Which flight sim?

[Aviationpassion]

Hi everyone,

I would like to start training at home on the 737.
I am a complete beginner and looking for what would be the best and most realistic.

Which one would you advice? Flight simulator, or x plane for instance?
Curious to hear about your feedbacks.

Thanks a lot !

[Speed_Trim_Fail]

I assume you are prepping for a TR.

Get the cockpit companion, get familiar with systems, memory items and limitations. Sit with your company OMB, chair fly and learn your SOPs and triggers.

You will achieve a lot more, and get into far fewer bad habits, by learning the aeroplane and polishing your SOPs with a “cardboard bomber” (cockpit poster) than you ever will with a flight sim. It is the company TRI/TREs and LTCs who will train you, trying to teach yourself at home on a flight sim for anything other than procedural IR stuff is often more of a hindrance than a help.

[Less Hair]

Learn from the real regulations and procedures not from some simplified or possibly plain wrong gaming version regardless of how "pro" they claim to be. For the practical flying part glider flying might be an excellent and affordable introduction. When you do your sim ride be ready to listen to their advice and don't stick to things the way you did them. They want to see you do things their way.

The Boeing 737 Technical Site - Home Page

[Aviationpassion]

Thanks a lot for feedbacks.
But I wanted more advise on which sim to pick

Thanks again.

[Speed_Trim_Fail]

You’ve asked for advice multiple times from airline pilots and had replies from folks who have flown or are currently flying the aircraft you mention. Some of us have done multiple type ratings and also instructed.

Believe me when I say you’ll be a LOT better of proceeding as we’ve suggested - you won’t be creating false mental models and developing bad habits (the FCTM and QRH instructions are well worth a read too now I think of it). Do the mode reversions work on a sim model the same as the real thing? Are the thrust and pitch datums the same? How will you learn scan flows effectively? If you learn all the ground school and manual material before getting to the sim you will have so much extra capacity you’ll be able to fly and train much more effectively, far more so than if you’ve been mucking around on X plane.

Then again, maybe I am showing my age 😅.

[paco]

If you are going to do the sim route, the 737 NG add-on for microsoft flight sim is generally recognised to have the most accurate FMS portrayal. Having said that, all the other posters are quite right - the PC flight sim route is good for practising procedures and tracking but not for type ratings. You might try virtual reality, though - in which case x-plane would have the most accurate portrayal.

[Central Scrutinizer]

I agree with the other posters who suggest learning the SOPs is important; but that doesn't mean a home simulator can't be useful as an "interactive" tool while learning the systems and procedures.

On X-Plane, there is a free 737-800 known as "Zibo" which is pretty good.
On MSFS and Prepar3D there's the PMDG version but I'm not sure whether they have an -800.

I personally prefer X-Plane as a flight simulator and hence would go with the Zibo but this can be down to preference.
In any case the free 738 by Zibo is more than enough for your intended purpose.

[Aviationpassion]

Thanks a lot for your feedback. I think it can be also interesting to train for instance on the FMC or get used to displays and FMA modes.
Anyone has experienced here the PMDG 737-800 ?