Well I went ahead and bit the bullet. I purchased my first computer video “game” the
Great Planes Real Flight G3 RC Flight Simulator. I know it is not a game but it is my first purchase of a computer simulation of any type.
Being a System Administrator for a small manufacturing company, as I have alluded to in a previous post, when I get home I do NOT want to see another computer. So I never got into any gaming programs, just basically listened to all my buddies talk up that genre.
Well that needed to change. This is “the year of aerobatics” for me. I purchased a
Great Planes Yak 55 3D FlightFlex EP ARF 34.5 and a
GWS Formosa Park Flyer EP ARF w/EPS350C/BB 35.4 and really want to utilize those aircraft to their fullest. While I love my
GWS Slow Stick, doing rolls and flying inverted and a few knife edge passes would be really nice to do. It would also be nice to give that
Himaxx Outrunner brushless motors a little exercise and purpose in life.
So far, I got the application installed
and ran though some of the aircraft in its library. I did have to upgrade my system RAM and it did bark at me about the video card not being the greatest, but it did fire up! Yippie!!!
Started out with the standard gas trainer Great Planes PT-40. That was nice. Good to be using the gas simulator. I basically kept all default settings as still getting to know the simulator. My depth perception and approach to landing is apparently a tad shaky. I get it going good in the pattern (at least I think it looks respectable) and then when I reach final approach about what say, 50 - 75 feet out all of a sudden the plane comes zooming by and I floats down the runway. Woah Nellie… Missed approach and do it again. This will be fun! Compared to a year and a half ago using trying my friends G2 out and not having any stick time these flight went really well.
I tried a few other aircrafts such as the YAK and the BLT Park Flyer as well as a couple of helicopters. The YAK was intense. It rolls and does everything… and I am way being the curve. WOW! I can not wait to step up to flying that and getting my skill set up to speed. The BLT was very nice I enjoyed the slow flying around the patch. Similar to the Slow Stick, it just putts around the patch…
The helicopters well… those are bad boys… Alan, my “brother” and flight instructor flies those and has been very kind to give me the sticks to his electric and give it a shot… I can scoot it across the floor and that is about it. I do not dare try lift off. Now I know why, every time I tried on the simulator as hard as I tried to go slow they just jump off the deck and all heck breaks loose. (I fly the full scale Robinson R22 as a student pilot and transitioning to the RC world is different.) Those are WAY in the future for me.
There are A LOT of features in the simulator… Exploring them all is going to take a while. I probably will setting on a subset and just leave the others alone for a while. I really need to print out the manual.
I did try the Flight School location and want to try the Airport one too but right now the Sod Farm Photo Field is the one closely resembling what I fly from.
Oh, I did try the Bird of Time… Not to good on that, no matter how I used the mouse the plane just floated and crashed a few feet from my feet. Maybe I need more wind, or a setting for launching it is not set right.
Another reason for purchasing this simulator was to get the family into RC flying. My wife is pretty good, and with a little practice I think she should be up and flying the Slow Stick anytime now. My 8 year old daughter I think could to pretty well. My son who is 5 tried it this weekend and he is a tad confused (left/right thingy) but wants to do it because “Daddy is doing it” The youngest, 3 year old daughter, just loves the crashes… Oh well…
I think this simulator will really help speed up my skills. Kansas weather can get a little unpredictable at times e.g. too windy, rainy, cold, and in the winter getting home after dark sure does cut the flying time down. I will do some more posts on this simulator in the very near future once I get more into the application...
AIM - rcparkflyers
