woooahhh, heaps of feedback, i can really see the community love in this forum haha

i can understand what everyone is saying about, no matter how good a sim is, its not like real practice. its just that there are two issues holding me back from joining a club and buying a trainer. i'm moving countries in 9 months time, so i really need to keep my personal properties to a minimum. also, i live in Auckland - New Zealand, its seriously 4 seasons in a day unless its full swing summer, just when you get to the park, it starts pouring down with rain [:@]. i always hear the guys at the lhs complain about never getting to fly unless its between dec-feb... so for now, a flight sim is probably all the flying i can manage with my situation.

i'm not looking for a sim which comes with a radio, i prefer purchasing a good transmitter that i can continue to use for my model afterwards, so in that sense, its not a worry whether the sim comes with one or not. i will be using the simulator for about a year, as i will be getting back into RC after i settle down after my move.

since the realflight sim has so many features and big support, i think i will go with that. now i need to choose a transmitter, this will require a lot of research i know
but just as a place to start, which 5/6channel radio would you guys recommend? i stayed away from spektrum surface radios, as my neighbour and his son have two dx3s, both have massive range issues and the radio's telemetry reads incorrectly no matter what. i have the airtronics mt4 telemetry which i absolutely love, for that reason i lean towards airtronics.

my transmitter budget is $200 US MAX, i can't exceed that.

so far, i've seen these two:
[link=http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_info.php/cPath/61_433/products_id/178235/n/Airtronics-SD-5G-5-Channel-24GHz-Radio-System-TX-RX-Only]Airtronics SD-5G 5-Channel 2.4GHz Radio System (TX/RX Only)[/link]
[link=http://www.amainhobbies.com/product_info.php/cPath/61_433/products_id/185138/n/Airtronics-SD-6G-6-Channel-24GHz-Radio-System-w-RX-600-Receiver]Airtronics SD-6G 6-Channel 2.4GHz Radio System w/RX-600 Receiver[/link]

thanks so much for your help so far everyone, i reallllllly appreciate it!

kiwibob72~ kia ora mate