MormonMike

My Feedback: (2)

No real threads on it, Looks like it came and went. I guess people did'nt want to spend another $200 bucks to start another all over again after G-3.5 ? MM

wedgewing

Just not a lot of people complaining about it. I have it on a decent computer that is not Mac (My mac is in the other room) with a good lcd screen and it works really well.

I am not a fan boy, but do think it was a good upgrade, and if you have G3.5 they are going to give me $75 worth of merchandise credit to purchase at least two of the expansion packs. If you bought the G3.5 within the last few months they will give you $100. I am one of the few that bought some of the non-compatible expansion disks and I am not too upset. I have both systems on the computer, and have found that the helicopter experience has been better on the G4. never flew helis on the G3.5.

if you like 3.5, they are still supporting it which is good. still many good AC out on the knife Edge swap page for both systems too.

go to the LHS and play around with the G4, you might like it. I just use it to keep the rust off since nothing replaces flying for real

KP

Dorsal

My Feedback: (17)

RealFlight wanted to turn their backs on their established customer base, and when they released V3.5 we were highly disappointed. The didn't offer any rebates at all for repeat business and their basic response to complaints about all the customized models becoming worthless with the latest release was "Aw, shut up - the graphics are better aren't they?" Needless to say, most previous / current users of G3 or G3.5 aren't wasting too much energy to convince anyone that G4 is worth the bother. [:'(]

So, their sales of G4 has been limited to the response to their flashy ad campaign.

Fizzled, you say?

The Toolman

If ya just wanting to learn to fly, Clearview Sim is an excellent choice with pretty good graphics IMO. Besides it's only $40 an a truck load of planes an helis to download for free....



Ronnie-The Toolman

da Rock

Fizzled my butt.

I fly at 3 fields. Guys at every one of them have upgraded from 3/3.5 to 4 and every one I know got either $75 or $100 rebates. Guys at every one of them have bought G4 new because they didn't have anything. Guys at every one of them have bought G3 used from the guys who upgraded to G4 and had G3 to sell.

BTW, nobody I know had to spend $200 even before the $100 rebate. I got my G4 for $185, sold my G3 for $65 and got a $75 rebate. And don't know a soul who didn't either get a rebate or sell their G3 for good money after they got their G4.

I just got back from flying. It was a beautiful day. Good turnout too. One of the conversations in the pits were the models guys had downloaded from Knife Edge for G4. Yup, downloaded for G4. Original models. You might call them "scratch built". Turns out almost all of us had downloaded that big Mr. Mulligan. Kewl, to discover how many of your buddies have the same interests.

Another conversation was about flying off of water. It was triggered by the conversation about the float planes in G4.

Nah, lot's of people have G4 and are quite happy with it. And the guys with G3.5 are too. At least the active modelers I run into are plenty happy with what they've got.

exeter_acres

My Feedback: (2)

You don't buy much software, do you?

Deathbunny_SG

My Feedback: (6)

I think G4 is an execellent RC Sim. I have only flown IRL a few times and they were all 8+ years ago. This winter I picked up G4 with no intentions of even getting back into the hobby since my first try didnt go well at all. After flying G4 for several hours a day for a couple months and having a blast I felt good enough about my skills to pick up some planes again. With no more then the sim training I decided to give my hobby lobby 3d foamy a try last night to see how I did and I also put a couple flights on it tonight. I know this isn't the best flying "trainer" but at 16 bucks for a replacement foam kit its hard to beat for repair cost. As soon as it was in the air it felt perfeclty natural and easy to fly. I was able to do lots of stunts and fly the plane around very well and make it do what I wanted it to do even in some pretty heavy wind (for a foamy). There were 2 times that it almost got away from me but one was hovering about 10' above ground and the other was trying harrior rolls at about the same. I managed to get it laned each time without damage also, not exactly easy since it doesnt have any landing gear and its pretty fragile Hopefully it will warm up a bit more and I can get the real trainor over to the local field for some supervised flights. I don't think I will need to spend more then a couple flights with an instructor before I can solo with the trainor due to the sim. I agree though they should have a better upgrade program/system.

johndou

I’m sure that the people who have bought RealFlight G4.0 are happy with it, it’s a decent sim. But, I don’t think it’s sales have surpassed those of some of the other popular sims, even with the largest ad campaign ever seen for an R/C product. Most of the popular R/C magazines have two page ads for G4.0 and have had them since it’s release almost six months ago.

Contrary to some claims that people are selling their G3.5 and moving up to G4.0 the facts don’t support that claim. There are actually more copies of G4.0 up for auction on eBay then for G3.5. Mostly because people have bought it and discovered that it’s not what they wanted ... or <?>

I’m sure there are pockets of supporters of G4.0 around this country. Some of the clubs will follow the peanut gallery and buy or support one particular sim, whereas others will think for themselves and buy and support what works for them. RealFlight’s ad campaigns will have a higher impact in some areas of this country then in others. In some of the more intelligent areas of this country it’s been shown that massive ad campaign’s, like the ones seen for G4.0 actually drive the more savy and intelligent consumers away.

From a standard business strategy a product must have a large profit margin to support such a large ad campaign. I think most people understand that and will not support that kind of consumer rip-off mentality.

Of course, since RealFlight doesn’t release their sales figures there’s no way of knowing for sure what sales for the product have been. But, by reading the forums to see what’s more popular, or looking on eBay to see what people are getting rid of you can get a pretty good picture. And both of those areas show that G4.0 has fizzled.

da Rock

Fizzled? Interesting topic to start with......

Guessing how many people worldwide bought something by how much activity you see in a couple of forums on the internet is not exactly "facts". If you know numbers, post 'em while you can.

The advertisements for G4 have continued to appear because they've continued to create new products in the line. It's customary to advertise new products and it's customary to advertise when sales are good or bad, if you've got the money from new sales to spend, that is. When sales are good, it's worthwhile to make sales better. And when sales are good, it's worthwhile to create additional products with some of the recent profits. It's a good bet the new products will sell also, and the money to produce them is readily available.

It's also common to see the volume of new products being sold off on ebay to have a direct relationship with the volume of original sales. So it's just as easy to interpret the greater volume of G4 sales to mean there were A LOT of them sold to begin with. And you can interpret the continued offerings the same way. Truth is, interpretations are just guesses. Got any real facts?

"more intelligent areas of the country"...... say what????

Anybody got any actual facts? Post 'em soon, because this thread won't be around long unless it sees some posts with real facts in them. Think about something that will actually benefit passing readers. For example, do you actually see anything of benefit in any of the posts in this thread?

This topic started off with a negative direction from the subject line. RCU has a policy that is generally against slamming. This thread started out with little or no hope to be otherwise. And it's about to fizzle itself. Because the way it's going it'll soon be just a spitting match.

Sean C

My Feedback: (25)

I owned G3.5 and G4. I sent off all my receipts and UPC labels to GP. A month later I got a letter saying BOTH software serial numers did not match my information. I figured it was too good to be true from the start. They didn't have the decency to at least return my receipts which also included a Futaba 9C, Saito 125 and other items.

I know attempting to resolve the issue with GP would be futile (they're always right, the customer is a schmuck) so I sold both software packages here on RCU and made about 75% of my money back. I bought Phoenix and never looked back. It's nice having an actual SIMULATOR instead of a PC game.

Now I just have to hope I never need warranty service on my 9C or Saito 125 [:@]

johndou

And what new products are those? RealFlight hasn't released any "new" products for G4 since it's release. <?>


I have posted facts. The fact is that most people responding to "What's the best sim?" type of posts on several of the R/C forums show that RF G4.0 is no longer being recommended at the rate that G3.5 was. That's fact!

It's also a fact that there are more copies of G4.0 being placed up for auction on places like ebay then copies of G3.5. Indicating that people are not, as has been indicated, selling G3.5 and buying G4.0. That's fact! You can interpret that any way you'd like, and I'll interpret it the way I'd like.

I did not say, indicate or imply that people generally use this information to make a decision to buy the product. I was giving what you asked for - facts - to support the comment that G4.0 is or has fizzled.

Massive sales campaigns can also be interpreted differently. Given the fact that an R/C simulator is a rather specialized product, and that it is being marketed in such an aggresive manner, indicates that sales may be a bit sluggish. That's my interpretation. With that interpretation why would I, or anyone else for that matter, feel a need to slam the product - I haven't seen any "slamming" and don't expect to...


This post started out showing a trend. It did not and has not done any slamming. Others have posted stating their support for G4, yet have not shown any trends to indicate an opposing position of the original poster.

da Rock

That isn't how it worked for my rebate request.

They returned mine with everything I had mailed them. They rejected it because the G3 numbers were no longer registered to me. I had un-registered G3 so that the guy I sold it to could upgrade it. I sent the rebate back with a letter stating that information and received my $75 rebate soon after.

It is interesting that a company would treat the same situation so very differently.

da Rock

I just happened to notice that GP has added a new requirement to receive a rebate for G4. They now require that you are the registered owner of G3/3.5 and G4 when you request the rebate.

So if you plan to get the rebate when you move from G3/3.5 to G4, understand that you'll need to leave the registration intack until you've gotten the rebate.

Now that is an annoyance.

Sean C

My Feedback: (25)

Yes, it is interesting that different customers get different treatment. Unlike you, I still actually OWNED my copies when I applied for the rebate. GP's response is what prompted me to sell them.

wedgewing

I am cracking up about the fervor on this thread. I occasionally look at the MAC Protest thread but this one has surpassed it. I guess it doesn't matter to me who has the dominant world market share of flight sims, and like one of the posters commented, there are always upgrades and changes and I have more real software that i cannot use anymore for business and home use.

someone stated they turned their back on us when they went to 3.5 from 3. i did not get that because it was a free upgrade on their website. If you fly some digital stuff or like the visuals ( I don't worship water movement so I must have got it for another reason). I have not had an issue with the merchandise certificate, and I will most likely pass along my 3.5 to my neighbor who I have introduced to flying. I still have it on my laptop and take it with me when I travel (wish I could use another controller sometimes that wasn't "radio size")

I think there is room for many of the sims and that spurs further development. if you have one sim out there, then there is no reason to improve. Competition in this market is going to create the creation of versions and extras we may not always need. all i know is there is a $40 difference between the two (G4 and G3.5). How much extra does Microsoft charge you if you want the difference between student and professional for their stuff, and that antiquates a lot quicker.

I actually fly more E Flite planes than GP, and when G4 came out I could have switched to FS One, but while I had sunk my cash into most of the "add-on" disks for 3.5 that were not compatible with G4, I had also purchased a couple of the "expansion packs" that were created to serve both systems. With the $75 in merchandise credit, i will be able to buy more. They could have dorked everyone, but they didn't so it is money not lost. since I had money invested in the GP system I stuck with it. As is the case with other posters i find a lot of good planes on the Knife Edge swap pages as well as airports.

Biggest issue we share is that we use them to make us better. Put your money with the people you support, that is the best message you can send

Happy flights

patricksplanes

The demo of G4 runs great on my computer for some reason, but to be honest I really don't care to spend another $200 on a product that I've already basically got. My G3.5 is still like new, not a scratch on the controller, and the software works great on my windows XP install so after reading what is new, I really see little point in spending the money when my G3.5 works just fine. Had something really special been delivered wth it, I might think twice about buying it.

Perhaps if I could use my existing link controller with G4 and didn't have to buy their hardware all over again I might even think differently about it, to be able to use my nice old comfortably JR transmitter that I use in real life flying through my G3.5 link controller into G4 I might think about buying it. But to buy all of it all over again, doesn't seem worthwhile to me.

da Rock

No reason to junk your "nice old comfortably JR transmitter that I use in real life flying" is there. It works as good as the day you bought it. There are newer and more advanced versions, right. Same with my JR8103. I see little point in spending the money on a new TX when the old one works just fine. It's how things work for transmitters and for games/simulators.

You hit the point spot on. Your old TX works as good as the day you bought it. So does your RF sim. Neither has been changed to give you less than you got from day one. Both are as good as they were from day one. Spot on.

MormonMike

My Feedback: (2)

Greetings to DaRock/Moderator. I offer sincere apologies for any offense or possible mis-understanding concerning my use use of the word '' fizzeled ". I had no intentions of "slamming" the product but rather, I wanted to convey a sense that the new G-4 just was not generating the intrest due to the cost of having to "start all over again". I too have invested a lot of money to have everything there is for the G-3.5. At this point and as much as I would like to have G-4, I've chosen to decline it's purchase for now. As for starting this thread, I was just curious to see if anyone else "felt" the same way. If this doe's appear to be upsetting our RC friends, I will agree, let's close this one down. Respectfully yours, MM

Clay Walters

Well, I purchased G3 a couple of months back not knowing anything about newer versions or other simulators on the market. When I installed it and went to the online registration I learned about the G3.5 downloads (free) and the new G4 rebate. First, the G3.5 upgrade made a real enhancement in my opinion. The G4 rebate offering was a good deal to me since I knew I was going to get back in to the hobby and spend the money anyway towards a new radio, plane, and engine. Only mistake I see in their plan is limiting the rebate to a specific retailer. In my case they gave me the rebate to use where I purchased the G3 instead of where I purchased the G4. And, because I had read the rebate form I had made a deliberate choice to purchase G4 where I did because I wanted to be able to use the rebate there.

Other than that foul up, I've been very pleased. To me the G4 offers little over the G3.5 because I've no interest in the choppers. However, I did unregister it as mentioned on another thread and my son-in-law is now its new registered owner. Hopefully it will intrigue him enough that he'll join me in this new (again) hobby.

Last comment - I was deeply dissappointed to discover I could not use my own TX with the software and that if I did via hooking up to the mandatory TX controller that I had to turn it on. Nada. Shouldn't have to run down my TX batteries on the sim an shouldn't need to use their TX to run the software. But the price for the product quality is just fine. And, if enhancements to G4 occur for free to the equivalent improvement level that G3.5 was to G3...its an absolute bargain.

I've since tried two other demos in LHS and they weren't anywhere as good.

My two cents,

Clay

Sean C

My Feedback: (25)

That's a new complaint!

Once you remove the RF module or crystals from your Tx your battery will literally last forever. I use a Futaba trainer box (4YF) and a stock 600mAh battery. While I can't say how much sim time I get from the battery, I can tell you it's well beyond 20 hours.

Clay Walters

Ha! Didn't wish to add any fuel to the fire as it were...still, I had no intention ever of dedicating a TX to the simulator. I even ordered the adapter cable so I could hook my Airtronics TX to the back of the Eflite (?) TX that came with G4. But it wouldn't work and someone told me I had to turn it on. Heck with that! I just unhooked it and never tried it. No way am I going to constantly have to remove my crystals or modules every time I wish to hook up to my PC. Figured if you didn't need to even turn it on when hooked up to a buddy box setup you shouldn't need to when hooked up to the Eflite controller either.

Live and learn. At any rate I'm still very pleased with how my G4 mimics the real deal.

Regards,

Clay

wedgewing

I am going to go back to using both my G3.5 on my laptop and my G4 on this PC and having a good time. I have XP and a good video card so I am enjoying it and like it. :-)

Sean C

My Feedback: (25)

I love Phoenix and all, but Ade's gratuitous promotion is very annoying! I'm sure he's put off a lot of potential customers as well, but I guess that's his problem

da Rock

Was in the best LHS within an hours drive yesterday.

They have the two most popular brand's demo kiosks. One across the aisle from the other. I noticed the G4 one was being used by a kid. One of the clerks was instructing him on how to fly. Now, this is about the nicest LHS I've been in in 50+ years so it wasn't a surprise. I remembered this thread as I was checking out and asked the owner if he sold more of one than the other and he said they both sold ok, but G4 definitely sold more. And he said they both are selling better long term than he ever would have predicted.

BTW, it's probably the best LHS within a day's drive.

da Rock

Tower Hobbies latest email included a list of the TOP 25 BEST SELLING ITEMS. At the top of the list was RealFlight G4.

Now there's irrefutable proof that G4 is bigtime popular.

BTW, below it on the list was the OS46AX which is hugely popular at the 3 flying fields I frequent. And also down the list is G3.5 at it's discounted price of $160. Heck, not only has G4 NOT fizzled, but neither has G3.5.