Flight Simulator recommendation?

I have X-Plane it is a real simulator, you can set the weather conditions for ideal (no wind, etc..) and then choose an easy to fly aircraft, there is a learning curve, but in the long run, you will be able to do it. Lots of fun, and as you improve you can incease the difficulty.

But, it is not a toy, but it is cool. The others I tried just did not give much of a real flight situation.

Yeah U remember that, this is considerably more realistic, but if you choose a easy to fly plane, and set the weather for about none, you will be having fun in no time.

You should however, buy a yoke and pedal set, as it is almost impossible to do anything "right" trying to use a mouse.

I have this yoke, and it works fine,

http://xforcepc.com/store/index.php/gaming-peripherals/flightsim-yoke.html

And this set of pedals, they seem to work fine as well, in the control set up of the sim software where you can "tweak" the resopnse from totally forgiving, to realistic, or any where in between.

http://xforcepc.com/store/index.php/gaming-peripherals/pro-pedals.html

These are just so you can see what has worked for me, I tried some cheaper stuff at first, but sent them back as they just did not fly right.

Shop around see what you find for pricing.

Have fun!

Just a bit of advice, I first bought a joystick and found that I was not able to get the resolution needed without spending $$$ on a top shelf one. So I returned it for the yoke that I linked to, that was not very much more $$, and found it to be FAR better, even flying the Cessna, you can also set up flaps, roll and elevation trim as well as a MUCH better resolution of control. I later purchsed the pedal set when I started putting in drosswind approaches, where you really need the rudder pedals to help with keeping the nose lined uo with the runway (crabbing), The yoke allows for setting up the afore mentiioned controls as well as prop pitch, and other controls, and is not all that much more expensive.

Just figured I pass this along, as I found the few extra bucks to be well worth it over the performance of the joystick, which just did not work well for me (granted I did not spend as much on the stick,but after changing to the yoke I was able to just about all functions needed to fly more realistically. Then you can also add the pedal set at a later time. Plus with the additional control settings available, it can be set up to be much more like the real thing. (feel, muscle memory movements, timing, and correct deployment of control surfaces.

I just mention this, because your may disappointed with a less than top end,big bucks joysticks.

Either way still tons of fun, just something to think about, besides most of the aircraft fly with yokes, except the military fighters, which are very hard to fly. (although you can still do it with the yoke.

One of the other things you can set up with the yoke it the ability to pan your view around the aircraft, from both inside the cockpit viewing out (for when you get vertigo, and you will at the beginnnig) as well as looking at the plane from the outside from different angles, which will be very helpful at the beginning, to help you "see" what the instrument panel is telling you about what the plane is actually doing. As well as how your control inputs affect flight.🙂

All the best