How Is Your Simulator ?

[javelin]

So, there is a large Bus simulator in the North West that flies like a pig, needs extra trim to take off correctly, has been giving the wrong noises for Master Cautions this week and doesn't like windshear - I never thought I would see an Airbus in an inverted spin !

Anyone else flown a sim so bad recently :yuk:

Edit, Hic !

[Cougar]

Well i must say that ours is pretty good but:
1) landing it is like landing a flying pig on an ice rink
2) the elevator control loading is pretty much non existent and as such everyone tends to over control in pitch
3) the wx radar is hopeless

Other than that its pretty darn good :O

[ExSimGuy]

You should have tried some of the early ones that I worked on. The only motion axis was pitch, the visual was a model in a large room with a camera that motored over it, and the "computing power" was another large room full of valve ("vacuum tube") electronics that failed with great regularity!

(707 at BA LHR)

[Memetic]

This guy did: http://www.wakayamanet.or.jp/jun/fs/mycockpit-e.html

Obsessive i'd say.

[Lower Hangar]

My company also builds large Bus simulators. A recent customer down under was v. complimentary on the handling qualities of our product . I suspect the one in the North West is a product of the Carelessly Assembled Electronics company based the East of Canada.

[RatherBeFlying]

I spent considerable time in a 2-axis, no visual Viscount simulator in Toronto handed down from Air Canada to the local school board.

The "computer" was a 7' x 15' wall of gears, chains, levers and other gizmos on both sides.

Crashes often resulted in chains jumping sprockets.

The nosewheel steering linkage broke when landing with a 50 kt. crosswind dialled in and remained unrepaired during the years I was using it.

Subsequent takeoffs had the beast chasing its tail until some 50 kt. was achieved. Throttling back an outer did not work as no acceleration was possible from 0 kt without all 4.

The ILS only showed up once -- with a glideslope angle of zero degrees.

No VOR/LOC.

Cross the NDB, put in a 45 degree correction for 20 seconds or so, take it off and you were on track :bored: Don't try that in the air.

And it was easier to fly on 3 than 4.

[747FOCAL]

Here is one

http://home.comcast.net/~aeroman2/index.html

[GrantT]

Isn't it against regulations to have a faulty simulator and more importantly a lot more dangerous?

[MaximumPete]

747FOCAL,

Now that does bring back happy memories.

They were still using thes at AST Perth when I was doing ny CPL/IR

MP;)

[Synthetic]

I can fix'em.G'is a job:E

[kabz]

Once saw a great show on telly (OU ?) about a Jaguar(??) sim, where the visuals were from flying a camera over a model ... it was pretty hilarious really, especially when one of the pilots described what happened when a few flies got into the model. With the scale of the model, the flies looked about 50 foot high, and ... "...could give you a nasty turn..." !!!!!!! :D

[ExSimGuy]

Kabz,

That was another of the ones that I worked on - in a ex-railway-carriage-shed in the South of England, before it went to be delivered to the RAF :)

Earlier, I worked on a "fighting vehicle" simulator where the visual was similar and the tank driver saw it thru the periscope. Great fun was had by all, putting spiders on the road just around the corner from where the "student" was driving :yuk:

(later, when working for BA, I also did a training course with the "East of Canada" company ;) )

[Megaton]

On the Jag sim at Coltishall the simulator technicians use to drop model dinosaurs on to the map table. So, there you were on the way to drop buckets of love eastwards and you'd come beak to beak with tyrannosaurus rex!

[Synthetic]

My money is on the dinosaur being faster than the Jag:p

Remember the railway sheds well. Good times until the French took over

[ExSimGuy]

I remember the Yanks taking over (they called it a "merger" at the time yeah, sure :bored: ) then the Frogs took them over

[skid]

agree with jav's comments.especially noticable after 'flying' the alternative sim near crawley which is soooo much better.

[twistedenginestarter]

They were still using thes at AST Perth when I was doing my CPL/IR
Which course were you on? I was Course 47, BEA/BOAC. I chose BEA ...

...but they didn't choose me.

:hmm: :bored: :ooh:

[Synthetic]

Skid - would that be a Generally Electrical one or an ALTernative?

[kabz]

Thanks ExSimGuy.

Can you shed any light on what a Link trainer is ? EK Gann mentions one in his airline training ... (in Fate is the Hunter obviously :O )

[Cornish Jack]

Ahhhhhhh!! the Link trainer :ugh:
The Link was one of the first 'simulators' available for instrument training. The operating part was a crude plywood box containing a single engined cockpit with basic controls and instrumentation - the exterior was 'enhanced' with a miniature fin and tailplane. It was mounted on a three axis motion base, pneumatically powered and its gyrations were translated into a two axis output for a 'crab' mechanical plotter to trace the route flown. It (of course) had no visual but served as an introduction to 'under the hood' flying. Have spent an hour or three in various installations but its greatest period of attraction for me was in Aden where it was in the only air conditioned building on the base :D
This leads to a question to test your 'anorak' status .....
What was the Link motion system derived from???......
No prizes by the way :ok:

[ExSimGuy]

Kabst,

No, I'm not QUITE that old!;)

But I did get involved in the old Link Trainer that the local ATC at Hove had. I think it was only 2 axes of freedom on the motion (pitch, roll) and it was so old and knackered that it was okay for the lads but a "hulking" 12-stoner like me only had to lean forward to "pitch down" or back to put the nose up!

I'll let you into the secret of the origin of the motion system - Ed Link's father made organs (the church variety) so naturally Ed used leather bellows and an air pump for the motion system. ("liberated" from his father's workshop? ;) )

Certainly the first step to instrument rating for many a pilot and avoided some of the potential problems of taking beginners up and letting them have the controls in a real aircraft while a sheet was hung over the right side of the window:\

Fate is the Hunter - yeah, who hasn't read it whose interested in flying :ok:

(can you still get Dai Davies' "Handling the Big Jets"?)

[Cornish Jack]

ExSimGuy
You're quite right, of course, re freedom axes - two, not three :\. Very close with the motion system origin - it was pianolas, the piano roll machines, which were pneumatically powered via pedals and were successfully modified for the Link :ok: