When I was a kid, around 10 maybe(?), we had an old Apple system and some kind of an A320 sim. Really good actually. The graphics were poor, but the sim included IFR maps for all of Europe. Very many airports and pretty much all the nav-aids were included. Back then I didn't really cope with all the requirenments behind it. But at least the IFR nav part was already ok for me to do. That was my intro into flight Sims.
Then years later I had a win PC game called "Enemy Engaged", I believe. You could either fly an Apache or a Havock attack helo in three different scenarios. The fighting part was fun, but really not that much behind it aviation wise.
There were a few smaller games likewise in between. And eventually, already almost 10 years ago I'm afraid, I found "Lock On: Modern Air Combat". Pretty nicely detailed. Allowing me to fly F-15s, A-10s, Flankers, Fulcrums and Frogfoots. To include carrier landings and takeoffs on the Kuznetsov. That's were I spent most my time really going into the details.
The game would allow you to fly down an ILS to the runway as well. Since a glideslope will bring you down about 1.000ft after the threshhold, plus round out and flare, for shorter RWYs I tried to stay a little below and fly it down. If I knew there were no obstacles.
I sometimes tried FS with bigger jets on a friends PC. Even though a single monitor isn't that great for visual approaches, some rules of thumb helped out pretty well.
Like I think line up really early, 10+ nm out, with the centerline. Do so with shallow banking for a clean setup, and not with those ugly rudder snaps. For a 3° glideslope start decend at 3x the altitude? And then set a descend rate of 5 times your ground speed. Actually worked out pretty well. Maybe a little more in between to go to 3 red 1 white approaching the overrun. And slowly break the decent with pitch.
Anyhow, I'm sometimes looking for the game when in a store, but I'm not sure if I'd actually play it that often to justify the expense.
I have an i5 @ 2,5GHz I think, an GT560Ti and 8GB of RAM. I'd have to check on the required specs.
That's all very interesting guys, I no longer have a medical, and had to sell my interest in our old 172 nearly twenty years ago due to a divorce. My little brother decided to get his license, and has taken pity on me, and comes and gets me at a local airport, lands and always offers me the left seat, which I take and we go play, we have been to Hannibal, Mo., Quincy, Il., Pittsfield, Il., and Mt. Sterling, Il., in the last couple of months, but it had been some time since I had flown, so I was a little rusty.
Dan has a 1972 Cessna 150 with a Horton STOL kit, wheel fairings, some doo-dads that he enjoys, and an older but very slick aluma-grip style paint, and good for us, a climb prop.. It will hop right off the runway, and is a lot of fun to fly. A month ago, I set up for a crosswind landing at Jacksonville with gusts at 13- 17 mph, I made a nice solid approach, but as I was preparing to set it on the runway a gust caught me and I ballooned to about 10ft, and my nose was displaced about 15-20 degrees to the right, I nailed it with full throttle, and kinda crow hopped it on. That was the first time he has ever had to go for the controls, he was not upset, but I hated it that I felt like I had abused his sweet little airplane..
So the last time we went my Mo-Jo was kinda loosy goosy, but I had played with my 172 on the flight sim and shot some landings, and it does help you get that "sight picture down. I have a side stick controller, and my stick twists to give you rudder input, throttle is on the base, flaps and trim on the top of the joy-stick, its a Logi-tek extreme 30 Pro.
All of my Grandsons just love flying the simulator, and a Granddaughter or two likes it as well. The helicopters, I have three, the Robinson, Jet Ranger, and that UK three engine job, turbine is very kool, but a little hard to hover, but the choppers are much easier since I have a much faster processor. I have a P-51, that is hard to land, or even take off, but lovely to fly, it flys inverted, so nicely. So lots of fun!
