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18 of 18 found the following review helpful:
 Phoenix RC Flight SimulatorJul 22, 2011
By Trashman
Having an interest in RC aircraft since childhood, I haven't actually participated in the hobby until now. What better way to dive in but to purchase a 3D Helicopter kit. After assembly and buying all the necessary accessories, my first flight lasted about 5 seconds. So after my first crash, and another $80 in parts, I got it back together....10 seconds of flying, and CRASH....now another $56 in parts....flight number three...well you get the idea. (I've spent over 3X the cost of the simulator in parts learning to fly
A friend of mine who got me to actually purchase the helicopter in the first place suggested I buy the Phoenix, I hesitated to do it just because I assumed that even though I have my commercial pilots license, the simulator would not be necessary. I was wrong.
I purchased the software/cable and it plugs right in to my transmitter. What a GREAT tool. I have spent hours and hours actually learning to fly the exact model of my "real life RC helicopter". I can now fly my helicopter with confidence for basic techniques and working on more advanced skills on this sim first as they are much harder to master.
My suggestion for anyone entering this hobby would be to train on the simulator before buying the actual RC model. There are many many simulator models to choose from. This allows you to get a feel for how the aircraft handles, which may or may not suit your liking and you can then purchase the actual model down the road knowing that you already know what to expect. It's somewhat "test driving" the real thing. Saving you lots of money and frustration.
For those who already have RC experience, you can experiment with new maneuvers without worrying about crashing and repairing your model. Do those tricks virtually and it reduces the need to have someone more experienced with you with the training cable connected to their transmitter to save you if you get into trouble..
This Simulator is constantly adding new models: Electric/Nitro Aircraft, Helicopters, Amphibious, Quad rotor etc. You can also change your geography, fly at night, change weather, adjust countless variables of the aircraft, assign switches, fly with friends online, record your flight and more.
My internet connection isn't super fast, and the online connectivity has always been fine.
The software lets you practice specific evolutions as well: landings, hovering, auto rotations etc without having to take off, get to altitude and spend lots of time getting set up for the maneuver.
What GREAT bang for the buck getting this simulator. I wish I purchased this BEFORE I bought my helicopter, as I may have ended up buying a different model and saved a bunch of cash in the process. Now I know what my next couple of aircraft will be, and not have to wonder if I'll like them.
26 of 28 found the following review helpful:
Better than RealFlight for RC foam planes and helicoptersSep 11, 2011
By N. Rossino
Firstly, if you are wondering whether you need a simulator or not before you fly... well you do. Otherwise, you will repeatedly crash and burn in real life. I had to put in 40 hrs of simulator time before I became 100% "crash proof". In fact, after all that simulator time, I flew like a pro my first time out. By my third time out, I was flying easily in 15 mph winds with gusts up to 25-30 mph. If I didn't practice in the simulator, I would have never had a successful flight. I would've just given up.
Ok, now on to this actual product. I tried three simulators. Aeorofly Professional Deluxe, Phoenix v3 and Reaflight 4.5. Aerofly and Phoenix flew almost the same to me. The problem with Aerofly is that all the planes are European, and being an American, there were no planes in Aerofly that I could actually fly. IMO, the flight of foam planes in both Phoenix and Aerofly was very realistic... but if you are in the US, you'll want Phoenix v3.
Realflight 4.5 was a different story. Everything I flew (even the foam electric planes) felt like I was flying a brick with wings. Now, I always hear people say that RealFlight is more realistic, its a better sim, etc. etc. The reason is, I think these people fly the larger and more expensive planes made out of the heavier material. Maybe in these cases, you really are flying a brick with wings... I don't know, I never tried. I can say its much harder to fly in Realflight, and if you are a foam electric flyer it will likely feel nothing like the real thing...
Graphics wise, Phoenix v3 looks better than all the others. The depth of the photo fields are also more accurate. Realflight's photo fields just didn't look right in some cases, and the depth was clearly way off in some spots. Aerofly also had his problem to a much lower degree. One thing to mention is that other sims have 3d flying environments, where Phoenix v3 only has photo fields. Personally, the 3d environments all look horrible to me, so I don't fly them. Obviously though, because of this, there is no FPV training as you can't change your position in a photo field.
Both Aerofly and Phoenix ran great on my i3 processor based laptop w/ 4GB of ram. Realflight seemed to not do well with my integrated video, even in photo fields. Not sure why.
Aerofly and Realflight DID have more models to download. There is no third party model support for Phoenix. You are stuck with what the programming team gives you... but on the bright side, there is a good selection of foam and small prop flyers. There are some large prop flyers, and three or four turbine models as well, but its clearly geared toward the more affordable stuff (which I think most normal people will fly). In pretty much all the sims though, there is a distinct lack of EDF jets. I would've liked to see more of these.
So, hands down, Phoenix v3 worked the best for me. It was really true to life for the foam flying planes and I hear the helicopter flight is spot on as well. It has the models that true beginners will most likely fly (small foam planes, or small gas flyers) and they are true to form. Hands down, this is the best choice.
11 of 12 found the following review helpful:
RC SimulatorMar 25, 2011
By Family man
It was a difficult choice between Realflight and the Phoenix Simulators. I chose the Phoenix because you do not need to purchase add on hanger packs to expand your variety of aircraft. I fly fixed wing airplanes and use a futuba 6xa radio with a round trainer plug. I need to purchase an adaptor to hook up the simulator to my radio. They vary in price for different radios. You do have the option of purchasing a radio with the simulator but I wanted to use the radio I would use in the field. Everything pluged up fine and easy. The program install flawlessly and after a simple calibration of my radio to the program I was ready to go. One feature I really like is everytime I open the program it goes online to check for new free download aircraft which you then have the choice of adding to the program or not. The simulation seems very realistic. All the aircraft have different flight characteristics so they handle differently. With the exception of having to add the adaptor cord this is perfect for my use. Highly Recomended
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
A real joy to use and has taught me how to fly without damaging my heliOct 22, 2011
By J. Johnson
The Phoenix v3 package was indispensible for me. I am new to R/C flying and I recently purchased the Blade 120SR helicopter and the Spektrum DX8 transimitter. Even though the Blade 120SR is an 'entry level' heli, I still crashed it a lot, and had some significant damage in two of the crashes, that resulted in a lot of repair time.
After the second major crash (after about 60 seconds of total flying time) I decided that R/C flying wasn't for me. I spent an hour repairing my little Blade and saw no way I could get better fast enough to avoid many, many more hours of repair time. I saw the Phoenix software online and decided to buy it, hoping it would teach me to fly better. To my surprise, it worked!
The software installed quickly and easily on my Windows 7 PC. Using the included USB adapter I plugged one end into the USB jack on my computer and the other end into the "trainer" jack in the back of my DX8 (make sure your transmitter has a trainer jack or you can't use the software...the Phoenix website has a list of transmitters that will work). The software immediately recognized the DX8 and I was ready to fly. It is that easy.
The Phoenix has dozens of models of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft to choose from. Use your mouse to select which one you want to fly and within 2 seconds your R/C model is on the screen, ready to fly. You can choose from about a dozen different fields to fly from. Each is an actual photo of the site, and looks as real as a photo. The same is true with the R/C models. They are photo-perfect.
You take off and fly around the field without restriction. Every move of the transmitter results in an absolutely real reaction on the screen. The R/C models you can choose from includes my Blade 120SR and it is incredibly realistic. In fact, using the Phoenix sw BEFORE you fly your new aircraft seems to be highly advisable. I got my heli before I got the sw, and immediately after take off I crashed at high speed into our patio wall, causing a lot of damage to the heli. I lost control so quickly that I didn't have time to figure out how to slow it down before the impact (my wife, who was watching, learned some new words).
While I was repairing the heli, the Phoenix sw arrived. I set it up, plugged in my DX8, selected the Blade 120SR and crashed again...hard. But, this time I only crashed on my computer, so there was no damage, no 'fix it' time and only a couple of bad words. The fw automatically restarted from the takeoff position, and I was flying again. After playing...I mean learning...for an hour I flew my real Blade 120 (front yard this time, with no walls to hit), and was able to keep it flying for quite a while. More importantly, when I crashed it was not nearly as hard as before, because I had enough skill, thanks to the Phoenix flight-training, to crash 'softer' (i.e., at a lower speed.)
In addition to teaching you how to fly your own model of R/C aircraft (check their website for a complete list of aircraft included in the simulation software) you can check out the characteristics of dozens of other aircraft so you can decided which model to buy next. The simulation flies identically to the real model (as far as my inexperience can tell, anyway.)
The Phoenix package also includes competition modes and training scenarios, such as busting tethered balloons, shooting at other aircraft with lasers, bombing competitions, spot landing competitions, etc. This software makes a good video game on its own. You don't need to have an R/C aircraft, but you do need your own transmitter.
I strongly recommend anyone new to RC buy this software. It has saved me many hours, and dollars, in repair costs. And now my wife doesn't laugh at my flying as much as she did before I had it.
4 of 4 found the following review helpful:
Phoenix RC Flight SimMar 02, 2011
By Tmblewd
Fantastic flight sim!! Awesome graphics, very realistic when flying RC Helicopters. I kinda messed around with the airplanes, but I'm a Heli guy. It works great with my Futaba 8FG radio, very easy to get set up. My Futaba 9CHP would not link up right but I do think it is my fault and not the programs. If you are a RC flyer, I highly recommend this simulator for your practice
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based on 22 reviews
