I got the simulator downloaded first: Phoenix.
The download was a bit over 1 GB, so it finished pretty quickly. It came as a second-level compressed package, so after extracting it once, I still had to unpack it again. The final size was about 3.99 GB.
Before doing anything else, I watched a video on how to run Phoenix without a dongle. That video also included a simulator download link, which made the setup process much easier.
After that came the T20 transmitter setup. The main things I needed to sort out were:
- stick calibration
- stick function assignment
- screen brightness
Binding wasn’t useful for me yet. That part matters more when using a real aircraft, or maybe when connecting to a phone later through Wi-Fi binding. UTG is also an option. For transmitter setup, the big all-in-one EdgeTX tutorial for the T14 and T20 was a good reference.
As for downloads, the comments under Bilibili videos turned out to be surprisingly useful. There are quite a few shared simulator resources there. I had originally planned to spend a tiny amount on a secondhand resource pack, but the person who sold me the transmitter told me to check the comments first. That’s how I found this:
http://mklb.xyz/ 飞行工具箱
Once everything was ready, the crash journey began.
I took turns with my second kid, and we switched aircraft based on how many times we crashed. At first, the rule was three crashes and then switch. That turned out to be way too fast. You barely touched the transmitter for a few minutes before it was already someone else’s turn. So we changed it to ten crashes before switching.
Most of the crashing came from the two kids.
My own trick for avoiding crashes was simple: fly high. Sometimes I sent the plane so far away that on the screen it looked like only a few pixels were flying around. There were moments when I could barely get it back at all. That was when I suddenly understood the value of radio range and RF modules.
If things got too messy, I just cut the throttle and let it fall on its own. Better that than letting the kids get impatient.
We tried all kinds of aircraft in the simulator:
- fixed-wing prop planes
- EDF jets
- helicopters
- quadcopters and other multirotors
- even the kind of fixed-wing models people often play with around Lunar New Year
The three of us together crashed well over a hundred times. We wrecked virtual aircraft ranging from about 100 to 5000 in price. Some I didn’t even know the price of. There was also DJI’s virtual quadcopter in the mix.
After enough crashing, it almost started to feel like making money instead of losing it.
My younger one eventually moved on from normal crashes to all kinds of creative, fancy crashes.
If he tried that in real life, I’d probably kick him away from the field.
That’s exactly why simulators are so useful. Still, even in a simulator, I think it’s worth reminding kids to operate properly and build good habits.
The plan is simple: first get interested, then start learning how to land.
Takeoff is relatively easy. Landing, especially with fixed-wing aircraft, is where the real difficulty shows up. You circle around, keep adjusting, line things up, and even then a successful landing doesn’t come easily.
In the end, there are actually plenty of FPV simulators on phones too, and some can be played directly with touch controls. On a computer, you can even use a keyboard. If you really want to, you could probably go all the way and fly drones with some customized keyboard-and-phone setup.
A proper transmitter is still the simpler path—you just spend a bit of money and use it.
If you like building and modding things yourself, then use whatever works.
Either way, this hobby costs money.