Hi All,
I picked up G2 at my local hobby store yesterday ($215 w/tax - ouch!) but after just an hour or two of flying the PT-40 around, I was hooked. I'm convinced that this is going to allow me to get my reflexes and eye-hand-stick coordination down ALOT sooner than just weekend flying and will likely save my trainer plane alot of pain and suffering as well (although I will certainly still use an instructor).

The program seems very realistic from what I can remember of the first lessons on my Eagle2 years ago. I tend to have the same problems in the sim that I did in my real flight training so they must be doing something right.

I am curious to try "Aerofly Pro" after reading some of the enthusiastic comments on this board. Has anyone out there used both?

As far as G2 goes, I have only 2 complaints (which are really more just observations than complaints):

1. I'm always getting disoriented with respect to where the runway is. I tried using the "glance at the runway key" but it didn't help that much.
2. The other thing I wrestle with is depth perception. When I think I'm lined up to land on the runway, I fly into the fence behind the runway. Is anyone else out there having this trouble. I suppose, as with anything, you eventually develop a "feel" for it - we'll see.

One other thing I should mention is be careful not to inadvertantly rest the transmitter box or your hands on the keyboard while your flying. I did this and accidently opened up something like 30 veiwport windows. I didn't realize there were 30 windows on top of each other and keep wondering why the window was not closing - and those 30 viewports slowed my computer down to a halt.

So with that problem fixed, today I went back to the hobby shop to check out the expansion packs and after flying the "Tracer" around for awhile, picked up expansion pack 3. If the real Tracer flies anywhere near as smooth as the simulation does, that'll be my 3rd plane (first a trainer, then a stick of some kind, then the Tracer). In many respects (at least on the sim) the Tracer was alot easier to fly than the PT-40!

Well time to do more practicing...
DB