Hi All
I am thinking about buying a sim and am wondering which is 'best'
The Great Planes Realflight G2 looks very good - scenery is excellent,
planes nicely detailed. But rather expensive at around $A500
The Ikerus Easy Fly is much cheaper, but the graphics look a bit crappy
- about $200
The Aerofly Pro is not real cheap, but seems to have a lot of goodies -
around $380
PS I know about the freeby sims, but they seem rather crude.
As I don't have the opportunity to try any of these, I would appreciate
comments and advice. Particulary re the 'reality factor' of each
David - a learner who has mastered crashing - and now wants to move to
the next step - landing wheels down instead of nose down.
Try FMS. It is pretty good and the price is right.
--
4*60
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Hi David,
I have Aerofly professional. I used it a lot before I soloed and it is
a nice sim. It was also useful afterwards for practising things like
crosswind take offs and aerobatic manovers etc. Landings practise
though whilst useful are not exactly really like the real thing
because you are looking at the plane you can't just move your head to
see the ground, scenary etc like you would when doing a landing for
real. I guess this would affect all sims. IE. it is much more
difficult to gauge the height and the direction relative to the ground
when you can't see the ground until your almost down. So yes you can
practise landings on the sim but they are not the same as the real
thing.
I find that I don't use mine much now as I prefer flying the real
thing. So unless your really going to use it loads I wouldn't advise
you to spend a bundle on a sim now that you can fly.
Happy flying,
Nick
Hi David,
I've gone from the early RealFlights to the G2-USB Interlink and IMHO the G2
is the best. You might consider the G2 Lite if the price is your primary
concern. I think G2-USB is a good investment because you'll use it as long
as you fly RC. If you get into competition it's ideal for practicing
maneuvers, tight, level, pylon turns, going through your entire aerobatic
routine, etc. You can even set up a field that is just like (or very close)
to your home field. Save a bit and go for the best. I don't think you'll
regret it.
I don't think it matters what you buy as long as the simulated aircraft
behaves like the real model. Also, I think it's harder to land using a sim
than actually doing it because your field of vision is limited. Most of 'em
I've tried don't let you see the runway until you're too low. I used an old
version of RCFS to learn on and used it until I bought a new PC that didn't
support its interface. I have FMS now because it's free. The graphics are
nice, but many of the planes don't exactly behave the way the actual model
does.
--
Morris Lee
snipped-for-privacy@verizon.net
Hi Dave,
I must agree with latest comments, it is nice to have simulator hours under
your belt before you begin to feel 'more expert' but personally I would
hesitate to throw money at the problem.
I used FMS for quite a long time, before I disovered MSFS 95/98, now
available on e-bay at giveaway prices. I bought a cheap joy stick and for
about GBP 15 I was airborne.
This FS will run well on almost any PC, and you can choose to fly the 300s
( for instance) from the control tower of your local airport, or use one of
the special 'remote control' challenges.
That model is quite realistic, overpowered, fixed undercarriage no flaps,
and it easily stalls!
best of luck
Cheers
p
As a follow up to my previous posted question on which sim to buy, I would
also appreciate some comments re suitable computers. After reading
replies I will probably buy either the Realflight G2 (lite?) or the
Aerofly Pro - mostlikely the G2.
As a dedicated Mac user I wil have to buy a new Windows (ugh) to run the
sim on, As it will only be used for the sim I want a to spend as little
as possible on it, so would appreciate comments from those that have run
G2 - especially those who do not have the latest billion gigahertz
machines.
Thanks to all those who were kind enought to answer my 'which sim to buy'
post
David
My TPG Account wrote:
I would look for something with 64megs of video RAM, 512 megs DDR RAM, and
the fastest processor you can afford (or want to spend). More RAM is
usually better as is more video RAM.
What made you decide on the G2?? I'm kind of stuck between the G2
and the Aerofly pro myself...I'm an "intermediate flyer" that's ready
to try more advanced aerobatics, and also just generally want to get
as much "stick time" as I can...I've been flying off and on for over
twenty years, but just not enough "field time" to go "nuts" with my
planes yet...I sure would like to hear more peoples "feed back" on the
two sims...I don't care for the "freebies" either, as the sim should
mimic the said craft as good as one could hope for...Do either one (or
both) have a setting where you can fly with other craft in the air??
Not internet people, but just "some planes" in the sky...that would be
pretty cool....But mostly I really just want to get good at "knife
edge" passes, low inverted passes, point rolls and such...maybe some
3D in the future, but right now just the "precision"
maneuvers...Thanks to any who care to elaborate....Norm
Just downloaded FMS today. Looks great...keyboard controls suck. Any suggestions
on
hooking up a proper radio type controller?
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Hi Norm
I have now read reviews on both sims, and it seems the G2 has the edge in
long-lifeability - that is it seems that the G2 will be useful to me after I
pass the crash and burn everytime phase of real flying. I also prefer the USB
interface, but am not sure why except some of those Windows machines have a
USB socket at the front of the comp. Easier than mucking around at the rear.
Maybe.
After more research tho, I decided on the Full G2, not the lite version. The
full version has so much more to offer, and the lite has lots of limitations
in comparison.
I have also done just a little shopping around, and found I can get the G2 for
about A$350 if I buy from the US - haven't checked out the UK stores yet.
Anyone got any URLs for UK stores that sell to the land of Oz?
Cheers
David
Norm wrote:
I run G2 on a 1.1 Ghz machine with 256 Mb Ram and an 8b Trident 3D card.
Have to turn off some of the objects (trees mainly) but aprt from that its
ok. Removing the trees also gives something less to crash into :-)
D
Processor power isn't a huge problem..Nor is an up to date version of
WinDoze..but a good graphics card is. You need USB obviously.
I think I am running a 433Mhz Pentium II with about 256k RAM, win98ee
and a not very good card..In an ideal world i'd have a better card, and
a tad more ram and processing power. Sometimes its a bit jerky.
If you have a plaqce like me locally that builds computers, i'd take the
software down there, hook up to a cheap 4 yr old traded in machine, and
upgrade it till it works the way you want.
Hi Norm,
Sounds like you are a G2 candidate. I use G2 for precisely the same
reasons. When I first started practicing inverted passes I would frequently
go "up" instead of "down." I wrecked many birds ( simulator) that way.
Now I rarely if ever make that mistake. and I am making then at about 10'.
Yes you can have other birds flying with G2 - makes it even more realistic.
Like to shoot landing in a gusty 20 kt crosswind? G2 is the tool. Practice
totally realistic slips - G2! Take my word, you won't be sorry. You'll need
a good 3D graphics card but all the current Radeons and Nvidia cards should
work well.
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