Charl wrote:...but I'd disagree you can't do anything with them in a civvie sim.
99.999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of military flying is under civilian rules, and no armed weapons.
Just to complete the hijacking (sorry Marty

) - I have to say I disagree (this is getting monotonous!).
Though (I agree) most military flying may not be using armed weapons (except A2G over practice ranges), military pilots spend a *lot* of time learning and honing their BVR skills and multiple target tactics. They also need to be *totally* familiar not only with the flight envelope of their own aircraft, but also that of their opposition's.
Over the years of being involved in (beta testing) combat sims, I've met military pilots that have used not only full-blown professional sims but also public/commercial ones:
1) An F-16 pilot that regularly flew "Su-27 Flanker" (as did others in his squadron) because the flight model was that authentic and that even without TrackIR (or whatever), they could practise dogfighting tactics (all about turning circle radius, turn rates, corner speeds etc.).
2) A very famous Russian Su-27 pilot (you know the one) who also claimed the same sim was extremely useful - and faithful to the real thing. LOMAC took it a stage further.
3) A couple of Tornado pilots that actually used the Digital Integration "Tornado" sim for practising mission planning (honest!!).
I dread to think how many hours I've spent (in the past) in these combat sims (not to mention IL-2 etc.). I've also spent massive amounts of time in MSFS. I honestly don't think I've tried a single military jet add-on that comes anywhere near useful in flight model terms. Yes - you can jump into a multiplayer session and "pretend" ... but it really isn't anywhere near as "realistic" as [even] those 10yr old combat sims.
As for weapons ... anyone that's tried Falcon4 or the DCS A-10 will know that there's a lot to learn about weaponry systems. Even the most complex FSX military add-ons I've tried don't model more than about 10% of what is available in those combat sims - let alone *fire them* (or avoid them). Can you practise A2A or SAM missile avoidance tactics in FSX?
What I *do* agree on - if it's on the level of "eye candy", then I'm up for it!
I think I'll leave that as my final bleat!!!
