wrote:
Has anyone written some sort of program/hack to get position data out of MS
flight simulator that could be used to control a cockpit motion device? It
seems like it wouldn't be too hard to build a two axis positioner if you could
get the pitch and roll data out of the sim program.

tom

Not sure about extracting pitch and roll data from MS flightsims but
using the roll data directly would be ineffective for say balanced turns
where you would be keeled over at say 30 deg in the sim pod but should
be feeling only slightly increased g's straight into the seat.

Most real sims only simulate the accelerations due to pitch,yaw and roll
rate as an acutator impulse which only lasts a short time and then
returns you to a calculated attitude so that you expreience the correct
relative gravity vector. If the sim returns at less than one degree per
second then your inner ear will not detect the motion and will tell you
that you are still in the position indicated by visual references on the
screen and the "seat of the pants" feeling.

This last point is the cause of most fatalities due to accidentally
flying into cloud by a non IR qualified pilot. The pilot doesn't detect
the slow roll rate and when he finally notices the abnormal attitude,
increasing bank angle, speed, g force and stick back pressure to
maintain altitude, he will simply not trust his instruments. This is the
dreaded slow spiral and is probably what killed JFK Jnr.

Modelling this motion accurately would be harder than first imagined.