If you're gonna simulate it...

SkyHog

SkyHog

Touchdown! Greaser!
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Everything Offends Me
Here's how you do it! Since I can't fly right now, I've been doing a lot of simulated flying lately (Jesse and I have logged approx. 16 or 17 hours in the last week alone). Now, I have a much cooler setup :D

Basically, I have 2 21" monitors hooked up to my computer, and stretched the main display across both. I have my laptop, running Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron networked to the computer, with the display shifted down to display only the instruments.

I'm waiting for the full version of X-Plane to come in, so for now, this is the demo version, cracked with a fake DVD until I get the real ones in the mail. I have a CH Pro Yoke and the CH Pro Pedals, and an old Saitek Cyborg stick on the left for some additional functionality (since I can't use the right side of the yoke until I get my arm back).

I tell you what, it may not look like it, but it adds a whole new sense of reality to simulated flying this way.

My next additions are going to be 2 more monitors, which I have laying around, for side views, and possibly fabricating a shell to hold the whole thing, as a fake cockpit.

Yep - I'm a dweeb. But I'll be an instrument ready dweeb when I regain full action in my arm!
 

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Wow...
 
Wow . . . I had to go get something to wipe the drool off my computer. I hate simulator flying but I think I could come to love it with that setup!
 
You need to get one of those chair thingies that tilts when you bank and pitch, and has a subwoofer to add vibration.
 
kevin47881 said:
LOL, Nick, remove the rubbers and repost the pic. :yes:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I wondered if what I was seeing between the yoke and the mouse was what it looked like. Sure this thread wasn't supposed to be titled "if you're gonna stimulate it..."?

Ah, the life of a bachelor! :rofl:
 
SkyHog said:
Here's how you do it!
Click to expand...

Here's one of our rigs. We call it the Penguin, as in "flightless bird":

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/flight_simulator.htm

It's the second prototype of eight sims that will be installed at the Iowa Children's Museum, as part of a new aviation exhibit. It's free for our guests to use, anytime.

Just last month I added a radio controlled airplane flight simulator module called "Real Flight G4" that is very, very cool too. With its 104" projection screen, you really feel like you're "in the sim" when you're "flying" the Peguin...
 
Aw crap, didn't notice the pack of jimmies.

Its not a hookah, lol, its the cyborg stick. I don't even own a hookah!
 
Jay Honeck said:
Here's one of our rigs. We call it the Penguin, as in "flightless bird":

http://www.alexisparkinn.com/flight_simulator.htm

It's the second prototype of eight sims that will be installed at the Iowa Children's Museum, as part of a new aviation exhibit. It's free for our guests to use, anytime.

Just last month I added a radio controlled airplane flight simulator module called "Real Flight G4" that is very, very cool too. With its 104" projection screen, you really feel like you're "in the sim" when you're "flying" the Peguin...
Click to expand...

That's pretty cool, Jay
 
Here's what I use. With the terrain and scenery updates it's a big help in keeping me instrument current (even though I can't log any time or procedures on it) and it's terrific for test flying a route and an approach to someplace before I go there in a real airplane.
 

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No way... THIS is how ya do it! Read some reviews of it - by skeptics - and they loved it! You look around and you're looking around the cockpit! You look down, you see down!

not bad for $400 bucks! :no:
 
etsisk said:
No way... THIS is how ya do it! Read some reviews of it - by skeptics - and they loved it! You look around and you're looking around the cockpit! You look down, you see down!

not bad for $400 bucks! :no:
Click to expand...

Hmmm... the next time the spouse asks "what would you like for [insert occasion]"... were these guys at OSH? I bet they'd sell a lot of them if it demo'd well.

Here's some youtube videos of the vr920 in action with MS Flight Simulator:



 
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A few recommendations in order to achieve a great "immersion factor" in your simulation:

1. The Saitek yoke + throttle module - IMHO, much better than the CH
yoke. (http://www.saitekusa.com/prod/proflight.htm)
Their new proflight panel isn't bad either
(http://www.saitekusa.com/prod/pfpanel.htm)

2. Go Flight modules (http://www.goflightinc.com/order/index.php)- especially the GF-166 versatile radio module.

3. Register to Vatsim (www.vatsim.net) and use their excellent (and free) online real-time ATC services (you need to download Squawkbox 4.0 and Servinfo as well - both are free). - It makes the simulation experience a much more realistic one.

4. Triple Head to Go (manufactured by Matrox).
www.matrox.com/graphics/en/products/gxm/th2go/

Just my 2 cents...
 
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