Flightsim help

[russellb6666]

Recently i've gotten this urge to get into flight sims but I really don't know where to start. What is the best sim out there? what control is the best? I really want to get into this but i'm kinda at a lost for where I need to start.

[Nephtys]

What kind of flight sim? Space? Air? Military? Civilian? Realistic? Arcade?

[russellb6666]

What kind of flight sim? Space? Air? Military? Civilian? Realistic? Arcade?

i'm looking at realistic sims something like Microsoft's Flight Sim but since I really don't know what varieties are out there I really don't know what to look for whats good and whats not

[Ace Pace]

If you want realistic civilian, theres only Microsoft.

[russellb6666]

If you want realistic civilian, theres only Microsoft.

ok cool, now about flight sticks, what type do you use?? what would you recommend for a new person??

[Ace Pace]

If you want realistic civilian, theres only Microsoft.

ok cool, now about flight sticks, what type do you use?? what would you recommend for a new person??

I can't help you there, as I don't 'do' realistic flight sims, but I can reccomend Microsoft's Force feedback 2, the thing is great, though kinda big.

[lukexcom]

What kind of flight sim? Space? Air? Military? Civilian? Realistic? Arcade?

i'm looking at realistic sims something like Microsoft's Flight Sim but since I really don't know what varieties are out there I really don't know what to look for whats good and whats not

Well, some people say that flight simulations "aren't what they used to be", but here are a few major titles that you can find in the flight sim world today:

MS Flight Simulator 2004. Overall a good simulator of civil and general aviation flight. A decently modeled ATC system, good weather engine, and a plethora of add-ons, free and payware, available at sites like this one. Some strengths of this sim over it's civil aviation competition (see below) are the good ATC modeling, weather engine, and visual and graphics effects. If you choose to invest some money in payware add-ons, you will essentially have the ability to fly a flight in a way that would realistically depict a typical airline flight from departure to arrival an airline pilot's point of view (albeit with some limitations of course).

Laminar Research X-Plane. A more expensive sim, arguably more realistic in the subsonic flight regimes. Features a flight modeling system that calculates laminar flow over airfoils instead of table-based vector force modeling (i.e. MS Flight Sim), it gives what some people call a more "real feel" to the handling of airplanes. It also gives you countless exotic possibilities that MS Flight Sim doesn't, such as flying the X-15 from it's B-52 drop to sub-orbit to landing, flying the Spaceship One, doing a full Space Shuttle re-entry by hand from 450,000 ft., to flying on Mars given the known atmospheric conditions of the planet. You can also design your own exotic dream-like (or nightmare-like) airplane designs, and seeing how and if they will actually fly (or if they won't, how much thrust will be required to propel that aerodynamic brick into the sky). A free demo is available here. Note that this sim is catered to not only flight simmers, but people who also would like to use the product in a more professional setting, like aircraft designers. As such, the sim won't look as "pretty" or be as "intuitive" and "user-friendly" as MS Flight Sim. The sim also has an FAA certification for use in training towards an Airline Transport Pilot certificate when used with a specific full-motion simulator in specific environments while fulfilling specific conditions.

As for combat flight sims, there are three major ones out there now.

Falcon 4. Originally released in 1998, this sim has gone through evolutions and revolutions thanks to it's community of followers, and today is light-years ahead of what it first was. Thanks to community development, it is a full-blown realistic depiction of how it is to fly, fight, and survive battles in the F-16 Falcon. The F-16 is fully modeled, with every known unclassified detail and function crammed into it's cockpit. The learning curve is unprecedentedly extreme, the workloads during any given mission are mind-boggling, the situational awareness must be razor-sharp, but it's all highly rewarding once the aircraft is mastered and the virtual pilot is able to survive and complete various missions in a full battle environment. While the graphics aren't to 2005 standards (more like a mixture of 2000-2002 standards), but the primary emphasis in this sim is the modeling of avionics, flight characteristics, and the overall battlefield environment, to try to give a glimpse of what a fighter pilot must deal with when flying this aircraft into battle. Some sites supporting Falcon 4 are here, here, and here.

Lock On: Modern Air Combat. A sim of fairly modern aircraft, it's based off of the Flanker 2.0 sim, and simulates flying the F-15C, A-10, SU-25, SU-27, SU-33, and MiG-29 (and the SU-31 with the Flaming Cliffs add-on). While not as realistic or having as high of a work-load as Falcon 4, this sim is designed as a more general sim modeling certain aircraft of the USAF and the Soviet VVS. Although not as detailed in avionics as Falcon 4, it still has a lot of features modeled for each aircraft, and it is a very good sim in its own right. Some sites are the official site, and for more click on the "fan sites" button there.

IL-2: Sturmovik, Forgotten Battles, Aces Over Europe, Pacific Fighters. This anthology of prop-sims in the IL-2 family is an excellent series depicting WW2 aerial combat over Russia, Europe, and the Pacific Theater. It has well over a hundred flyable aircraft from various countries, from fighters to bombers, mostly props but with a few jets and more exotic designs, a few of which never made it to the front lines before WW2 ended. All of these titles are fully integrated into one mega-sim if you have them all. You can buy them all within a $40 or $50 budget at your local electronics retailer. The official site is here.

Of course, for a far more expansive look at sims, whether air, space, land, or sea, go here.


As far as good, realistic controllers go, for combat flight sims a cheap $75 Saitek X45 Hands-On-Throttle-And-Stick (HOTAS) will do, but Thrustmaster does have it's high-end Cougar HOTAS which originally retailed for $300 (don't know the price right now). Other products include the CH Products series, which also produce flight yokes (typical on general aviation and airliner aircraft, excluding all Airbus and Cirrus aircraft) and rudder pedals.

[Karza]

ok cool, now about flight sticks, what type do you use?? what would you recommend for a new person??

My flightstick. Quite cheap (around 100 euros over here) and has all the buttons, axises and doohickeys you'll ever need. Also it's easy enough to program. There is a new version of it too, the X-52, but I don't have any personal experience from it.

So, I recommend the X-45. It's cheap as flightsticks go, and has all you need.

And a word of warning: Once you've gotten used to a HOTAS controller, there's no going back to simple joysticks. I can't even think about playing even Freespace 2 or TIE Fighter with a regular joystick nowadays .

[Pu-239]

There's also Flightgear, which is free. Not sure about the realism though.

[FedRebel]

Recently i've gotten this urge to get into flight sims but I really don't know where to start.

http://www.flightgear.org/

Not really the best, but it's free!