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On Aug 1, 9:22 pm, "Bill Daniels" bildan@comcast-dot-net wrote:
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On Aug 1, 7:13 pm, "Vaughn Simon"
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I talked with Brad about adapting his sim
to teaching aerotow

While a sim may be useful for teaching procedural skills, I am very
pessimistic
about their ability to teach stick and rudder skills.

Vaughn

im not thinking about it to teach stick and rudder skills. it would
be a great tool to teach pilots how to maintain position on tow.
possible could even be adapted to teach thermal centering techniques,
as well as crosswind landings. aerotow is arguably the most difficult
thing to learn for soaring pilots, particularly pilots transitioning
from powered flying with no aerobatic or formation experience. lots
of tows are spent simply trying to maintain position and there is a
lot of money to be saved by using a sim to teach this skill.

coordinated turns and all that other stick and rudder stuff is best
left for the air.

Any glider simulator can be used by an instructor as an "animated white
board" to illustrate what a maneuver should look like to the student.
Condor Competition flight Simulator can even be used to illustrate the
aerodynamics of a maneuver.

If the simulated cockpit is well set up with rudder pedals, separate
spoiler
controls and a projector, there can be real value to letting a student
fly
it. I'm not so sure about a desktop PC with the typical "twist the stick
for rudder" joystick.

A lot of the value is just getting the student to use his eyes correctly.
The " look here and see this" kind of lesson works well. Pausing the sim
on
final approach to let the student analyze approach errors is one use.

Bill Daniels

precisely bill, the ability for the instructor to pause the simulation
proves very beneficial. with the instructor in control of all
variables excellent training can occur. no more counting on the
towplane to fly the profile you desire. i am seeing a lot of
possibilities with this. the question still remains though, is it
feasible for anyone out there?


I think it's worth keep an eye on the new hobby of "cockpit building".
These folks are constantly getting better and better at building extremely
attractive simulated cockpits. For example, you can now buy instruments
that a PC can drive in synchronization with the simulator software. Condor
supports a second LCD screen with simulated instruments that, when covered
with a template, is a very reasonable facsimile of a glider instrument
panel. The technology is advancing very rapidly.

It is easy to buy the components that let you use real cockpit controls to
create inputs to the simulator software. Some have used old glider nose
sections which are very realistic. Others have built plywood mockups that
work just as well.

What's the advantage? While a simulator will never completely replace
actual fight time, it can be used for many aspects of flight training.
There's always the classic simulator advantage of doing things so dangerous
that you would never try them in an actual aircraft - spinning on the turn
to final is one example.

If nothing else, using simulators keeps up the tempo of training in bad
winter weather.

Bill Daniels