Which Simulator to buy?

I think you have it sorted there, you get what you pay for.

Try FMS. It is pretty good and the price is right.

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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.

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

And when you think you are doing well, just crank the simulation rate to 'x2' and try another landing!

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

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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

I run G2 very nicely on a 1.04 GHz Pentium III, 382 meg RAM, NVIDIA GeForce2 Go (32meg) Gateway laptop.

Nowhere near leading edge.

Don

Just downloaded FMS today. Looks great...keyboard controls suck. Any suggestions on hooking up a proper radio type controller?

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read the FAQ at

then click on the links button

FMS homepage has several links to people who make interfaces

I personally use the serial interface from

and have not had any issues - it works great...

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.

Whichever puter you chose, check out the company on

this can be an eyeopener. Many of the big name companies don't measure up anymore when it comes to quality and service. Good luck, Jerry