Oh hey, one of my friend's totally hooked onto this Flight Simulator thing, and he says it's really like the real thing... well, without the practical training of course ;)
And the the whole game's based on real time, so if it takes you 3 hours to get to Hong Kong, you'd really need to play for 3 hours! And interesting add-ons too, such as having the option to land a plane on Kai Tak Airport (HK's old airport, famous for heart-attack landings cos it's situated between buildings, and with a short runway, so you can actually end up in the sea!)
Lol, spoke too much, but my friend also dreamt of the day when he would rescue a plane from crashing...