It has very good training, both in terms of online material, and in terms of controllers being very helpful while your flying. It’s not very realistic in the sense that there’s usually one person handle to everything, so you never really get handed off to others. I’ve used PE both when it first got started a while back, and more recently. In my instructing experience, those students who have a lot of time with PC based flight simulation do much better, particularly in the beginning of training, than those who do not have that experience. PS - X-Plane (or any good flight simulation) can and probably will be an excellent way to leverage your flying lessons. Don't put yourself in that position - learn as much of it as you can before you go near an airplane! Some student pilots never do get comfortable with talking on the radio and may even drop out of flying because of it. You will make much better progress as you begin to train in the real thing, and since the real thing is both a lousy and an exceptionally expensive classroom, take full advantage of all training opportunities that are cheap or better yet free. However you do it, get comfortable with both the lingo itself and the practical use of it. Add to that the stilted computer voices and the usefulness is much lower, although even this would be better than merely watching the movie Airport or Sully to get an idea of how things go!! VATSIM and/or IVAO would be much better choices than the in-game, at least as things stand now. So-called in-game ATC systems are a poor choice, since you don't get practice responding to a real controller. Some of their controllers have actual ATC experience, and it shows. We use them every summer at the Pilot Proficiency Center at EAA Airventure and they are outstanding in every respect. The downside is a relatively manageable monthly charge for the service. Pilot Edge indeed has the 'edge' since it is always fully staffed in the service area. If you want to go to graduate school by using PC based flight simulation, I recommend a live ATC set up - either VATSIM, IVAO or Pilot Edge. I highly recommend that you use the modern day equivalent - Live ATC.com and its' very good iPhone app. Long story short - although I quickly picked up the nickname 'Captain Video' around the dorm, I got so used to the lingo that when I went to pilot training (first locally at an FBO through ROTC, and then to USAF UPT) I had no difficulty at all talking and flying at the same time (and this despite the fact that, as an Italian, with one hand on the throttle and the other on the stick I was left with nothing to communicate with!!).

Departure and approach were different - you could hear the pilots but not, of course, the controllers due to the more distant location of the transmitter sites. The school was on relatively high ground and it was possible to hear everything coming out of DCA, pilots and controllers. I availed myself of the only alternative - that av band radio, and spent many the hour listening to it in the dorm. I was in college in Washington DC, with pilot training coming up during senior year with AFROTC, so I decided to do exactly what you are, quite rightly, proposing to do. Way back before the internet, in fact before computers at all below the IBM 360 level, we had a thing called an aviation band radio. I'm especially interested in comments from people who have used PE. I'd love to hear comments about whether listening to Live.ATC, and of course reading the FAA's recommendations on ATC communication, is adequate, or whether there is something to be gained from PilotEdge. I'd prefer that PilotEdge covered the eastern seaboard, but that is a pretty small issue. It has also put a fair bit of effort into training videos and scenarios. PilotEdge has a live stream, and I'm impressed with both the sound quality and content when I listen to it. So it comes down to listening to Live.ATC regularly or a PilotEdge subscription. Even if I've misunderstood this, the other issues are more than I want to deal with. I was pretty taken aback at how long it took to download IVAO's 'planes' and at VATSIM's request that I have at least eight AI planes in the air. Also, it appears that in both cases I'll take a frame rate hit due to additional planes running on my sim, which I'm just not interested in. I'd like to support one of these organisations, but being volunteer organisations, coverage is hit and miss, and the voice quality is just not acceptable to me. I've spent a bit of time testing VATSIM and IVAO. I know that Laminar is working on X-Plane's ATC capability, but that is a ways off. I'm looking for opinions on using it for ATC training. I'm satisfied that it will help drum repetitive procedural tasks into my head. I'm working on a private pilot license and I'm in the process of working X-Plane into my training.

Atc radio simulator app