I've only played around with MS FlightSimulator over the years and havent
spent the bigger bucks on the probably better software out there. My friend
uses X-Plane and rants on and on about it ( http://www.x-plane.com ).

The mapping of MsFs has gotten better every year, and most navaids and fixes
(every one I ever looked for or needed) are in it. When I'm going to an
unfamiliar area I like to take a look at the terrain with FS, it usually
doesnt look as bad on FS as it does looking at a sectional, and usually in
real life it looks pretty similar to FS. It helps with the visuals, what to
expect as you come in from a certain angle, lakes, rivers, etc.

For IFR I set the weather pretty close down to minimums, and sometimes throw
in seasonal weather. If you have a Garmin 530, it's great practice at using
that. It has a Garmin500 which is basically the same thing minus the COM.
I dont have ADF in my airplane, so I get to get in some practice on NDB
approaches. Overall, for the price, it aint bad.

Chris



"ivo welch" wrote in message
om...
I have started on practical IFR training in the real world. (Vans
RV-9, hopefully RV-10 soon; mostly glass cockpit.) I do ok on
precision flying, but I would definitely like to practice patterns,
approaches, etc., at home before I go. just too few approaches per
training hour.

Fortunately, it is the year 2004 now, so hopefully, there are now
pretty decent flight sims to work on a reasonably hi-end home
computer. Right? choices seem to be "on top", "x-plane", "fs2004",
"jepp flitepro". I looked for a comparative review of these, but
could not find one. any opinions on what works well would be highly
appreciated. help, please.

sincerely, /iaw