DR writes:

The benefit of your simulator is that it doesn't destroy the landing
gear on your sloppy landings and that is why it is nothing like real
life.

Actually it does. Sometimes the gear is destroyed (the extreme case),
sometimes it is just damaged, sometimes the damage is subtle and you find out
about it the hard way when it won't lock for the next landing.

It lets you get away with the most terrible landings ...

Not if you are using the add-ons intended for serious simmers, with realism
cranked up. I even damaged a flap once and didn't find out about it until I
encountered a sharp rolling tendency aloft whenever I fully extended the flaps
(that one took a while to figure out, in part because I had trouble believing
that the sim had actually simulated partial damage--but it had).

(It always
says excellent landing to me but that's not what my instructor ever says
-and he's right I'd give myself typically 5-8/10). Based on your
extolling the virtues of MSX I recently got the latest version and tried
it out with the aircraft I'm training on. Basically I'd have to say it
simulates a C172 very poorly and I'd say it's only use is for simulated
instrument flying. Even so, it's response does not mimic my aircraft
near the limits of the flight envelope -it behaves like a flying game
really. Red Bull flying race? What a pile!

Where do you put the realism settings?

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