Getting Your Head Around Learn 2 Fly 3
I've been running through Learn 2 Fly 3 course content for about four years now across different sim platforms, and honestly it's one of the few third-party training packages that doesn't waste your time. The premise is straightforward — they package structured lesson plans with objectives, checklists, and navigation guidance that overlay into your simulator, whether you're flying in MSFS 2020, X-Plane, or P3D. You download it, point it at your sim installation, and the lessons walk you through everything from basic instrument scans to full IFR approaches. That's basically it in one sentence. The download page is at learn2fly.com and you can grab the base course bundle for around $50, though they frequently run sales where it drops to roughly $30. The software itself runs standalone and communicates with your simulator via SimConnect on Windows or through shared memory. I'd recommend starting with the VFR Navigation course before jumping into instrument work — it only takes about eight to ten hours to get through if you're actually doing the flights rather than just clicking through. One thing people miss when they first set this up: Learn 2 Fly 3 expects you to have a functional yoke or stick with at least throttle control. Flying it with a keyboard is technically possible but the experience degrades to the point where the lessons feel like a chore rather than training. I see this a lot on forums where someone buys the course, tries it on their office keyboard, complains it's useless, and then gives up. Just spend an extra week or two on a basic controls setup before investing heavily in the curriculum.
Here's the part that isn't obvious from the marketing materials — the scenery and AI traffic quality you get depends entirely on what sim you pair it with. In MSFS 2020 the lessons look decent but the navigation overlay can be noticeably floaty during approach phases if you haven't tuned your settings. In X-Plane 12 the overlay tracks much more smoothly, especially on crosswind landings where the lateral guidance correction feels almost real-time rather than lagging behind like it does in the Microsoft flight platform. I actually switched my primary training over to X-Plane specifically because of this overlay responsiveness issue in MSFS. It's not a problem with Learn 2 Fly 3 itself — it's just how the simConnect bridge behaves differently between platforms. The VOR and ILS lesson modules are genuinely well done. They don't just tell you what the needles mean, they make you actually interpret them in context, which is where most free YouTube tutorials fall apart. I spent probably two weeks stuck on the DME arc lesson in the instrument rating track because the guidance didn't match what my Garmin GTN 750 was showing me in the sim. Turns out the course assumes you're using the default Cessna 172 panel with the basic CDI, not the glass cockpit mod versions that a lot of people install. I switched back to the stock aircraft and the whole thing clicked immediately. It's a minor issue but it catches everyone out at some point if you're running modified aircraft panels. On the downside, Learn 2 Fly 3 has some gaps that are worth knowing about before you commit. There's no multi-engine curriculum yet, which matters if you're training for a specific type rating. The weather customization options within the lessons are also pretty limited — you're mostly stuck with what they pre-set for each scenario, so if you want to practice approaches in actual instrument meteorological conditions versus the marginal VFR they tend to default to, you'll need to adjust settings manually in your sim before launching the lesson. It adds about five minutes of setup per session and gets old fast after a while.
Another limitation: the progress tracking is purely local to your machine. If you fly across multiple PCs or switch between sim installations, your completion data doesn't sync anywhere. I've lost course progress twice just from swapping hard drives, and there's no cloud backup option built in. Keep a manual log of where you left off if you're the kind of person who rotates between machines like I do. For the money it costs, especially on sale, it's still one of the better structured training programs available for home simulator users. It won't replace actual flight instruction or a real training device, but if you're trying to build confidence between real lessons or just want a systematic way to practice procedures instead of wandering around aimlessly in the sim, it does the job adequately. Just don't expect it to be comprehensive — it covers the fundamentals well and leaves the advanced stuff for other resources.
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