"noel.wade" wrote in message
...

.... so while you are looking at the wall instead of your wingtip,
someone
else in the room can see what you ought to be looking at?

The TrackIR amplifies your head movements. So a tiny turn of your
head can equate to looking out the side of the aircraft in the
simulator. Its a little odd at first to keep your eyes on the screen
while you turn your head - but if you set the amplification rate up to
the right level its really not a problem (we're talking maybe 5 or 10
degrees of head movement) - just takes about 5 minutes to get used
to.

Check out the demo videos on the NaturalPoint website.

Also note that I *do* state its best to get comfortable with the
simulator and everything before adding this piece. But the ability to
easily look around adds a lot if you have the patience to set it up
properly.

On a slightly different note: I have done a lot of experimenting and
found that longtime pilots have a *much* harder time with simulators
than new pilots. After doing some unscientific research and gathering
feedback, I have come to believe that pilots who have flown for a long
time and never used a simulator get easily frustrated by the lack of
physical / kinesthetic feedback, and the lack of familiarity of flying
over strange terrain in a strange glider. They're so used to
"feeling" the aircraft and flying in their local airspace with known
references that they have a hard time just flying the plane based on
the sight-picture and the instruments and the visible angles to the
ground. Becuase they're so used to being good pilots flying in a
skilled manner, having a hard time in the simulator tends to frustrate
and/or embarrass these experienced pilots - and as a result they have
a dislike or disdain for the simulator.

Take care,

--Noel

Same experience here.

My take on the frustrations of experienced pilots is that they have never
learned to use their eyes correctly. Somewhat counterintuitively, it's
posible to fly a glider largely by feel and with little reliance on visual
inputs for anything other than navigation. Frustration with a PC flight
simulator simply discloses this shortcoming.

A computer flight simulator forces a pilot to use vision for things like
instrument scan and attitude control. This can be very frustrating until
the pilots visual skills come up to speed.

A second issue is that, to a greater degree than in a real glider, a PC
flight simulator requires the pilot to anticipate the aerodynamic response
of the simulated glider. For example, knowing that raising the nose
relative to the horizon WILL result in lower airspeed provides for very
precise airspeed control. Fortunately the flight dynamics model used in
Condor is VERY VERY good.

Bill D