LWG writes:

Lots of posters here have fun bashing MX, but I have to say that one of the
more enjoyable experiences I've had lately was sitting in the family room,
in front of the PC. I am working on my instrument ticket. Ove the years I
have collected the CH yoke and footpedals. I have downloaded a flight model
and graphics for my Sundowner. I was looking out the window at the snow
falling, and I set the sim to real world weather. Damn if the screen didn't
look exactly like the weather outside, and I was once again looking at my
panel. The ATC simulation wasn't bad either, and off I went down the
"runway." I got vectored around pretty much the same as when I fly under
the hood. I thought that was absolutely fantastic, and all for about a
nickel's worth of electricity. No instructor or safety pilot needed.

That's only the tip of the iceberg. If you'd like to enjoy simming even more,
consider:

1. Getting an add-on payware aircraft that matches whatever you enjoy flying
in real life (or whatever you'd like to fly in real life). Companies like
Dreamfleet, PMDG, and Level-D offer hyperrealistic simulations of a great many
large and small aircraft that are so accurate that it's almost like flying a
brand-new (and superior) simulator.

2. Use ActiveSky for weather. The simulations are so accurate that it's hard
to distinguish them from real life.

3. Join VATSIM, and you can fly on a network with other human pilots and human
air traffic controllers, with real ATC instead of the computer-generated kind
(which isn't bad, but is very inflexible and predictable).

Desktop simulation is especially nice for IFR, for obvious reasons, and it can
give you useful practice in IFR and in navigation techniques. Using add-ons
and VATSIM allows you to fly commercial routes with terminal procedures (SIDs
and STARs and IAPs) and live ATC support, which the default sim does not.