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Best sailplane simulator on a Mac


Robert Alexander 1
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Dear friends,

I'm trying to restart my old passion, R/C sailplane piloting, after many many years.

As I'm not in the position of having clubs or instructors nearby, I'd like to restart by buying a radio and doing some practice on my Mac on a simulator.

I have seen X-Plane 10 and Aerofly RC-7 have native Mac version and at least for the former a demo can be downloaded.

I'm trying to buy a used Spektrum DX6i radio and later on plan to buy an Easystar II to begin flying for real.

Question:

a) Do you have experience with any of these sims and can recommend one over the other ?

b) How can I be sure the interface between my Mac USB port will work well with my given SIM and the DX6i ? I see there are very cheap cables on ebay such as http://www.ebay.it/itm/Cavo-Simulatore-USB-HITEC-JR-FUTABA-SPEKTRUM-FLYSKY-/331121961585?pt=Altro_Giocattoli_e_Modellismo&hash=item4d18682a71 and wonder if they'd fit the bill.

Thanks for any suggestion.

Robert

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  • 3 weeks later...

I personally use crrcsim on linux and it is excellent. Use a Spektrum dx6i as the controller through the sound card.

It is free software and a Mac version is available;

**LINK**

It is one of the few specialized gliding sims available and developed by Charles River Radio Control Club. I have found it very realistic and helps tremedously in developing those slope skills. There are a number of additional scenes available as add-ons and my favourite is Le Sornin.

Rob

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Hi Robert, I used to use an older version of AeroFly on my mac, with a cheap cable from eBay, it worked just fine, although I bought the cable so long ago I can't find details of the specific vendor I purchased it from.

It was a good sim, but I think overall I prefer Phoenix, which although it doesn't support the MacOS you can install it inside a Windows virtual machine in either Parallels of VMWare fusion. Despite it being a virtual copy of windows, any recent-ish mac should be able to cope just fine. I run it on a 2 year old imac inside Windows and it runs great. Might be worth thinking about if either of the MacOS only simulators don't work out.

r.

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Thank you all.

I'm now deep in trouble with my job and have had to quit trying and testing a week ago so might mis-remember details but I've tried both sims mac native and also others in demo mode under Win7 under Parallels but none of them "recognized" the USB adapter I have bought

For now I'm doing experience with the real quad and gently breaking an average of a propeller per each session

Hope it will get better.

Bob

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Bob,

I recently bought Aerofly 5 for my MacBook Pro, which I find excellent, but I find the lack of perspective on the screen means that trees and the ground get in the way all too often!. Ikarus also supply the cable, USB adaptor and also an adaptor for Spektrum transmitters, at an extra cost. If you go to their website with the link from WoolstonFlyer above, I am sure that you can find what you need for your transmitter.

Good Luck!

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With the crrcsim you only need an audio cable available from audio specialists or Maplin. This plugs into the trainer port of the Spektrum and the mic port of the sound card. They're only a few quid.

To setup select JR and the system you sound card uses. Mine setup on pulse.

Rob

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