Tim J wrote in message
. net...
Any simulator that allows you to practice your procedures is good - I
wouldn't expect any of the pc based sims to be anything like a plane or a
device that you can count toward flight sim time.

I just got FS2004 and borrowed a yoke - it seems to be ok - the bells and
whistles are more than I need for practicing and ingraining the procedures
I
have been taught. However, either there are problems with the software or
I
haven't figured out how to use it the way I want.

For example, I try to file from an airport to another using VOR/airways,
but
when I start flying, the program always tries to give me direct. I can
use
the VORs, but it is unclear to me how to see the desired route as airways.

I also have to keep telling the controllers that I want to fly the entire
procedures - they always try to give me vectors to an approach.

Also, and this is definitely a defect in the software, but I caught the
problem and it reinforced good habits of what I was taught...

I was given ILS 24 to KISP. I did not have that approach in front of me
so
I asked for ILS 6 (or vice versa). I was cleared for the full approach
that
I asked for. however, when I tuned in the ILS (both are the same freq) I
got the identifier for the one that I refused and the color sector/needle
was all wrong. Seems to me a problem with the software, but maybe not -
maybe they wanted it that way.


These are not defects in the software--they are all accurate simulations of
occasional defects in the universe.

I recently got FS2004. I have been pleased to find that FS2004's turbulence
model is much better than FS2002's. Fly your procedures with turbulence on
max and it will exercise your scan quite well...

Cheers,
John Clonts
Temple, Texas
N7NZ