While Sporty’s makes its Learn To Fly virtual flight training programs better by the month, a new interface with the Infinite Flight Simulator kicks the learning experience up a few notches with Infinite’s scenario-based mobile flight sim for iPads and Androids.
Flying an ipad
Manipulating the tablet as you would a control yoke to maneuver the virtual airplane, the collaboration between Sporty’s and Infinite Flight is an interesting way to reinforce the training scenarios presented in the Sporty’s Learn to Fly video course. Watch the video, fly it on the mobile sim. I think the two are well matched because the Sporty’s programs consistently earn high marks for both engaging content and logical explanations and examples.
And, Infinite Flight does a good job with the overall virtual flight environment, with high-resolution graphics and a detailed scenario platform that uses the device’s built-in accelerometer and gyro for pitch and roll control.
A few of us around the office used the sim on a sixth-generation iPad and as you’d expect, there’s a short learning curve to get the feel of the control inputs, but frankly once we mastered it, we couldn’t put it down.
Finding the sweet spot doesn’t take long and after a couple of tries I was able to consistently set the virtual Skyhawk up for stabilized approaches to landing after flying tight traffic patterns. That’s a screen grab at the bottom of the page. The Cessna’s virtual instrument panel is nearly identical with the real 1998 172S, with an OEM panel of BendixKing Silver Crown Plus avionics and a retrofit Garmin GPS that works exactly like a real one.
External yoke, subs
The interface might be even better with the $149 Yawman Arrow controller in the mix. I couldn’t try it because it’s not compatible with iPads or any iOS device (only Android tablets and non-iOS laptops) that are running the Infinite Flight program. The Yawman has an integrated trim wheel, Vernier-style engine control sliders and a five-way hat switch. It does work with Microsoft Flight Simulator on a PC, X-Plane 11/12 on a PC and Mac, Infinite Flight for Android and DCS World.
Chris McGonegle at Sporty’s said that in general, Apple doesn’t always play ball with flight sim hardware. For that, an Android EFB gets the win for connecting more peripherals. The Infinite Flight EFB link function works with ForeFlight and Garmin Pilot by sending position and attitude data into the sim.
The app uses a 2D button interface for setting power, flaps and other items with your thumbs. I found setting the flaps in the virtual Cessna was challenging (with the left thumb) while maintaining precise control of the plane. The power control slider was accurate.
The Infinite Flight mobile sim is a free download in the App Store and Google Play. Some features work without a subscription, but the Pro package is $9.99 per month (or semi- yearly at $49.99 and $79.99 yearly) and enables more aircraft and flying regions.
Pilot uses
I think the Infinite Flight/Sporty’s interface could be better if more courses (including Instrument and Commercial rating modules) were linked. For now, the Sporty’s Learn to Fly program is the sole course that incorporates the Infinite flight maneuvers platform. As I’d expect from Sporty’s, McGonegle said it plans to expand the maneuvers capabilities within the sim maybe
sometime next year.
The Infinite Flight interface on its own is more than capable. You can fly the sim to and from any airport for practicing navigation and ILS/GPS/VOR/NDB approaches, and it has dozens of aircraft and has programmable winds, fuel quantity, weight and balance and density altitude.
The $299 Sporty’s Learn to Fly Private Pilot ground school course has over 15 hours of 4K video and there are 32 fully narrated maneuvers to go along with interactive exercises. It’s updated yearly and is accessible for life. We can easily recommend this latest Sporty’s/Infinite Flight collaboration as an affordable and well-executed training utility that can be used anywhere.
For more, visit www.sportys.com and www.infiniteflight.com.
