First post:

So I am thinking very seriously about getting back into flight sims. I used FSX and IL2: Sturmovik years ago and wanted to hop back in.

I have yet to purchase anything. I have a pair of older Saitek rudder pedals and X52 flight stick.

I expect to fly more GA type aircraft, potentially as part of getting a Private Pilot license.

Seems like the CH Eclipse yoke might be the best bang for the buck, along with my existing rudder pedals.

Beyond this, the computer and Prepar3D, what else should I be looking at getting?

Probably payware 172 and/or PA-28 as those are likely training planes.

Regards.

Mike Kirda

Welcome aboard.

You are indeed correct in thinking that it would be worth shifting to P3D V4, which is effectively a very nice updated version of FSX with a lot of new features. Strictly speaking, the Steam Edition of FSX is also an updated version of FSX too, in that it includes all of the expansion packs and patches which were originally available for FSX, plus a few tweaks and such, but it is however still a 32 bit application and unlikely to be ideal in the long run, particularly since its developer (Dovetail Games) is now working on a 64 bit sequel to it (Flight Sim World), which is currently only available as an early access title through Steam, and whilst it is promising, inexpensive and certainly worth a look (since it includes a fixed-gear PA-28 Cherokee by default), it is far from complete at this point, so not ideal as you 'main simulator, but it does nevertheless simulate sideslipping better than most other flight sims, so you can't fault its flight modeling even at this early stage. I'd say give it a look (since it is cheap) but don't rely on it as your main sim.

P3D V4 (the current version of P3D), whilst a pricier option, is 64 bit and will thus run better than FSX and probably serve you well for a number of years, it also has a few nice small GA aeroplanes in it by default which are pretty good.

Note that there is also XPlane 11 out there, which is 64 bit too and does include a number of smaller GA aeroplanes such as a Cessna and has many more available as payware, but XPlane 11 is notorious for exhibiting poor ground handling characteristics with small GA aeroplanes in particular, so taxying them and keeping them straight for a take off roll, even with decent rudder pedals, is a bit arduous. Once in the air it is a good sim with nice flight characteristics and good graphics, but the ground handling is something that puts me off flying GA aeroplanes in it.

So, I'd say P3D V4 would be the sensible choice.

For  payware Cessna GA trainers, you probably can't do better than A2A's Cessna 172. which is a bit pricey but it certainly is excellent. They also do a nice Cessna 182 and if you fancy something a bit sportier, their PA-24 Piper Commanche is very good as well: 

https://a2asimulations.com/store/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=11&zenid=c912b055983310bf58cac5df4b186929

For many excellent variants of the PA-28 Cherokee, check out Just Flight. They have recently produced a number of PA-28 variants and all of them are really good, so it would depend on what you were expecting to fly as to which one suited best, however if you buy one of the PA-28 products, they will usually offer you a discount on the other ones if you ask in their forum and they are all worth having ultimately. It's more likely a fixed-gear PA-28 Warrior II variant would be your training aeroplane than one of the turbo or normally aspirated RG versions of the PA-28 such as the Arrow III, but it's not unknown to see retractable gear aeroplanes being used for training:

https://www.justflight.com/product/pa-28-161-warrior-ii-p3d

or

https://www.justflight.com/product/pa28r-arrow-iii-and-turbo-arrow-iii-iv-bundle

Thank you for the response, Chock!

I'm waiting for the new Coffee Lake processors to come out before I splurge on P3D v4, but it helps to know what I should look for.

I got the yoke. The Just Flight PA-28 looks to be what it used locally.

Regards.

Mike Kirda