Christchurch and District Model Flying Club
 

In need of Simulation

By Brian wiseman

I have done little flying this year .I have a serious Back problem. Yes I have had scans etc and have been told to manage it as well as I can. This means long periods of inactivity . What is spitmaking is that when the weather has been good for flying I have been laid up. Today as I write this I am fit enough to fly but it is raining and the wind is gale force, Also it is St. Swithin’s day and my son’s birthday. It is said that if it rains then it will rain for 40 days.

As it is his birthday I have over the years watched to see if this is true. I have noticed that there is often a change of weather about then. The calm sunny days of May and June change to the wet windy days of August. However I will get in to the air again.

One of my friends has some wonderful scale aircraft. I offered to fly one of them in the gale just to see if it could be done. He refused to let me. He said that his bowels were loose already and he did not want to start taking his heart pills again. These young people will never improve if they do not want to learn., (He is only about 60)

In the meantime, to keep my hand in, I have been flying my Simulator. I have the Great Planes one. It is a few years old but is very good. In anticipation of long layoffs I bought it some time ago but only now have I explored it. It is a good way to keep my hand in and it would be a good way for people to learn to fly. It has many planes and a few helicopters. I cannot get a Helicopter to fly at all: I have tried all ways. Anyway I have little interest in flying them. Amongst the planes is a Yak which looks superb. I have lashed out and bought a 22 inch screen for my computer and this really does help the simulation. On my old screen the planes soon almost disappeared into the blue, but they are much larger on this one. There is also a zoom function in which you can get right up close. The problem if you get too close is that you cannot see the ground. When you fly for real however high the planes are you always know where the ground is. Not so in this. Even when you keep the plane zoomed away :from you put it high and you do not know how high you are.

It has a Limbo competition. The bar starts at 10 feet. I have always had a problem with knowing how far away the plane is. I am told it is roblem with depth perception. I was told when landing to say. I think the plane is over the runway, I am sure the plane is over the runway, I know the planes is over the runway. By that time it will be in a position to land. So it is with the limbo, because of the smallness of the picture. You cannot see the limbo bar till you get quite close, Unlike real life .I can fly where I think it is but almost always get too far away. I guess I am not as good as I think I am.

It is possible to edit the planes and change the parameters. So far I have not tried that. The one very good thing is this. When I make a mistake and crash the plane. I press the space bar and it mends itself ready to fly again. If only they did that in real life

Brian Wiseman

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