in a simulator are (or feel) realistic to fly than to have a beautiful scenery. Many of us were heartbroken when Microsoft decided to discontinue their Flight Simulator in 2006.And then Microsoft came back with the Flight Simulator in 2020 and boy, what a game changer it has been in terms of graphics, scenery and several other factors. It is clear that Microsoft targets a broader audience with this simulator, far beyond the enthusiasts and geeks like me, that’s why it was launched on the Xbox platform as well. It should be appealing to gamers, and why not actually?So, in my opinion, MSFS for Dummies was written by a gamer for gamers, and it certainly makes a lot of commercial sense. It gives you a good rundown of MSFS’ more entertaining aspects, like spotting animals in Africa or flying with friends. It gives you a basic introduction to how to fly a plane. And if that’s all you want, this book is for you.Now, if you are interested in a dumbed down but nevertheless solid real-life flight training, or if you want to learn how to make a flight in the A320 from Los Angeles to San Francisco for example, using instrument flight rules, or if you have a VR headset and are struggling to get a decent performance, then this book will probably disappoint you. I would have also wished to learn more about finer details of the software such as what is behind the different graphics settings. So overall, I can give this book only three stars. If you’d like to know more about what I am missing in this book, read on please…MSFS allows to use VR, and boy, what a difference it is compared to using a monitor, especially if you are a real-life pilot like me who is trained to look out of the cockpit 80% of the time. With a monitor, there is a tendency to stare too much at the instruments, but a VR headset instantly shifts your focus outside the cockpit. But choosing the right VR headset, PC hardware and setting it all up for a decent performance can be a daunting task in my own painful experience. I must have spent close to 1000 hours looking for often contradictory and cryptic advice on the internet. Therefore, instead of just propagating the beauty of VR and offering you scant advice how to get started, like this book does, I would have provided much more solid advice and background information how to make VR work for you.The instructions about basic flying skills provided in this book are really just the bare essentials to fly around in the simulator but provide little perspective to real-life flying or important background knowledge. This book tells you to keep an eye on RPM and speed but doesn’t mention how much exactly at different stages of a flight in a C152 for example. How can you fly, let alone land, an airplane like this? When explaining how to land, the book doesn’t even mention the concept of “flare”. Airport traffic patterns are briefly mentioned in the context of safety but not how they help you to land better. There is no word about how to fly and land with cross winds, let alone how it differs from a plane with high wings to a plane with low wings. I could go on but won’t.The book gives a most superficial introduction to flying under instrument flight rules but is limited to the very limited options that MSFS provides in this regard. No word of Standard Instrument Departures (SID) or useful third-party tools like Navigraph. In fact, I cannot imagine how someone can do a flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco for example by reading this chapter in the book.In conclusion, if you are a gamer or someone who is more interested in travelling around the virtual world of MSFS rather than piloting an airplane, this may be a good book for you. If you want more than that, I am afraid I can’t recommend you any better book (except perhaps for “Stick and Rudder” of Wolfgang Langewische which was written decades ago), so you may as well start with this one.

Finally a good manual for flight simulator 2020! Done professionally!

Ich haben schon einige "...für Dummies" Bücher, und fand sie zumeist sehr hilfreich und nützlich, dieses Buch über den Flugsimulator ist es nicht,. Es ist eine seltsame Mischung aus Beschreibung, was der FS kann, aber nicht wie man es macht, sondern mehr eine sinnlose Auflistung von Befehlen und Abkürzungen...ich habe es wieder zurück geschickt.

I was eyeing up this book months before it came out and I had MSFS. I finally got hold of a new (beefy) PC, ordered MSFS, and duly bought the book. The one thing I was really hoping it would teach me was navigation. Although this subject gets some coverage, it doesn't really hit the mark or enlighten the reader all that much. There are even appendices with "Example flights" and I thought "Ah, now we'll get to understand something about navigation!" Alas, this is completely ignored. I still had no idea how to properly navigate from airport A to airport B. The author does advise you to make good use of YouTube videos, and in the end that's how I learnt - not from the book. What was the missing link? Approach procedures. This was the key to unlocking the proper MSFS experience. I can't quite believe the author made no mention of how to select an approach procedure ANYWHERE in the book (basically you have to select IFR Low or high altitude airways in the World Map screen, then you can select an airport approach procedure). Oh, and GPS. That's something else I was looking forward to learning about in the book. However, there was less described here than in the navigation section, so again, you're going to have to rely on YouTube videos.So if you've made extensive use of YouTube videos you probably don't need the book. There are some nuggets in the book like Top Ten airports. Also, I found out about the 250 knots/10,000 feet rule in the book.Overall though, it is questionable how useful the book really is for really enjoying the sim.

Fournit de bonnes indications et informations,Bravo à l'auteure ...

Ich bin begeistert von VR in MSFS. Als Privatpilot, der echte Flugzeuge fliegt, gibt es für mich kein zurück zum Bildschirm mehr. Daher hätte ich diesem Thema in diesem Buch viel mehr Platz gegeben anstatt nur eine oberflächliche Kostprobe davon zu skizzieren. Denn es ist leider oft sehr kompliziert, das VR im MSFS mit einer guten Performance zum laufen zu bringen. Da spreche ich von meiner eigenen leidvollen Erfahrung als Besitzer von vier VR Brillen. Das Buch erwähnt kein Wort davon.Die Autorin dieses Buches ist eine Gamerin, keine echte Pilotin, und daher präsentiert sie MSFS mehr als ein Game denn als ein Flugsimulator, was für mich als old school Flugsimulator Enthusiast und Pilot enttäuschend ist. Wenn es Dir mehr darum geht, in der virtuellen und atemberaubenden Welt von MSFS herum zu reisen und das Fliegen eines Flugzeuges eher Nebensache ist, dann kann dieses Buch nützlich sein.Wenn Dich aber die Fliegerei mehr reizt als das Reisen, dann wird Dir dieses Buch nur einen oberflächlichen Einblick gewähren. Das Fliegen wird hier eher mit Schritt-für-Schritt Anleitungen erklärt ohne gross was über die Hintergründe zu sagen. Der Abschnitt über wie man ein Flugzeug landet erwähnt noch nicht mal das wichtige Konzept von "flare". Das Kapitel über IFR ist sehr oberflächlich und beschränkt auf die Möglichkeiten und Limitierungen von MSFS. Kein Word über Navigraph oder Simbrief oder was ein Standard Instrument Departure (SID) ist.