What do I buy?

[Adrian]

Been offered a copy of the new Phoenix sim for £60 (Kosher) or should I just spend double the money on Reflex?

[ShokWaveRider]

Been offered a copy of the new Phoenix sim for £60 (Kosher) or should I just spend double the money on Reflex?

Get AeroFLY Pro Deluxe! I tried a few before I went with it.

SWR

[comets8518]

I'd buy the Circle U copy of the phoenix if you don't want it, well...besides the shipping to america so maybe not

[watt_the?!]

i swear by reflex for a number of reasons..mainly the realistic flight modelling and photoreal scenes and aircraft, but also for the hundreds of heli and plane addons that are available for free.

same for AFPD but i think the flight modelling is just not quite as good as reflex's.

AFPD would be my number 2 for that reason- everything else is the same as for reflex xtr.

IMO.

[Flyinghigh]

Even FMS has Pano's these days so thats really not any reason to get one sim vs. another . The thing that will help you the most are the physics.

Graphics will not make you better. Just check out FMS it looks decent but it made me worse in 3D .I would get used to flying in it, go out and just have to re-learn on my real planes .

Any of the above mentioned are good.I fly FS-One which has superb physics,but the interface and understanding some of the settings is not for everyone.
Now I go out get better at flying my real planes come back and do the same stuff on the sim,get better at the sim and go out and get better with the real stuff :)

[paddyH]

hi Watt_the, have you tried Pheonix? you would like it :)
they are going to release an aircraft creation tool soon, so it should go ballistic.

[watt_the?!]

Paddy...actually i have....now.... when i wrote the last message i hadnt, so couldnt comment.

They just released a new patch also to correct the flight model in the 1.03a update.

it looks very nice and has excellent menu navigation and layout- better control setup and channel assignment than the others.

some cool features too like flying off and on water (!!!) gyrocopters (another !!!), big time multiplay, training like the others, night flying as standard (another cool factor but it is only for helis..sorry plane guys..i reckon a night flying plane would be interesting.

ummm..other stuff it has...nice flight model. It is quite comparable to reflex, AFPD and RFG3 there also.

it's models are still graphically rendered rather than photo textured so compared to some sims the models dont look as real. But some other recent sims (i note FSOne from what i can tell) odnt have photo textures either. That is one of the things that really makes REflex shine IMO.

Crash detection in Phoenix is better than reflex and afpd also- but that's not a feature i really worry about..i mean if you crash i personally dont want to see my plane smash into 1000 pieces and make that horrible wallet crcunching noise.

Is it cheaper than teh others? (im not sure, ill check). At the moment it fairs very well and as long as they keep patching it it could end up being the top dog as most of the others rarely, if ever patch unless it is a critical need.

Tim

[constantCrash]

Watt_the,
Question about Pheonix, what transmitter are you using with it? Also, does Pheonix have realistic crash physics? Do the models break appart?
Which physics model is better Phoenix or Reflex?

[Evan]

i say that realflight g3.5 is the best

1. it has the most realistic flight
2. you can model your plane to fly like a jet or like a foamy without changing the visible plane
3. in modeling you can make your plane hover without seeing anything around it cuz the phisics are invisible
4.you can download A LOT of planes/helis that other people have made free of charge to you at www.knifeedge.com (http://www.knifeedge.com)
5.you can play on the internet with other people(and show off)
6. you can still have photofields or 3d fields
7. you can hit other people in mid-air playing multimode(you can hook up your own tx and fly two people split screen)and on the internet
8. it comes already with a tx designed for realflight

i hope this gives you enough reasons to go G3.5

[3DJIM]

Hi all, just found you guys and joined up here!!

Just to clear up a few points ref Phoenix :D

sorry plane guys..i reckon a night flying plane would be interesting.

There is a night fly plane! always has been!!

it's models are still graphically rendered rather than photo textured

All the new aircraft and heli's for Phoenix are photo real, and look awesome!.

Also with multiplayer and 'ADK' just around the corner phoenix has
a massive future!

All the best
Jim Lacey.

[Albatross]

Hi Jim and everybody else,

Can anybody suggest the best source for a good deal on the Phoenix RC sim?

Dave

[3DJIM]

Hi dave,

My lhs takes paypal and does free delivery!!
Thats a good deal!

http://www.mrmodels.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2emrmodels%2e co%2euk%2facatalog%2fshop%2ehtml&WD=phoenix&SHOP=trlshop23179&PN=mr_models_Phoenix_437%2ehtml%23aPHOENIX_2dSIM1# aPHOENIX_2dSIM1

Scrol to the bottom of that page!.

Jim

[Albatross]

Thanks Jim, I sent them an email to see if they will apply that to shipping to Canada...
cheers,
Dave

[watt_the?!]

i say that realflight g3.5 is the best

1. it has the most realistic flight
2. you can model your plane to fly like a jet or like a foamy without changing the visible plane
3. in modeling you can make your plane hover without seeing anything around it cuz the phisics are invisible
4.you can download A LOT of planes/helis that other people have made free of charge to you at www.knifeedge.com (http://www.knifeedge.com)
5.you can play on the internet with other people(and show off)
6. you can still have photofields or 3d fields
7. you can hit other people in mid-air playing multimode(you can hook up your own tx and fly two people split screen)and on the internet
8. it comes already with a tx designed for realflight

i hope this gives you enough reasons to go G3.5

not trying to be argumentative, but post my experiences..

i wouldnt put RFG3.5 in my top 4 sims..maybe 5 even as i havent tried FSOne.

i would vehementoy disagree about your point 1 though...the flight model is ok, but certainly not the best IMO.
all the other features are nice to haves, but it lacks in other areas also..

my tope 3 are:

1. Reflex xTR
2. Phoenix
3. AFPD

fwiw.

i would have phoenix at no1. if the flight models were more like reflex's , as it beats reflex in most other areas. The biggest factors keeping xtr and AFPD at or near the top though are the abundance of user contributions as well as photo rendered models (not just fields).

of course all in my humble opinion.

Tim

[BobbyDog]

Where did you buy Reflex XTR from Tim? I just checked out MRC's website (US distributer) but they dont look very trustworthy. Pretty disorganized website with most things "out of stock". I'm not into sending them any money...

Bob

[watt_the?!]

Hi Bob..like your sig mate...dont know how adam puts up with jamie...anyways, i think i bought it from extreme rc in hawaii...

theres a pretty cool heli store there anyways and im pretty sure i got it from there..great service, prompt delivery..cant complain.

you shoudl be ok getting it from the US dealer though really..what makes you think they are dodge?

Tim

[BobbyDog]

Go check out thier site. I cant remember the address, just do MRC Reflex XTR in google. If you scroll through the products, almost everything is "out of stock" or "coming soon". Out of their 6 or 7 lipo chargers, only 1 type is in stock. I dont like the looks of that, makes me think "going out of business" or "creditors wont send us more". If it was a 20 dollar item then no problem but this is 200 smackaroonies we're talking about. I'll try the Hawaii store, its a US dealer too. :) Thanks budz.

I dont know how Adam puts up with Jamie also, if I were him I'd smack that stupid hat off his head twice a day!

Bob

[ElectricFlyGuy]

I love the REFLEX!!!! Good luck to ya. Scott.;)

i swear by reflex for a number of reasons..mainly the realistic flight modelling and photoreal scenes and aircraft, but also for the hundreds of heli and plane addons that are available for free.

same for AFPD but i think the flight modelling is just not quite as good as reflex's.

AFPD would be my number 2 for that reason- everything else is the same as for reflex xtr.

IMO.

[LiPoSuckShawn]

In response to the OP. I only have experience with Aerofly Pro Deluxe, Clearview, FMS and Phoenix (I own and use all 4) and often play with RealFlight at my LHS. Of that group, I would recommend AFPD hands down right now because I feel it offers slightly superior flight physics and there is a way, way better selection of downloadable models for it.

Phoenix has some weird physics issues. For example, several airplane models will glide for quite a while with no power. Most similar planes that I have had experience with would have dropped like a rock in real life. However, Phoenix has the best looking graphics of any sim I've tried and could someday be the leader.

Another thing I don't like about Phoenix is it forces you to use your radio through its trainer port. I hate having to charge my Tx just to fly my sim. AFPD, Clearview and FMS can all use my Esky controller. I know that Phoenix use this method for copy protection but I think they should find some other way of protecting their property and give their customers more choices.

Consequently, I play Phoenix about 10% of the time. I actually play Clearview more often.

[rz22g]

G3, FS One and Reflex are overpriced eye candy. For the cost of these the realism should be outstanding and it is not. Having tried all three of these I would say G3 is the better overall choice but I still would not get that. There may be others in that price range but these I have tried.

When it comes down to it there is no simulator out there that is like the real thing. When done half way well, a good simulator will help you with stick movement and how the model will react in general. There are several out there that do this without the $200 price tag.