In your area of the country, what would you expect to pay per hour for plane rental with an instructor?500nmMission wrote:Thanks so much for these comments! It appears my original question was move naïve than I suspected. I'll spend time with these resources after I take my PP knowledge exam on Wednesday morning. I have to admit that I spent more time reviewing them today than I had intended.
I very much doubt that am going to spend thousands to get set up with a sim, although I had previously run some numbers with the thought in mind that I would put together a club to buy a Redbird Jay.
Wonder what is the minimum necessary to spend to get some benefit? I would guess that with the cheapest software and almost no hardware, there is more benefit than cost.
I would also suppose that the median investment of the participants of this forum is more than I imagined that I would spend! WmBurns, what do you have into your setup?
More later in the week.
The thread does not mention if you currently own a PC and what "generation" it is. It would also help to know what your "budget" really is.
Per your request I updated my original response with the current prices from Amazon.
I hope that you see that you don't have to spend $2000 on a monster over clocked I7 PC. Or $500-1000's for a graphics card. Well sized and matched budget PC hardware can give excellent/good frame rates. But the cost of the PC does represent a fair percentage of the cost of a home sim. So if you already have a powerful PC, then you have a good head start.
But expectation management is also important. Some guys want to look at the window and see a total "high res" world. Complete with realistic clouds, boats, cars, people waving... I'm content to have a high-resolution dash and inside the plane.
The cost of the Saitek gear is not really all that rough. I have made compromises by forgoing the autopilot and 2nd radio. But compared the cost of a real world airplane, these prices are a bargain.
As Keith Smith points out, a PC, Sim software ($25-60), head set w microphone ($25), Joy stick ($25) will work. I have flown all over the world (Vatsim) using a $25 joy stick on a used ebay MB (Sandy Bridge I3).
Suggestion. Don't start out chasing the "prefect" sim. Start small with the basics. As your experience grows, add more. Upgrade as you go. However, I would suggest not cutting brutal corners on the PC. The PC is foundation that everything revolves around. But in the same vein, don't blow your whole budget on the PC.
Note the list price for a Redbird Jay is $2,490.00. There are tons of us out there with home sim set ups with far less than that amount invested.