Im wondering whether buy a simulator. Having used only FMS im wondering if I will get value for money.

Is a simulator a good way to waste ones hard earned cash?

(Im flying mostly micro hellies)

Merry Christmas
Kasper

"Waste or gain" is a question of your personal view. If you are happy with your FMS why spend money on more? First you have to find out if FMS satisfies your needs. Personally, I feel that FMS is displaying models nicely but "simulation" is far more in view of aerodynamics. The big arguments for SIMULATORS is that you get training hours without driving to the field and during bad weather conditions. This way you get routine and that's what is avoiding crashes. So basically, simulators pay off. You spend "hard earned cash" to safe even more "hard earned cash" - money you don't spend for spares and repairs.

Try yourselve. Try inverted with your heli - on the field or with the sim and see waht it costs.

Cheers - wolfgang

Less than the cost of one airplane (or crash). AeroFly Pro is my choice. I got it after the frustration of flying FMS without wind or realistic physics. The planes in FMS are all overpowered, in my opinion.

Whichever one you choose, it will improve your flying cheaper and easier than the "learn by crashing" method. Good luck.

I'd say get the most realistic sim you can. With it you can enjoy R/C flying without ever owning and R/C airplane because it is fun in its own right.

I currently use RfG2 and I will be looking into Reflex. I think that at this time RfG2 has the best combination of features (strictly my opinion). BTW I have many of the sims on my PC: Aerofly Pro, FMS, Preflight, Cockpit Master, Backyard Flyer, RFCS2001. I've shyed away from CMS and Reflex because they both require a real transmitter PPM signal from the controller.

Hank

Hi Kasper
First thing I should tell you is that I'm totally new to the RC world. In October I chose to get my grandson into flying but the problem I had is neither one of us have ever flown a plane. My Grandson is 10 and I am 57. After considerable amount of time and research I bought him a Commander. In my local hobby store that I bought the plane from a young man was playing a computer game or what I thought was a game. He was using a G2 simulator. After talking with him I bought it. The intent was to get my grandson to learn to fly. Little did I know that I would also learn to fly? Xmas day we had about two hours before a major storm so we went to the local park and both soloed that day. My grandson was first and he flew it quite easily. Mark flew it about 5 or so minutes before he put it down on the ground. It would have been a great landing except I left the wheels still on. We already have snow. I flew it next for about 8 minutes and both of us where very happy with the results. I'm convinced without the simulator we may have failed on the first try. I will admit 200 bucks is considerable however when I get into a more expensive plane I will be ready to fly it without crashing it or at least more prepared with the proper skills. Besides here in Utah what else would I do with the weather we get especially this winter?
Good Luck on your decision
Dave and Grandson Mark

I have RFG2 and say it is worth every penny I paid for it. I've been hovering nose in on it and with over a $1000.00 in my Real R/C heli I'd say it is money well spent. Crashed many times on the sim. Also FMS doesn't do the ground effects you get with the real thing, RFG2 does. Just my 2 cents worth.

Tim

Thanks for the replys, they were truely helpful.

I will be going with Reflex for a couple of reasons:
1) Seems to have the most accruate physics for helies,
2) Simulate using my real tx,
3) The next version, Reflex XTR, seems impressive and hopefully it will solve some of the issues that people have noted in this forum.

I was really getting tired of FMS it was just way too easy. All of the things I did in FMS (nose in, flying backwards etc.) had no resemblance with the cruel (expensieve) reality of flying a touchy piccolo pro. It did however gave me a sense of the controls.


Whish you all a happy New Year
Kasper

I'm penny saving for Aerofly Pro

I tested it out, and it seems most accurate. I also flew G2, and I don't like it for some reason.