[jhb_airlines] Re: Realism
- From: "bones" <bones@xxxxxxx>
- To: <jhb_airlines@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:41:17 +0100
Real world pilots may test FS but that doesn't mean that the aircraft can
fly like the real thing. All it means is that the aircraft may fly as
realistically as possible to the real thing WITHIN THE CONFINES OF THE
SIMULATION DYNAMICS.
The dynamics in FS peaked with FS98 up to FS2002. After that MS started to
remove dynamic tables from the .air file - some in FS2004 and more in FSX.
For most people, who just take off, climb, fly level, approach and land you
will see no difference. This is what 90% of FS pilots do - they fly in the
middle of the flight envelope and never explore the edges.
Of course he same could be said of most airline pilots these days and the
danger here is that as they never fly the aircraft outside a +/-30 bank or
+/-30 pitch they lose the ability to handle the aircraft in extreme
conditions. This has now been recognised and some airlines now incorporate
sim training to teach aircrew how to recover from abnormal situations - what
we used to call recovery from unusual attitudes/configurations.
For most aircraft FS will fly reasonably accurately in that the aircraft
will take off at the right speed, climb at the correct speed for the power
applied, cruise at a figure close to that of the real aircraft and simulate
the correct drag (and pitch moment) with various stages of flap applied. In
other words it will fly nearly like the textbook figures for the real
aircraft. It's less accurate in giving pilots the "feel" of the aircraft.
The only flight model that comes anywhere near this is the Real Air C172 -
an aircraft that has a very complex flight dynamics model, beautifully made.
Real Air state that the C172 must be flown with Realism settings fully on.
This is true. If you lower the settings to reduce effects like torque, P and
Q the aircraft still flies nicely but it doesn't fly anything like it should
do. This brings up the other question in that lowering realism settings
dumbs down the dynamics but many pilots do just that. Once you lower these
values all you get is an aircraft that is extremely docile - but it's
nothing like the real thing.
The bottom line is maybe a cruel one but it is true. FS pilots have no idea
what a real aircraft flies like and therefore have no idea what the
simulation fails to capture. As I said many years ago a trial lesson at a
local flying club is quite inexpensive and even a short half hour flight
will give you a huge amount of enjoyment and wisdom into what it is really
like. A few JHB pilots have done this and I think all appreciated the
experience. It is seriously worth considering.
bones
-----Original Message-----
From: jhb_airlines-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:jhb_airlines-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of franklyn fisher
Sent: 23 July 2007 11:18
To: jhb_airlines@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [jhb_airlines] Re: Realism
Peter
My understanding is, that until FSX, the Helicopter flight model, had not
been taken seriously.
According to M$, this had now been addressed.
Perhaps, as Bones says, it has been toned down.
It is most definatly better and smoother in FSX.
Perhaps FSX is a lot smoother anyway, at least the control response is, the
aircraft seems a lot heavier, and has more inertia to overcome. But as I
have no experiance of flying real aircraft, I cannot make the final
judgement.
But M$, has always made a point of testing models, by using real world
pilots.
(Likewise the addons builders-where possible)
Frank
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