[bhassel]

Since I'm years from flying...

What's your favorite flight sim? I'm interested in models for the 9, 10 & 7. I'd really like something that flys like a 9 or 10 from teh armchair.

Also, what do you use as controllers? Keyboard/mouse?

Thanks,

Bob

 

[hughfi]

It depends on what you want from the sim...

If you want every airport, ILS, VOR and GPS approach in the world, and want to fly through every mountain range in the world with top class scenery etc., and want the most advanced multiplayer environment in the world (that even the military use), then go with Microsoft Flight Sim 10 or FSX for short. In short if you have a good PC (good video card particularly), then the latest version of FSX rocks. The missions are fantastic and allow you to live out your dreams of dropping aid in Africa in a DC3 after which you loose an engine over the mountains and have to crawl back to a dirt strip. There are a ton of them and they are all great. I particularly love the one that puts you flying the 747 to minimums during a major storm in Asia somewhere. There are a ton of addon's for FSX also and I believe that includes RV's

I personally don't like the feel of XPLANE or how realistic it feels compared to FSX, but each to their own.

Also FSX is only for windows so if you have a Mac you are out of luck.

H.

 

[L.Adamson]

I personally don't like the feel of XPLANE or how realistic it feels compared to FSX, but each to their own.

Same here, as there is "actually" feel, built into desktop flight models. It's a visual thing like a car pulling slightly ahead of you at a stop light; and you slam on the brakes thinking your coasting backwards! X-Plane just lacks in the perception of feel.

But other than that, there are no good RV models available for FS9/FSX at the moment. And some that come with X-Plane are awful.

Go with the RealAir Marchetti SF260. It's a sliding canopy, and probably the most realistic flight dynamics in the industry.

L.Adamson --- RV6A

 

[Jim P]

I love FSX myself but you need some nice horsepower. I was running it with sliders moved almost all the way to the left, but I just had a new box built with one of the latest Intel quads and a 512 MB nVidea video card. FSX is more processor dependent than memory, but even with just 2Gb RAM it does well. This is the first time I've been able to get FSX running well with nice graphics and it is very cool.

As for an RV-7 model, check BayTower Studios in BC http://www.baytower.ca/, this guy is doing some really nice work! I've used the FFS RV-7 in FSX for external paint scheme modeling; the airframe will work and you can fly the model in FSX, but you'll never get the guages to function. I've heard of guys doing their own cockpit but I never tried that one.

 

[Shockwave]

Definitely get a joystick and throttle. Nothing else compares for feel. I even found a company in Germany making rudder pedals with toe brakes and got a set. They're really neat, but they don't make as big of an impact as the stick and throttle do. FS9 or FSX don't really model the rudder well. (Ok, now I'll have to go see if I can ground loop the J-3)

If you find a plane you like the handling to, you can copy the .air file to a different airplane and fly that since they're independent. I've found some decent (I think) models of Long EZ's that'd probably suffice.
http://www.flightsim.com has hordes of free models of about anything you could want. (Except RV's)

 

[L.Adamson]

I even found a company in Germany making rudder pedals with toe brakes and got a set. They're really neat, but they don't make as big of an impact as the stick and throttle do. FS9 or FSX don't really model the rudder well. (Ok, now I'll have to go see if I can ground(

The RealAir SF260 I mentioned, is a simulated airplane that models rudder well. It's something they're well known for, after about 10 years of programming experience. The "slips" are very good, as well as many aerobatic manuvers.

L.Adamson