A very basic Flt Sim

E

ebetancourt

Line Up and Wait
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Feb 12, 2010
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Middle Tennessee
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Ernie
I want to work at recovering my instrument skills. I haven't flow IFR in 10+ years. I want a very basic round dial, always IMC flight sim. Preferably with a stick since I haven't flown a yoke in 10 years and don't see my self doing it anytime soon, except for the 172 that I'll use for flight currency and the IPC. Don't expect much in the way of fidelity to a particular airplane, since my goal is flying a little IMC in my Waco YMF. Basically looking for scan, approaches, holding and missed approaches. Don't want to wait for MS FS 2020. VOR, ILS and maybe a Garmin GPS.

What software would fit my needs best?
 
You might see if someone who has upgraded (to 11) has an old copy of X-Plane 10 on discs.
 
ebetancourt said:
I want to work at recovering my instrument skills. I haven't flow IFR in 10+ years. I want a very basic round dial, always IMC flight sim. Preferably with a stick since I haven't flown a yoke in 10 years and don't see my self doing it anytime soon, except for the 172 that I'll use for flight currency and the IPC. Don't expect much in the way of fidelity to a particular airplane, since my goal is flying a little IMC in my Waco YMF. Basically looking for scan, approaches, holding and missed approaches. Don't want to wait for MS FS 2020. VOR, ILS and maybe a Garmin GPS.

What software would fit my needs best?
Click to expand...

Xplane.
 
Before loading any software, you want to evaluate the computer that you will be using to run it. You want one with a fast 64 bit CPU, lots of RAM (I have 8gb), a separate video card with its own memory, and you want to replace your hard drive with an SDD drive. Without a fast computer, the lag time between control inputs and the display will drive you bananas and make the simulator unusable. The last version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, X-Plane 10 or 11, or Lockheed Martin's P3D are all great simulators. I mostly use X-Plane with the Cessna 172 trainer. It has a Garmin 430W with a fairly current database and a Bendix King autopilot.
 
An old version of Xplane.. or just pick up FSX or FS2000 from back in the day.. that had a steam gauge 172 and it supported a 430. Pretty easy to set graphics to the lowest setting and change the weather to whatever IMC you desire

Both X Plane and FSX were great tools for me in PPL. Before flying a real cross country I'd fly the whole thing real time in FSX. With the graphics on max and the real time weather capability it was pretty good at helping me understand what landmarks I'd spot and when, etc.
 
kshaw said:
Before loading any software, you want to evaluate the computer that you will be using to run it. You want one with a fast 64 bit CPU, lots of RAM (I have 8gb), a separate video card with its own memory, and you want to replace your hard drive with an SDD drive. Without a fast computer, the lag time between control inputs and the display will drive you bananas and make the simulator unusable. The last version of Microsoft Flight Simulator, X-Plane 10 or 11, or Lockheed Martin's P3D are all great simulators. I mostly use X-Plane with the Cessna 172 trainer. It has a Garmin 430W with a fairly current database and a Bendix King autopilot.
Click to expand...
The nice thing with X Plane is that it will automatically dial down the graphics (typically by reducing visibility, IE, more haze) so the frame rates don't get too bad

But yeah.. lag is infuriating and really kills the experience

X Plane is slightly superior to the Microsoft products in the "feel of flight" department but imho Microsoft's graphics kicked X Plane's ass
 
Thanks, should have said running 10 on a 64bit machine with a Nividia card. Sort of sounds like the consensus is Xplane
 
Tantalum said:
X Plane is slightly superior to the Microsoft products in the "feel of flight" department
Click to expand...

Don't drink Austin's koolaid. The multimillion Level D flight sims largely use lookup tables for flight characteristics. Empirical data is better than mathematical modeling.
 
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