General? Getting back into Sim-ing, looking for real world help

[tkopfer 0]

Hi everyone,

I'm just starting to get back into flight sim after about 10+ years of not flying on my computer.  I think the last sim I bought was the FSX whenever it came out, and I stopped after about 6 months with that.  Started a business, had kids, etc.  Anyway, in that time I also picked up my private pilot's license and flew for about 5 years and then the kids arrived and that stopped.  

I'm not at the point of getting back into real-world flying and want to go on and get my instrument ticket and I'm wondering if there are any real-world pilots in here who could suggest one particular sim over another.  I found that when I went to get my actual license, the many hours I'd spent on MSFS contributed significantly to my learning--I was able to get my license in 39 hours as opposed to whatever the average is (in the 50's or 60's, if memory serves).  Anyway, as I get back into flying I'm looking for the sim that will most closely model real-world flight dynamics, etc.  While I love/ed hopping into the left seat of a 747 and flying to Europe, I also want to utilize it to practice approaches, instrument procedures, etc.  

So I guess with all that said, are they all pretty much homogenous products at the end of the day, by the time you trick them out with the available add-ons (weather engines, scenery, traffic, etc.)? 

Thanks in advance,

Torrance

[188AHC 2,138]

I think you'll find that vanilla FSX is pretty much as you left. Now there many more high level addons available for scenery, aircraft, instruments, and utilities. There has also been a tremendous leap forward in members hints on how to best adapt to your system. However, all this takes some serious computing power as FSX is still CPU bound. But you might be interested in building yourself a new system.

Prepar3d by Lockheed Martin is built around FSX but they have made many improvements and we have a very loyal membership here that fly it.

Laminar Research has just release their X-Plane 11. From what I read here, it has the best flight dynamics but has lagged a bit in the weather department. Also, it has no seasonal textures so either spring or summer lasts all year. It boasts a smooth operation and you can download a demo to see if your system will run it or not.

A new player in the flight sim game, Dovetail Games,  just announced today that they will be releasing an early entry into their new flight simulator, Flight Sim World, on Steam. They purchased the rights to Microsofts flightsim engines and have apparently used it to build their own. We will have to wait to see how this plays out.

As for 3rd party add ons for the FSX based sims, there is a world of things to choose from. This will not apply to Dovetail's offering as theirs won't be backwardly compatible with existing FSX add ons.

That's pretty much what's going on right now. You might want to try the X-Plane 11 demo and see how you like it, and also try the DTG offering when it is released.

Also, visit all the sim forums and read (a lot) to glean some great information.

Wish you luck.

 

[188AHC 2,138]

Oh, and by the way - - Welcome to Avsim.

 

[tkopfer 0]

Thanks for the help!  I've been looking at both P3D (or the next version) as well as X-plane.  I will need to get a new system soon anyway, so I was planning on spec-ing it out for reasonable simulation.  I think I will download the X-plane demo and see how it goes, and per your advice, start doing a lot of reading! Thanks for the help!

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

For IFR practice, either FSX or P3D will do the job.

Question to ask yourself, is:  what kind of airplane with what kind of avionics, and in which geographic region do you want to fly?  Lots of really good addons to choose from.. just choose carefully and you will find something that will do the job 

[Jude Bradley 659]

Well Torrance,try the free X-Plane 11 demo and see where it gets you.

http://www.x-plane.com/desktop/try-it/

Welcome to AVSIM, by the way.

Jude

[tkopfer 0]

Thanks, Jude and Bert.

Bert, to answer your question, I fly in the Northeast out of the Boston area in a Diamond DA-40 with a G1000 avionics setup.  I like what I see with P3D, but I'm also liking the rendering and graphics in X-plane.  I guess my question about P3D is, if it's based on the the FSX model, how much of a step up from it is it going to be in terms of flight dynamics, etc.  The X-plane 11 stuff that I've seen looks like a huge leap forward, but I do know the FSX world (or at least as much of it as I remember) so I don't know if that'd be an easier re-entry or not.

[Bert Pieke 7,584]

4 hours ago, tkopfer said:

 

Bert, to answer your question, I fly in the Northeast out of the Boston area in a Diamond DA-40 with a G1000 avionics setup.  I like what I see with P3D, but I'm also liking the rendering and graphics in X-plane.  I guess my question about P3D is, if it's based on the the FSX model, how much of a step up from it is it going to be in terms of flight dynamics, etc.  The X-plane 11 stuff that I've seen looks like a huge leap forward, but I do know the FSX world (or at least as much of it as I remember) so I don't know if that'd be an easier re-entry or not.

X-plane flight dynamics are totally different from FSX/P3D.. only you can determine which one feels more natural to you. 

Also consider avionics options.. for IFR training, that may be more important..

[jcomm 5,890]

For IFR training I still elect ELITE IFR, with regional areas to suite your training, but both FSX/P3D and XP10 or 11 will do the job very well too.

There are good add-on aircraft for both platforms, both aircraft and avionics.

Mindstar Aviation offers some great avionics add-ons for serious training using FSX / P3D. A2A, Carenado, Milviz, and others in FSX, X-Aviation, VFlyteAir, and others offer good aircraft for X-Plane.

The upcoming DTG FSW will certainly also allow to fly instruments in an updated World scenery, and I believe airfield and navaids database too.

Many options.

AEFS2 can also be used for navigation, but it's systems implementation is still a bit limited.