Sims
 

Does anyone have Microsoft Simulator X?
What do you think?
Is it much better than 2004?

No, but my son has Sim City. Personally I'm not too impressed.

They do an X-rated version of Flight-Sim? :eek:

Does it have randy stewardesses? :E

Microsoft site says "This item will be released on 27 October, 2006. Pre-order now!" for the UK

"This item will be released on 27 October, 2006. Pre-order now"

Arrh Missed that one
Guess I'll wait ha ha :ok:

You can download the free demo at http://www.microsoft.com/games/flightsimulatorx/ and have a look for yourself!
I like it so far! :)

Just flown the sim at FSI.

Didn't notice any microsoft approved stickers on the way in.....but there again no ctrl-atl-del keys either :sad: :ok: :ooh: :O

Plenty of crap coffee, bannanas and a most peculiar 'diner' outside the car park, though!:uhoh:

As noted, it's not out yet. And - the demo is a fairly old build of the software and is not a good bellwether of what the final product will be.

The biggest thing to note is that the flight models - including those of the helicopters - are the same as what was in FS2004. This means that the helos will still have some wonky characteristics about them - for instance the R22 cannot be autorotated successfully, and even the JetBox's auto model is pretty far off the mark. But, in basic flight - hovering, take-off, cruise, approach - it does a very nice job if you have the right control hardware (stick/collective/pedals).

There is a company that is doing some wonderful things with their add-ons to FS2004. I have their JetRanger enhancement which, amongst several things, models engine start (along with the possibility of a hot start), yaw pedal emulation, etc. They are working on some professional-level simulation products as well. http://www.dodosim.com/

As to someone asserting that X-Plane is better - well that is totallly a subjective thing and I totally disagree for any number of reasons, but it's probably not worth discussing in this forum.

Dave Blevins

I just spotted this
on X-plane web site

X-PLANE GETS FAA APPROVAL FOR TRAINING
TOWARDS AIRLINE TRANSPORT CERTIFICATE
WHEN USED IN A MOTUS FULL-MOTION PLATFORM!

Wow.
That should save some money, when are they going to do it for Helicopters, that's what I want to know.

What Joystick do you guys recomend? there is so much to choose from.

Note that although they don't mention it anywhere, the Fly-It helicopter simulator - which is approved for 7 hours of VFR time towards the FAA private pilot rating - uses Microsoft Flight Simulator. X-Plane gets a lot of marketing mileage out of the Motus thing, but note that the developer made a lot of custom changes to assist in getting the Motus sim certificated.

re: joystick - get the CH Products Combat Stick, Pro Throttle, and Pro Pedals. They are excellent and work well with any simulator.

BUT - other than the basics a PC-based sim is not going to help you learn to fly quicker. In fact, I experienced a bit of "negative transferral" of skills when I was getting the private pilot rating, even though I have a complete set of helicopter controls from Flight-Link.

What a PC-based sim is best for is learning navigation skills, particularly for the instrument rating.

Dave Blevins

The IR aspect is pretty good - you can practice all sorts of instrument maneuvers in any conditions you specify - fog/night/snow/cross-winds/vacuum-failure etc. You can also do it in busy traffic, although communicating with ATC isn't particularly good - all we need now for that is good voice recognition (shouldn't be too hard for a flight sim - the language is fairly well locked down - not like a full English conversation after all :hmm:)
And if you get it wrong it doesn't hurt your insurance :ok:

Just thought - with new MS FS-X, there will be people taking the role of ATC. I imagin there will be a community of people extablishing themselves to help people 'train' with proper voice-comms. I stumbled accross a web site a while ago where they teach people how to fly the helicopters in FS2004 using their own training location add-on, voice comms, etc. I don't see why the situation won't improve with FS-X.

Lest this be considered a stealth advertisement, let me state up front that I work for Aerosimulators. We make a device that uses MS Flight Sim 2002, and have received approval for it as a Flight Navigation Procedures Trainer Level II.
It does have a lot of use for VFR training, learning to hover, navigation, autorotations and so on. It will not totally replace the real thing, but it does reduce the steepness of the learning curve.
I have to echo the comments on X-plane - the helicopter model is very difficult to use. The approval from the FAA was only for a fixed wing version, if I'm not mistaken. I believe there was a device that used X-plane that got a Level 3 FTD approval, but haven't heard much beyond that.

There's also ELITE
 

Besides the other FTDs mentioned above there is also Elite Simulations Solution USA, who have an ELITE S623H helo FTD based on the AS350 and using their own helo software that beats the MSFS, X-plane by miles for aerodynamic fidelity and instrument interface!! www.flyelite.com

Is the Elite certified at any level? Very important if you want to get training credits...

Shawn, not sure in the States, but in Australia it is receives the folowing credits.....20 out of the 40 hours for an IR, IR renewals, x-country IF, and all recency requirements for approach aids including GPS approaches. In Europe it is just getting its FNPT Level II accreditation.