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Comment by lars_francke | Hacker News Reader

Sorry for the slightly off-topic question:

As a "kid" I loved Flight Simulator (this was 25+ years ago). If I wanted to get back into it today are there any recommendations what to use/get in terms of software and hardware today for a beginner?

I did briefly (1h or so) try Flight Simulator 2020 but I was missing a kind of tutorial path starting with an absolute beginner. I might misremember this though!

So: Any recommendations on software, hardware, tutorials? I'm not looking to become a pilot, just spend a few hours every week learning a bit and having fun.

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FS2020 has some simple tutorial missions for taking off, landing, etc. Other than that there are loads of great YouTube channels such as Squirrel that walk you through things https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbphwhPw2JuvwwsD-H3xo...

As for hardware, I'd recommend at minimum a joystick of some kind if you don't have one.

And finally I'd give you a shameless plug for my app SmoothTrack which lets you fluidly control the game camera with small head movements - https://smoothtrack.app ;-)

I've been wondering about this myself. Being a Mac user, I haven't really had a chance to use recent versions of MSFS in a couple decades. But... like you, I spent a lot of time learning rudiments of flying and navigation from it about 25 years ago. Appallingly, on my first and only flying lesson over Los Angeles (c. 2002), I knew enough about the controls and instruments that the instructor thought I knew what I was doing, and allowed me to take off and land by myself. The landing bit didn't work out that great and required some major intervention at the last second... but, still here ;)

As a Mac user, your best bet is probably X-Plane. There's only a few short tutorials, but given your history you should have no issues :)

Same here! I got all the way back to the airport, lined up, but was too high and didn't know how to safely lose it. I knew better than to lower the nose, but was afraid to withdraw power and stall 50 feet AGL so I gave him the controls. The experience (of flying - out to Catalina and back) left me speechless. My brain was so overloaded from tasks, instruments and sensory input (there's a LOT of stuff in the sky in SoCal, not all of which is man-made or talking to ATC) I had nothing to say when we touched down. It was incredible and I wish I could do it again. But it's kinda unethical to keep paying for "introductory lessons".

Funny. Yea. Also came into Santa Monica way too high, even though I was lined up perfectly. I was in a war with myself between what my brain said I needed to do and what my gut didn't want to do. I gave the instructor controls and he opted to turn us into a side slip that felt like 30 degrees yaw, and we dropped like a stone sideways. At about 300 ft he turned rudder and landed straight like he was parking in his driveway. Scared the absolute crap out of me.

And yeah, LA sky is dangerous. In that flight I had a dot the size of a mosquito loom into a small jet in about 5 seconds...

if I do another $60 intro lesson, it'll be up here in Oregon.

A few minutes after takeoff from Gillespie, I noticed a bird turn from a dot, then a black blob, rapidly passing above us. I turned to look at the instructor and said "did you see that?" ? We were at maybe 6,000MSL and there were birds above us. I wasn't scared but just astonished at how much was going on.

MSFS on the X Box Series S/X is incredible. It even supports joysticks. There’s just something about flying over cities you’ve been to and seeing them so realistically rendered. There are definitely some glitches, but overall it is a pretty amazing experience.

I got bit by this bug some years ago.

I can suggest you get a machine dedicated to the task of running only flightsims. ;) You're going to need disk space and GPU.

My current "flight" laptop is a mid-spec gaming system from 3 years ago, paired with a Warthog HOTAS setup with stick, throttle and rudder controls (https://www.thrustmaster.com/products/hotas-warthog/), a dedicated speaker system, and a comfy lazyboy specifically for the task of seating me in comfort for hours on end. ;)

There are a couple alternatives to the Warthog - many people suggest Virpil (https://virpil-controls.eu) or VKB (https://flightsimcontrols.com/product/gladiator-evo-space-co...) controls instead.

One thing to know is that Virpil is backwards-compatible with Warthog, so if you go the (cheaper) route with Warthog and later decide to upgrade, that's a bonus.

Either way, be prepared for an investment. This is one of those hobbies where you can start out mid-range/cheap, and end up investing 5x - 10x as much as you become a better (armchair) pilot.

Still .. cheaper (and safer) than having a real airplane, and a lot of fun ..

Try FlightGear (https://www.flightgear.org/) it is a Free Software simulator, and super fun .. specially with real maps and weather. And there are bunch of tutorials.

For software, you're looking at, in no particular order:

  - X-Plane 12
  - Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020/2024
  - Prepar3d (fork of Flight Simulator X)
  - FlightGear (free, open-source)
  - Digital Combat Simulator World (aka DCS World, combat flight simulation; specialises in jet fighters)
  - Orbiter 2016 (space flight simulator; also free)

Modern flight simulators today are generally quite intensive on hardware—especially the CPU—even at low rendering settings. The article is a great example; all of these calculations are fully CPU-bound. It is strongly recommended to get a high-frequency, high-core-count, large-cache CPU—this is probably any of the 3D V-cache Ryzens (5800X3D, 7800X3D, 9800X3D). A _decent_ GPU is recommended for graphics eye candy, but not strictly necessary for accurate flight simulation if you're happy to turn the graphics knobs down (although I've heard that FS2024 has offloaded some weather and physics calculations to the GPU; don't quote me).

For simulation hardware, you can't go wrong with a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro joystick which is fairly inexpensive new (https://www.logitechg.com/en-gb/products/space/extreme-3d-pr...), although you can actually still use mouse + keyboard if you're more interested in simulating the systems and procedures of jet airliners.

Tutorials: I do believe the game simulators have built-in tutorials, though it's been a while since I've followed any of them. Searching for '<flight simulator> Cessna 172 VFR tutorial' is a decent place to start. For a more structured work-through, PilotEdge (a virtual ATC network) has some: https://www.pilotedge.net/workshops

Speaking of virtual ATC, at some point you'll get bored of being the only person simulating. All the game simulators have a multiplayer option, but if you want to get serious with the role-playing, VATSIM is a great place to start and has worldwide coverage, depending on when ATC providers log on. I've found that European ATC is generally online on weekday evenings UTC, and American ATC is generally online on Saturday mornings (UTC) and at the weekends.

PilotEdge has more limited, but more round-the-clock coverage, and is a paid network, and takes the seriousness and realism to the next level.

Vatsim is a great place to start if you're very serious about your radio protocol. Don't expect them to take you by the hand and teach you. They expect you to know what you're doing. They don't have any time for people who are just there for a chat. It's a pretty serious sim community. Nothing bad about that but if you're just messing around and hoping to say hi to some other people it doesn't really go down well there.

> Vatsim is a great place to start if you're very serious about your radio protocol

> They expect you to know what you're doing.

These two statements are a little contradictory. Definitely VATSIM is not a place to start, they expect you to know how to operate in ATC and even just operating your plane is a significant hurdle in the beginning which you need to get over before going to VATSIM.

Yeah the place to start thing was something that the OP said. I intended to put that into perspective by adding some ifs and buts.

But yeah to be honest vatsim is not a good starting point at all. Totally agreed there. I just didn't want to sound negative. Especially because I don't think it's a negative thing at all. They're just people that are very serious about simming and there's nothing bad about that.

And yeah controlling the plane is the first thing to learn. If you can't maintain altitude or a vector I'm sure they'll call you out just like a real ATC would. When I learned to fly the comms part would stress me out because it was distracting. So usually the instructor would handle it. I was lucky to learn at a controlled airport so I would spend the day between flights just listening. I even had an air band receiver in the car :)

Thank you!

Yeah, I'm mostly looking for someone to hold my hand. The limited amount of time I have I'd love to actually learn and play and not search for the "best tutorial for XYZ". So anything with a guided path is perfect.

I do have an old Saitek Cyborg Evo, not sure if it still works) so I'll try that first.

FSacademy has lesson packs that I've found pretty good for Microsoft Flight simulator. Though they are not super US-centric.

The built-in lessons are decent for the basics. The older flight simulator lessons with Rod Machado were much, much better. I had picked up FSX on Steam for cheap during some sale, and they are available digitally there. I've still used that for reference, and even though they obviously don't integrate interactively with the new Microsoft Flight simulator, you can still use them as ideas to practice skills.

If you decide to get serious about it, bite the bullet and get rudder pedals. In my opinion adding feet coordination is a much bigger adjustment than yoke versus stick or a fancier stick.

Also VR is truly a game changer. It requires beefy hardware and will ratchet up the cost, but it will seem downright cheap compared to real flight time.

for software, I'm very happy with X-Plane, specially if you own a mac. For hardware, you could use an xbox joystic, but I would highly recommend this: https://yawmanflight.com/ - it's perfect for on-the-go and tbh much more convenient than a full yoke + pedals. I sold my yoke and pedals and now just use the yawman.

If you're a nerd, https://av8n.com/how/ is one of the greatest tutorials there are. It's not simulator-specific but goes through all the fundamentals at a level where you'll be able to handle a lot of non-usual situations on your own.

MSFS 2024 has career mode with flying lessons. Initially buggy, but imo will be fine in a few months.

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