I am considering the purchase of a flight simulator in the near future. However, my biggest concern is that the aircraft modeled in the simulator may not accurately reflect how the plane behaves in real life. I would not want to practice with the simulator if I learn bad habits out of it.

Can anyone comment on how accurate the flight physics are in the various simulators as compared to real life experience? I am mostly considering the Aerofly Pro Deluxe from the reviews I've read but can easily be swayed if another simulator is more accurate.

This BB has a search engine. This toppic usually leads to a holy war between the different fractions pushing their favorite product. You may as well check [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3290281/tm.htm]this thread[/link], it is targetting to the same direction of the most boring question "which one is the best?".

HABailey

I fly Helis so my simulator is not the same that you are planning to buy. What I can say to help you is that a good flight simulator can provide the real flight sensation and may improve your flying skills, Go for it!

Ricardo

Thanks for the link.

I guess what I was really looking for wasn't which one was the best overall, just generally if the physics in these simulators are accurate and closely resemble real-life especially over a range of aircraft. For example, will the stall characteristics be the same in the simulator for an Avistar Select as in real-life.

Part of the reason I ask is that I purchased a Nexstar select which came with an early version of RF. In the simulator, during take-off, the aircraft will yaw to the left requiring right rudder to correct, even while taking off at full throttle. However in real life, my experience so far has been that at full throttle, it will yaw to the right instead. So the simulator and the plane's flight characteristics aren't exactly matching up.

The only reason I was asking if different simulators have different physics was in case some were more arcade-like so as to avoid them. And also to find out if what is experienced in the simulators in general can be expected to happen very closely in real-life. If the physics is basically the same regardless of the simulator then other features will be more important and probably more dependent upon personal perference. But the physics is really the only thing I'm really concerned about.

Hi HABailey, it sounds like the sim is actually doing the right thing and that you have a setup problem with your "real" plane. I would guess that you have too much right thrust built into your plane(or too much right rudder trim). All planes(before people start picking at this, I mean single engine prop planes) should yaw left when full throttle is applied, requiring right rudder to keep them straight. A sim can be made to behave in the same way as your plane, but you'd have to create a custom version of your plane in the sim, and change the parameters for right thrust to match yours. Then they both will react in the wrong way.

To answer you question in general, RealFlight(G2/G3), Aerofly Pro(regular or deluxe), or Reflex will fly normal planes in a very realistic manner, with different people having different favorites for a variety of reasons. Typically the general consensus is that RealFlight and Aerofly are the best plane sims and Reflex is the best helicopter sim(as far as reality), but you'll find plenty of people that disagree. I've owned RealFlight G2 and G3 and I now have Aerofly Pro Deluxe, and all of them are very capable sims that will serve you well.