Flight simulators in pilot training explained: simulator types and levels, how many hours count toward your license, and where they fit from PPL to CPL.
Flight Simulators in Pilot Training: A Full Guide Many student pilots treat a simulator session as a light warm-up before the "real flying" begins. The reality is quite different: certified flight simulators are a core, formally recognised part of pilot training worldwide. Their hours are logged officially, and there are skills you simply cannot acquire safely anywhere else.
This guide explains flight simulators in pilot training in plain terms: what makes a device "certified", how the different levels compare, exactly where simulation fits into each stage of your journey from Aviation English to a Commercial Pilot License, and how to get the most out of every session you fly. What Is a Certified Flight Simulator?
A certified flight simulator is a training device built to strict technical specifications and evaluated by a regulatory authority. It reproduces the behaviour of a specific aircraft, its systems, and the flight environment around it.
Certification is what allows the hours you spend in it to be recorded in your training file, and your performance inside it to be assessed against the same standards applied in the air. This is where it differs from home simulation software such as the well-known desktop titles.
Those are excellent for getting familiar with terrain and airports and for rehearsing some procedures, but their data is never technically validated, sessions are not conducted under a qualified instructor, and none of those hours count toward any license.
Three Conditions That Separate a Certified Device From Home Software Data validation: the device's response is checked against actual aircraft data within a defined tolerance. Supervision: the session is conducted and assessed by a certified instructor following a written syllabus. Documentation: hours are formally logged within an approved training programme.
Simulator Types and Their Levels Simulators are not a single category but a ladder that climbs in realism, cost, and level of approval. Understanding that ladder helps you know what actually serves you at each stage. Basic and Advanced Aviation Training Devices (BATD / AATD) The simplest certified category: a fixed workstation with a real instrument panel and controls in front of displays.
There is no motion, and the focus is entirely on building a disciplined instrument scan, navigation procedures, and checklist flow. Relatively affordable and widely available, they are used heavily in early training and in instrument work. Flight and Navigation Procedures Trainers (FNPT) A step up, representing a generic cockpit or a class of aircraft rather than one specific model.
Very useful for instrument training, multi-engine work, and systems management, because it delivers enough operational realism without the cost of a full device. Flight Training Devices (FTD) Here the simulation becomes aircraft-specific: a cockpit matching a particular model with its actual systems, across graded levels that differ in modelling fidelity and visual field.
Usually without a motion system, but with very high systems accuracy — which makes them ideal for practising failure management and complex procedures. Full Flight Simulators (FFS), Levels A to D The top of the ladder. A complete cockpit mounted on a motion platform, with a wraparound visual system and precise modelling of performance and systems.
Level D is the highest, demanding the greatest realism in motion, sound, and visual field — to the point that a type rating can be completed almost entirely inside one. These devices belong to the type-rating stage after the commercial license, not to core training.
What You Learn in a Simulator That You Cannot Learn in the Air This is where simulation earns its place: situations you must learn to handle, but which are either unsafe, impossible, or needlessly expensive to practise in an actual aircraft. Engine failure at the worst possible moment: losing an engine right after take-off demands a correct response within seconds, a…