Students new to pilot training research often assume simulator time and real flight hours are interchangeable, or wonder whether simulators can substantially reduce the cost of reaching their 200-hour CPL requirement. The honest answer: simulators play an important role, but they don’t replace the core hours DGCA requires in an actual aircraft.
What Simulators Are Actually Good For
Simulator sessions are highly effective for:
- Procedural training — checklists, emergency procedures, and systems management, practiced repeatedly without the cost or risk of doing so in a real aircraft
- Instrument flying practice — building familiarity with instrument scans and procedures in a controlled environment before applying them in real instrument conditions
- Cost-effective repetition — running the same scenario multiple times in a single session, which would be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming in a real aircraft
What DGCA Actually Requires
Your core 200-hour CPL requirement — solo flying, cross-country flights, instrument flying, and night flying — must be logged predominantly in an actual aircraft. DGCA regulations allow only a limited, specific allowance of approved simulator time to count toward certain training requirements; the overwhelming majority of your loggable hours must come from real aircraft flight time. Simulator hours are a valuable supplement to your training quality, not a substitute for the real-aircraft hours DGCA requires for licensing.
Why This Distinction Matters for Your Budget
Some students hope extensive simulator use might meaningfully reduce their total training cost, since simulator time is typically cheaper per hour than real aircraft time. In practice, because DGCA’s simulator allowance toward your loggable CPL hours is limited, simulators mainly improve training quality and preparedness rather than significantly reducing your total real-flying-hour cost. Budget primarily around the real aircraft hours required, and treat simulator access as a valuable training-quality feature of your flying school — not a cost-cutting shortcut.
What to Ask a Flying School About Their Simulator Setup
- What type of simulator do they use, and how current/well-maintained is it?
- How is simulator time integrated into the overall training syllabus — is it structured, or ad hoc?
- Roughly how many simulator hours does a typical student get across the full course?
A well-integrated simulator program genuinely improves how prepared you are for real flight training and your DGCA check rides — even though it won’t reduce your core 200-hour real-aircraft requirement.
Plan Your Training Around the Real Requirement
Understanding exactly what counts toward your CPL — and what doesn’t — helps you budget accurately from day one, rather than being surprised partway through training. FlyBy Aviation’s counsellors can walk you through exactly how our training program balances simulator and real flight hours. Apply for a demo lecture to learn more.