Which FS Program Should I Buy??

[1900driver]

Good Afternoon,
About 10 years ago, I landed my Beechcraft 1900D at KFLL, pulled up to my gate, unloaded my passenges and went through the shutdown checklist. After several years of simming, I dismantled my flightdeck and sold most of the hardware, then walked away from it all.

I guess the bug was still alive inside me, and I have decided to jump back in and build a new Rayethon Beechcraft 1900D flight deck.

The way I flew before was to take an actual 1900 flight and try to mirror it in MSFS 2004. I am interested in doing the same thing now.

My question is: Which platform would best suit my needs now? Should I stay with MSFS 2004, or switch to FSX or X Plane?

Thank you in advance for your response

[blueskydriver]

Hello Robert,

Welcome back home! You picked a great place to get back in the air...virtually...welcome to Cockpit Builders!

First, I never flew the 1900 model, but I know that PMDG has the PMDG 1900 C & D models for FS9, and they can be imported into FSX.

Here is a link to the PMDG 1900C model:

http://www.precisionmanuals.com/pages/product/b1900c.html

As for which FS Program? They all have Pros and Cons; however, the real question is, what type of computer system do you have and how far do you want to go. You had a sim before, so you know all the in's and out's, but with today's computers you can do a lot more than you could 10 years ago.

Therefore, you should list what type of computer system you have/will get, and then let others here weigh in on it for you. Now, if money is no object, buy the best computers you can and go with the 3 computer FS systems, with 3 projectors and so on. If your funding is less go with one high-end computer, and then use a Matrox Triplehead2Go with 3 monitors or projectors. With either of those types of systems you can pick whichever FS program you want.

Of course FS9 is FS9 and you can get some great add-ons, but FS9 is rather old (yet, it still flies really smooth), so add-ons might take a little longer to find. With FSX, it's still current enough and with all the add-on's for it, you would be up and running in no time. And, with X-plane 10, it looks promising, but there are little in the add-ons department for it yet. Although, there has been a big surge for X-plane over the last few months, so expect it to get on par with FSX in terms of add-on companies working with it.

Finally, you could always do a dual boot system, you could start with FSX, and then have X-plane on the second boot drive; thus, you could be flying with FSX, but you could also follow the pack in transitioning to X-plane 10 over time.

John

[Bob Reed]

Hello Robert and welcome back! Only thing I can recommend is for you to get your hands on FS9, FSX and X Plane and try them and then pick the one you like best. As BSD stated things have changed a lot and this is going to be a very personal thing. We all have OUR own opinions so best thing is to see for yourself. By the way love the 1900!

[Sean]

Might as well throw Prepar3d into the mix.

In case you didn't know, defence giant Lockheed Martin inherited FSX from Microsoft and are continuing its development and making it available to the public.

[1900driver]

I would like to thank you all for your valuable information and the time you took to post. Next step is to buy a PC for the sim on which I have decided to run FSX. Thanks again.

[Bob Reed]

I would like to thank you all for your valuable information and the time you took to post. Next step is to buy a PC for the sim on which I have decided to run FSX. Thanks again.

Nice to know that we where of some help.