i am looking into bying an rc flight simulator and was wondering which one to buy. i am completely new to sims. i know i will probably get 7 different answers to this question because each person will like or dislike certain things. physics are the most important to me. do the planes perform how they should or is it completely different than flying in real life. also i dont want something that looks completely unrealistic.

i would recon the Aerofly professional deluxe simulator would be fine

I reckon any would be fine.

Since you're only up to 2 so far, I thought I'd add my bit. I not flown one of the 'big' sims yet, but I've read that if your plane is not trimmed and set up like the one in the sim, they aren't going to fly the same anyway.

Let's make it 4.

One problem people have comparing their real model with the same model in the sim, is that there is little or no guarantee that their real model flies worth spit. We've all seen a bunch of models that were badly setup and badly trimmed and badly flown. Who's to know if those flyers are in here in the discussions, sharing an opinion that the sim fails to fly realistically because it ain't like their real model.

I have both the Aerofly Pro and the RealFlight G3.5. The RealFlight wins hands down. I am not normally a Great Planes fan, but they done good with the G3.5.

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Since you're only up to 2 so far, I thought I'd add my bit. I not flown one of the 'big' sims yet, but I've read that if your plane is not trimmed and set up like the one in the sim, they aren't going to fly the same anyway.
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Agreed. This is IMO the biggest problem with sims. I have about 12 flyable planes. I also have two different sims with a total near 50 planes. None of the sim planes fly the same as any of my real ones. Some are closer than others but none are the same. This makes it a bit tricky when spending large amounts of time on a sim trying to do a trick only to find your model flys different. Having said that the sim is a helpful tool in learning to fly. Just don't expect perfection.
P.S Any of the more well known sims would be fine.

I have AFPD, G3.5, and FSOne. I find G3.5 to be the most user friendly. AFPD is good as well. You might might find that no plane within the simulator is exactly like your plane, but with practice the sims are invaluable. I went from doing harrier rolls in the sim to doing them on my 35% Yak.

I've been flying RF3/3.5 for a year now. I've got a few of airplanes that are in the sim. I found that to exactly match a couple of them to the sim, I needed to edit the sim's airplane. It was relatively easy to do in the sim. But did take a bit of adjusting the amounts. And a couple of airplanes seemed to fly the same in the sim and in the real world.

It appears to depend on the airplane. On whether or not your airplane flies like all it's brothers, and whether or not the sim pegged that one model.

You're having to match up your specific copy of that airplane with what the software developers produced in an attempt to match their sim up with their specific copy of that airplane. And darned if that potential for disaster didn't work out very good for a couple of my airplanes and real close for a couple of others of mine. Keep in mind that the good sims provide a way for us users to match 'em up.

BTW, a buddy of mine got a sim a couple of months ago. We knew it because he was telling everyone within earshot how the sim sucked. It didn't fly like his airplane at all. He was pretty adamant about it. A couple of us got into it with him and it finally boiled down to a couple of us flying his model. It sucked. We wound up just about rebuilding the thing. We had to sort a bunch of "adjustments" out of his "awesome" computer radio that he had all screwed up. (He believes in fixing the airplane with his magic radio.) And then we trimmed the model out to fly straight. Actually heat-gunned out some wing warp in the process.

He's flown that airplane about twice as much since.

And he's not mentioned how the sim sucks ever since.

Now, if he would just let us adjust his engine back the way we had it when we were flying it.......

Does anyone use the 3.5 to fly on the internet, how well does it work. Seems like a great idea in the winter.

I was sure hoping someone was using the G3.5 to fly with others on the Internet and could inform others on how well it works and what type of computer setup is needed.

Thanks Tim

Hi Tim...If you go to the Tower Hobbies site you will get the info from there with regards to the specs required..Great Planes are the designers through their off shoot Knife edge. The Internet is well supported I am told. As you say great for the long winter nights!

Thanks for the reply. I had the G3 but never tried to fly with others on the Internet.

Tim

<div>
</div><div>Hi there,</div><div>I have been flying for about 30 years now. I have never used a sim for training purposes but I'm wondering if it could be helpful to improve 3D maneuvers.</div><div>
</div><div>Thanks,....aandere</div><div>  </div>

ABSOLUTELY!

IMHO a sim is essential for learning things like canopy out hovering, etc...

I've found that I learn a lot by flying the flatout style indoor electrics, among other models. I can push my skills to the max easily with those little 3D models, and I don't fly 3D. The 6.5 version of RealFlight is very good. It's still a sim, so that means some things are great to simulate, and some things are deficient. It's worth the money, imo.

I have the latest versions of Aero Fly 5.7.7.1 on my iMac and Realflight 6.5 on my PC. To be honest, I liked my old AeroFly Deluxe Pro Deluxe much better. I thought the giant scale planes flew much better. I really liked the big Giles. The giant scale 3D planes in the newest version have a tendency to snap or drop a wing very easily. My actual SD models 33% doesn't do that. One of the moderators gave me some hints on modifying the lift curves for Airfoil Tip and Root as well as Attached Range and Stall Range to help reduce that tendency. You also need to reduce C10 to make the hump in the green lift curve smaller. That stuff all works, but I think the airplanes should fly like real giant scale 3D machines in the first place. My post was quickly deleted, but I was simply stating my experience with the program and my opinion.

The newest Realflight is pretty good, the giant scale Yak flies pretty well. There are not a lot of good jets in the program or the add-ons.

Simulators are good for getting started and for learning slow rolls, point rolls, harrier rolls, and hovering. At some point you will realize that the simulators do not fly exactly like the real models. In some cases they fly worse, sometimes a lot worse, and sometimes they fly better.

Simulators are useful tools, but don't expect too much out of them. At some point you need to get out and practice with the real thing.

no one has mentioned Phoenix Flight Sim as yet, i spent about 20hours on this when i was first learning (about 1year ago) and found it to be awesome.
Free updates, and also has official modesl from Hangar 9, E-flite and parkzone to name a few.
Check it out, http://www.phoenix-sim.com/

For good reasons.

I have ALL of the RC flight sims out including Phoenix 4 with all updates applied.

Many users are complaining about not being able to set it up with their own transmitters with Phoenix... even in this forum.
( I got all of mine to work though... )

The flight models are a bit quirky and a common complaint is that they do not react like the real deals.

The "3D" airfields are a joke... something that Aerofly does best although it is impossible to create your own in that sim.

For yucks TRY to set up a snap flaps mix in Phoenix with dual ailerons & differential.

You can't do that in Phoenix nor Aerofly, but it is trivial in Realflight. Nah, Aerofly and Realflight have it over Phoenix.

jerusha - what are you trying to accomplish? Are you flying r/c planes now?

The reason I ask is this: I have been flying off & on for 20 yrs. Never flew on a simulator until a few yrs ago at a friends. Since I am a FAIRLY proficient pilot, I had no real interest in simulators.

Recently my youngest daughter said that she wanted to learn to fly. I asked at my local hobby shop if there were any inexpensive simulators worth a flip. He had a used Phoenix that he sold me for $75. Heck, it even comes with a real radio (only good for park flyers he said) Anyway, it works great for us. I have flown many airplanes in my day, & this one is "real" enough in the way the planes handle. Since I have only recently gotten back into flying, I am having fun practicing up on some crazy aerobatics. I am sure there are better ones (more expensive) and some folks may not like the Phoenix. But for my money, and WHAT I AM TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH, I give it two thumbs up.