Flight simulator advice

Murmansk

A friend of mine seems to fancy trying a flight simulator. She has a laptop and large monitor attached to it. Laptop not massively powerful but broadband very fast.
Looking for recommendations for what software to use that's free or cheap - and will she need a joystick or something - if so please point me in the right direction
Thanks

Sandtree

What sort of flight sim? Doing the LHR to SFO in a Boeing 747 or having a dogfight with the red baron in a  sopworth pup

forgotmyname

FMS is Free, but its ancient also.  Remember tweaking the files so an indoor rubberband model had the thrust
of a modern jet. Seems the wings fall off when you accelerate, who knew.   

Flight Sim X £20 on steam?    Flight Sim 2020 £60 upwards I think and needs a decent PC.

You can use a flight sim with a keyboard or even a controller but its not really a SIM at that point.
I have flight sim X and use an Xbox One controller, But I am more into the challenges and just messing
around rather that getting into the whole SIM thing, that soon gets  costly.  £800 for a flight yoke set...eeekk
And thats not even the best custom stuff...

Neil_Jones

People who love Flight Simulators will go to full lengths to simulate the entire experience, which includes converting the attic/spare space somewhere with multiple monitors, computers, controllers, keyboards, pedals...  Not cheap.  Visually very nice and very immersive but not particularly pretty on the wallet.

You might do better in the first instance to find somebody who has one of these setups and have a play for a while.  Either you'll love it or you'll run away screaming.  Flight Sim is one of those things you really need to either commit yourself fully or not at all to get the most out of it.

yorkrose1984

You could get a xbox game pass trial for £1 and download Microsoft Flight Sim (though it is a big download), I would use a website called 'canirunit', first to see whether your computer is 'powerful' enough to run the software. It is also a big download around 100GB (because of the HD rendering), it is however beautiful and well put together and of course because all that has been spent is £1 if one doesn't like it, it has not really been the price of a 'coffee'!

bairn7

Can't help much, but if you're friend is really keen on flight simming (in the sense of flying proper planes with all procedures etc), a laptop won't really cut it (and broadband speed won't make up the difference). A decent gaming desktop will run something like xplane ok (and you will definitely want to buy a yoke). But if the big attraction is being able to (visually) realistically fly to certain places, then a high end PC (and microsoft flight simulator 2020) is the way to go. But you're talking thousands to get the right setup.

It all comes down to why your friend is interested in flight sims.

binao

As above., is your friend looking for fun gaming, shooting them down in flames or flying the Grand Canyon, down in the bottom is great fun. It takes practice to do either. Concorde / 707 maybe?

Many retired flyers relive there working life experiences every day, down to the last detail.

Is the laptop, Windows 10 ?

Google "Flight Simulator You Tube", then scroll down for various sim vids etc.

Great mag is PC Pilot, latest issue at WHSs includes 14 pg on the new MS sim.

Also lots of flight sim software, hardware and books can be found on auction sites at give away prices. Buy and try. Have fun during lock down!!!

Good luck.