Used to be a flight instructor, a quarter century ago. I'm not a fan of flying under the hood. If you want to get the most for your money, make sure to get X-Pl

Used to be a flight instructor, a quarter century ago. I'm not a fan of flying under the hood. If you want to get the most for your money, make sure to get X-Plane, a decent yoke and throttle quadrant, as well as access to something like VATSIM. Practice until you understand the "system" completely and have all your procedures down, so that you exactly know what to do in what sequence. Then you can still do and hour or two under the hood, to experience the sensations in a real airplane.