haribole wrote:

Would appreciate any recommendations for a realistic PC based flight
simulator that can be used to learn the principles of flying.

Any experience on using a PC based flight simulator to enhance the
learning experience would be welcome.

From my personal experience, I strongly believe that for primary
training, PC based flight simulators are not only worthless, but even
counter-productive. What I want a beginner to learn is to get the feel
of the controls, the feel in the butt, to learn to deal with the new
visual perspective and clues and to get accustomed to always have a good
look out in all directions. These things cannot be learned with a PC
based sim, and even worse, it completly spoils the look out, because you
have to focus forward to that tiny screen rather than turn your head in
all directions and look back over the shoulder.

A PC based sim can be very useful for procedure training, be it simple
VFR VOR navigation or complicated IFR procedures, but I strongly
recommend not to use a sim while doing primary flight training.

That said, X-plane has a pretty realistic aerodynamic model while the MS
sim is just a toy. But being a glider pilot, I use Condor anyway.