Hi Quinoa,

I am a raw beginner and I bought FS One to learn how to fly and to practice without having to pay for repairs/parts after crashes. I have never flown anything before but I have wanted to for a long time. So far I have had the program for about 2-3 weeks and it works well, all-in-all, .... and I have saved a lot of money in parts/planes (and I'm not even trying fancy tricks yet)!! [X(]

I have found the program pretty easy to get started with but that may depend a lot on your computer and having the latest drivers. I installed the latest drivers, got a newer graphics card (Nvidia 7300GT) and haven't had much problem after that. I bought FS One mostly because the FS One people seem to offer great support through this forum and through others (listed in Inertiasoft support page). Some of the other simulators have more selection of planes and certain features (eg. like water takeoffs) that would be fun/interesting but they weren't as responsive to my initial questions and prices are comparable. I don't know if the other simulators need as much support or not because I haven't tried the others (except G3.5). It seems that a lot of people say the program that they bought is the best one. I also like FS One because I like to think that Michael Selig's contributions here reflect reality. Ceratinly his comments and some of the things I have read point to this.

I haven't tried all of the features yet but a few specific comments that might help you:

- I bought the version that lets me use my transmitter (Futaba 7C). It took a little bit of thinking to get the transmitter coordinated with the program but the FAQ for this is very helpful. It was pretty straight forward. If you use a Futaba 7C, be careful to buy the HANS3030 adapter because there is a similar cheaper one (HAN174) that apparently doesn't work with the program.

- FS One has a built-in series of basic and advanced lessons. These are short videos that tell you the basics of how to fly or how to do certain tricks and the commentary provides some advice. They have been helpful for me so far...I'd like to be as good as the pilot in those videos.

- FS One has an ability to fly gliders/sailplanes as well as powered aircraft. The gliders can be hand launched, winch lanuched, hystart launched (big rubber band) or tow plane launched. This is one of the main features that interested me because I want to be mostly involved with sailplanes.

- Unfortunately, the program doesn't have much of a variety of sailpanes and it doesn't have the ability for the users to create them...hopefully this will change in the near future. I saw a note from Brian (FS One Dev) in the RCG forum saying that new planes will cost extra. I really hope FS One changes their mind on this because the competition offers sites and planes as free downloads.

- The program includes a selection of flying sites that seem pretty good but many of them are essentially flat countryside (I guess there's not too many hills near Champaign, Ill.). Fortunately, FS One have released the methods for public users to begin creating their own pano (panoramic) sites which may make some more variety available. [Brian, would a pano site be able to include thermals and slope soaring winds/lift if I was to create a hilly pano using Michael's FAQ methods and the various notes above].

- I'm sure that there are more features that would be helpful to learning but I'm just getting started, like you.

buena suerte,
Dave