I spoke to the owner of my local hobby shop and was told the only sim. worth buying is the Real Flight Sim. 4.0 the reasoning was that it is the MOST realistic sim. and that the others are all like a "game" and un-realistic. Is this true? I was under the impression that there were sims out there that were good that you could use your TX and a usb cable to your pc. Are these really no good?

I think your LHS is probably correct that the latest Real Flight is probably the best out there. I have the older G3.5 which isn't too bad either. I believe tower Hobbies still has that one for a lot less than the 4.0.

I've tried the simulator that Horizon put out too. It's not quite as good as Real Flight in my opinion but not too bad either. Plus the price is great.

That being said, there are some really inexpensive simulators out there such as FMS. Are they as good as the more expensive simulators? No but if you look at the price, they are not bad at all for what you pay.

Whatever you get don't be fooled by how well you do on it. Many people do some really great flying on a simulator which builds a false confidence leading to a crash when they fly real airplanes. The simulator is a great learning tool and a lot of fun but it still isn't a replacement for real flying.

It is the most realistic, but you can download the FMS sim for free and it will work to teach you your sticks. I don't think even real flight really prepares you for the real thing like being on a buddy box. If I could drop the 2 benjamins on the real flight I would because it is more real and more fun, but I have the FMS simply because it helped me learn the sticks. It really helped on my helicopter, which is what I mainly use it for now. I have lots of real stick time on planes now.

Well, partly true. Yes, the RF is a great simulator, but there are a couple out there that are somewhat less money and do the job just fine. One is the Aerofly Pro, and another is the FS-One.

If you search for realism, then the G4.5 is the way to go. If you want to practice RC then either of the others are just fine. You won't get the absolute reaslism, as though you were standing in the field with your transmitter in your hands, flying your favorite RC aircraft, but it's pretty close.

CGr.

Edited to correct FMS to FS-One (my mistake with the sims)

I had the chance to compare RealFlight and FS-One side-by-side in the hobby shop a few weeks ago and I currently have AeroFly Pro. I found that FS-One had more realistic dynamics.

That is... Both were excellent for flight controls and any beginner who needs to learn the hand/eye coordination will do fine with either, but for that matter, they can learn that with FMS for free.

But RF seemed almost too easy in certain aspects. For instance, with RF, if I intentionally tried to bounce a landing, the plane landed and stuck to the runway like glue, while with FS1, the plane bounced. Similarly, when trying to hover, RF made hovering much easier than it really it. Hovering seemed a lot more realistic on FS1.

However, RF beat the heck out of FS1 when it came to loading time. Change a plane or background and RF was loaded and ready to go in seconds, while FS1 took a long time to load any changes.

AeroFly Pro is more like FS1, and I like it a lot, but it's downfall is that you need to use keyboard commands for flaps and retracts. However, they DO have a cool new add-on... Full-Scale planes!

But personally, I think the best value for the beginner is to get a cheap controller for FMS and use that.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXSJR9&P=ML

firestormwolf76:

I was told the same by my LHS owner, but then, I did my homework and bought a different one.

I am very happy with the realism of my FSOne.

Check this comparison table:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_6856683/tm.htm

I used FMS. You can get a plug for your real radio for $6 on Ebay and it even comes with the FMS cd.

FMS was great to learn the coordination needed for flying, but after flying a whole season I now have a really hard time using the simulator, especially FMS. There are some quirks that get pretty annoying.

I find none of the simulators to be 'realistic'. Some are just much better than others. I was using RealFlight 4.0 at our club president's house and doing some things with the plane that just wouldn't happen in real life - the biggest one that people noticed is that some planes you can fly incredibly slow and they just won't stall at a realistic speed.

I religiously used Real Flight I every day back in the late 90's and then bought RF II. I used it for several years and developed coordination in my hands for fixed wing and heli planes.

I've sold my Real flight examples and no longer use a simulator.

But I think they are very important to develop your coordination

When I bought my NexSTAR Select RTF, it came with the NexSTAR version of RF. It only had one plane, the NexSTAR, but it was fun to play with and to get some of the basics down. It definitely helped me learn some of the baics, particularly landing. Now, I have three sims, and use none of them myself. I often bring a couple of computers to club activities (mall shows, and so on) for people to "play with" but my ultimate goal is to get them into at least a partial reality of RC flying. We've gained a few members that way.

CGr

At first I did not like Aerofly Deluxe, as I found Realflight to be much better in terms of plane physics.


I've grown to like Aerofly Deluxe's flight models. After the patches and updates it has improved a lot.

However you'll rarely find planes made, sold or available in the U.S. in Aerofly. The count is fairly low, as this is a European made sim.
It's 3D fields also leave a LOT to be desired, and there is little end user generation of add-on 3D airfields.

User created planes exist for Aerofly, but again they tend to be planes not normally flown here.


RF 4.0 gives you a free upgrade to Realflight 4.5 which with all the patches is eminently better.
The ground handling ( or lack of ) in prior releases has been corrected, and developement continues at a fast pace.
However be forwarned that G4.5 needs a computer with fairly decent processing and video processing power.
Full DX9 compliancy is a must, and many people assume that because they have DX9 installed, their computers are thereby DX9 compliant.
Many laptop video processors have litle to no 3D capability, which Realflight ( and also Aerofly now ) needs.


I've also owned FSOne ( what a disappointment! ), and several other sims.

FSOne's Tacom controller is abysmal. It's centering is unreliable, and the pot resolution is terrible.

The planes in the sim ( many of which I own) do not exhibit the same quirks and characteristics as their real world counterparts.
The one exception being the Alpha trainers, which are ALMOST "there", so to speak.


However the Alpha is also freely downloadable for Realflight G4.5 and the user created model is spot on IMHO.


Reflex has pretty good heli physics, but lacks things like 3D airfields, etc. It too is a Euro-Sim, so you will not find that many planes that we fly here.
However user created planes ARE available for it ( unlike FS-One ), though they are far more limited in number than G4.5 and Aerofly Deluxe.



That "SIM" comparison chart is out of date, and doesn't deal such minor things such as FSOne's abandonment, etc.

I have RF 3.5 which works great but the problem I have with it is it's hard to see the planes. They're much smaller on the screen than in real life which is why I think flying a real plane is easier. Plus I'm bored with all the planes. Is there a way to add more planes without buying the expensive add-ons? By the way, you want to have some fun? Change the engine on the ultra sport to a turbine and fly it that way. Crazy fast!

You mean you have never checked out the "Swap Pages" on Knifeedge's site?

Wow, are you in for a surprise.

Check out

http://knifeedge.com/forums/downloads.php

RealFlight and FSone are both pretty realistic, some prefer one over the other, but both are very popular. Either one will be better than FMS, but if you can't afford them, FMS is better than no sim at all.

Wow!! Thanks!!

No problem.

I see 422 complete planes listed, 1483 variants, and 1568 color schemes for G3.5... Also 85 Photofield airports and 266 3D airports.



Remember that some of the variants, airports and colorschemes depend upon having the add-ons.

However most of the "complete planes" or EA's work without needing anything else.

Usually requirements are listed.

Most of the EA's are excellent, though there are many user created variants that are rubbish... same with the 3D airports and Photofields.

This is crazy, but I take the tow-plane, which looks somewhat like a PT-40 and put a large engine on it with a radical prop. Then I take off and fly it high, get it into a dive, then pull up on it quickly and see how far the fuselage goes after the wings depart company..

I call this "lawn dart practice"....

CGr

This is on the SIM not out at the field with a real model

One not mentioned here yet, that is better looking then fms and fairly realistic physics, is clearview, it comes with a lot of planes and heli's with a ton of downloadable extras, and lifetime free updates, it will work with your tx if you buy a cord to plug it into the usb. The looks are nowhere near RF but are decent. it is found here http://rcflightsim.com/ here is a pic of it running on my laptop, on the real pc it looks a lot better.

Ummm... yup. In the sim...

I can't afford to "lawn dart" real planes... nor can I afford the insurance.. [X(]

Well I can answer that question for you, CGR.

I had, note I said had, some little plane i don't remember what it was, a short kit from a mom and pop outfit, Ireally wish I could remember what it was it was a nice plane. Again with the past tense. any who weighted in at 3.5 lbs flying weight with a supertiger 75 on the front, weee this is gonna be fun. straight and level was FAAASSSSTTTTT was nearly in a constant turn to keep it in sight. so I thought, hmm better call the coroner now, I wonder how fast it'll go in a full power dive. so up i went, up, up, up till its a speck and down down down, think I heard a sonic boom as I pulled up either that or it was just both wings peeling off as it reached about thirty degrees nose up attitude.

So the answer to how far will a lawn dart go.

A long long ways

I've used this one and like it; http://www.phoenix-sim.com/welcome.htm I haven't flown the others, so I can't compare.

WOW...I never saw REFLEX sim mentioned. Im not sure if they still make it. I bought it mabey 4-5 years back. Its a great sim I think.

I forgot which key, but you can zoom in a close as you want.

Tom

Keypad Plus Key zooms in.

You can also opt to increase the "Visual Scale" of the planes as well.

I find this somewhat unrealistic though, and the "Keep ground in view" mode is most representative of what you experience at an airfield.

Planes do get relatively small in your real field of view.

You should also learn how to control the plane, not by seeing it's visible orientation, but rather how it behaves to your control inputs.

This is an important skill to acquire.