If it is a high quality and realistic flight model for GA you are looking for, I would second the suggestions for Carenado products. I can not speak personally for their 172, as I don't have it, but their 182 and 206 models are a joy to fly, and are considered very accurate by people whose opinions I respect.

Just Flight Tomahawk. Got the simulation version and flown it in real life. Almost 100% accurate.

The only problem with Carenado is that their 2Ds aren't that good and the models they are making now don't even include a 2D.Sam Cowan

Are these addon aircraft really that much better than the default?

The avionics fidelity alone in something like the DF Dakota blows away the default planes. It's got all the RXP gauges, so full GNS530 etc...

I should mention btw that the Dakota doesn't work in 64-bit OSes due to the 16-bit Garmin trainer, you have to buy the RXP WAAS version and substitute it to get the plane working in 64-bit.

Dan, this thread is a bit old and you might have already chosen your GA aircraft, but if not - I can recommend you the Realair Duke. I think it's one of the coolest FS addons ever made. Very nice VC and the sounds are a masterpiece. Great for basic learning as the flight model is very realistic (turn coordination, slips, stalls, spins etc.) and I think it's the best plane out there for learning IFR.

If it is teaching the basics of flying you are after, then you don't really want to be starting in a twin...The A2A J3 Cub is the one you are looking for in my mind. Seat of the pants flying in the true sense. Combine that with FTX and REX/ASA and you have a great environment. The Carenado models are wonderful to look at. The flight dynamics files have their followers and critics. Take the C172N for FSX they do. I find I can get similar performance and handling if I make sure the weights and balance is setup as the aircraft is that I have flown a few times in real life. Flying the pattern is not that far from what I experienced when flying the pattern at my local field in real life. Certainly worth looking into.The RealAir Scout/Decathlon is a nice set too, although I have never even sat in one in the real world... I like their SF260 as well, had it from the outset...And the Beech Duke is a good one to progress onto, or the Piper Seneca by Carenado... once your pupil has grasped the basics... :)Andrew

Hey guys (and any possible gals?), Many thanks for all the recommendations. I prefer getting advice from others that are more likely to share my tastes in realism and to who's advice I can trust, and this is probably the better place to do so. I looked into every one that was mentioned and finally did make my choice(s). I ended up getting a few for my own virtual hangar as well.For showing her the basics I went with 2:A2A Piper CubCarenado C152A2A's Heidi virtual passenger will be really fun for her and keep the sometime mundane aspects of simming a little fun as well. Their modeling is very nice also of course, Heidi wouldn't have been a factor alone ;-)The Carenado C152 is great because they too did a great job all around modelling, and it's perfect since my local airport has it's recreational and Private cert training primarily done on this very one (Eagle East). Not to mention the renting of one is much cheaper than the C172. I was going to get the Dreamflight C152 and was trying to but it's link wasn't working when I wanted to get it so went with the Carenado. (You snooze, you lose :()After looking at some of these I couldn't help but grab a few for myself. I also picked up the Carenado C172 & C182. They look great and haven't yet had a lot of time to fly them, however I did take them all for a ahort ILS test run from KBEV - KLWM with 1/16th viz and slight crosswind. Finally, I replaced a few of the sounds with the free TSS 172 sound pack.I really like the Dreamflight line and want the Dakota at the very least. I actually will probably get a few of theirs and hopefully soon. But, I am a 64 bit user and will either have to edit out the panels (and not have any gps) or buy another of their products just to substitue the guages to get it working like Ryan mentioned (BTW, thanks for the heads up). I checked their forum and am waiting registration approval ,,,, to post a possible temporary solution. I wish they would at least throw a seperate set of files such as the needed guages in the package to at least get it to work. I'm not cheap, it's just a matter of princaple. If I like something, I'll buy everything they have to offer, but the idea of "Having" to buy two seperate packages just to get one to work correctly, seems to keep me holding short of it for now. They do offer free updates which of course is nice, but a simple work around as mentioned above and on their forums would have been a better seen effort. I may just wait for their up and coming Turbo Dakota for FSX, by then I'm sure they'll have fixed it (well, hopefully).So thanks again all, as you can see, you all helped with my choices.

Correction to above.I was under the false understanding that the WAAS unit was merely guages that other Dreamteam aircraft already had installed and that they were simply not offered in the Dakota. I understand now and found Reality's website. Now just deciding between the 430, and the bigger screen of the 530. I had some gauges from Friendly panels and can't find them. For now I'll probably just rearrange the panel and use the G1000 before spending anymore coin until after Christmas. Reality's gps's are fully simulated though and simple to learn with the Garmin trainer software. I'll most likely being adding them both to my collection soon enough.

. They do offer free updates which of course is nice, but a simple work around as mentioned above and on their forums would have been a better seen effort. I may just wait for their up and coming Turbo Dakota for FSX, by then I'm sure they'll have fixed it (well, hopefully).

Dreamfleet is dead, so you can forget about Turbo-Dakotas or anything else. A pity, they sure knew how to make planes but it looks like FSX and the Airliner XP fiasco finished them.