PPRuNe Forums - Flight sim for IR training?

Now I'm glad you asked! This is a hot topic for me as I have recently looked closely at Elite, ASA On Top and Jeppesen FlitePro, FS and X-plane.

Now that I have just about done my IMC I think I have a better idea of what I want to see in a sim.

Out of the box Elite seems to be the best . However, I reasoned to justify the cost of Elite I would not only need a realistic IR sim but also I would want to practice other procedural aspects such as practicing all the check lists. For this a few hundred quids worth of hardware would be required a throttle set, yoke and rudder pedals being the bare minimum. Elite basically excells at replicating the avionics, switch gear and instrumentation. But looking at the Elite forums serious omissions for an IFR sim such as cylindrical VOR ranges do seem to be apprarent. It does simulate ADF dip though.
Euro Site: www.flyelite.ch
Forums: www.flyelite.com

ASA On Top seems pretty OK, although it is very simple in all resepects by comparison. Jepp's FlitePro is somewhere back there. Very simplistic.
On-Top: http://www.asa2fly.com/
FlitePro: http://www.jeppesen.com

I find FS utterly irritating. Huge load times, jerky displays no matter what I do and very strange bahviour of the a/c. The third party Archer seems to be the best of the lot! FS suffers from having too good graphics which are utterly pointless in an IFR sim.

For now I have, settled on RANT and X-plane.

X-plane 7.41 out of the box it has much missing so a little work is required. Worldwide scenery and navaids are available via a free download. And Jason Chandler's a/c are a essential. It has ADF dip too!

Main Site: www.x-plane.com
Download Site: www.x-plane.org (for Jason Chandlers a/c)
Global Scenery: http://www.chromatix.uklinux.net/scenery/download.html

When I practice a route I do it in RANT to get the details right and then in X-plane.
http://www.oddsoft.co.uk/

All these have demos available to try before you buy.