Cheap and safe way to crash.

Ask any pilot and they will tell you that experience is your best asset. Mistakes are the harshest but best teachers. But since few of us have infinitely deep pockets, and we value people and property, a simulator is a great way to have your first few mistakes. There are a few great simulators that use actual transmitter style inputs for ma realistic feel. There are others that let you use your own transmitter with a plug or adapter to connect to the computer. This is the best option since it is the transmitter with the exact weight and feel and switch arrangement that you fly with.

Click here for one example, Phoenix Flight simulator lets you fly a number of RC aircraft including Drones/Quadcopters/Multirotors.

We hope to test some of these in the near future and give you the full rundown on them.

But say you want to try something for free (yes, your ears perked up there) There are a number of free Drone flight simulators on the Goggle Play store for Android users (phones and tablets).

Now bear in mind that you do not get the feel of the transmitter, The feedback of feeling where the centrepoint of the controls is missing since you are sliding thumbs on a glass screen. All the same, you DO get to see and understand what your inputs do under various conditions.

Here are the ones we tried:

Quadcopter Flight Simulator.

+ Good Graphics.
+ Ground and FPV viewpoints.
+ Has many features like Alt Hold, and Auto Return.

- You have to pay for more drones and locations.


3D Drone Flight Simulator:

+ Cute graphics.

- It's just a game, a basic game
- Mode 1 only


Quadcopter Simulator:

+ OK Graphics.

- Could not get it into English mode
- Does not appear to be mode 2.
- This is another game, not a simulator.
- I had to restart my tablet to exit.

RC Land Free:

+ OK Graphics.
+ Not entirely unrealistic control responses.
+ Fun Challenges

- Still gamelike.

Indoor Heli Sim:

+ Realistic controls.
+ some decent options for control sensitivity


- Very limited selection of aircraft.
- Graphics are VERY basic.


RC Quadcopter Park Simulator:

+ OK Graphics.

- Just a very basic game.
- Completely unrealistic controls.


That's the freebies we tried. From experience, flying without actual spring loaded joysticks is never going to give you the true feel of the real thing, But it can give yous some practice on those 'no fly' days when the weather is too bad or you are waiting for that critical part in the mail.