RE: E-SKy simulator downloads?
Realflight and most other sims are 3D graphics intensive. Laptops tend to lag behind desktops, especially in the graphics department, yet cost more. It's the price you pay for portability. If any sim will work, it would be FMS. The helicopter simulation isn't that great but the airplanes aren't bad. It depends on the creator of the plane. Best of all it's free. You can download it [link=http://n-old.ethz.ch/student/mmoeller/fms/index_e.html]here[/link]. See the link above in this thread for lots of planes. You can use the keyboard to see if your computer can run it before you buy anything. If it seems to run OK, search Ebay for the Esky simulator. After several years of not flying, fms gave me the courage to push my Art-Tech Cessna to its limits. Gary Gunnerson created an fms model of it that you can find [link=http://gunnerson.homestead.com/files/fms_models.htm]on his website[/link].
Cheers,
Chris