"everyone - all r/c pilots - need a good sim, and one with sim models that can be tweaked to fly as reasonably like yer real models".
There in lies the problem. If you are like me and have never flown an RC plane you have no idea if the virtual models fly like the real ones. Or which ones do, and which ones don't . The only thing I have to go by is watching videos on youtube like Flight Test. And that doesn't help me much because Josh seems like a REALLY good pilot. I mean he can fly anything and make it look easy. The only way to really know is if someone has flown a specific model in both real life and the sim and tell you if it feels right. Or find someone that has one of the models and let you buddy box with them and fly it for yourself then go home and see how it flies in the sim. Which I doubt many would be willing to do with someone that has never flown an RC before lol. And that might only be one or two models. Between RC desktop, rc7 and real flight 8 I have literally hundreds of planes and helicopters. And some of them don't fly the same from one sim to the other.
And yes you could tweak them. IF you knew what they were supposed to fly like to begin with. Sure I could tweak one to make it fly easier for me, I have done it. However that doesn't mean if I go and buy that actual plane it will fly like I set it up. Which is a scary thought considering the amount of money invested and it ends flying totally different.
And like I have said in other posts, I think landing in the sim is probably harder than real life because of the visual differences. In the sim because of what you can see, or rather the lack of it, it makes it hard to line up with the run way. In real life I think it would be much easier to line up and judge the distances because your field of view is much larger and you are actually seeing in 3d. This is the problem I have had with every sim I have ever used.
Like someone else said though, it is better than nothing. And it will help you learn muscle memory and get used to controlling something coming at you vs going away from you. One of the hardest things to do in my opinion. It will also help you learn your transmitter as well if you are using your own. Right now I am just using an xbox controller. My DX6e and the wireless dongle will be here tomorrow so we will see how that goes. Being able to set it up and try different adjustments while sitting in my chair at home will probably be easier than trying to mess with it in the field and limited to the amount of flight time I have with my batteries. And praying I don't crash if I do something wrong. Then again at home there will not be anyone to ask questions if I get confused either lol.
If someone knows which models in rc7 or real flight 8 actually fly like the real thing I would love to know which ones. Then I will pick those to practice with. Some of these planes with the name "trainer" in them don't seem to fly well at all to me. They are either too fast, to touchy on the controls or just won't fly level regardless of the amount of throttle you use. I was under the assumption a good trainer should be kind of slow, move smoothly and fly pretty level at around half throttle, and climb on its own at full throttle. Am I wrong about this?
The more frustrated I get with the planes the more I think I just want to get a decent quad copter with all the stabilalizing gismos that will come home when I hit a button lol. Not to mention I have tried to contact my local RC club via facebook and several emails and they are not getting back to me. And I know they saw the message on facebook because it tells me when they read it. Maybe they don't want new members? Which blows because the air field is in a park like a quarter mile from my house, it would be perfect to fly from for me.
Oops sorry about the rant guys.