01001000 01100101 01101100 01101100 01101111 00100001!

In case you are wondering, my keyboard didn’t get stuck. That was “Hello” in binary code consisting of ones and zeros.

There is a lot of buzz about artificial intelligence (AI) these days… Maybe AIs could handle air traffic control one day? Or at least they could act as ATC in flight simulators? What do you think?

FunkyPilot Academy Issue 4 introduces another central character to the series; an AI called Simmy. I wrote the Issue/Episode 4 a couple of years ago, but it has taken a long time to get it drawn, and it’s taking even longer to get it published.

FunkyPilot Academy Issue 4 is titled: Rise of the Machines. Yes, Rise of the Machines… Original, right??

In this issue, Captain Jack and his students build a simulator that they will use during training. It turns out one of his students, Victor, is a computer genius who has created an AI. The AI, Simmy, oh, and Sammy.. there are two of them (and one of them may be bad).. can control the simulator and act as their air traffic controller.

Once they have a flight simulator, the actual flight training can finally start!

Of course, just like in real life, not everything works as planned. The AI will cause some chaos and set the stage for some serious trouble for Captain Jack.

Funny things are going to happen! Stay tuned for more!

Use of Flight Simulators in Real Pilot Training

Pro-tip for aspiring future pilots: If you first train with a flight simulator, learning to fly in a real plane is much easier.

Flight simulators are also used by all major flight schools to supplement training in real airplanes. Using simulators reduces the cost of training, and it allows the student and instructor to practice malfunctions that you couldn’t do in a real airplane. The use of flight simulators also makes it easier to learn different instrument flight procedures that can be very time taking with a real plane.

At home, you can use flight simulation software/games like the Microsoft Flight Simulator to train yourself before you even sign up for flight lessons. If you are familiar with the aircraft instruments and understand the basic theory behind flying, it will make your actual flight training much easier, and you can save a lot of money on your training.

The latest version of Microsoft Flight Simulator is very realistic and even offers flight lessons to the users.

Perhaps in the next update, they could integrate it with ChatGPT AI, which could act as an air traffic controller… Wouldn’t that be cool?

Above is a picture of my flight simulator setup back in 2010. It was a nice set up for playing Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Today I only use one big screen instead of three.

Below is a picture of a Diamond Aircraft DA40-D flight training device (FTD) that we used to train instrument-rating pilots in my former flight school. Flight training devices like these are excellent for instrument flight training as you can pause the training as needed and relocate the aircraft quickly for new procedures. You can learn fast using flight training devices or flight simulators, and it’s much cheaper than flying real aircraft.

I will talk more about FunkyPilot Academy in my next post!

Take care!

Vesa Turpeinen

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Flight training should be fun, and becoming a pilot is really not that difficult, that’s what FunkyPilot Academy is all about!