Post by stu on Aug 23, 2011 21:32:26 GMT 12
I was very fortunate tonight to be invited to have a flight in a most amazing simulator. Described by its creator William (sorry William, I didn't get your surname after all our chatting) as his hobby that grew into his workbench, he uses it to test out his designs before embarking on his plan for commercial versions.
What was also amazing, in a small world coincidental way, is that it was my wife who put me on to William as he is the husband of her hairdresser and they live literally only a few streets away from where we live.
At this stage it is set up in his garage and is basically two simulators in one - the left seat is set up as a C17 or similar and the right seat is for a Blackhawk, complete with cyclic and collective. He runs Flightsim X so the choice of aircraft flown can be changed.
William plans to build the cockpits - or components thereof - so the joy of flying can be introduced to many more people, especially the younger generation, as well as linking several up via a lan so cooperative missions can be flown. He also has a full size F-16 cockpit under construction for those who don't want to fly heavy metal. He even has plans for a Lancaster, with a rear turret for those who want to be gunners. I tend to agree with him, it fills a gap in the market between desktop flight sims and multi million dollar ones.
I said I'd post some photos here as I'm sure there'd be other forum members that are interested in the project.
There was only one projector in use tonight so the full wrap around effect wasn't running and the middle screen with the engine management display wasn't in place but as far as I'm concerned, the effect was fantastic and will only get better once all is up and running.
Sorry for the quality of the photos - cellphone again.....
Cheers,
Stu.
What was also amazing, in a small world coincidental way, is that it was my wife who put me on to William as he is the husband of her hairdresser and they live literally only a few streets away from where we live.
At this stage it is set up in his garage and is basically two simulators in one - the left seat is set up as a C17 or similar and the right seat is for a Blackhawk, complete with cyclic and collective. He runs Flightsim X so the choice of aircraft flown can be changed.
William plans to build the cockpits - or components thereof - so the joy of flying can be introduced to many more people, especially the younger generation, as well as linking several up via a lan so cooperative missions can be flown. He also has a full size F-16 cockpit under construction for those who don't want to fly heavy metal. He even has plans for a Lancaster, with a rear turret for those who want to be gunners. I tend to agree with him, it fills a gap in the market between desktop flight sims and multi million dollar ones.
I said I'd post some photos here as I'm sure there'd be other forum members that are interested in the project.
There was only one projector in use tonight so the full wrap around effect wasn't running and the middle screen with the engine management display wasn't in place but as far as I'm concerned, the effect was fantastic and will only get better once all is up and running.
Sorry for the quality of the photos - cellphone again.....
Cheers,
Stu.
