WHen Ibought my Hobbico Nexstar trainer the kit came with a flight simulator. Ican all but say it was beyond boring. It was so bad Ifinally threw it away. Ifound it easier to train in the field so far, but after six weeks I think it may not be such a bad idea to at least get in some flying time. Also, Ihave a limited budget.

WHich one does everyone recommend?Remember Ihave ADDreally bad and if it is very boring Iwill leave it on the top of the desk. thanks


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My Cub trainer came with FMS simulator and I must telly you it's inexpensive and graphics are not great. I practice on mine and have a hard time finding the landing strip ones up in the air.  I have looked at several other brands downloading their samples to get an idea what they look like and every one I looked at was better than the FMS graphics wise. 

I can only suggest downloading samples ant see what they look like before buying.  I wish I had known the differnce and not gone for low cost as thats what I got. The flying is fine on mine but graphics and landing on the strip suck. Also, Landing speed is a question as I believe the landing speeds of mine are way off the scale and I go all over the place and crash often coming in due to poor control of the plane and graphics perspectice.

Only trouble with downloads is the keyboard controlis not fun for me and I can'r control plane. Wish they had regular controls availabe totest with.

AlstTed

I have been using RealFlight since I got back into the hobby. I use it now to practice 3D and pattern maneuvers.

With RF I can fly your NextStar inverted over the field at 5 feet. If I crash, I can use the reset button. Its cheaper than the Visa card.

I started with RealFlight G-nothing then bought the RF G-2 so I could use all of my friends upgrades. After a while they are all boring but the RF seems to have the best graphics, planes and fields. When I had to buy a new puter I lost all the upgrades so the G-2 lite is really boring!! Just like SS I use it to learn pattern and stunts. Much cheaper to replace the planes on the sim, faster too!!!!

I use Phoenix, and it is a fantastic learning tool!!.
That said I'm more of a heli guy, and it's physics are meant to be better re heli's .... that fact you don't pay for down loadable upgrades is another HUGE bonus!!!!!

Get G-5.

If you ever get bored, you can go online and dogfight with others

Started out with Realflite but am more impressed with Phoenix. It's much more realistic and you can set up your tranny exactly the way you fly the real thing!

I use Clear View.  Probably not the best out there...but I have tried FMS and its leaps and bounds above that.  The price is good as well.  40 bucks or so.  Then of course you will need to buy a USB cable, another 10-20 bucks depending on where you buy.</p>

I have been using FS-One and I like it. I also have RF but FS seems better to me.

Does Phoenix have the same rendering and physics as Real Flight? Same options such as dog fighting, etc? I'm in the market for a Sim and haven't decided on which yet.

Suggestion is to stay away from FMS.  You would be looking for better soon if you got it as I am now. I still don't know which either but what I have (FMS) must go !!!.

AltaTed

To Denver Jayhawk:. Someone posted a sample of Phoenixon one of these forum pages and I was very impressed as he showed fluing a plane slowlu into and out of a barn, then up and over a wood post fence, land, take off and back slowly over the fence. Then zoom off for regular flying. Very realistic. I am strongly leaning to it but will look at all chouces first.

AltaTed

I'll second ClearView as the best value on the market for an RC flight simulator:

http://www.rcflightsim.com

I have FMS and RealFlight G5.5 as well. ClearView may not have state-of-the-art graphics, but the flight physics are outstanding. I believe that ClearView models trainer flight and helicopter flight physics at least as well as Real Flight G5.5 does, maybe better.

FMS is fun to play around with, and it will help with basic stick orientation. There is a reason that it's free, however. RealFlight G5.5 is very cool with lots of fun features and instructional videos. I love the multitude of available aircraft and flying fields. I wouldn't try to talk anybody out of shopping for the Phoenix RC simulator, Aerofly Professional Deluxe, or Reflex XTR flight simulator. They're all excellent training tools.

Dollar for dollar, however, you're not going to find a more valuable training tool than ClearView for $39.99.

If you need a controller to run ClearView with, I've used the ESky USB simulator controller that is available from http://www.raidentech.com or http://www.hobbypartz.com for $19.99. The two products work very well together. ClearView and FMS will work with a RealFlight InterLink controller perfectly well, also. If you already have RealFlight, you don't have to buy another controller to try ClearView or FMS.

Real Flight is one of the best if not the best... you do need a good computer, graphics card, and likely an upgraded power supply... with the better output comes need for better hardware...

It cost me about $200 to upgrade, but I did the install myself... never looked back... so check with your computer guru to be sure and then go for it.

I belong to a 'Phoenix' forum on another site (as I have Phoenix), and while they are more often a bunch of heli guys like myself (though I also have a plane), it's amazing just how many of them state that they moved over to Phoenix from Realflight and now praise just how good Phoenix actually is. There must be a good reason for that to be happening eh!
Still, I'm not using mine for games reasons like dogfighting, for me it is a training tool, plain and simple! - you can go online and fly with others, but that is something I'm yet to find a need to do.
While it is loved by the heli guys for it's physics and realism, I got more assistance or use from it when learning to fly planes, to which I state that it is a fantastic tool for that purpose!

The other HUGE bonus is NOT having to pay for upgrades like you apparently do with RF. In the 7-8 months that I have owned it, I have downloaded something in the region of 40+ extra aircraft off their site for free, and there is currently an upgrade from version 2.5 to version 3 that I'll download at some point (I'm running it in a iMac on Windows XP via 'Parallels', and are a little nervous until I know it'll run 100%), which yet again, the upgrade is FREE!!
The reports to hand are that while 2.5 was GREAT .... the new 3.0 version is just meant to be utterly fantastic!

not tried the other sims but i use aerofly platinum delux and find it a very usefull tool for smashing aircraft of all types into the ground.....!!!

no really....they are a great way of practicing whichever you get..... personal prefrance i think..... get as many demos as you can.... my LHS had a couple to tryout instore, maybe worth calling around to see your LHScan do the same......

good luck...

Does the clearview sim work with a DX6i? How is this guy using it to connect to his PC?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2lSUhp762c

Does Phoenix come with a controller?

i'd personally steer clear of "controllers" and try to use your own TX.... the one you use to fly aircraft. most sims allow you connect your TX via a usb cable plugged in to the trainer port or you could go wireless and use a "simstick"... look up sim stick on the interweb....!

After reading about Clear View I downloaded the demo and played a bit with it and felt it's graphics and selections are far superion to my FMS so I signed up for it today and have been crashing my planes using it ever since.  It's far far better than what I got with FMS and I don't have anything negative to say about it.  It's just like flying in the park including crashing is very realistic when planes fly apart. 

Also I thinks it's a great value at $40.00 with Lifetime upgrages and support.

AltaTed

RealFlight G-5

Yes...you just have to buy the USB cable that plugs into the trainer port on the DX6i. Then you just calibrate it like you would a joystick on your PC.

Thanks. Where do you buy the cable?

Go to the manufacturer brand of controller you have so you get the right conector to it and the the USB on the opposite end to connect to your computer.  A local hobby store or internet hobby store should also help you..

AltaTed

Dont remember where I bought mine (plus I use an old Futaba Conquest TX for my sim anyway)...but here is a link that I found when Googling.

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7330431/tm.htm

I believe any Futaba source can find you a lead then.  I would guess Futaba is standardized with the internal connectors on their Xmitters. They will just need the model numbe to look it up for you.

AltaTed