Virtual R/C Flight Simulation...
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I was having trouble trying to find a suitable Christmas present for my thirteen year old son. Earlier today when out shopping I found this Radio-Controlled Flight Simulator system you use with a pc. It has a R/C controller that hooks up to the computer via usb and it lets you control any of 60 realistic R/C planes & helicopters in quite realistic simulations. I had a chance to see my nine year old son give it a try in the hobby store. He managed to get the plane airborne and was flying it in a city until he crashed into a building. The graphics were very good - including realtime shadows, reflections, smoke effects, realistic collision effects, etc. Very cool!
Any of you folks ever try one of these simulators? Might be a great gift idea in your family too. I have the feeling our whole family is going to enjoy this virtual r/c flying thing.
Regards, Ross
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I've used that one in the hobby store, too. It is pretty amazing how realistic that stuff is. I've not put in enough time to figure out how realistic the flight characteristics are though. I've been resisting the urge to buy it since I have a little helicopter and a plane that I rarely seem to fly. If I bought the sim I'd get "the look" from my wife since she thinks I spend too much time on SketchUp already. She might even make me sleep in the garage. There's heat but a tablesaw is not the place to get a good night's sleep.
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Nice find Ross. The grahpics look really good. Hey! are you sure you are not getting it for the 'kid' in you
I could never do that with two daughters although I tried it a couple of times when they where young but I'm afraid they were not into electric racing cars 
Mike
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If you use your own r/c 4 channel transmitter that uses a USB adapter, you can download this flight simulator and use it for free:
http://www.flying-model-simulator.com/
No, it's not going to have the same awesome graphics and the physics accuracy may be a little less realistic, but for building your r/c hand-eye coordination it's really an awesome program. It took me a little while to figure out how to configure the sticks to work properly with the heli program - if anyone needs pointers, let me know.
Maybe this post could be cross-linked with the free s/w forum?
Happy Sketching,
Brad
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