It seems to be an amazing device if I understand what it supposedly does. Is it my understanding that it allows you to pan the VC by just using your head movements? If that's true, why does it seem so many don't use it? Is there something I'm missing? Or do a LOT of simmers use it??

I've had one for a bout 2 weeks and can confidently tell you it's THE best addon I've ever bought for FS9. In fact, my FS has been comepletely re-born by TrackIR. The sensor you put on top of the screen detects head movement from reflectors you wear on a cap. It takes some getting used to but o.m.g. the LevelD 767 is truly sublime flying from the VC this way.It's not the cheapest piece of kit, but man it's worth every penny.

I could not imagine flying w/out it anymore. It's made the world of difference to my flying in aeroplanes and helos, especially helos, adn the good (see Great) news is it works in FSX with the latest drivers.Highly recommend it, best hundred odd quid I ever spent.

Same here, I wouldn't fly without it.It takes a couple of day to get used to, but it's really worth it.

It is a wonderful piece of hardware. Downside is that now I only fly planes that have an excellent VC with good gauge refresh rates :-)Really, once you have used it, you won't do without.Regards,Henri

Its quite expensive, but worth every penny. But there are lots of simmers who do not like VC! Probably the 'heavy' pilots don't use trackir because they rely on the 2D view. So trackir is a GA thing, I guess.Herrie

There are 3 stages to track-ir ownership:1. Serious "wow" factor stage. The sudden desire to re-fly every single plane in your inventory, some of which you may not have used for years. Along with this comes the realization that you can barely land on a runway at first, never mind hitting the centreline. It takes a few days to get used to seeing things "properly". Like me, you may have gotten very used to judging alignment against your monitor bevels. Stick with it, it passes quickly.2. "OMG this is FREAKING awesome" stage. You can't figure out how you got along without this mad device before now. You start gravitating towards planes you may have had difficulty handling before, low level helo flight for instance. Your landings improve tremendously.3. Total, Utter, Virtual Cockpit SNOB stage!: You delete every aircraft that doesn't have a decent VC from your inventory. You remove the 2d panels from aircraft that do, just to save vram. You cackle a lot and enjoy yourself immensely. You boggle at people who actually download "wingviews". You shake your head at companies that even bother to make 2d panels for their aircaft. Your landings are smoother than they've ever been before. If you fly air combat, you start utterly OWNING everyone who doesn't have a track-ir.:)It's the single most immersive addon you can possibly buy short of a full dome projector screen. And even if you got one of those, you'd still want a track-ir. In a word, it "rocks!". I've used mine for 2 years now and I will *never* fly a sim or racing game without it again. FYI: Some first person shooters have finally figured out that it exists too. Armed Assault for instance, the sequel to Operation Flashpoint (most realistic squad combat sim ever) will support it.My 3 canadian cents. Go get it!PS: I can agree with Herrie that some people simply don't like VC's, specifically airliner ones, track-ir or not, but I suspect those people run FS at too low of a screen resolution to really take advantage of them properly. I for one find it *much* easier to fly the good heavy iron (Level-D/PMDG) with a track-ir than with a 2d panel, but then I run at 1600x1200, so everything is nice and crisp. The way I see it, 2d panels are starting to feel very dated, and track-ir is evolution at work. Even Andrew Herd came around after getting one, and he *really* disliked VCs. :)Cheers.

Agree with all those points - especially #1 - I am really struggling to manually land the jets. Your head drifts and you over compensate with the stick. I hope this passes!#2 definitely#3 I hope I don't become one, but can see it happening already!

Very sorry, off topic for a sec, but Flyhalf...would you be the "Flyhalf" of FS video fame on youtube?And yes, that drift thing wigged me out for a few days too. Somewhere around the third straight day of flying with it, without sleep really I might add (Coffee is my saviour), it suddenly just "clicked". Some new synapse gets connected, or rather some unrealistic compensation synapse you've had since FS 1.0 gets disconnected, and that whole "airplane flying thing" part of your brain starts working again. Then it gets really fun. :)

For a successful FSX "career" I need (in this order): 1). Track IR4 2). FS Navigator 3). The Dreamfleet Boeing 727 4). MAAM-Sim's B25 & KRDG 5). The Real-Air Spitfire 14 6). The SibWings SAAB Safir Moving your view with a hat switch doesn't cut it anymore. The sim is just not realistic without TrackIR. With the exception of the 727, like others I only fly VC now. Until the other aircraft are upgraded the Long Island Classics Christen Eagle will keep me going. Try doing a hammerhead and verifying your vertical with a hat switch!

Haldir, I really like the way you put it...........;)

I bought one at the avsim conference and love it. It took me a bit of tweeking to get it just right but now the sensitivity is perfect and it doesnt make me queezy any more ;) I highly recommend adjusting the pitch and yaw sensitivity to a lower amount and setting those axes to use deadzone. Deadzone makes it so when you look forward, your POV is somewhat locked into place at that point until your head moves a greater amount to break the deadzone. It was hard getting landings until i figured that one out because my head would always bob around on approach! Great little device and very good support.

Haha, praise given where it's due sir. It's the only piece of hardware on my system that I'm *completely* satisfied with, and good value for the sense of really 'being there' that it imparts.It IS kind of wonky in FSX at the moment, but Aces' code changes are hardly your fault, and I know you guys will get it sorted out soon.

helloIf you took away my TrackIR , i would not sim anymore

Well, ok it seems unanimous. Thanks to everybody for your great input!! Now it's just a matter of getting the pennies lined up :)