X-Plane? Hello, virtual world...

[Lionel Mandrake 7]

Hello, all. As suggested by the management, this is a first post to introduce myself.
I'm working on a setup using X-plane 11 and Air Manager. X-plane 11 is superb but so far Air Manager seems very wiggy indeed.
Because I am poor I am building all my own flight controls using Bodnar interfaces.
My objectives are: first a C172 instrument trainer, then a turboprop twin designed in Plane Maker around the kind of cockpit I can actually construct.
My main design concern is usually ergonomics, and I am interested in historical (pre-GPS) radio-navigation.
I obtained a PPL twenty years ago but was almost immediately grounded owing to a medical problem which has since led to my retirement.
As a result of this my progress with things in general is slow. In particular on some days I may not be able to face the computer at all and so may not reply in as timely a way as I should, for which apologies in advance.
My hope is that somewhere out there is an Air Manager expert who will reassure me that I have not just bought a complete lemon.

[scianoir 610]

I don't have experience of X-Plane or Air Manager but welcome to the website and enjoy the amazing world of flight simming! 

Bill

[Lionel Mandrake 7]

Thanks for the welcome, Bill. In fact I'm not a complete newcomer. In the 1970s I was in the computer trade, and had the SubLogic simulator before they sold it to M$. It was rubbish. I never used the M$ version, mostly because it was always so wiggy (just for the sake of form I tried two different issues of MSFSX recently, and nothing has changed - neither would install) but when I was flying I used a British procedural trainer called LAS VFR 5.0 with a CH yoke and pedals, which don't seem to have changed much in twenty years - mine were not good, to be honest, and horribly overpriced.

I'd recommend X-plane. What sold it to me was the ability to design one's own plane and fly it. This IMHO beats the pants off collecting payware. Air Manager's a very good idea but my computer expert friend says that Java Script is exactly analogous to the 'dangerously cheap dynamite' once sold to Cornish tin-miners, and that AM was probably written by someone whose enthusiasm exceeds their talent.

Though I believe that the engine behind you in your photo is perhaps fitted with a Townend ring rather than a NACA cowl I regret that beyond that I can't identify your a/c.

Edited October 30, 2017 by Lionel Mandrake
typo

[Lionel Mandrake 7]

Bill, further to my last, is it a Boeing P-12?