RC Cockpit flying ?

[solentlife]

Now here's a curved ball question :

PC gaming has for years had various add-ons available to the serious gamer - one particularly comes to mind .... the GP Drivers cockpit system.

The PC is hooked into a race car cockpit with screen etc. and the gamer sits in it and "drives" the car ...

When will we have a generally available "cockpit" to fly our models ? The FPV arena seems a prime candidate to provide this ... Yes we can do it now - but it's expensive, needs good understanding of setting up systems and integration of gear etc. I am talking about an out-of-box set-up similar to the Formula 1 gamers gear.

??

Nigel

[DCDetector]

I think at that point you have a flight sim. The RC sim is basically a flight sim in ground/stationary view.

[JetPlaneFlyer]

I'm trying (but failing) to see the practical use of such a thing. You would need to cart it around on a trailer of some sort, the technology and hardware would cost a fortune, and for what? I don't see how it would increase the enjoyment at all, and to be honest you would look like a right idiot sat in a dummy plane cockpit in the middle of some field

[NJSwede]

It would surprise me greatly if someone hasn't already done this. People already show up with trailers to both my fields, so that's hardly new (although they usually contain 104" Slicks and things like that...)

[xmech2k]

I don't know where, but years ago (When I was a kid, shortly after the wheel was invented...) I saw in a magazine a 'cockpit' that one flew his rc plane from. The controls were pretty standard to a center joystick fighter, and all the controls mechanically moved the sticks of the tx which was mounted behind the pilots seatback. It would take a little getting used to, I think!

[NJSwede]

In fact, there's a bunch of guys (and gals, I'd assume) doing this on a daily basis. They're called US Air Force...

[solentlife]

I agree that at first thought - as another says its a lot to cart around and then setup ... look daft in middle of a field etc.

But think on ........ yes most modern armies not only the US use drones and RPV's for many duties ... which is basically what I'm talking about - a RPV but with you sitting as though you are really flying the machine from within.
I don't thionk it's such a daft thing when conisdered carefully against guys I see doing FPV now ... I get to field - I'm in air in 5 minutes ... (3 minutes talk, 2 mins battery install and check ... launch). But they are there for 20 - 30mins putting together telemetry stands, DVR, goggles ... etc. etc before even getting to the plane.

I think it WILL happen and not too much time from now ...

Imagine ... a pre-programmed Red Arrows display pattern flight that you then FLY yourself ...

People laughed when shops showed the Formula 1 cockpit ... OK - it never really caught on - but I did try one on demo - AMAZING ! I was hooked but wife objected to half the lounge floor put over to a car !! So I never bought.

Nigel

[CNY_Dave]

Originally Posted by solentlife

Now here's a curved ball question :

PC gaming has for years had various add-ons available to the serious gamer - one particularly comes to mind .... the GP Drivers cockpit system.

The PC is hooked into a race car cockpit with screen etc. and the gamer sits in it and "drives" the car ...

When will we have a generally available "cockpit" to fly our models ? The FPV arena seems a prime candidate to provide this ... Yes we can do it now - but it's expensive, needs good understanding of setting up systems and integration of gear etc. I am talking about an out-of-box set-up similar to the Formula 1 gamers gear.

??

Nigel

Easier perhaps to adapt someone's over-the-top flight sim to control a transmitter!

In fact, you could use the flight sim output ('displayed') pitch-roll-yaw etc to be the control inputs to a software patch that would issue the proper servo commands (like the gyro idea but on steroids), so any FPV plane could be made to fly like whatever plane was on the sim. Small sim display could be used so the pilot could check on the sim vs real orientation etc, idea is the sim does all the heavy lifting but you look at the fpv camera views.

Have one plane but it could fly like an F18 with the sim aircraft set to the F18, change the aircraft in the sim to a 747, then it flies like a 747... and the simulator software does all the physics!

Calspan actually does this in real life, they have a learjet with a second cockpit, that guy thinks he's flying a refueling tanker, and the software makes the learjet act like a tanker.