Realflight

[KeninAZ]

I just picked up Realflight 5.5 Sim for $175 from ebay, new, no shipping or tax for me.
There are several sellers that that sell them for around that price and I see most people want around that for a used one.
I had the basic version the last time I got into RC and thought I would try the advanced version to hone my skills a little.
Maybe it will save a real plane for me!

[RightFly]

You will like the RF 5.5 sim. I bought RF5 last summer (2010) to start learning RC flying. My favorite trainer is the NexStar EP.

Be sure to check out the free downloads from the Swap Pages. You can find a list of web sites under the 'Help' menu of RF. Also, checkout the 'RealFlight' site. You can download for free 5 older 'add-ons' that have been tuned to work with RF 4 and higher.

here's the link: http://www.realflight.com/addons.html

As I progressed I made good use of the settings under simulation such as advanced or beginner as well as wind conditions, strength, direction and turbulence. Some will say you can't learn to fly on a sim and that is probably true. However, I think it helped with hand-eye coordination as well as getting used to the correct stick movement when flying toward you.

I found my time spent on the sim helpfull - it sure as heck did not hurt. Two grandsons nearly wore the wings off the planes on the sims and then this summer they both soloed my Champ and did pretty well.

Good luck and enjoy your RF investment.

[KeninAZ]

Thanks for the updated information.
I understand that the full version I bought does a lot more than the older basic that I had too.

[RightFly]

I don't really know much about the basic version other than what I have read on other RF threads and Real Flights advertizing. But just being able to add planes and other flying fields is a big difference. I don't think you can do that with the basic version.

Actually, having more planes to fly probably falls under the category of just having fun. But that is why I let myself get addicted to RC flying.

As far as the actual sim engine you will probably see pretty much the same stuff but maybe better graphics etc. if you were using an older version. The only thing is minimum computer levels are pretty high in RF but my old Dell Dimension 4700 with 4gb of memory does pretty well.

I have no regret buying the RF5 now at 5.5 level. There are a lot of sims out there and I would not even attempt to rate them. But RF has about 7 or 8 expansion packages that would easily double your sim investment. That is one thing a lot of people knock on RF - the cost.

I did buy the #4 package on Ebay for about $40 but I wanted the B25 real bad. I added tons of planes from the SwapPages so I have kept my cost down somewhat.

Good luck let us know how it goes when its installed.

Roger

[KeninAZ]

You are correct, you cannot upgrade Basic in any form.
I also think that the better version allows you to put in wind does it not?
Basic does not and it has far fewer aircraft to fly.
But the expansion packs are for the older versions as far as I know, the newest 5.5 has them all incorporated, or so I think.

[RightFly]

Originally Posted by KeninAZ

I also think that the better version allows you to put in wind does it not?
Basic does not and it has far fewer aircraft to fly.

Yes you can add wind with both task menu set-up or keyboard. The menu set-up for wind is under the task "Simulation" -> "Enviroment"->"Wind". Here you can enter wind strength, direction and turbulence.

While in a sim mode the the "PgUp & PgDn" increase or decrease wind speed. The "Home & End" keys modify wind direction. The "Insert & Delete" keys set turbulence. Any time you want to see what the wind conditions are just press "upArrow" and you see a wind sock - I found that helpful setting up cross wind landing practice.

All the free airplanes from the link in my previous post will work with RF 5.5, I use many of them all the time. My avatar is a screen save of a Flyzone SkyFlyMax I have been flying on the sim available on the swap page. I wish I could fly my real one like I do on the sim - "reset" takes too long in real live.

Best of all and do enjoy.

Roger

[KeninAZ]

Thanks again. I have saved the information.
It may give me a heads up on using the new one when it arrives.

[KeninAZ]

Well I received the G5.5. My computer ran it OK but the graphics were suffering some from my motherboard video chip.
So I bought and installed GeForce 6200 and it seems to run better and look better too.
Now to get some sim time before I buy that next plane and drive it into the ground!

[Wildflyer]

I think the reason RF 5.5 is on sale is that they just released RF 6 for $ 199.99 from Tower Hobbies.