Great Planes Realflight G5.5 Flight Simulator Mode 2

As a kid, I flew control-line aircraft and watched neighbors fly RC powered and glider aircraft. I plan to get myself and my kids into RC planes, particularly the amazing electric park flyers, and purchased this simulator as a way of preparing myself for my first and subsequent flights with a variety of aircraft.The software comes with a full size Futaba simulator controller that is fully featured, offering 8 channels, trim tabs, and two sticks and connects to the computer via a USB port. The controller is top notch. The package comes with other cables that can be used to connect other, real controllers to your computer to allow you to train with the equipment you use in the field.The software is easy to install/register and intuitive to use. Users have a wide variety of locations to fly from, ranging from photo-realistic grass fields to less realistic fantasy locations that I found less interesting. The range of aircraft offered is representative of just about everything one would want to fly, including electric and gas/nitro trainers, 3D aerobats, scale war birds, float planes, ducted fan and turbine jets and twin engine planes. There is even a Harrier jet, which is fun to try out. I would have liked to see more in the war bird category, including two and four engine aircraft, but the range of aircraft offered is more than adequate and after a month of owning the software and "flying" daily I still have not flown all of them. Several aircraft can be configured as "combat" versions with guns and rockets. Other configurations are offered, as well as different color schemes. Finally, multiplayer options are also provided (I have not tried them yet).The experience of flying is very realistic. The sound is great, different aircraft handle differently and the response to controller inputs is perfect. WWI aircraft have all of the tricky handling characteristics of their full-size counterparts (including nosing over on landings). Jets look and sound like jets and all too quickly become a dot in the sky/screen. Landings are difficult, as they are in real life, and is the activity I spend the most time practicing. The one added difficulty with this simulation, and perhaps all 2D simulators, is depth perception. I find it hard to align the base leg of my approach with the runway. One of the fantasy fields you can fly from offers an obstacle course of hoops to fly through. Estimating their distance relative to the path of my plane is very difficult. (A 3D simulator would be interesting option, but then a new TV would be required - I'll put that money into models and radios).There is a high degree of customization offered by the software. In addition to the various fields and aircraft configurations, one can also direct the program to induce a variety of failures during flight and change the wind conditions. Both functions were easy to customize and had a realistic impact on the flying experience.The aircraft accumulate damage in proportion to the beating they are taking at the hands of the pilot. Hard touch-and-gos will result in damaged landing gear or a prop strike. Hard crashes result in the destruction of the model into various parts and flying surfaces. Interestingly, crashing jets often does not stop the fuselage from keeping on moving across the field. Could be real behavior, I don't know. Also, from what I read, RC turbine jets carry a lot of fuel. I would assume that a high-speed crash could result in a fire or explosion. Crashing them in this simulation does not have that result.A wide variety of helos are also offered. I'm working on my fixed-wing skills first, but did try some of the helos out. I have heard that RC helos are hard to learn and my virtual experience with them is consistent with the rumor. Getting to one minute of even marginally controlled flight is an accomplishment.This is not an inexpensive software/controller bundle, and costs about twice what my first RC plane does. That said, but its broad spectrum of offerings and customization, on-going value as a training and transition aid, and the possibility to upgrade the software when the next version arrives makes it something with long term value and worth its price. And then there is the money you will save on repairing and replacing damaged models and radio equipment.

I would recommend this to everyone who wants to get into real life RC planes. It's more realistic than other simulators I've tried, I think it's well worth the money for the confidence and skill it gives you when flying your real planes (which each cost 2-4 times as much, it's much better to learn crashing electrons instead of foam wings). The number of planes is ridiculous (with more available to download) - basic trainers, warplane models, crazy 3D acrobats and helis. It even has some fun oddball models like the Wright brother's plane, a vertical takeoff harrier, float planes and crazy fast fighter jets. The only thing I don't like about it are landings - you need ridiculous distances to glide in to a landing and then to roll to a stop, much longer than my experience with similar planes has been in real life. But the flight, acrobatic, stall, etc. mechanics are very realistic.Pros:-Tons of models-Realistic flight with a full size mock RC transmitter-Adjustable difficulty-New relative to other simulators (actually works in Windows 7)Cons:-Expensive (easily worth it to save your real life planes)-Landings harder than real life (not necessarily a con)

This product is outstanding. It is a superior and natural bridge between the desire and the successful completion of RC flight. I have been running on a modern all-in-one computer and it performs outstanding. It is especially fun flying the enhanced aircraft, such as 3D helicopters, gyro assisted 3D Yak, tilt-wing aircraft. The price may seem high before you buy, but not after you use the product. Great value, pays for itself in fun flying of your real A/C without disappointing and expensive CRASHES!

I looked forward to purchasing Real flight 5 as I had not updated it from real flight 3. I was very disappointed. The graphics are greatbut I was disappointed that I could not Place myself behind or in the plane as in the plane as in 3, nor can I line up and glide to the runway as before. I have a difficult time with depth of field with this program. Having said that as a private pilot I rate Real Flight As exactly what a radio control flyer will see and hears when hr flies a RC Plane.

Product picture is not what you get! What they show is the disc plus transmitter box and they also make you think it's this product by saying shipping weight 2 pounds.......what I got was the over priced product of just the disc

This is a re-write of my original not-so-glowing review. Originally I was disappointed with the graphics quality. I ran it on an HP Pavilion with 1GB card and an I7 processor and wasn't impressed.I migrated the Sim, AND Win7 64 Bit OS to a MacBook Pro 15 via "Parallels" and it works FLAWLESSLY and looks MUCH better. The Virtual machine has 75% few graphics resources dedicated to (Parallels only allows 256MB) it AND all the graphics settings on the SIM are maxed out. HP should be ASHAMED.Anyway, much happier with the program, although STILL...my wallet aches a little for the $200 expenditure; but in the long run, and the non-crash training I get...it making its money for me. I'm one of the guys that thought he could fly a Blade 400...with out much practice (can fly an MSR easily enough!)...very wrong I was.J

Great program, Problem is they keep updating the software & if you don't do that, you are now left with a empty server list with nobody to play with unless you have the latest version. Yes the newer versions will be able to jump down to the lower versions & I have had people I know do that & tell me the complaints of the new version & stating the old one is betterr. But why would they, unless they really wanted to re-connect with their friends.I have found that the 6.0 version was a disaster! Then of course everyone went back to 5.5, then they went to 6.5 @ I have not heard how well that went yet.