On Mon, 26 Jun 2006 17:26:50 -0400, Helen Woods wrote:

I have a student looking for some affordable software which will simulate

1. Flight in a C-172
2. ATC communications

I'd love some feedback and recommendations.

Thanks,
Helen

My preference is for X-plane. MS Sim has better terrain and is prettier
but X-Plane flies better, IMO. X-plane is an actual flight simulator
(modules aerodynamics) while MS sim has a canned model of flight, which
each plane tweaks. To me it's easy to figure out which one you want. If
you fly a sim, are you doing it to fly first or do you want to see perty
stuff? If it's the first, go X-plane. If it's the second, go MS Sim.

X-Plane runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. It comes with terrain for the
globe and mars. You can find more information at http://www.x-plane.com;
including a free demo which is sans all the terrain and disables the
joystick after 5-10 minutes. You can
download the demo at http://www.x-plane.com/demo.html. And hey, X-plane
is a small company...so nothing wrong with supporting the underdog.
Download the demo and see if you like it. If you don't, of your machine
can't handle it...nothing lost but a little time.

And yes, squawkbox and one or two others are also available for X-plane.
I've used it my self. I enjoyed transitioning bravo several times in the
DFW area. They guys I used are the VATSIM guys and they were both
friendly and knowledgable. If I were an IFR student and in the
market for a sim, it's nothing but goodness.

The only down side is you really need a good yoke and rudder setup which
adds to the expense. I'm pretty happy with my CH yoke/rudder peddel
setup. If you look on Ebay, you can often find people selling theirs for
a decent price.


Greg