hey mstram no I haven't taken intro flight. I think I want to do this mostly because I think it's a fun and useful skill to possess. no plan to use it for transportation right now since I don't think I'll be buying a plane anytime soon...
I do have a basic joystick, but I'm thinking of getting one with twist handle so I can do rudder control.
Charley thanks again for your post, the stuff you mentioned make a lot of sense, I'll have to save it and review it from time to time to remind myself of the things to watch out for.
I'll try to see if I can get some real flying time somehow, but as I mentioned I won't be able to actually start training until at least next summer due to travel.
good news is I don't really plan to spend that much time on the sim (probably no more than 40 hours flying) before real training. I'm not trying to learn to fly on it, just want to learn the controls, procedures, instruments, flying patterns, radio communication, navigating, etc. So I'll have a good idea about all the non-directly-manuver-related stuff and how they fit into flying, then I'd only need to mostly focus on manuvering the plane when I start training
I've just discovered FS2004 is actually pretty good about the peripheral vision thing. with the virtual cockpit you can pan anywhere you want and adjust exactly where you look, and how much panel you want to see just like turning your head.
I haven't found a way around the elevator trim yet, it's still pretty annoying. I'm hoping if I can find a auto-trim function I can just use that and ignore trimming for now (so that I don't build up bad habbit) and learn it when I have to do it in a real plane.
and I guess the same with the rudder... since I can't feel the plane maybe I should just leave auto-rudder on and ignore that aspect of flying for now? (again to avoid developing bad habbit). maybe I'll only use it when practicing sideslip and forward slip.
I've noticed with MSFS I seem to find it a lot more fun to crash the plane than to fly it properly... lol. everytime I switch to outside view I want to do some crazy flip or overspeed it into a tree or land the plane on water, etc. should that be disconcerning? lol
K.R.