>>>If you were a PPL style VFR pilot you wouldn't have a gauge>showing you the wind though would you? >How do they know which way its blowin' -- in the interests of>realism it would be useful to get some views on this:>>Windsock, ATIS, watching your track, any other way? In addition to the items you have listed for the VFR pilot: waves on the water, trees, dust, smoke, birds, grasses and the most important, "feel". Most of these are sacrificed while seated on an office chair in front of the computer, hence the usefulness of the gauge to fill the missing "sense". Of course, this is just my opinion. I do believe that some of the high-end aircraft systems do sport a computer readout of the winds in the area. Of course, the VFR pilot steering a Cessna wouldn't have this technology.

If you want realism, you fly a real plane. This is a sim, and one can do whatever they choose with it.

Thanks Brent. I got the Dash7 gauge and it works fine.Stelios