OT for Kevin or anyone

Hey Kevin. You know a bunch about the simulators on the market today. I
may not be able to fly again for real so a simulator could help to fill
in the time. Can you lead me to some affordable simulators available,
especially for helicopter simulators. Affordable means a couple
thousand or 3....




--

boB

"boB" wrote in message
...
Hey Kevin. You know a bunch about the simulators on the market today. I
may not be able to fly again for real so a simulator could help to fill in
the time. Can you lead me to some affordable simulators available,
especially for helicopter simulators. Affordable means a couple thousand
or 3....


boB

Hi boB,

Have you considered a home built sim? It's amazingly simple to link to the
PC using the game port. Four potentiometers and a game port plug, and the
rest is as simple as building a custom lawn chair. A lot of fun for just a
few bucks.

And XP will support multiple monitors. Adding one or two could give you
access to the instrument panel, horizon and perhaps birds eye view of the
craft in flight or something.

You could have a lot of fun with a good use PC and a few hundred bucks,
especially if you stuck with used monitors. When I was searching for info a
few years ago, I found one enthusiast that had built a full scale 100%
likeness of an F-16 cockpit. Over kill no doubt, but I bet he had a good
time with it.

I think I bought MS Flight Simulator, and X-Plane software for mine. Maybe
$100 a copy or so, and not bad for a home grown ship.

Food for thought,

Tom

Tom Frey wrote:


Hi boB,

Have you considered a home built sim? It's amazingly simple to link to the
PC using the game port. Four potentiometers and a game port plug, and the
rest is as simple as building a custom lawn chair. A lot of fun for just a
few bucks.


I think I bought MS Flight Simulator, and X-Plane software for mine. Maybe
$100 a copy or so, and not bad for a home grown ship.

Food for thought,

Tom



Thanks for replying Tom. And of course thanks to Kevin. I'm looking at
a few pre-built simulators, actually 2 of them are complete sets of
Helicopter controls, for not a lot of money. But you are right,
building one wouldn't cost a lot.

--

boB

boB wrote:
Tom Frey wrote:


Hi boB,

Have you considered a home built sim? It's amazingly simple to link to the
PC using the game port. Four potentiometers and a game port plug, and the
rest is as simple as building a custom lawn chair. A lot of fun for just a
few bucks.


I think I bought MS Flight Simulator, and X-Plane software for mine. Maybe
$100 a copy or so, and not bad for a home grown ship.

Food for thought,

Tom



Thanks for replying Tom. And of course thanks to Kevin. I'm looking at
a few pre-built simulators, actually 2 of them are complete sets of
Helicopter controls, for not a lot of money. But you are right,
building one wouldn't cost a lot.


Let us know how that goes.

What if any good pc based helicopter simulators are any good?

JohnO wrote:


Let us know how that goes.

What if any good pc based helicopter simulators are any good?


I've only flown MS's FS2002 and FS9 helicopters so I don't have any
experience with any other Sims. FS9 is not near realistic but I've read
that DODO Sim
http://www.dodosim.com/reviews.html
has tweaked a Bell 206 to realistically display Settling With Power,
Torque effect, Hot Starts, etc. I haven't bought it so I can't say much
about it. I do know I can neutralize my pedals, take my feet off
completely, and fly a traffic pattern in the FS9 Bell 206. Sometimes
the landing has some ground speed and my nose is not always lined up but
at any rate it's not realistic.

I did read at Hovercontrol.com they have had helicopter student pilots
who took the Hovercontrol Helicopter instruction course and then
actually hovered an actual helicopter with only 3 hours of real world
instruction. I don't know, it took me a bit longer than that, but if
true it says there is some benefit to FS9 as a training device for
procedures at least. Some rote knowledge of how the controls work I guess.

With the meds I'm taking my flying days may be over but I'm still hoping
to someday buy a GyroPlane and do some cross country exploring. My Army
retirement and my disability pay doesn't make me rich but then again,
maybe some day.......

--

boB

completely, and fly a traffic pattern in the FS9 Bell 206. Sometimes
the landing has some ground speed and my nose is not always lined up but
at any rate it's not realistic.

I used X-Plane for some IFR training - but with a plane. I could "fly"
the included R22 for about 5s - seems pretty realistic. But I only had a
mouse and a keyboard for collective, no pedals.
The Blackhawk is much easier to fly.

There's also a Osprey included!
And you can customize all aircraft and build your own including airfoils
and panels.

boB wrote:
JohnO wrote:


Let us know how that goes.

What if any good pc based helicopter simulators are any good?


I've only flown MS's FS2002 and FS9 helicopters so I don't have any
experience with any other Sims. FS9 is not near realistic but I've read
that DODO Sim
http://www.dodosim.com/reviews.html
has tweaked a Bell 206 to realistically display Settling With Power,
Torque effect, Hot Starts, etc. I haven't bought it so I can't say much
about it. I do know I can neutralize my pedals, take my feet off
completely, and fly a traffic pattern in the FS9 Bell 206. Sometimes
the landing has some ground speed and my nose is not always lined up but
at any rate it's not realistic.

I did read at Hovercontrol.com they have had helicopter student pilots
who took the Hovercontrol Helicopter instruction course and then
actually hovered an actual helicopter with only 3 hours of real world
instruction. I don't know, it took me a bit longer than that, but if
true it says there is some benefit to FS9 as a training device for
procedures at least. Some rote knowledge of how the controls work I guess.

With the meds I'm taking my flying days may be over but I'm still hoping
to someday buy a GyroPlane and do some cross country exploring. My Army
retirement and my disability pay doesn't make me rich but then again,
maybe some day.......


Hey boB, surely you can still fly as long as you have a suitably rated
co-pilot?

Consider this: http://www.heli-chair.com/

Linc

boB wrote:
JohnO wrote:


Let us know how that goes.

What if any good pc based helicopter simulators are any good?


I've only flown MS's FS2002 and FS9 helicopters so I don't have any
experience with any other Sims. FS9 is not near realistic but I've read
that DODO Sim
http://www.dodosim.com/reviews.html
has tweaked a Bell 206 to realistically display Settling With Power,
Torque effect, Hot Starts, etc. I haven't bought it so I can't say much
about it. I do know I can neutralize my pedals, take my feet off
completely, and fly a traffic pattern in the FS9 Bell 206. Sometimes
the landing has some ground speed and my nose is not always lined up but
at any rate it's not realistic.

I did read at Hovercontrol.com they have had helicopter student pilots
who took the Hovercontrol Helicopter instruction course and then
actually hovered an actual helicopter with only 3 hours of real world
instruction. I don't know, it took me a bit longer than that, but if
true it says there is some benefit to FS9 as a training device for
procedures at least. Some rote knowledge of how the controls work I guess.

With the meds I'm taking my flying days may be over but I'm still hoping
to someday buy a GyroPlane and do some cross country exploring. My Army
retirement and my disability pay doesn't make me rich but then again,
maybe some day.......

--

boB

Snip-
I've only flown MS's FS2002 and FS9 helicopters so I don't have any
experience with any other Sims. FS9 is not near realistic but I've read
that DODO Sim
http://www.dodosim.com/reviews.html
has tweaked a Bell 206 to realistically display Settling With Power,
Torque effect, Hot Starts, etc. I haven't bought it so I can't say much
about it. I do know I can neutralize my pedals, take my feet off
completely, and fly a traffic pattern in the FS9 Bell 206. Sometimes the
landing has some ground speed and my nose is not always lined up but at
any rate it's not realistic.

Snip-
boB

That's interesting, now you have me wondering if I ever want to continue my
project. I always thought I would like to get back to it someday but perhaps
not.

Have you spent much time adjusting the control dampening in the software? I
assumed since it was adjustable, a person could tailor it to be just about
as challenging as desired. Also, it seems the rudder was linked for the
benefit of those without pedals, and could be switched on to REQUIRE inputs
for those with rudder pedals. Does this not function well?

I might also mention that several people told me the X-Plane software was
even more realistic in it's control inputs than MSFS. I bought a copy, but
drifted away from the project before I actually tried it. It's been a few
years ago, and if DODO was available at the time, I wasn't aware of it.

Tom