VirtualPilot3D is NOT "FAA Certified"

I may be going out on a limb here, but I really doubt it.

In my previous posting, I noted that VirtualPilot3D Tee Em claims to be
FAA Certified And Used As A LIVE Training Platform For Actual Pilots.
 It takes a lot of guts, or a startling absence of brains, to make a claim like that if it isn't true.

I searched online for VirtualPilot3D's FAA certification. Couldn't find it.

I searched online for "faa certified flight simulator". I found a lot of products out there, matching this description. One costed US $5995; another costed US$7500. Compare those prices with the US$289.95 price of VirtualPilot3D, and you start wondering what the catch is.

The catch is simple: it's not FAA Certified. They're lying.

How can I be so sure? It's simple. I went to the FAA's website and looked at National Simulator Program's list of certified Flight Training Simulation Devices. If you want to duplicate my research, you can start at http://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/nsp/ .

If you want to see what a real FAA certified flight simulator looks like, have a look at this system from Elite. Note that I'm not endorsing Elite here; they just turned up on my Google search.

Look at the list of aircraft that the Elite system supports. Then look at the list of aircraft that VirtualPilot3D supports. I don't know why the FAA would certify any simulator that included "Santa's Sleigh" or a "Willys Jeep" in its list of supported aircraft.

For the sake of curiosity, scroll down to the bottom of the Elite page, and look at the heading "Compatible Software". Microsoft FS and X-Plane are both listed there, but as far as I've been able to determine, neither MS FS nor X-Plane claim to be FAA certified. They're compatible with Elite simulators, that's all.


(Yes, VirtualPlane3D really is $289.95. That's the full retail price for the VIP Premium Package. When you place an order, they'll start at $67.00 and work their way up.)