[Lorne @ Pro-RC.ca]

I have not used the simulators much in the last few years and should pick one up for christmas.
What is the best sim for practicing hovering, harier, and rolling harier practice?

[Tyler P]

Phoenix v4 or RealFlight 6 will both allow you to learn those maneuvers. Both work very well.

[rotormonkey13]

Phoenix updates are free forever, you have to pay for RF.
Phoenix has better physics for helis hands down.
Phoenix is less buggy, and is updated regularly.
Phoenix has all the Horizon models, RF has Great Planes stuff
Phoenix is cheaper.

For all the above reasons I like Phoenix better. I've owned both.

[bradleyban]

If you go with Pheonix you can join rotormonkey and myself online and fly with us.....

[Lorne @ Pro-RC.ca]

Originally Posted by bradleyban

If you go with Pheonix you can join rotormonkey and myself online and fly with us.....

For this reason alone I better go with pheonix

[dave13]

I use Realflight 4.5 and a free downloads off knife edge .com for models I won't to fly don't use no funny chase view use pilot spawn position and I stand up when on sim I know of only 1 pilot who sits when flying and he does a good job but most of us stand put difficulty on advanced and I got wind always on and I switch direction hope this helps like said in first post Phoenix should be good as well you were flying dame good at you're fun fly see you in the spring

[bradleyban]

Originally Posted by fishfly

For this reason alone I better go with pheonix

WOOT!!!

[cravenjw]

Have both. Currently i find RF6 more realistic feeling for 3D plane flying. Phoenix has much better wind settings, which i miss that. Thought free updates and planes were great in Phoenix, and when i used, but they hardly put out any new planes anymore. A few when V3 was new, hardly any after that. Very limited selection compared to going to Swap pages on KnifeEdge site for RF models. Pretty much find any plane there!!! I can download my 3DHS, Extreme Flight, or Sebart, Prec Aero etc in my colour scheme, and often have couple different interpretations or tunings (ie revisions of same plane) to get closest flying feel. I like that most of all. One feature i find annoying in RF6, the vertical and horizontal surfaces break or fall off the 3D plane far too easy, in aggressive maneuvers.

[Lorne @ Pro-RC.ca]

Thanks for the info john,
great! now I have to buy both sims

[rotormonkey13]

With RF, they do have the swap pages where there's thousands and thousands of models to choose from. That's a double edged sword as far as I'm concerned.

Suppose I want to get Model X because that's what I fly. There's 20 different versions on knifeedgeforums and NONE of them fly like my airplane. In fact 16 of those 20 fly so ridiculously that they're not like anything even remotely realistic.

Yes there's tons of models, but since any yahoo can just put one together however they want... Like the 14yo kid (let's face it the kids are the ones that have time to put a lot of these together) that thinks the "Trex 600" would be way cooler if it looked like a helicopter, but flew like a jet. Then you go looking for a Trex 600 model, download it and "Hey look at that.. I have a helicopter that can only fly at mach 3.. Just what I was looking for... ". The point is the quality is certainly lacking on many of them imo.

If you don't care what the model actually looks like, it's easier just to go and edit any of the stock models in either sim to fly how you want it to to mirror your stuff.

Having thousands of models to choose from SOUNDS like a great perk. For me anyway, it was pretty much useless.