If you stumbled upon on this site, it's either you want to use flight simulator to jump start to train to become a real pilot or you're a flight enthusiast who is looking for arcade aircraft shooting game and enjoy detailed and nice graphics of the terrains and landmarks at the same time.At the moment, this page is mainly revolving around on how flight simulators can be used to train a pilot-to-be.
As we know, real flying lessons come costly and many flying enthusiasts are trimming down to the bare minimum for the flight test. By doing that, they are compromising with their flying skill sets in term of practices and accuracies. That is where the pc flight simulators are for. Not only does the flight simulator hone one’s flying skill and accuracies, it also trains and provides different flight scenarios for the pilot in command to react with sharpness and alertness. 
Practice makes perfect. With many practices, the pilot trainee can repeat his flight scenarios, crashes his plane many times and learn through his mistakes in pc but not in the real sorties of flight because it's fatal. Through flight simulator game, the pilot trainee can boost up his confidence level and expectation in flying the real plane.
There are many flight sims in the market and what I can think of at the moment (after doing some research in the internet) are ProFlightSimulator and Virtual Pilot 3D. They are so far the best flight simulation games now. They are very realistic (I mean real pilot controls starting from basic and not arcade); in fact there are few points which worth highlighting:
ProFlightSimulator ($49):
- There are 20,000+ real airports with changeable weather and NASA flight models.ProFlightSimulator ($49):
- There are 120+ Aircraft to master, you can choose from the 1903 Wright flyer to the latest military fighter jets.
- The switches, controls and buttons are accurately modeled in the cockpit.
- It is used on television episodes & professional flight schools - The Most Realistic Flight Simulator to Date.
- There is realistic worldwide terrain based on US defense mapping agency + lifetime free updates/upgrades.
- Real-time integration and synch with Google Maps. It shows you exactly where you are in respect to the 'live' players. Also, if it is real night time at a certain country that you are flying at, the sky in the screen will be dark.
There is a video review by users on ProFlightSimulator, take a look.
There are many more points that worth a second look. You can visit proflightsimulator official site for more details.
Virtual Pilot 3D ($67) :
- You can choose from 25,000+ real world airports in the full scenery set, so you won't have to settle for the usual packages offered by other programs. Also, there are changeable and real-time weather condition you desire to fly.
- There are 200+ planes and helicopters to choose from. You can fly from the 1903 Wright flyer to the latest Airbus A380.
- There are built-In interactive tutorials for every aircraft which guides you in-game on using the flight control panels, so you'll always know how to control any new unfamiliar aircraft. There are also video tutorials that you can learn how to fly planes easily even if you're a complete beginner.
- You can experience landing on an Aircraft Carrier such as Nimitz and the Eisenhower.
- You can see runways change elevation so you'll know how they slope when you land.
- There are free lifetime updates from the open source community that you never have to spend a single dime for your simulator.
Same as ProFlightSimulator, you can visit Virtual Pilot 3D official site for more details.
Many years ago, when you were to ask me, what were your criteria to choose a good flight sim, as a certified private pilot myself when I was at the age of seventeen, my criteria were simple, just to have accurate flight controls and as close as possible to real life graphics will do.
There are many more points that worth a second look. You can visit proflightsimulator official site for more details.
Virtual Pilot 3D ($67) :
- You can choose from 25,000+ real world airports in the full scenery set, so you won't have to settle for the usual packages offered by other programs. Also, there are changeable and real-time weather condition you desire to fly.
- There are 200+ planes and helicopters to choose from. You can fly from the 1903 Wright flyer to the latest Airbus A380.
- There are built-In interactive tutorials for every aircraft which guides you in-game on using the flight control panels, so you'll always know how to control any new unfamiliar aircraft. There are also video tutorials that you can learn how to fly planes easily even if you're a complete beginner.
- You can experience landing on an Aircraft Carrier such as Nimitz and the Eisenhower.
- You can see runways change elevation so you'll know how they slope when you land.
- There are free lifetime updates from the open source community that you never have to spend a single dime for your simulator.
Same as ProFlightSimulator, you can visit Virtual Pilot 3D official site for more details.
Many years ago, when you were to ask me, what were your criteria to choose a good flight sim, as a certified private pilot myself when I was at the age of seventeen, my criteria were simple, just to have accurate flight controls and as close as possible to real life graphics will do.
However, nowadays, most of the flight simulators in the market not only build their games as real as possible, such as flight controls and graphics, they also close the gap in virtual reality in every aspect! You name it, they have it in most cases.
Frankly speaking, I'm deeply impressed by these two flight simulators and I do not know who is the winner. You need to judge for yourself after visiting their sites. Whichever your choice is, enjoy! :)
