Readying up

Wow, you must have some time on your hands haha! I'd love to get into flight simming but I have no idea where to start.

Ha. Yes, my final exams are finished so I just fly on FSX since I have literally nothing else to do until September when University starts. I usually fly in the morning, whilst in the afternoon and evening go out with friends. FSX is really a great platform, you car start any any level of complexity, I personally jumped straight onto the "tubeliners", bypassing the light aircraft such as the Ceesna's. I wouldn't recommend doing that however, because there is a lot that I missed.

Buying a cheap joystick is perfectly fine, I have the Cyborg Fly 5 which I've had for around 3 years with no issues, I recommend something with a twist grip for rudder and a hat switch for looking around the aircraft, other then that, you're set. Use the default FSX aircraft for a little while, around a year, they're simple and very friendly. FSX has a lot of missions which progress in difficulty, so starting from taking off, movements in the air, and landing in a single engine prop plane, to flying a 747 into a storm, which are all very useful to get to grips with the planes. After that, then you can learn to fly the most complex aircraft such as the PMDG 777 & 737 which are almost the exact same as the real thing, and the level of simulation is incredible. I'd suggest start with a small little Ceesna, learn to taxi, take off, do a circuit and land, from there you can progress to hops from one airfield to another using a GPS or VOR navigation around 1 to 2 hours long, then you can go over to twin engined prop planes which are bigger and more similar to commercial aircraft, do the exact same, manoeuvres, circuits, hops, longer flights, from there the world is your oyster really, you can jump on the big boys toys or if you really like the small planes then stick with them and do bush flying or just General Aviation flights. The Airbus A320 (from Aerosoft) is a really nice aircraft to jump directly onto if you want to bypass all the little planes, its a relatively simple aircraft but you'll have to self study a little to learn the systems and the flight management computer, etc.

I hope that helps, if you do decide to start flying on FSX (it's the most user friendly and cheapest Flight Simulator) and you require some help, I can try and assist you.

If it's something you want to try, I've put a link for an FSX trial version, if you like it then you can purchase it on Steam, Amazon etc. 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=5154    FSX Trial *Free*

Thanks for the information. I've bought a few guide books about navigation and everything but the funny thing is that I have actually flown a light aircraft in real life. It was an AA-12C and it was pretty fun! But i'd love to get into flight simming.

Thanks for the information. I've bought a few guide books about navigation and everything but the funny thing is that I have actually flown a light aircraft in real life. It was an AA-12C and it was pretty fun! But i'd love to get into flight simming. (I just had an account change, hence the guest name.)

Edited June 26, 201511 yr by HWade