Flight Sim

[tiny-james]

So while I'm waiting for my dongle to arrive for Phoenic flight sim I was just wondering if there is any bad habbits to look out for when flying and using a flight sim.

 

slow, small movements on the stick is a must 

[Zflyer]

Dont spill your coffee. 

If you can connect to a TV that helps and also stand, you won't be seated at the field.

[Denis Watkins]

Select on your flight Sim " Ground in View "

To give your sense between model, ground and runway for landing on screen.

At the field, you land with " Ground in view " so use the same with your sim.

[GrumpyGnome]

Don't get cocky.... although you'll learn what sticks do what, imho it is NOTHING like real life.  

[tiny-james]

All good points 

two more Questions 

when in Phoenix flight sim can you cast laptop to a TV

the two models I have Glider and Riot do they send battery infomation back to the transmitter? I know my drone's do 

 

[Philip Lewis 3]

Don't believe those that say you can't learn on a sim because I taught myself to fly on one, I've never had a lesson in my life and went on to become my local clubs trainining officer.

 

I also used the Phoenix Sim to do so, back in the day when you had to pay for it, putting it on a big TV screen is a big help, a lot easier these days than when I did it. easiest way is to use an HDMI cable from a laptop to the TV assuming you have those connections, I don't think casting would work but no harm in trying it out.

 

You'll probably find it easier to fly the biggest plane you can, I seem to recall there is a big Extra and Sukhoi and although aerobatic it's easier to fly those simply becuase you can see them.

 

Also in the sim is a practice landings option, use that until you are perfect and then add wind as well to make it more difficult remember whilst take offs are optional landings are not.

 

Sims aren't just for begginers either, I learnt to fly rolling circles and rolling loops on the sim andthen went out to do it for real.

 

In absolutely no way is flying on a sim a waste of time or money, they can takle you a long way but you do have to stick at it, especially at the start.

 

Good luck.

[Andy Gates]

40 minutes ago, tiny-james said:

the two models I have Glider and Riot do they send battery infomation back to the transmitter? I know my drone's do 

Are you tallking SIM here or real flight.

 

Can't answer for the SIM but for real flight the answer is yes dependant on the radio system in use.

Some systems are easier to apply telemetry than others, likewise with displaying the information or having the transmitter call the info out for you.

[tiny-james]

Sorry yes real

 

the radio system I have is futaba T8J and stock Riot and stock Phoenix s 1600 

[Caveman]

Hi James I’ve just browsed the T8J manual and it doesn’t appear to offer telemetry.

 

I wouldn’t let that bother you, it’s not really necessary, especially when you’re at the learning stage.

 

Telemetry is a function of the transmitter/receiver, so can be applied to any plane provided the tx/rx system supports it.

 

I don’t think that Phoenix will cast to your TV, but as Philip mentions above, if your computer has an HDMI output and the TV an input then it works well.

 

GDB

[GrumpyGnome]

Telemetry is a 'nice to have' but certainly not a necessity.  I can't think of ANY telemetry that would be of any use as a learner..... it'd just be an unnecessary distraction.

 

Re teaching yourself to fly on a sim, of course it can be done.  As can the old 'go it alone' self teaching that happened before we had access to (semi) realistic sims... Quickest, cheapest route is, and always will be, to get an experienced flier to teach you. I'm pretty sure that's what you'd do when learning anything else... 

Edited November 30, 2022 by GrumpyGnome

[SIMON CRAGG]

I have taught countless newbies up to A cert standard over the years. There is no real substitute for stick time on the club trainer, on the buddy lead, with an experienced instructor.

However, especially at this time of year a good flight sim is invaluable.

The Phoenix sim is great if you can get it to work properly. Ever since they went bust, i have never had any joy with the cheap dongle replacements, and even got a bad virus of one so please be careful!.

RealFlight is the way to go, but very expensive.

Good luck.

[tiny-james]

I would like to thank all for there comments and advice 

[buster prop]

I recommend Realflight too. I'm still using G3 which is ancient, bought when I started flying to run on a Windows XP PC. That is long gone and my G3 is now on my Windows 8.1 laptop. One vital thing to learn with a sim is to fly towards yourself and land on the strip, before trying things like rolling circles. I use G3 still to practice landings in various wind strengths and directions and it also gets used for slope soaring at Torrey Pines, California. I know Realflight isn't cheap but I've had my moneys worth from it. Later versions might be available second hand.

[tiny-james]

So the NEW dongle arrived today well about 10min ago and all is working now @Caveman my transmitter is not on the list of transmitters in Phoenix 5.5 

 

But I'm planning on setting it up later also no Riot in list of planes so I've selected WO4

[GrumpyGnome]

Have a look on some other forums as there are loads of user-created Phoenix models to download..... you'll also have Phoenix Builder to create/modify models.... e.g.

 

https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2382571-User-Built-Models-for-PhoenixRC/page565#post50189829

Edited December 2, 2022 by GrumpyGnome

[Caveman]

Great stuff, I’m glad you’ve got it working.

 

The WOT4 model will be quite OK.

 

As I think others have said, it’s nothing like flying a real plane, but it’s good for learning co-ordination with the sticks.

 

Good Luck, GDB

[Kim Taylor]

If you're using Phoenix, I've found that I need to reset the 'difficulty' level.

I click on the 'model' icon on the toolbar, then 'edit', 'model'. In the 'physical' menu change the setup value from the default 50% (which makes everything happen in slomo) up to 100%. I find this to be much more representative of actually controlling a model in the air. You can of course ease up towards the 100% in stages, if you wish.

I thought I'd lost my dongle in a house move, but I've recently found it - just in time for the cold weather / lack of 'real' flying days. 🙂

Kim

[Nigel Heather]

On 29/11/2022 at 22:00, Philip Lewis 3 said:

Don't believe those that say you can't learn on a sim because I taught myself to fly on one, I've never had a lesson in my life and went on to become my local clubs trainining officer.

Yes and no.  You can certainly learn to fly on simulators.  After several years of trying to learn at a club and failing (mostly down to poor access to tutors) I bought one of the very first simulators - aero chopper.

 

It was very expensive at the time and if you were to see its graphics today you would laugh.  But I persevered and after spending enough time to be very comfortable I went to the club and solo’ed without any problems.

 

So yes, simulators can definitely teach you to fly in my opinion.

 

BUT ……. I have had less success with helicopters.  I have tried practically every helicopter simulator under the sun, I can fly pretty comfortably in all of them.  But I can’t convert that to real life.  There is something different about helicopters in real life, that for me, makes them feel very different in real life.  I suspect it’s the fact that they are so inherently unstable, fragile and expensive to repair.  So for me there is a massive psychological barrier that the simulator simply can’t overcome.

 

BTW the feedback of information to the transmitter is called telemetry.  With drones it comes pretty much as standard as most want to send video back.  When you get into fixed wing and helicopters you have to decide whether you want it or not and if so make sure that all your equipment supports it.  To start with the transmitter and receiver must support telemetry - sounds like your transmitter doesn’t and nor will the receiver that comes with the Riot.  But it doesn’t stop there, you need to connect up sensors to the receiver - some information you can get from the ESC but once again you need an ESC that supports telemetry - the one that comes with the Riot doesn’t.  Bottom line, as others have said, you don’t need telemetry, many fly without it, even those that have modern transmitters that support it.

 

One word of advice though - check if your transmitter has a timer and set it up, as a learner you don’t want to be in the air when the battery runs out- 6 minutes is a good rule of thumb.  Also make sure that you can hear when the timer finishes - the speaker on my radio is weedy, fine indoors but barely audible outside at the flying field.  I use a separate timer that I bought cheap on eBay that I clip to my transmitter - little inconvenient but much louder so no chance of missing it.

 

Cheers,

 

Nigel

Edited December 4, 2022 by Nigel Heather