Just come across this Flight Sim based flight training.
Seems to be based on X-Plane but I’m sure it all maps over to FSX/FS2004 quite easily.
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Does anybody have a Virtual Reality fight sim at their Sqn? We are thinking of getting one but seems a big investment.
I’m very interested but like you am put off by the high cost.
In order to do it right, you’d still want a full cockpit layout so that cadets could physically flick switches etc, but with hand/finger tracking to then display that action in the VR sim.
Alternatively you just have the tracking and have all the actions done in VR (which presumably looks slightly comical to a bystander).
Either way, you’d still want a secondary monitor or two to display what the pilot is seeing so that other cadets/instructors could see too.
we had this on a previous Squadron.
not “specialist” equipment other than the VR kit from what I understand ie no double screen, cockpit layout or any of that.
a standard pc tower, screen and yoke&throttle with pedals set.
sat at the pc as normal but as the head turned so did the display, take the headset off and the “game” could be used as normal but without any moving display to head movement…
there was an option for the outstretched hand to be seen and comically miss the switches, i think we just called out what we wanted and the “co-pilot” tapped the appropriate keyboard shortcut…
We’re in the process of building one. Managed to acquire the VR bit from a local school, we just need to source some computery bits to run it effectively.
And that is the limit of my technical knowledge on the matter.
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Were have a “cockpit” set up to resemble the tutor. I believe the next stage is to introduce tablets that you can do things like change freq and start engines on.
We have had a sim for a while, and recently upgraded it to a twin screen set-up - a lovely 4K TV as the main display, with a normal monitor in the ‘cockpit’ for instruments etc.
We are looking at a VR headset, but high resolution kit can still be pricey.
The switch ‘flipping’ could be an issue, but would probably head down the ‘co-pilot’ route.
Would love it to be a fully immersive thing, but the kit is in a classroom, so needs to be as compact as possible.
We use X-Plane, and find it very good.
How many people would be interested in having a Corps wide flight sim server.
aka multiplayer airspace for the entire corps. Hold semi-regular days and evenings were loads of squadrons connect to the server and fly together.
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Live experience for QAIC practicing ATC lessons
indoodle. and would actually give QAI cadets some air traffic to teach with on squadrons . . .
To make the sessions more inclusive, there is scope to involve Air Traffic Control - across the squadron network.
Some of the software allows joint sessions across the web - but unless you have an expert, or lots of time, it may not be that simple.
yes, pilots and air traffic control.
And thats exactly what I want to look at, how can we do it that is simple enough that the non-tech staff on a sqn can get it running . . . although of course an assumption is that if you’ve got simulators on the sqn you’ve got a member of staff who’s fairly tech savy.
going back a few years ago im sure there was a server that was ran as an air cadet server. It never really kicked off or came to much.
ok, know any more details about it? Who was pushing it? why it failed?
Think it’s a good idea to try again?
I think X-Plane is a great way to go for a heavily featured sim. The ability to share the workload across multiple PCs is a real bonus - For example: 1 PC for the flight engine, three older spec PCs running one projector each (for a three projector wrap-around front display), 1 pc for the instructor console, 1 PC to control the motion base (if you have one), &c.
It’s networking capability and generally modular approach is ideal for custom setups and with open development people are creating all sorts of handy add-ons.
What I particularly like about it is that it’s not too processor or memory intensive. Most of the work has been put into making good visuals and a realistic flight engine. MS Flight Sim always used to be far more focussed on “gaming” rather than accurate “simulation” (I don’t know what it’s like these days). Flying a helicopter in MSFS was a piece of cake, not so much in X-Plane.
With regards to Air Traffic, I’d always fancied a joint setup where one cadet could be flying the sim whilst others were interacting with it as controllers. I’m fairly certain that could be achieved using X-Plane with little difficulty.
However, we lost the building we were due to be getting and thus no space for a flight sim so I looked at stand alone air traffic simulation.
A great way to start seems to be https://www.openscope.co/
It’s free and looks to be pretty accurate (though I’m not a controller myself so I can’t really attest beyond saying that it looks like the displays in RAF Air Traffic and requires a lot of controlling).
I completely agree that XPlane is the better sim when it comes to the flight dynamics, although I don’t know how P3D compares.
I quite like Endless ATC on my phone then cast to a projector with Chromecast.
All the Cadets are Air Traffic Control and they call out “callsign this is Control, blah blahh blahh”
I built ours last year 3 monitors a good tower (16gb ram, 3.4 I5 processor, GTX1060) it runs FSX really well.
Before i built it i had the conundrum of VR or not … I went with not… for how tactile everything is, in my opinion, it is much better for teaching. That is not to say that VR is bad and I would love a second system running VR but it can be very expensive.
I did want a better table, found a company that did like a wrap-around system for flight sims… they never got back to me, we just made do. (Not me in the picture)
I can highly recommend the cockpit design from 62nd Falcons.
It’s flat-packable so can be cleared away if needed, or transported else where.
https://m.imgur.com/a/2niZm
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