The only difference between AFP and the real thing is fear factor. It's a little mechanism tied into your brain that will make use decisions because of our fear. That in time will go away.

Constant wind speed actually makes no difference. That just means you have to fly your plane inside the mass of air that is moving. All your turns and controls have to made accordingly based on the winds direction.

Gusts, micro bursts, thermals however are something, well at least to me, adds extra excitement in the hobby. Give me 20 knots and gusts ... now I am having fun.

All of the good airplanes on AFP fly just like the real thing or within 90% of it. You won't have to learn it all over again ... just keep using your sim as much as possible. When you hit the field I can guarantee you will say "Wow this is just like on the sim".

Also ... if you are not crashing on the sim ... you are definitely not trying hard enough. You should be crashing as much as possible. You need to fly the plane until it reaches the break point so you will know how to react to save it just in time. Don't expect to recover everytime. I lost 7 planes last year alone, but I basically tried as hard as I could to crash most of them.

"Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure." - George E. Woodberry