At the risk of accusing you of hi-jacking the thread, most pilots or students on here will agree that whilst MS flight sim is "useful" for instrument work, as an exact facsimile of the real thing it sucks! I watched a programme the other night interviewing the people that write the software, and they start well enough, but then admitted "dumbing down" what it does so as not to overload those that aren't pilots in the real world.
The basis of this thread is someone with a passion for aviation who is (was) struggling to justify the expense to himself, and on the whole we were providing a degree of support to him in the hopes that he will join our ranks and enjoy his flying. So Mad Bear, where are you??