Use of Simulation in Visual Flight Training: The Effect on Time to Solo

The purpose of this study was to determine what effect the use of flight simulation has on the time to solo of student pilots. Participants in this study were first semester flight students at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC). Twelve participants completed the study and were given three hours of instruction in a Frasca 141 flight training device (FTD) with visual display prior to beginning training in an aircraft. The students were all instructed on the basic sight pictures of a Cessna 172, given instruction on aircraft control, basic maneuvers, and take-off and landing in the FTD. At the completion of first solo, the total flight time and calendar days to the first solo from the starting date were calculated and compared to a historic data group. The experimental group had a mean time to solo of 17.1 hours, mean days to solo of 77.3 days compared to the historic group which had a mean time to solo of 17.4 hours, mean days to solo of 86.1 days. These differences were not significant at the .05 level for hours t (150) = .225, p = .823 (two-tailed), 1 – â = .056, c2 = .000; or days t (150) = .784, p = .434 (two tailed), 1 – â = .142, c2 =.004.