Simviation Forums

i'm regretting using $70 on FSX delux and another $30 towards acceleratioin. coulda put that towards real flying.

$100 will get you about one hour in a Cessna 172... It gets you years of simming (and will save you $100 several times over when you're taking instrument training)..  :)

Don't rue it Davoos, as Brett said, it may come in useful at a later stage. I've learnt loads about flying from FS.. which if I ever decided to start PPL training (unlikely

i'm regretting using $70 on FSX delux and another $30 towards acceleratioin. coulda put that towards real flying.

Is there anything that bugs you the most?

i'm regretting using $70 on FSX delux and another $30 towards acceleratioin. coulda put that towards real flying.

Or you coulda bought it somewhere cheaper?

Who cares.

MY MSFS cost me the equivalent of $101 USD plus $46 USD for Acceleration.

Don't you love Australian prices?

Yep, your hundred dollars probably would only have covered the TIF - the Trial Instruction Flight.

If you are keen, committed and really want to fly, then like thousands before you, you will scratch up the money and learn to fly real planes.

In my experience it was the best thing I ever did.  However I was able to fly myself on business, and had a friend who also leased several aircraft which I got to fly at no charge - right up to a Navajo.  So although my personal outlays were pretty heavy, they were nowhere like they could have been for the planes that I flew.  For instance a free instrument renewal is a big bonus.  There are a thousand other stories from a thousand other people as to how they got their licence and got into a uniform.

But that's up to you.

I worry about people who come to flightsim cold, treat it like an arcade game, get bored and head off to the next first person shooter game on the market.

If you are interested in flying, work through the tutorials, treat each plane seriously, then it is satisfying and fun.

You can also do the things that you have always wanted to do, but never could because of real world aviation rules.

I am in Australia, so of course I have taken a Cessna, then a 747 under the Sydney Harbour Bridge in flightsim.  In the real world if you weren't shot down, you would lose your licence and stare at prison bars for a while.  It's a great safety valve.

Also flightsim gives rise to those who simply fly, those who go online into multiflyer situations, those who design add-on planes, airfields and scenery, those who paint add-on liveries to make the sky more real, others who invent utilities to improve this or that, makers of gauges, builders of cockpits, mission designers, and AI aircraft, bears, boats and vehicles etc, etc.    

Every aviation nut, dreamer, builder and doer has a place in this world of simulated aviation.  It's a hoot and an addiction.

My Dad flies Cessnas and we know a warbird collector. Trust me, after going up in one of there warbirds, you'll come crawling back to MSFS, or atleast will save up for a pilots liscence. I would be doing the latter, but then my PC blew up, got this beast.

The point is.. thinking that a $100 spent on FSX would effect whether or not you fly for real, is silly. Your head-set and study materials alone will end up being three times that much.. and by the time you hold a PPL, you'll have spent at LEAST $7,000.00...  and after that; the simplest ONE hour of practicing to stay current will cost more than $100.. EVERY time you do it.

FSX is a miniscule investment compared to even the most basic, real flying (by the time you've built enough time to be safely taking people up with you.. and actually going places.. you'll have spent $15,000 dollars flying real planes...$30,000 if you plan on becoming a proficient instrument pilot).

The important thing though.. is that flying the sim will help keep your pilot frame of mind active.. and will definately save you hundreds (probably a thousand or more) in the long run  

When I was growing up, a friend's Dad was a pilot for Eastern Airlines.  We were fascinated by aviation, but had no real world way to connect up to it.  Books, pictures, plastic models are great, but Flight Simming is the ultimate if you can't fly in reality.  How I'd like to go back in time to my youth with Microsoft Flight Simulator.  It's the bridge to flying in reality.  FS is a great way to learn flying basics, and a great way, as many have pointed out here, to determine if you want to take it further, I think.  And if you ultimately don't like it, you can always turn it off.  Nothing lost there.

My friend my flight simming is the best thing you can do in your life bseides real flying i have 352 planes in fs9 and everyday i love to fly them. Have fun man life doesnt last forever.

Hi  
Davoos15

If there has been a critic of FSX since it came to my door on August 2006 til about November 2007 more or less --it was me.
Then things began to happen.....first SP1, planes flew more or less, then SP2 or Accelerator it was better, then Nvidia finally put out a descent Driver......Now its just honney and kisses!!!!!!.....so do your homework amigo!!!!! set everything up right and you will enjoy the great Skies of FSX........I do hope that FS11 if it ever comes out will be a thoroughly well  programmed job not what the Manufacturers and programmers of the present one fed us in 2006.........am sure they learned a thing or two...( I hope!!!) :-?

just a note....I flew my PA-28 for 15 years and it was sweet from the first day I flew a C-152 until I sold the Piper....No comparison my friend, no comparison..................

OK, everyone, I would like to add to my initial reply.

First, it is perfectly OK if Davoos wishes he spent the money for FSX on even just one single introductory flight in real life.  It is OK if he doesn't like FSX, period.  We all have different things that make us tick.  Just because his priorities (even frustrated, heat-of-the-moment priorities) may be different than ours doesn't mean he is wrong, incapable of mathematical comparisons, lacking in a decent computer system, or even too poor to follow up on a $100 investment into flying with further lessons.  I just mention this because if I were Davoos, I might feel a little overwhelmed by everyone telling me how wrong I am about my opinion rather than finding out why I hold that opinion.

This brings me to my second point, which is for Davoos and a reiteration of my initial reply: so, what did go wrong for you?  There are no guarantees that anything can be done about it, but maybe if someone here knew what was going wrong, they could help fix it to make FSX a valuable and enjoyable investment for you.  The people who come who are very knowledgeable about both FS and real aviation; I don't know what I would do without everyone's help, advice, and camaraderie.  Deciding that FSX is not for you is a valid decision, but before you throw in the towel, would it be OK if we tried helping you find the good things in FSX first?

I would have to say that I was in the same boat as Solid.  When I first bought and installed FSX hated, hated, hated it.  New hardware and good advice helped change that for me.  So, sometimes there is a silver lining to the clouds . . .

All the best to everyone whatever they like,
Darrin

sorry you feel that way.

[quote]$100 will get you about one hour in a Cessna 172...