The most frequent complaint I hear from pilots transitioning into turbine airplanes, particularly jets, is that the simulator doesn’t fly like the airplane. All say they can fly the real airplane just fine, but the simulator just isn’t the same. Welcome to the world of jet pilots. It is true that a simulator, no matter how sophisticated, doesn’t feel and fly exactly like the real airplane, but the harsh reality is that simulators are the yardstick to measure the qualifications of jet pilots. Every airline pilot already knows this, and business jet pilots find out almost immediately that to succeed at the top level of standardized training they must master the simulator.
This issue is particularly acute for owner-pilots who are moving up to a jet for the first time. Typically the prospect goes flying with the very skilled and accommodating demonstration pilots the airplane manufacturers hire to show off their equipment. These demo pilots are great at making everything look easy. They subtly do the hard work in the right seat so that the sales prospect can feel immediately comfortable in the left seat and do a reasonably good job flying the jet the first time out.
