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Flight Simulators

 
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One of these days I want to take flying lessons. Right now, it's not in my budget or schedule. So I am looking for recomendations on Flight Sims that are as close to realistic as possible as well as suggestions on affordable flight controls. I am not interested in combat sims.

Seems like the market is pretty crappy on these right now. I remember 10 years ago flight sims were the in thing.

Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks.
 
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On the civilian market there are only 2, Microsoft FlightSimulator and X-Plane.

MSFS is far more popular and has the better potential, X-Plane might have some better flight models out of the box (but the support and panels are terrible, and performance is also poor).
You can pick up MSFS 2004 cheaply now as a new version is due to be released soonish, another major selling point (MSFS 2004 is very nice indeed, and there are several excellent aircraft addons you can use for training, more on that later). I've seen it listed for �20 here.

For controls, the best sellers are CH Products yoke and pedals. Think about $300 for a set (maybe cheaper where you are, if your taxes are lower than mine), should last you for years.

For a good trainer aircraft (C172), see http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=esd172
A mass market version of a product they developed for use with a flight simulator for flying schools, it's probably the best on the market right now.
Older but also good as a basic flight trainer, their C152: http://www.flight1.com/products.asp?product=c152-1
Both are between $20 and $30

For improved weather generation the most popular (and best) product is http://secure.simmarket.com/product_info.php?products_id=1333

Beyond that, the sky's the limit. You could add thousands of dollars worth of hardware and software, but for your initial purpose you don't need all that.
For under $400 you should be up and running

Once you find a place to actually go flying for real you could look at sites like http://www.avsim.com and http://www.simviation.com for renditions of that airfield or area (or select a commercial package if one's available).
 
Gregg Bolinger
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Great advice Jeroen. Thanks a bunch. I'll do some research locally for those products and report back.
 
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Any of them have simulated snakes?
 
Trailboss
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Years ago I worked for Jeppesen and they had something that sold for thousands of dollars ...
 
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