On Feb 2, 5:09*pm, Chris wrote:
On Feb 2, 4:50*pm, SoaringXCellence wrote:
On Feb 2, 2:39*pm, bildan wrote:
On Feb 2, 3:17*pm, RN wrote:
At the SSA Convention, Scott Manley provided an opportunity for hands
on experience with the Condor Soaring Simulator in Paul Remde's
Cumulus Soaring Booth.
Scott was also the speaker at two sessions, one on using simulators to
supplement soaring flight training, and the other flying a contest
with 4 or 5 other pilots scattered around the US and connected on the
internet.
It was obvious that Scott has put a lot of time and effort into this,
and he makes a very strong case, with real life examples, for the
benefits in training.
The contest added another dimension for experienced pilots. A highly
ranked national pilot that participated in 8 or 9 real contests last
year indicated he had been racing on the simulator once a week for
quite a while.
I have no financial interest in any of this, but came away very
excited with the potential and opportunities this offers to make
training more effective at a lower cost, and to provide some soaring
and racing during the winter. This has been available, but not widely
exposed to the soaring community as far as I can determine.
If there is sufficient interest, it seems to make sense to try to get
a monthly article started in the SSA Soaring Magazine to help folks
get started and share ideas.
Any comments, ideas and opinions will be appreciated.
At a minimum, students and instructors can benefit from using Condor
as an "Animated White Board" where the instructor flies the simulated
glider through maneuvers to be taught or exploring areas where the
student has questions. *Students benefit from watching high quality
computer displays from various perspectives of sometimes difficult to
explain situations. *These situations can be ones too hazardous for
real flying.
Condor can be adapted to very realistic "cockpits" where the controls
are located similar to a real glider. *Condor even outputs data for
force feedback controls that "feel" just like the real ones.
Condor, lacking full motion and usually force feedback, leaves the
'pilot' using only screen based visual cues to fly the simulated
'glider'. *This is not a bad thing since those visual cues are
critical in becoming a truly great pilot. *If you can fly solely with
limited visual cues, flying with a 360 view, tactile and kinetic cues
is easy.
Learning with a simulator frees a student from the task of scheduling
a glider, towplane, towpilot, instructor and flyable weather on the
same day. *Condor even works at night. *However, it's great if an
instructor can work with the student at a computer.- Hide quoted text -
- Show quoted text -
With regard to the visual cue comment above: *I fly with many pilots
that have spent too much time on a PC-based simulator (on the order of
1 hour of PC to 3 hours of flight). *One common theme in their flying
is the fixation on only looking forward while flying. *It's like
pulling teeth to get them using all the horizon and looking at the
wings for level reference. *I sat in the chair at the convention for
several minutes and I have many friends that love Condor. *I have
"flown" SFS, SilentWings, Sailors of the Sky and Condor (oh yeah and
several versions of MSFS). *They all have been improving over the
years but I hesitate to encourage anyone to spend too much time
"flying" them. *I think they're excellent for learning decision making
and strategy but you need to keep it clear in your mind, It's not
flying and especially that flying requires a "swivel-head" approach
that cannot be replicated in the PC simulator.
Mike
As a real life glider pilot, who flies both Condor and Silent Wings
actively, I agree with your point about the need to develop a habit of
keeping your head out of the cockpit. But it's simply not true that
you cannot develop a good, head out of the cockpit habit using these
simulators. I always fly with a simple, and relatively inexpensive,
head tracking system that sits on top of the monitor. The system
exaggerates your head movements so that you can look far too the left
or right, up or down, while still facing the monitor. This allows you
look around constantly--useful for judging your landing, reading the
clouds, and also flying in gaggles during online competitions. While
it's not perfect, I simply hate to fly simulators without it now. I
would certainly advocate it being used in any student training setup.
Chris
A few people have now emailed me and asked me about the head tracking
unit I'm using. To avoid a lot of individual responses, here's the
link:
http://www.naturalpoint.com/trackir/products/trackir5/
I'm using the slightly older TrackIR 4, but running the same software
at TrackIR 5. Condor only supports it partially--you can look left,
right, up, and down. In SilentWings you also get the ability to tilt
your head and can lean forward or back and have the screen reflect
these motions. In both cases, I think it adds a lot to the "flying"
experience.
Chris