Flashy looking sims are great marketing thats a fact.
Sure, the more realistic the better. But if that realism comes at increasing hourly rate I'll take the basic version thanks.
Multi Million all singing dancing Jet sims less than a year old in my limited experience don't actually capture realism that well. I sure as hell can land the real aircraft better than the Sim for example. Same for all line pilots.
There are some nice sims out there these days and the only reason I got involved on this thread Send Clowns was that other schools complained about you advertising your employers doubtless nice new machine.
BAe have a nice enough proper sim albeit one thats getting on a bit now on a bizjet type that is dissimilar to the one you are likley to take a simcheck on.
OATS often seem to imply that their FNPT is a 737 Sim which it isn't. SFT's sim always seemed to be broke. blah blah.
Some of the best Sim instruction I ever had (that includes a 737 course) was on a pretty tired Frasca 145 thats sole highlight was having NDB dip. The chap two feet over my shoulder knew exactly what, how and why he was teaching me. He did this with flair and passion and in the end that counts for far far more than the gimmicks, the computer playbacks and the various audio visual box of tricks.
What was even better was that it was cheap so I could afford more hours AND it was free after hours which meant I could rehearse ad nauseum. Taught me 90% of what I know about IFR panel flying that tired old Frasca did.
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