ddock

Has anyone used the 'cheaper' Hong Kong based flight simulators? $50 beats $200 most of the time.
DD

CGRetired

My Feedback: (1)

If it works, well, you are right. If not, well, then $200 becomes a bargain.

Now RF does have their "lite" version that, I believe, sells for $99.00 which would be a bargain.

CGr.

Phoenixangel

http://rcflightsim.com/

bigedmustafa

My Feedback: (2)

How about $17.99 with a controller?

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXXUS9&P=SM

opjose

Most of these are selling you the controller, then throwing in FMS...

You are not really purchasing a SIM, rather the controller.

Easyfly includes a game like controller... I'd take FMS in that case.

FMS is good for basic flight orientation practice.

It beats not using a sim at all, but the flight modeling is pretty weak and rudimentary at best.

BrianArtea

Has anyone used the Phoenix R/C Pro Simulator Version 3.0 with DX5e. I've never flown before but already have a few planes coming and I wanted to make sure I got a good flight simulator to save me money on parts from crashing big time.

Is the Phoenix R/C Pro Simulator Version 3.0 with DX5e a good buy or dies anyone know?

Thanks in advance and all feedback is greatly appreciated and welcome!!!

panhndl

My Feedback: (10)

The phoenix is what I learned on and still use. I think any of the high end sims are a great $$$ savers.

kiwibob72

While not running V3 (not sure if Mac compatible like v2.5) ... I run Phoenix V2.5 with a Dx6i, and it is simply fantastic.
Mainly brought it as a heli trainer, but in all fairness, I got more from it switching over to also flying planes ...... IMO - it is well worth the money, and will save you a fortune in crashes.

BrianArtea

Thank you kiwibob72 and panhndl for making me feel safe about my purchase!!!! It really makes me feel like I did the correct thing, you guys are great!!! Thank you!!! I can't wait to try the real thing!!!!!! Flying the actual plane!!!! BAM!!!!!!!!!! LOL!!!

BrianArtea

I told some of the folks on this forum Iwas getting the hell cat and they said it was a bad plane to start with and now that I've seen what I have you guys were right. It came with a fligth sim that's prwetty cool, I haven't landed a plane yet since I opened the package 2 hours ago on the flight sim but came close a few times. I have the feeling if I'm not going to be able to land a sim I won't be able to fly the real thing. The sim has saved me a ton of money already. I'm glad I live in the days where we have sims, I would have went through thousands$$$$

This sim also has helicopters.

Just to make sure everything on the hell cat worked I sliced my finger open on the propeller!!!!! That prop really moves!!!!

opjose

And the sim is often easier than real life....

That is why planes called "trainers" are designed and look the way they do.

These planes help get you through the basics and even into some aerobatics...

BrianArtea

I can think of one of the things a simm can't do and that's change the way the wind is blowing (I think anyway). I've been trying to land a plane on the sim for the last 4 hours came close a few times but Iguess it just takes some people longer than others.

Tomorrow I get the expensive sim I bought (The Phoenix I think that's what it's called - $170 some odd dollars for just a sim with the controller of course) and hopefully that will be a little easier to manage???

That's all the money I'm going to spend for quite a while on this hobby. If I was married my wife would have killed me!!!! I had a wife once and know what I'm talking about but all women are different but I don't think that would change anything unless we were rich!!!

opjose

Re: Winds...

Actually they can....

The better sims try to recreate Wind conditions as much as possible...

Realflight supports thermals, micro-bursts, variable winds, updraft emitters, blowing leaves and objects, wakes caused by prop-wash on water, etc., etc.



Re: Time on sim.

Four hours on the sim is just starting out!

Many sim users get overly confident that they know how to fly planes once they think they have mastered the sim.

I thought I was ready for the real deal after I mastered flying planes and helis on the sim, including inverted hovering, etc.

Then I went to the airfield and discovered how WRONG I was...

However the sim reduced the amount of training days I required to just TWO... on the third day I got my certification.

No matter how much you practice on the sim, you'll still get the weak knee and "super intense focus" on your first flight alone.

BrianArtea

Thank you for your knowledge!!!

How long did it take you to land a plane with the sim?

How long did it take you to master the sim?

dredhea

My Feedback: (13)

I don't think you should think of it as "mastering" the sim. It isn't really a game to be beaten, it's a learning tool. I've been flying RealFlight Since version 2 and I don't think I've mastered it yet. I still crash when I do something wrong. I do like to try new things on it that I'd like to learn for real. It saves a ton of money right there. The most basic lesson is to do new things up high. Nobody's ever ruined a plane by driving it into air.
I'm flying a new CAP 231EX this year and the sim has already saved that airplane by teaching me that it likes to snaproll with too much elevator input. Learning that on the real thing could have been very costly. It did it on the sim, so after I got the real one trimmed out on the maiden flight, I took it up stairs to see if it would do the same thing. YUP!

BrianArtea

How many hours or days did it take you before you actually landed a plane safely with a sim?

RightFly

I am using both Real Flight 5.5 and Clearview. I was accomplishing landings within a couple hours or so. I did not really keep track. However, I stuck to the boring high wing trainers and did endless number of touch and go's always trying to duplicate an actual landing pattern. Once you are able to land regularly then try the warbirds. If you are flying warbirdsto start with, they be real intimidating, for sure.

Keep at it and don't get discouraged. It is cheaper to crash digital planes than real planes - I know that for sure.

Good luck and keep at it.

Roger

at101

Sims do not fully recreate flying.
When you are flying you are in charge of pretty dangerous stuff and you need to make the right decisions or it could be LITERALLY life and death.

dredhea

My Feedback: (13)

I had actually been flying for a year or so before I got the simulator, so landings came pretty easy. The biggest problem I had at first was finding the runway. Using the option to "keep ground in view" helped.

opjose

Don't worry about "how long" it takes.

Just keep at it, until you no longer worry about landings in any attitude... whether the plane is next to your viewpoint or even far away.

With more advanced 3D airfield sims like Realflight, you can position your viewpoint up high on a tower, far removed from the flight line.

This is good practice for emergency deadstick landings when the plane is far from your view.

Also one thing I recommend to newbies.... and helps GREATLY....

Take the plane out so far that it is only a spec in the simulated sky. You DO NOT want to be able to see how the plane is oriented.
Swirl the sticks around so that you loose the sense of which way the plane is oriented.

Then try to recover and fly the plane ONLY by the way it responds to your stick inputs.

In other words, you want to be able to quickly tell if the plane is upright or inverted, coming towards you or away from you, etc, etc., simply by blipping the controls for a split second.

Once you can do that, you'll always be able to recover your real plane VERY quickly, if you momentarily loose orientations or the sun blinds you for a moment, at the airfield.

This is a very important thing the sims are best at teaching you.

scooterinvegas

My Feedback: (1)

This aint one of those times.....

kiwibob72

+1 on that point, a good high end sim like Phoenix or Realflight will save you thousands in crashes if used for what it is - a training program for anything new you want to learn! (be it landing, or hardcore 3D flight)

BrianArtea

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!

kiwibob72

Whats so funny?

BrianArtea

That's what I needed to hear was how long it took someone on the forum to tell me how long it took them to be able to land, I want to thank all of you *****ally went teh extra miles to help me.

I just got the Spectrum DX5e and it has a really cool laning set up just to learn how to land, It still took me about 15 tries to land it really sweet. Ialso landed a take off from start to finish but it only happened once since I got it from UPS at around 2:00PM and it's 6:55 now.

It's just like a game actually, a real great game. I was very impressed with the way everything worked and how easy they made it to set it up correctly om my pc..

TIMMMAAAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!