OT for Kevin or anyone

Tom Frey wrote:
"boB" wrote in message
...
Tom Frey wrote:
Snip-

about it. I do know I can neutralize my pedals, take my feet off
completely, and fly a traffic pattern in the FS9 Bell 206. Sometimes
the landing has some ground speed and my nose is not always lined up but
at any rate it's not realistic.

Snip-
boB
That's interesting, now you have me wondering if I ever want to continue
my project. I always thought I would like to get back to it someday but
perhaps not.

Which project Tom? Don't take my opinion as gospel, I've only played
around with the helicopter in the sim. It works well for instrument
procedures and can even help with some flight procedures.


My PC based sim project. My primary interest is the helicopter as well. I
just wanted to develope my coordination skills with helo controls, and one
day take a little instruction. Maybe just learn to hover or something. I
doubt that I would ever continue and actually get my ticket, due to the
limited availability of rental aircraft in my area. But I have a little
overy 300 hours fixed with time, and would like to spend enough time in a
helicopter to at least learn to hover or maybe solo.

But I tired quickly with the off the shelf joy sticks and wanted a more
realistic feel on the controls. That's why I did the experiment with the
game port. It would make it simple to fabricate something simular to the
heli-chair with little detail to the electronics necessary for something
like a USB interface. But if the rudder inputs couldn't be adjusted such
that they would be REQUIRED for sucessful flight, I probably would want to
wait until the off the shelf PC software is developed further, if ever.

Tom




Tom, you should not give that up. You will always be glad you, at the
least, solo'd. It's an experience you will never forget.

Setting up some controls doesn't have to be expensive. I use the MOMO
Racing Pedal for anti-torque control and they come with a racing wheel
cheap on Ebay. I've seen sets around $25.00 many times. And you get
the added benefit of being able to drive some of the race cars.

Second is get a used MS sidewinder FFB joystick on Ebay for $10.00 or
so. Then set it up similar to this.

http://xs209.xs.to/xs209/06475/helo-cockpit03.jpg

You can leave it as a side Cyclic, like the front seat of a Cobra.

http://xs209.xs.to/xs209/06475/helo-...ont-seat-a.jpg

You can even set the cyclic in front of you but I wouldn't try to extend
a joystick with piping. I can't imagine getting a joystick moving 1:1
with the real thing so set it on a stand (not on the desk) between your
knees at a level that allows you to comfortably use the thumb and 2
fingers to softly grip the joystick around the base. I don't remember
too many times where I could grip the cyclic at the intended place on an
OH58. You had to on a Cobra because your little pinky was always on the
SCAS disengage button in case of a hard-over.

Then go to Hovercontrol.com and go through the training (it's a good
price - Free). After you are comfortable hovering the little play
helicopter in the Sim, go on and take the real training. As I said,
Hovercontrol says those that completed the Sim training, hovered the
real thing after 3 hour RL instruction. I would love to read your
experiences doing it that way.

Lastly, if you can afford it and want to continue Simming to maintain
some procedural proficiency you can even get the commercial controls on
the market.

This one really looks like a toy but it's nearly like the real thing. I
couldn't find the price though, you would have to go through their web
site to find the cost.

http://www.heli-kit.com.ar/in_Product.htm


Then again if you really want to go whole Hog, take a look at these.

Around $1500.00 US for the whole set
http://www.rcsimulations.com/copyprice.htm
Main Page
http://www.simcontrol.co.uk/newheli.htm

Or about $2700.00 US for these. He sales them to the British Military
so they must be fairly close to real.
http://helicoptersim.com/


boB


--

I won't give up on the thought of getting a little flight training and
possibly soloing someday. I'm just wondering if the available PC software is
realistic enough to justify the cost and/or labor of fabricating more
realistic controls. If software is not available that can be tuned to
absolutely REQUIRE rudder inputs, then I might just stick with an
inexpensive joy stick.