I posted this in the May 2022 board thread, but I'm reposting it here because I think it'll be helpful for everyone.
I took
@FloridaDad 's advice and got a Logitech joystick to practice the
ASTB trainer with. In the interest of everyone who is considering doing the same, I decided to record my data. After a week of practice on the hardest difficulty and in 60 second runs, there seems to be a downward trend in my average distance to the targets with the joystick and the throttle.
View attachment 34574
Here are some of my observations:
- Focusing on the joystick target with the throttle in the peripheral seems to be the optimal way of tracking both at the same time. Since the joystick target moves in 2 dimensions, it's harder to recover from a mistake in tracking that one than it is for the throttle. In other words, focus more on the joystick, but don't totally neglect the throttle.
- Sitting further from the screen increased my field of view, making it easier to keep the throttle in my peripheral vision.
- Playing the sim with headphones on while listening to dichotic listening videos is about as close as you can get to the real exam without actually taking it. Leaning your head to either side seems to have helped me listen to the audio playing through that ear; other people have mentioned that this helped them so I just wanted to confirm it myself.
- Playing Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 helped me learn to make minute adjustments to the throttle and joystick, something that translated to the trainer fairly well.
- A Cruel Angel's Thesis is a dope song. That's not really related to my observations, but listening to it during the sim made it feel more fun and intense.
It's important to note that I did not use the audio cue training feature in the sim. My computer wasn't playing the audio for some reason, so I decided against it. Also, I've read that the audio in the sim only plays through one ear, as opposed to both ears like during the exam.
