II have the realflight 5.5 RC simulator.
I use it to practice my orientation skills without bending real hardware.
Whne I ordered my ArduCopter from Jdrones I started looking for a simulator that had a quad.
The visual presentation of a Quad is very different and I wanted to practice flying it before flying the real thing. About the same time I became aware that the realflight expansion pack #8 had a quad so I ordered it. The expansion pack was delayed and arrived 2 weeks after my first quad flights.
See:
http://www.realflight.com/360_flash_files/quadcopterep8.swf?scale=noscale
The quad is so much more stable than the helicopter that flying it is easier and the simulator was not needed. It also helps that it is less imtimidating so I fly the quad closer than than I fly the helicopter.Given that I no longer need the simulator.,
My general impression is that its a good simulation of flying the quad in stabilize mode. The simulated quad is a tiny bit more stable that the real thing, but all in all I'd say its a good simulation.
If you want to start with a quad and have never ever flown RC before Id strongly recomend the simulator.
Replies
If you want to train with Hexa or Octo you can try Aero SIM.
It does have all MK frames.
http://www.mk-fr.info/forum/index.php?topic=4345.0
I'm using it for training and it's ok for me. I would be interested to know how it does compare to other simulators, regarding flight simulation quality.
It's about 75 €. not very expensive. There is a demo mode where you can fly 2 minutes.