Off Topic: Man! Reading this answer so makes me want to play those FlightSim games of the yesteryears like Apache Havoc, Commanche, Jane's F/A 18 Hornet etc etc. Does anyone have any suggestions for a modern Flight Sim game? Thanks!
Games to keep an eye on (if you like combat) http://www.polygon.com/2014/6/9/5791924/e3-2014-marks-the-re...
Been out of games for a while, but looking forward to Oculus and whatever today's Thrustmaster equivalent is :)
The hardcore side of combat flightsim gaming for me was Su-27 Flanker (http://www.mobygames.com/game/su-27-flanker), published by SSI. So hardcore I never actually managed to complete a full mission! It was a bit dry, without any campaigns or any kind of career tracking, but man was it detailed! It made me fall in love with the real-life Flanker.
And of course, Falcon 3.0 by Spectrum Holobyte. Another awesome flightsim I spent a lot of time with but never managed to complete a single mission with. It was obvious this sim was a work of love.
1) DCS World (https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/world/) is the "framework" and comes with some free aircraft. There are paid aircraft options both 1st and 3rd party; DCS A-10C being the most popular.
2) Falcon BMS (http://www.benchmarksims.org/forum/content.php) which is the successor to Falcon 4.0
Time to buy shares in joystick manufacturers.
First, there's the resolution issue. I've only used DK2, but its resolution was so low that I was unable to read the dials/HUD without getting my face super close to them, which presents major issues when trying to maintain situational awareness.
Second, no matter how many buttons and switches you have on your HOTAS, you're going to have to manipulate something with your keyboard/mouse at some point. This causes some obvious problems when you have an Oculus strapped to your head.
It doesn't compare well to the modern commercial flight simulators in terms of graphics or realism, but it's still a good time. :-)
Falcon 4.0 is nothing short of amazing. It has been under non-stop development by the official developers and the community (thanks to a source code leak) since 1984.
Many of the community developers are former pilots and avionics techs.