realistically? Without real-life flight training. Are there any books and sites that helped you learn how to use SIDS, STARS, Approach Plates, How 2 tell which kind of waypoints, How to navigate to waypoints, Making Flightplans, What kind of altitutes to fly at. Basically everything VFR and IFR related.

Well I fly "realistically" because I took real world flight lessons years ago and got my private pilot ticket. I started sim flying with Flight Unlimited/ProPilot and Fly!2K/Fly!2. I've been using MSFS 2K2 for only a couple of months or so.An EXCELLENT resource page is Hal Stoen's website: http://www.stoenworks.com/Aviation%20home%20page.htmlHe has tutorials on almost all aspects of sim flying. Check it out.-Lindy :-wave

There are some excellent tutorials on navigating (both VFR and IFR) here: http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/index.htm--Tony

You really won't have a full picture unless like you said - you learn "everything" VFR and IFR related. All the above websites are pretty good but they are short on regulatory aspect of flying and what 'ought' to happen and why.To this end I recommend Rod Machado's "Private Pilot Handbook" as your ultimate source on VFR flying and then Richard Taylor's "Instrument Flying". Both books are widely acclaimed, 5-star rated by their readers and available on Amazon.Michael J.

All my life I was an aviation fan, from my first flight on an Electra back in '66.... Although I took a few lessons in the 80's, I already knew the basics. I'd read Flying magazine, books, I flew R/C...anything related to flight, I'd study. Back in 1975, I took third place in California's H.S. Science fair for a school project I did on the Rogallo wing vs. the conventional wing... Never made a dent in those science fairs, until I picked something that interested me. Even my career in I.T. developed out of my interest in Aviation--my first computer--a C-64--was bought just to fly FS2. And I found FS2 fairly good on teaching basic skills, both VFR and IFR.... Along the way, I learned how to fix and support computer equipment, and started assuming those roles for the businesses I worked for, long before there were A+ certifications or MS credentials. I picked up an incredible amount of ATC knowledge by purchasing a R/S scanner, and listening to my local tower, and approach control and the flight centers. I learned how to read Aviation maps by going to my local FBO, and accepting the ragged used maps the pilots always used to give aviation fanatics like myself, in exchange for my sitting at the coffee counter and listening to their 'oft exaggerated tales of cockpit heroics... I guess the short answer to your question, is I just absorbed it over time :)