flight sims. anyone here use them?

[danny_galaga]

heres the deal: i learnt to fly some years ago but never quite finished. last i flew was about 6 years ago. im going to finish it off this year. my main concern now is that i learnt to fly where i grew up and naturally had a good sense of where i was. ive since moved to a different city. so what im wondering is- do flight sims simulate geography accurately to the extent that you can recognise roads, rivers towers and other landmarks?
  the actual flying is like riding a bike- you never forget. so i dont really want a flight sim to pratice flying as such, but to do a crash course in the local geography. i have some charts at the moment but it would be great to relate them to an aerial view BEFORE i go flying!

i guess the big one is microsoft flight sim. i wonder too if you can get most popular planes? for me a want a piper pa28 and maps for brisbane, south east queensland australia. ill will google but a first hand account would be much better (",)

[Tailgunner]

MFS 2004 plus an OZ scenery expansion might allow you to pick out a few landmarks, but it's a long way from photorealistic terrain. I doubt there's anything out for MFS X scenery wise and from what I understand the computer you need to run it smoothly doesn't exist yet.

What kind of resolution does Google Earth have for that area? That would be my first suggestion as it's free.

[danny_galaga]

ill have a look at google earth, but really i needed that moving perspective from the aircraft view. bugger, i guess ill have to learn the terrain at 150 bucks an hour  i better concentrate...

[jbox]

but to do a crash course in the local geography

ASIO is on to you mate. Better run now before the MIBT* come for you.

* MIBT  = Men In Black Thongs

[romperwomb]

ill have a look at google earth, but really i needed that moving perspective from the aircraft view. bugger, i guess ill have to learn the terrain at 150 bucks an hour  i better concentrate...

You actually can angle the perspective by clicking the scroll wheel so it seems like you are flying over the terrain in 3D.  The program is quite amazing.

[danny_galaga]

just looking at it now. this is bloody great! thats all i need! i just typed in the co ordinates from my chart for the airfield ill fly from. i can even see where i work, which happens to be less than 1km from the airfield (kinda what started me thinking i should finish what i started). the default is 3000ft which is great too. if it was just 1000ft closer i could probably see my car in the car park!

thanks guys!

jbox, how do you know im not IN asio? im onto you buddy...

[Tailgunner]

Glad to hear it'll do.

 

[danny_galaga]

holy crap! my car can be seen from outer space! the 'master' is recognisable by its gun metal sheen and my awful parking. the car on the other side of the street is one of the a holes who parks his car on the street even though he has a garage. we have one garage, two cars so if janes car is in there im on the street...

[Tailgunner]

holy crap! my car can be seen from outer space!

Heh, with it a spy satellite they can read your tag number from outer space. 

[danny_galaga]

that must the same satellite that could see what brand of cigarettes a russian sailor was smoking. why the hell didnt they use THAT satellite to look for that missing airliner in indonesia, or those wmds...

[shmokes]

Microsoft's competitor to Google Maps is making some amazing headway.  Some of their cities have FAR more detailed photos and they can be viewed from any of the cardinal directions.  I can't remember what it's called.  It probably has Live in the name somewhere.

[Felsir]

Microsoft's version is: http://maps.live.com/ Yep, you guessed right: "live" in the name.

[danny_galaga]

Microsoft's competitor to Google Maps is making some amazing headway.  Some of their cities have FAR more detailed photos and they can be viewed from any of the cardinal directions.  I can't remember what it's called.  It probably has Live in the name somewhere.

can i see what brand of cigarettes russian sailors smoke?

[clanggedin]

The best flight SIM ever is "Chuck Yeager's Air Combat". Nothing beats blowing Messerschmits out of the air in your F4.

I still wish they would release an updated version of that game.

[danny_galaga]

well, that WOULD be fun, but mainly i needed a sim to relate to the real world so i can finish my licence. looks like google maps will do it for what i needed (a moving aerial view of my local airfield surrounds- cheap!)

oh, and i went to the royal queensland aero club the other day to look at their online theory course. the clown who was supposed to talk to me double booked and so spent most of the time talking to a young lad about to learn to fly. he left me to play with the computer. i wasnt very impressed i must say with either the sotware OR the service. the software features narration by a tone deaf woman. for the price i want narration by NICOLE KIDMAN! this is australias OLDEST aero club, you wouldnt think so from how i was just left to my own devices.  software/theory course is crazy expensive. i wouldnt have known except i overhead him say to the young lad that it costs about 2000 bucks  . i think ill stick to the good old fashioned text books (225) and just try a bit harder...