Learning To Fly, With a Full-Size Cockpit Simulator 77
Make Zine features the story of Aidan Fay, a 17-year-old San Diego student who has constructed a full-size Cessna 172 cockpit simulator in his bedroom, controlled by Arduinos and using scavenged game-controller parts. Because the display Fay is using is an Oculus Rift headset, the visual similarity to an actual plane's interior (not to mention the view) isn't as great as some simulators', but the hardware makes it nonetheless more realistic for a headset-wearing pilot than some simulators that might look prettier: he's got actual rudder pedals, and a force-feedback system on a yoke (also real). Fay's interest is more than as a flight simulator enthusiast, though: he's built this system primarily as an educational tool, as he works to get around a medical problem that's delayed his quest for a pilot's license.
Re:Wait until he finds out (Score:4, Informative)
I can assure you there are plenty of people out there who own Cessna 172s (the plane this simulator replicates) that dont even HAVE an autopilot function.
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Well, after my last flying experience in the US . . .
I can assure you there are plenty of people out there who own Cessna 172s (the plane this simulator replicates) that dont even HAVE an autopilot function.
I can assure you there are plenty of people out there who own Cessna 172s (the plane this simulator replicates) that dont even HAVE a licensed pilot behind the throttle.
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Coming down is easy. It's the ground that's hard.
Re:We Suck (Score:4, Interesting)
I work an aerospace company in simulation and it's taken us $500k to build pretty much the same thing as this kid for no other reason but inefficiency. We suck so bad, why do I work here?
There are other reasons. One of them is accuracy- you need your commercial simulator to operate the faux control surfaces with the exact same positioning, speed, resisting pressure, and variations thereof in all different conditions to make the simulator worthwhile to the commercial customer.
When I was in junior high school we had a yoke thing for the Macintosh LCII that interfaced to the mouse to control the software yoke in Microsoft Flight Simulator. It was crappy and was probably about as realistic as its pricepoint could justify. It got out of calibration extremely easily.
This simulator sounds like the halfway point. Much better than the crappy toy, but not quite as realistic or accurate as the commercial product.
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When you build this on your own, there is no need to explain every step in the way to someone else, give regular demos, document, and process input and reviews from many sources. Besides, everyone involved needs to get paid, and they work only 40 hours a week max where this kid can pull 100 hours a week for free if he's dedicated. 500k may even be cheap for a one off.
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There are other reasons. One of them is accuracy- you need your commercial simulator to operate the faux control surfaces with the exact same positioning, speed, resisting pressure, and variations thereof in all different conditions to make the simulator worthwhile to the commercial customer.
Well, if you are an aerospace manufacturer you just take the panels and all the knobs/dials/sliders/pedals etc. from the production line, just add force feedback where necessary. If that was $500k to create an accurate simulator - that is, software that calculates the flight state given inputs and outputs that doesn't seem unlikely. If it's $500k for the actual hardware that's crazy, considering the whole plane costs something like $300k off the assembly line and you can take away 98%, add a bit of force fe
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That said, they might think the only people that care for perfect accuracy are flight schools
They'd be wrong. Everyone cares about more accuracy. They just don't care enough to shell out five grand. If they gamified their engine they could monetize it by selling it to the masses... as a game.
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I wonder if he'll sell it and teach me how to use it - load new maps, maybe use real time data, etc... That looks like a game I'd finally be interested in playing. It needn't be 100% accurate for me - just something 'close enough' to keep me occupied, learning, and entertained. It'd be awesome to play with - I presume. I wonder how much he'd want for it? I'd also need to be able to swap in new parts easily. Hopefully it does stuff like let you land on dirt runways, even wide enough highways, etc... It'd be
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As someone who was in similar boots (doing something as part of a hobby project and at work, not at the same time but still...), I think I can explain this.
When working for yourself, you set the specs. And as with everything in the industry, this is the usual 80/20 game (though often more a 90/10 game): 90% of the work take 10% of the resources. The other 10% take 90%.
And when you work for yourself, you stick with the 90%.
There is no need to redo something 10 times because it's off by a fraction of an inch.
Arrest him! (Score:1)
All this knowledge is suspicious. Probably a terrorist.
Not new. (Score:5, Insightful)
Hobbyists have been building home cockpits for years now. I don't know why this is suddenly groundbreaking news. Anyone with about $5000 and a lot of free time can do this.
Because Occulus Rift (Score:3)
For whatever reason anything that gets done using one of those is somehow "news". Doesn't matter if it is the same sort of thing does all the time, if you use a Rift to do it that somehow makes it newsworthy. Most likely because Facebook hypes it.
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Sadly the guy who wrote the article is a couple years late and a dollar short. Us in the simming community have been using the rift since day 1
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Slashdot isn't exclusively groundbreaking news.
I'd be quite interested to see how the combination of real world controls and the VR headset works in practice. How do you align their position in the sim to the position you have to reach with your hands.
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here you go. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthr... [eagle.ru]
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Here you go. hundreds of pages on users of the rift in aircraft sims. http://forums.eagle.ru/showthr... [eagle.ru]
Of what is considered to be the best sim right now. DCS https://www.digitalcombatsimul... [digitalcom...ulator.com]
Re:Not new. (Score:4, Insightful)
Well, I think it is news. Most of "those meddling kids today" spend all their time looking at crap on Facebook and YourBoobs. This kid actually went out and constructed something! I can see my mom know:
Mom: "Kid, what are you building in your bedroom?"
Me: "It's just a flight simulator, Mom."
Mom: "Ok . . . as long as you are not using it to cook crack or smuggle in weed from Mexico, we are fine with that."
Anyway, Slashdot is not about reading the news . . . it's about reading about what other geeks think about the news. I wouldn't mind a story being posted here about the various sizes of Kardashians' asses. Someone would post that he just completed his Ph.D. dissertation on the mathematical models of pseudo celebrity asses.
This guy would be trumped by someone claiming to have earned his doctorate on the physical motion of ass cracks.
. . . and then, the "Lone Liberal Arts Major" would chime in about the esthetics of ass antlers . . .
To summarize, you don't read Slashdot for the news . . . you read it for the wacky commentary about it.
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I wouldn't mind a story being posted here about the various sizes of Kardashians' asses. Someone would post that he just completed his Ph.D. dissertation on the mathematical models of pseudo celebrity asses.
I have, to the best of my knowledge, never seen this ass or this person but I hear about her or, more accurately, read about her. I know some fluid dynamics and have some modeling skills. We can do this. Someone did try to link a picture of her for my benefit but I refused to click on it. I find it comforting to know that I don't know. I'd break that rule just to see what we could come up with.
It might give me motivation to finally learn how to use this:
http://www.cgal.org/ [cgal.org]
Which, by the way, looks awesome.
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I'm game. My dissertation concerned modeling light propagation at the surface of fatty tissues, which seems pretty relevant here.
I've also refused to discover who these people are on principle, but this seems like a good reason to make an exception.
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It does sound tempting, sadly. However, do you know how much time we'd waste for naught? It does sound like fun. I presume we'll need some measurements. We should be able to get those fairly accurately from images if we know the dimensions of the items around her. I'm not going to participate in scanning. I do have my limits.
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Well,let's see... Kardashian's asses.... Kanye looks to be about 200 pounds or so, does that count?
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I don't actually know what you're talking about at this point. Is Kanya a kid, boyfriend, father, mother, dog, miniature pony? I refuse to Google. So you can say it's a moose and I'll just take your word for it.
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Lucky you. Kanye West... the rapper. Her boyfriend. A total ass.
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He will be forever known as a 200 pound moose in my head. So, there's that. I simply refuse to Google this stuff. I don't mind being ignorant. I'm okay with that.
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Can be done cheaper then that. Those in the Digital Combat simulator http://www.digitalcombatsimula... [digitalcom...ulator.com] and xPlane http://www.x-plane.com/desktop... [x-plane.com] community have been building stuff like this for years. With extensive instructions on how to use everything from MFD's to rifts to io boards for all the buttons and switches. With all age groups and budgets.
This individual is probably a user on one of those very forums. The blogger who wrote the article just saw something cool. Did no research and blogged about
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Here is an interesting factoid (Score:2)
Well for airline pilots who couldn't exactly go out in the 747 and so spins and stalls the class 4 simulator was legally considered to be flying.
Thus, in theory, a studen
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"for airline pilots who couldn't exactly go out in the 747 and so spins and stalls the class 4 simulator was legally considered to be flying."
Yes, but only if you already were certified for that plane.
"Thus, in theory, a student could start on an airline simulator and get their private pilot's licence without ever leaving the ground."
No, in theory, he can't. Flight licenses are interdependant. In order for you to legally fly your 747, that means (roughly): single engine visual -> s.e. instrumental -
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I have been in modern simulators but never for a little plane. There are many things that I would wonder if they would get right. For instance the trim wheel is slightly easier to trim when the t
mirror (Score:2)
Anyone have a mirror for this site - the images aren't loading (perhaps due to the slashdot effect?).
Reading about it, it's impressive what he accomplished. It would be nice to see it, though.
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But he did not really accomplish anything amazing. He most likely read the forums at DCS http://www.digitalcombatsimula... [digitalcom...ulator.com] and or xPlane http://www.x-plane.com/desktop... [x-plane.com]
Doing what many others have done already. The rift has been used in sims since it came out. With extensive instructions on how to simulate every detail of a cockpit from a simple 172 to 777 to an F-18. How to get all of that working on a PC. As a simmer myself. Much of it is simple stuff.
Looking at his build, it is cool. But in no way amazi
Medical condition? try sailplanes instead (Score:2)
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And then for some, who do not consider flying without an engine flying....
My point was if a medical condition is keeping him from flying powered airplanes, then sailplanes might be a good alternative. Certainly better than the alternative, not flying at all.
noticed one for sale on kijiji ... only 40k CAd (Score:1)
Of all the things you can find on Kijiji / Craigslist... here's a fancy 747 Simulator including a few Boeing parts - but not the ones that get you in the air ;) . Built for a TV show???
http://www.kijiji.ca/v-desktop-computers/edmonton/flight-simulator-boeing-737-everyone-can-fly/1108118705 [kijiji.ca]
Teen Simulator "Maker" (Score:2)
Are you sure he didn't just take a fully assembled cockpit,
pry it out of a working Cessna, put it in his bedroom,
and claim that it was one of his precocious "inventions"?
When is he going to be invited to visit MIT and the White House?
Full simulators are overrated (Score:2)
People are pretty good at abstracting from a simple display to the real thing. There is a short period when learning to fly when working the actual controls has to be mastered, and an accurate simulator would be helpful. But soon that becomes second nature and the real learning begins.
Most of the time is learning procedures, navigation, etc. And that can be done on a very ordinary simulator.
Why is this news (Score:2)
Simers in the DCS http://www.digitalcombatsimula... [digitalcom...ulator.com] and xplane http://www.x-plane.com/desktop... [x-plane.com] community have been using the rift since day 1. With home simpit builds that put this "news worthy pit to shame.