I've found that the best way to describe Flight is that it's equal parts Flight Unlimited, Pilotwings and app store. It's primarily a game intended to get a new crowd interested in flight simulation, but with a pretty solid simulation engine underneath.Definitely worth giving it a try, at the very least. You've got nothing to lose but 1.5gb hard disk space.

Nvidia all the way if you want to give FSX a shot. The 560TI's are good cards. 570 and 580's are better but more money and wont net you much over the 560.

how good a card does FSX need? is it card or cpu dependant. i run an OCd i5 760 @4k+ ( was before sandy bridge came out ) with 16 gig ram and SSD drives but my card is only mid range so i have no problems with cpu intencive tasks ( also have win 7 well tuned )since my main goal is to re aquaint with procedures and checklists , world map detail isnt really important to me so i dont even need anti alaising.

FSX is notorious for being more dependent on CPU than GPU, so I would think that with your CPU you should handle it quite well. Furthermore if you are not really interested in details, you can use quite low graphic settings in the game, increasing the performances.

oh yeah and the books you mention are on FSX as a training tool? not on learning to fly right? i kinda actually know that part sorta ;) though as donny dutton put it : i could always learn more ( usually when he was sipping some crown and coke behind the counter )

There are several books about FSX as a training tool. The one I own is "Microsoft Fligth Simulator X for Pilots Real World Training". It start form the very basic with a Piper Cub, then pass to the Cessna 172 for more complex things, up to the Mooney Bravo and the Baron. On the related site there are also further chapters on advanced arguments, as airliner operations. It contains entire sections devoted to the various aspects of IFR.A.

not sure what you are waiting on .. its free, so give it a try

For advanced training purposes, there is no competition: FSX is what you want. If you want to practice your skills with the controls, then Flight is a damned good, free, and fun, tool.But please folks, the guy claimed to be interested in the technical aspects, so why even suggest Flight as a possible? I'm sure he's capable of turning on the alternator and lights already. :Party:

Since you're after instrumentation skills I should point out that the two planes in the free package (the Icon and the Stearman) are not equipped for IFR flight. Two of the DLC planes (the Maule and the RV-6, which is included in the Hawaii pack) are. The RV has two VOR recievers, but no ADF. I don't have the Maule, so not sure about the instrumentation on that one. With the right weather themes you can really challenge your IFR navigation skills.

That's better than FSX with five year old bugs and no hope for fixes.

HelloWhat bugs, FSX runs without any issues here, and looks a lot better than XP10 which frankly looks shocking especially the horrid green ground textures and inky black water everywhere.Do me a favour and post a quick shot of Hawaii in XP10 just for laughs.

What bugs, FSX runs without any issues here

If FSX works for you, than by all means keep using it. There are so many posts in the Flight forums from people that were hoping that Flight would be FS11 because of issues they've had with FSX, not to mention the large and active FS2004 community that could never get FSX to work for them, that users that are not getting what they hoped for from Flight should consider trying the free X-Plane 10 demo to see if it satisfies what they are looking for.And there are regular updates to X-Plane 10, so if you haven't tried it in the last month, you might want to try it again to see if you like it better now.X-Plane 10 may not be for every user, and neither is FSX, FS2004 nor Flight. But new flight simmers user should try at least two of these products to see what best satisfies their specific needs and desires. Or at lot of people actively use two or more of these.

OFF TOPIC: Some of you may have noticed I've been calling everyone "Bro" recently... the "Islands" have that effect on some!

Ok then we should say..."brah"like... shaka brah!or... howzit brah!and then do the hand thingy like these guys...Btw... shaka brahs!

Rob... you need to call MS and tell them they got it wrong. I'm pretty sure the local photographer I took for a flight, kept saying, "wow, thanks Bro". But, I do realize the proper term is "brah"... I watched that show... Dog, the Bounter Hunter... once! :Peace: