Simulators

On Mar 9, 8:45*am, george wrote:
On Mar 9, 8:16*am, "BT" wrote:

We've got 86+ year old glider pilots.. granted they started flying in the
1940s or 50s.
Don't tell a glider pilot he can't get anywhere when 300km cross countries
are the norm out here.

Not every-one has a Silver "C"

In reading that I better say that I know 300km is the distance for a
Gold 'C' and they're fairly rare even here

In article
,
wrote:

Mike Ash wrote:

If you're going to try glider sims, try one of the specialized ones such
as Silent Wings or Condor. While they can't fix the inherent poor field
of view or lack of kicks in the ass or the lack of fun, they at least
get the other stuff right.

While its not 100%, grab a old throwaway PC, put it on your left
and slightly behind you, and network it to the primary computer. You
can set it to slave off the forward PC, and set the view angle to
whatever you desire. It makes a world of difference in judging the
final, there is shareware to do it for MSFS, and it is built into
X=Plane. Its a kluge, but it works. I imagine the glider sims can
will support that or a Matrox TripleHead2Go setup as well.

That'll help. Of course, I'd really need a third one, too, positioned a
bit higher so that I can see the runway in a turn. And then another pair
for the right side for right-hand patterns. And the whole works would
*still* be just a small fraction of the enormous field of view I get in
the real thing.

I'm sure that with the appropriate application of money you could make
things a lot better, but it'll still be a pale shadow of reality, and in
the end I'd rather spend the money on flying. Just getting a decent
realistic set of controls would probably cost a couple month's worth of
tows, let alone a whole new computer.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

Depends on how creative you are, one of my friends has 9 monitors and
9 computers from a university auction, arranged around a desk.
Its crazy, but a heck of improvement on a single monitor. If you dig,
cheap computers are out there by the skid loads from corporate and
government upgrades.

Steve

On Mar 9, 12:24*am, Clark wrote:
Mxsmanic wrote :





writes:

Low cost sims would be a lot more useful if they came with a
instructor and a curriculum.

* Let me justify that. *With many home sim programs, A lot of people
learn to land right on the edge of Dead Man's Curve, without some
instruction or evaluation. *Ie *a controlled crash at very low speed
with no flare. * If its a game, thats fine, and you can get the 172
onto the carrier that way. But it may be doing many a disservice.
It would be nice, if included in the cost of the software, you could
upload a file to have your flight *constructively evaluated by a human

Most simmers won't be flying a real aircraft, so the differences between
the simulation and real life are not necessarily important (although
that depends on the simmer's viewpoint, as some are more rigorous about
realism than others). *And, since nobody is likely to climb out of his
easy chair and into a cockpit without instruction and certification, one
can assume that the differences would be identified and compensated for
by anyone who really wants to fly an aircraft in the real world.

What mystifies me is the knee-jerk reaction of some pilots to the mere
suggestion that simulation is anything like real life. *I can only
assume that they invest a great deal of their self-esteem in flying, and
are very insecure about anything that might hint that any other activity
is even remotely close to flying. *They like to believe that they are
special, and anything that seems to erode that illusion in their eyes
disturbs them.

Wrong again butterball. Stop assuming and try to learn a little bit. Pilots
don't have a knee jerk reaction against simulations. People in general do
have a knee jerk reaction to reject claims from ignorant people such as
yourself who claim to have knowledge when they obviously don't.

As I've said before, the more experience pilots have, the less they tend
to foam at the mouth in fury when simulation is brought up. *Simulation
is not identical to real life, but it's not a waste of time, either.
The truth is in between. *Moderation is best in all things.

You wouldn't know the truth if it rose up and bit you on the ass. As for
moderation, well, you'd better learn to practice it if you're going to
preach it little boy. I suggest you start by not posting on usenet for the
next 12 months.

--
---
there should be a "sig" here- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Moderation in all things, he said, but rap is not included. He, a non-
pilot, is I tjhink the second most frequent poster here. His is
winning the 'pay attention to me' game.

Mike Ash writes:

I'm sure that with the appropriate application of money you could make
things a lot better, but it'll still be a pale shadow of reality ...

The best simulators are much more than just a pale shadow, but as you surmise,
they are expensive.

Just getting a decent
realistic set of controls would probably cost a couple month's worth of
tows, let alone a whole new computer.

I can get the entire set-up for the cost of roughly three hours of rental of a
real aircraft.

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
Mike Ash writes:

I'm sure that with the appropriate application of money you could make
things a lot better, but it'll still be a pale shadow of reality ...

The best simulators are much more than just a pale shadow, but as you
surmise,
they are expensive.

Just getting a decent
realistic set of controls would probably cost a couple month's worth of
tows, let alone a whole new computer.

I can get the entire set-up for the cost of roughly three hours of rental
of a
real aircraft.

And a sex toy for half the cost of a real girlfriends dinner.

This is not a sim group, dumb ass. Find a group that give a ****.

"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
Mike Ash writes:

You can bet that if some pilot who had never written a line of code in
his life showed up at the airport and started lecturing me on Python and
Perl and first-class functions and all the rest, even though he clearly
had no idea of what he was talking about, I'd get ****ed off.

I've been lectured in this way, and not necessarily or merely by pilots,
but I
don't get angry over it.

That's because you are mentally ill.

Mike Ash wrote:
In article ,
"Birdog" wrote:

The discussion on simulators was interesting in many aspects. Since being
grounded some 20 years ago (medical), I've tried substitutes - radio control
and computer simulators - and found them sorely lacking, if not downright
boring. However, while playing with the simulator, I could not help but
grieve that it was not available back in the days when I was burning time
and fuel in IFR training - basically learning to scan the instruments until
it became virtually instinctive. So, while I get a little peeved when a
computer jock starts arguing with active pilots, their questions sometimes
elicit interesting discussions, and I do think these $75.00 programs have a
valuable (and cheap) place in flight training.

While ground-bound for two decades, I still love any discussion of flying!

I tend to agree with the above. Simulators are what got me into flying
for real, even if they taught me some habits to unlearn. And clearly
they're useful for certain things, even if they're not the high-fidelity
monsters our friend thinks they are.

I apologize if the question is unwelcome, but if your medical grounding
was due to something that didn't really make you unsafe, have you
considered flying gliders? They're a lot of fun, and no medical is
required. Of course some people don't enjoy that sort of thing, and
nothing against them, as everybody has different tastes. But I just
thought I'd mention in, on the off chance that you'd like it, hadn't
thought of it, and are able.


I am not sure about gliders, but folks said that I should go to LSA.
However, I believe you still have to self certify and the condition I
have will not let me fly my CPSEL/IA privileges, nor would I be able to
certify that I am fit to fly LAS.

--

Regards, Ross
C-172F 180HP
Sold
KSWI

In article ,
Mxsmanic wrote:

Mike Ash writes:

I'm sure that with the appropriate application of money you could make
things a lot better, but it'll still be a pale shadow of reality ...

The best simulators are much more than just a pale shadow, but as you surmise,
they are expensive.

I doubt any such "best simulators" exist for gliders. And if they did,
they'd cost more than the real thing.

Just getting a decent
realistic set of controls would probably cost a couple month's worth of
tows, let alone a whole new computer.

I can get the entire set-up for the cost of roughly three hours of rental of a
real aircraft.

The "entire thing" as in six monitors and computers to drive them all?
Which aircraft?

My marginal cost for flying is gas to drive to the airport and around
$32 for the tow. If I were renting a club plane instead of flying my own
I'd pay about $24/hour on top of those. As it is, the cost of ownership
is pretty much entirely fixed regardless of how much I fly. Lately,
amortizing the per-flight costs over the flight time, I've been paying
roughly $25/hour total.

Given the rental prices you've cited in the past, "three hours" is
probably around $600. That is several months of my flying budget, just
as I said.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon

In article ,
Ross wrote:

I am not sure about gliders, but folks said that I should go to LSA.
However, I believe you still have to self certify and the condition I
have will not let me fly my CPSEL/IA privileges, nor would I be able to
certify that I am fit to fly LAS.

Here is the text of the actual regulation, 61.53b:

(b) Operations that do not require a medical certificate. For operations
provided for in §61.23(b) of this part, a person shall not act as pilot in
command, or in any other capacity as a required pilot flight crewmember,
while that person knows or has reason to know of any medical condition that
would make the person unable to operate the aircraft in a safe manner.

There's no specification as to which conditions make a person unable to
operate the aircraft in a safe manner. While one might presume that the
same conditions that would disqualify you from real medical would
disqualify you here, I don't believe that is stated explicitly anywhere.

Practically speaking, it's up to you. IF (big if) you personally believe
that you would be safe with your condition despite the FAA's belief
otherwise, you can fly gliders. My understanding is that LSA is the same
as long as you haven't actually flunked a medical exam.

--
Mike Ash
Radio Free Earth
Broadcasting from our climate-controlled studios deep inside the Moon