If any of you have not heard about this "soft" combat flight sim you might want to give it a whirl. It is pretty cheap, open, easy to mod, and lots of free mods available.
https://store.thirdwire.com/store.htm
Site for community produced mods:
http://combatace.com/files/category/388 ... thirdwire/
The beauty of this sim is its simplicity. It is something you can sit down for half an hour to an hour and get the controls figured out. The sim is complex enough to provide a challenge while simple enough to eliminate the need for a 750 page manual like Falcon 4.0.
Be warned, with all the mods it is VERY addictive!