Exactly! Great hobby for great people. I also do not have money for PPL and I enjoy my PC flying, that's all I have as a part of Big Dream.

I agree it's not about "guts" but usually something else like the factors you mentioned. Only time you need "guts" anyway is if you do something stupid in the air.Trust me, if I could, I'd run out and buy a Cub or something and start flying. Unfortunately I can't, at least not in the foreseeable future, maybe never, maybe someday. It depends on a number of factors but "guts" isn't one of them. For now flight sims give me a lot of fun and an imaginary world where I can at least pretend :)

I think it's amusing when people make fun of flight simming in any way shape or form. As a mildly humerous anecdote, my brother-in-law and a buddy (Steve) were over the other night to play a few games of computer risk. The brother-in-law is a lawyer and my buddy has his CPL. Just before the game started Steve and I were finishing up some land class on a scenery we've been working on while the BIL was sitting there swilling beer - actually we were all swilling beer. He launched into a condemnation of flightsimming, 'informatively' pointing out to us that flightsimming wasn't real and that we were losers that wasted our time, that the planes were not real, etc,etc,etc... What I found ironic is that the BIL has what one could define as a mild addiction to computer war games and plays online very regularly with some of his buddies. Naturally I pointed this out to the 'Great Virtual General', though the parallel seemed obvious at the time. We all laughed and agreed that no matter what the software, everyone managed to get a huge amout of enjoyment out of relatively inexpensive computer games. Anyway, I got the last laugh as I finished off his last armies in South America.Adam

*** What do I tell the guy at work that has a pilot's license that insults me and says "flight simulators are only for those people that don't have the guts too really fly"? ***I wouldn't tell him anything. Why waste time and energy on an idiot ?Chris Low.

Absolutely, Barry. Same here. I have 38 hours towards the PPL (NZ) but now I have a baby on the way and this means that simming is the closest I`ll get to flying for a few years at least. Anyway, with my marginal class 2 medical eyesight, I`ll only ever fly a single engine prop out of my own pocket. FS allows me to fly a tired BAC 1-11 from a high airport on a hot stormy day and enjoy the challenge without the stress..Disregard your colleague`s uninformed comments and enjoy FS - there`s no danger of headbutting the 152`s pitot tube in FS!CheersLungs

I have managed to avoid the Pitot tube get brained by the drain valve. Jeez it hurt....much to the amusement of the local spotters.

It takes a lot of time, effort and money to get a PPL. Sometimes, those that do get a little full of themselves and start to believe they are better than those who don't fly. After they get enough hours under their belt, they usually come back down to earth with the rest of us mortals.By the way, I flew over 150 combat missions during VietNam, and I enjoy flight simming!Dale

my eyes do not meet the FAA requirements (20-50 uncorrected), and until I can afford laser surgery and the massive amount of money it takes to get a license, the simulator is all I have. But even that is expensive, a few grand for a new computer good enough to run FS9, loads of sofware addons, hardware (yoke, etc). But the sim investment is cheaper than going out and being a pilot trying to compete with professionals still looking for a job who have thousands of hours of experience. And you can fly practically any plane out there which is really awesome, added with the dedication of freeware and payware developers, and FS9 is just awesome especially for those whos financial or other situations don't allow them to be pilots. The ignorance of some people is not to be believed.

The guy is a pompous @$$. Ignore him.You will find better people here to interact with.Any real pilot, civilian and military, will not put anyone down just because they are different. We're there to help.See you in the virtual blue...JimPrivate Pilot/US

>The guy is a pompous @$$. Ignore him.>>You will find better people here to interact with.>>Any real pilot, civilian and military, will not put anyone>down just because they are different. We're there to help.>>See you in the virtual blue...>>>Jim>Private Pilot/USgotta agree with this one, i was online when this thread came around, and a read part of it and laughed, not reading the whole entire thing. Seeing the situation, send the little pr*ck my way. Being a student pilot, and a flight simmer with over 15,000 hours flight time, this is the best way to sharpen your skills if you arent able to fly all the time. Like me, i just flew monday for the first time since sept. My take off was perfect, along with landing a 172 with less that 1/4 in both tanks with a 10knot cross wind, centered the plane, and never bounced. I have many thanks for microsoft and their FS series. It truly did teach me to fly befor i ever began in the real world.:-wave Signed,A very happy flight simmer and real world pilot. :(

Sounds like a closed minded person! I am a an ATP and CFII in real life and enjoy using flight simulator very much when I am not out flying in the real thing. I teach at the U.S. Air Force Academy part time and we have used many PC based simulators (including MSFS) to help assist the cadets and 2 LT's with their procedures. This is part af their required "dry-flying" practice when they are not in the real planes.The pilots being trained at the Academy are our future Air Force tanker and fighter pilots. I would have to say that these future pilots have more guts than most.So I would tell your pilot freind to get a bit more educated before he makes comments like he did!Scott HeinzATP/CFII - KCOS, KAFFInstructor Pilot - USAFA IFT Program

yes, the old lag instructors had a good laugh at me when I brained the pitot tube - its a right of passage I'm sure!Cheers

Enjoy your own life and what you enjoy. He can do thesame.

Well I enjoy using MSFS, have had a lot of fun and learned a lot with it since I started with FS4 back in 1991.Back in 1992 when I was a student pilot I learned VOR and NDB navigation with FS4, and in 1999 5 years after getting my Commercial/Multiengine/Instrument tickets I used FS98 extensively to help relearn instrument procedures after not flying the gauges for a few years.And in 2003 FS2002 and FS2004 helped me tremendously to prepare for my ATP/737 type rating while I was furloughed, I didn't fly anything but FS2002/2004 for the entire 5 months prior to getting in the 737-200 sim, without having MSFS to keep my instrument scan and procedures in shape I probably would have needed to spend some extra time and money ($450. an hour) in the 737 sim before I would've been ready for the checkride.Yep, I would definately say MSFS is a valuable tool for real pilots.

I'm an instrument rated private pilot. Flight Simulator has, is and will always be a valuable tool for me. It's a great way to get a "fix" when the weather is bad and it is an excellent situational awareness tool for practicing instrument approaches.I wrote up an article on my web site describing some of the benefits of pilots using flight simulator to assist their flight training:http://www.noticetoairmen.com/flightsim04.htmI've been using Flight Simulator for years and when I started my flight training my instructors were impressed that I knew how 90% of the instrumentation functioned. I salute everyone that supports flight simulation on the PC. We have to stick together and keep this franchise viable.