Malaysian airline Incident

[Bubblehead]

Was the Flight Simulator owned and used by the pilot of the lost Malaysian aircraft made by Microsoft, an FSX perhaps? Or did he have the real commercial flight simulator used to train pilots? From the pictures on TV it looks like he's got just like what I've got at home. It was told that he installed it in 2012 so it seemed like his interest in the game was not long ago considering that he had thousands of flying hours in real aircraft. I've been playing flight simulators ever since FS98 and of course I've had the FSX for quite sometime now. From my experience with FSX, when on autopilot on lengthy flights, I've had to make periodic adjustments especially the heading. And if I "fly" my course using "way points" I've had to make course adjustments at every way point. Other than the heading, speed and altitude and the mechanical controls I've had to use during take off and landing, there does not seem any other sophisticated controls available in the flight simulator as opposed to the controls on a real cockpit. And the Flight Planner does not indicate anything significant except for the from and to airports, course and distance. So what's my point. I really don't know what the Flight Simulator had anything to do with the actual incident. Personally, I think that the aircraft landed in some airfield someplace intact and all passengers and crew safe. For what reason, I don't know.

[Capt_Cronic]

when you load a high quality payware aircraft like the pmdg 737,
you get almost all the features of the real thing, with features not offered in default aircraft.

for example, It takes me ~ 15 min to get the pmdg 737 ready for flight from a cold start.
every system must be set up properly includeing the FMC (not offered in default aircraft)
with the level of detail offered in some payware, I can see how FSX, P3D, etc. can be a very effective training tool.