What R/C flight simulator?

[christopher small]

Thanks Alan,sounds ideal for the price,no buddy box socket yet on my radios,but hoping to get the new Futaba 2.4 Ghz.

Chris

[Rob Barrett]

I fancy a play with the RC PlaneMaster so have just taken out a years subscription to RCM&E, through this website. Can't be bad all magazines delivered to my door (live in a small, secluded village !) for the same price PLUS a free flight simulator for the children (and me of course !) ! My only concern now is that the Royal mail strikes continue and I don't get my magazines ?

Just reading this thread I really hope my FREE GIFT is Mode 2 and not Mode 1 or it'll be no good to me at all ?

Rob

PS Check out Sussex Model centres website - these simulators are reduced from £46 to £20 - assuming this is the same ones ? 

[David Ashby - Moderator]

The one we played with....sorry tested....here in the office was mode 2 Rob.

David.

[christopher small]

What do you do if you fly mode 1?like myself,can it be changed.

[Lee Morgan]

Well as far as sims go, AFPD rocks, I have just prop hanged an Extra 300 for 2min's, how cool is that, If I can work out how to I will do a vid.

Best Regards

Lee

[christopher small]

Sussex Model Centre have mode 1 and 2 for sale.(Plane Master)

[Lee Morgan]

I hope this works

[Tim Mackey]

Well its only as cool as a prop hanging fixed wing aeroplane can be...which is..... not very

Says Timbo, who cant prop hang for toffee...but doesn't really want to anyway

Why not just buy a blinkin rotary wing aircraft in the first place

[Lee Morgan]

Hi Tim

Oh don't be such a humbug lol, Just showing that it is possible, There are some great gliders on there to, I have had lot's of practice ready for the Great Orme fly off.

Really looking forward to it.

Best Regards

 Lee

[Lee Morgan]

I bet you loved the music too Tim lol

[Malcolm Fisher]

I'm with Timbo. Prop hanging and prolonged knife edge flight do nothing for me.

I must admit that these things are beyond my control abilities, but to me, they are not "flying".

 The only time I did manage to hang a model on its prop was many years ago with an own designed C/lL model - took off and pulled in too much up elevator too soon and the plane just hung there. I did manage to get it into normal flight mode by juggling the elevator gradually gaining enough height to put in and hold enough down elevator to build up speed and successfully flew the tank dry.  I never wanted to try to do it again...

 Back to the topic of Flight Sims, I bought the R/C Planemaster a few weeks ago. For £20 including a Tx style controller I reckon it was good value, and it is available in either mode 1 or 2 and additional models and "flying sites" are available to download from the'Net. I believe the controller will also work with FSM.

[Tim Mackey]

Yes it is impressive in its own way, no doubting that, and the music.......man I think I have just found the band to replace P/F as my all time favourite LOL

PS its one thing doing this sort of stunt flying on a sim, and another in the real world ! but hey man well done, I am Impressssed, you will have to teach me now ! 

[christopher small]

Lee,how do you prop hang,if I get Plane Master I would like to give it a go.

I don`t think I would try it with one of my models though.but who knows plenty of practice on a sim and I might change my mind.

[John Sheehy]

Realflight G3.5 has tutorials including prophanging.  This allows you to just control the rudder, then rudder and elevator and so on until you have full control.  I still can't do it tho.

[Lee Morgan]

Well according to Tim its just a case of banging the sticks lol, If you have this months special of RCM&E then a true master tells all, the basics are DON'T OVER CONTROL,

I just kept trying untill I finally got there, There are loads of different moves to learn, once I have them down pat and when next summers weather is here I might invest in a model that can do 3D then fly it till I break it, I still love gliders though I think they have tought me more about flight than a powered model could.

Lee

[Lee Morgan]

Hi folks

well I now have a model that can do most things so keep your eye's peeled for a live version

Best R's

Lee

[John Sheehy]

Prop hanging is undoubtedly skillful and developing any skill is its own reward, so I wouldn't knock it just because I don't aspire to master it.  But I notice some people group it with knife edge, and I have found that it's the plane thats the deciding factor in wheather one can knife edge.  I recently had the oppertunity to fly the Ripmax trainer 30 and found I could knife edge with ease (and I'm not a whizz pilot).  I believe it's the control surfaces which are the deciding factors and what may be really difficult with one plane becomes easy with another.  I actually flew a circuit on knife edge and I'm mainly into vintage models that fly like old buses.  On the subject of the Ripmax Trainer 30, I found it was a bit too fast for a first trainer but very exciting once you can fly high wings.  This one had an OS 36 fitted but even throttled down it was very slippery and did lightning snap rolls.

[Howard Tomlin]

Back on track.....

the problem i have with phoenix is its wierd inclination to flick roll if you yank in a load of up elevator - even in full power dives.

 This is something which I cannot replicate in flight - only if insufficient airspeed is available, and thats not the situation in a full power dive.

 To make matters worse some models on phoenix do it only in normal flight ( ie. they dont do it when inverted).

I have contacted phoenix about this but they said that they were happy with the flight characteristics of their sim and that they were not going to investigate it. Furthermore they said that I should tweak the wing rocking settings to adjust it out - so they know how to make it better but dont want to issue a fix for it.

 Dont get me wrongm I use phoenix every ( literally) day, but if i had a chance to do it all again i would be testing the sim before i bought it to make sure i was happy with it.

 The other problem with phoenix is that it seems to be a predomnantly heli sim, the new models which have been issued are great but the majority are helis.

 So to recap, if you are a fixed wing flyer who likes ultra realistic flight characteristics this may not be for you.

[John Sheehy]

I have had the Realflight G3.5 for some time and enjoyed it greatly, but I recently came into possesion of three more sims.  PhoenixRC, Aerofly Pro deluxe and ReflexXTR.  Aerofly runs on my computer at very high framerate (300 to 600FPS) so it should run on modest spec machines and is very good fun to fly.  I've found that the Reflex is the best and the worst.  The planes are twitchy like a light plane in turbulent wind conditions and they are tricky to land.  If I just want to have fun I fly the Realflight or the Aerofly, but the Reflex forces me to fly carefully and land like on eggshells.  Therefore it's the least satisfying for a quick flight but the best for practising in real life conditions.  Phoenix is also quite realistic and I did notice if you lose control it spirols into the ground, as mentioned earlier in this forum.

I lost my sim tranny for realflight and a replacement costs £50 so I looked for a dongle to use my real Futaba tranny and found one at www.maxdiypower.com.  When it arrived it had all four above mentioned sims included.  It cost me about £28 in total.  The instructions are outdated (there is no switch), but great value. 

I have no connection with this company other than as a satisfied customer.

John

[Howard Tomlin]

When the Phoenix 2.0 beta version comes out this will be an AMAZING package:-

Clicky:-

http://www.phoenix-sim.com/news.htm

[Crash dummy]

Who amongst us learned to fly on a simulator?

I for one would not only admit it, but be proud of it! Back in the old days we all handed our model over to an experienced pilot to "test fly". I did just that and wound up with 3 bags of wreckage.

Never again would i let that happen to me. I bought a simulator (g2) and practiced for many hours. The aim for me was to at least be "on the sticks" when my next model was wrecked! As luck (perhaps) would have it , this never happened. I for one cant speak highly enough of the value of simulators. Whether its a cheap version (such as FMS) or a top of the range job. ALL of them teach the novice pilot one thing above all, ORIENTATION!!!   This as we all know is the major problem to overcome for all. If you get it wrong on a simulator you can try again&again&again.

Dont get me wrong, i would never advocate the "go it alone" method, but plenty of practice on a simulator can only help. Lets be honest, it cant hurt you or cherished first model.

Regards,

John

[Hamish]

I made my maiden flight today with an experienced pilot and me on the buddy box.  Having spent hours on FMS I found it has paid massive dividends.   Being told to "pull up the wing that is down etc" I found  I was able to do this instinctively and did not need to think about it.  Of the 5 minutes I was on my own the instructor did not need to intervene once which was an absolute bonus to me.

I am under no allusion that I will be taking off and landing next week and that simulators have there limitations but I will continue to practice at home.  What I have started doing is introducing high winds, gusts etc just to try and get reflex actions to come naturally.

Of the FMS models I spend more time using the  gptrh.PAR as it appears to perform how I expect a trainer to behave, which has been confirmed today.  I found numerous models which  were either to easy to fly or were extremely twitchy and beyond my abilities.

 Any comments about FMS

[Crash dummy]

No comment on FMS Hamish, but congratulations on a successful first flight.

[David Ashby - Moderator]

Second that belatedly, well done Hamish.

[Hamish]

Thanks David.

Unfortunately the next flight was not so good.  Coming round about 20m up preparing to land and it went straight in and smashed right up to where the leading edge sits.  Instructor cant give any reason as it appeared he could not get it to respond to the transmitter.  May attempt to repair but it is a major task.

In the meantime I have acquired an old Magnattila which I am told will fly well. Getting a bit of TLC and will brush up well.  £50 with 5 servos (Flaps now?) an old  OS 40 four stroke which cant be bad. I have a 10yr old OS48 four stroke which has not seen fuel, so I am not short for choice. 

Got 11X6 and 12X7 props today.  Any suggestions as to which?

Bought a new 35Mhz Futaba  FF7 transmitter as I have kind of lost confidence in the Sanwa. (Will try again ometime in the future)

Excuse me twittering on a bit and I will probably get a 100 lines for posting in the wrong (?) forum