I haven't been able to see AFPD in action (no one around here sells it and there isn't a demo available), but I picked up a copy of Phoenix the other day and it's fantastic!

Taught myself to fly a 2 channel (rudder and elevator) glider about twenty years ago, but that's the extent of my RC experience. So when I started training on the ClearView sim I was awful. Couldn't fly those planes to save my life. But I kept working at it and I got better. After several weeks of practice I took my *real* RC plane out to an abandoned road and had a nice little flight. My next real flight was even better, including a perfect landing where the plane rolled to a stop at my feet. That would not have been possible without my sim time.

My 4th flight was great, but I overshot the runway and hit a pole. That convinced me to a get a more full-featured simulator and as I said I'm REALLY happy with Phoenix so far. I turned up the simulation speed and set up a light wind and some turbulence, and the planes fly just like my real plane. AFPD is supposed to be a great plane simulator, too, but I've heard some of the models are a bit "floaty". There is a rumor that the Phoenix folks are working on an update to the fixed wing flight physics -- so even though I'm satisfied now, I'm looking forward to that.