Seriously ugly, but...

[Tailspin45]

There's a lot wrong with this short video: my flying, the way my system rendered the dust, my flying...you get the idea.

 

The concept was to 1) learn how to place an FS Recorder camera on the runway, 2) capture a takeoff and landing so I can use it on the bush strips, and 3) demonstrate a slip to short-field spot landing with the camera as the touchdown target. Part one and two were achieved. The demo...well, that's for you to judge.

 

I let the aircraft get light on takeoff  -- it actually hopped into the air before I planted the mains back on the ground. A big no-no. If the aircraft gets light in a crosswind it'll crow hop sideways, and that's the start of a takeoff (or landing) ground loop. It's not the ship's tendency to weathervane that causes the problem in a crosswind. It's when the wheels stop moving sideways and the inertia in the tail keeps it moving sideways that a rotation-couple occurs (it starts to turn). Stop that right now or you may enjoy some off-roading.

 

I also let the aircraft get slow on the approach and was very rough on the controls in the flare. That's typical of a pilot with low time in an aircraft  I had about two hours including yesterdays attempts at the Kokoda bush strips (how dumb was that?) before I was silly enough to try this demo. Lucky thing I didn't break anything yesterday. (The relatively poor sim controls we have to work with don't help matters either. Note the aileron flutter at about 1:40. FSUIPC doesn't damp it, and I can't find another axis that is interfering. Maybe it's just hardware going bad?)

 

The only good news is I managed to stall it on in a respectable 3-pointer. It still hopped into the air a few times but that was mostly rough ground. Something to keep in mind if you expect braking to get you stopped (brakes don't help much when the wheels are in the air.) While I'm thinking of it, wet grass is even worse if you're trying to stop. It's as slippery as ice. 

 

 

Just showed Kate this video and she remarked, "One of the things I loved about flying the Super Cruiser was slipping the crap out of it. I dunno, there was something about it. The Travel Air too."

 

The PA-12 didn't have flaps; and, of course, the biplane didn't either. Slipping was basic flying technique. Personally, I liked it better than flaps--as she apparently did, too-- because if you're a little low it's easy to take out the slip, but woe betides you if you suck up the flaps.  Probably not something you want to try in an A380, in any case.

 

Which reminds me of young Marine fighter pilot friend out on a night air combat training mission in an F/A-18 against a couple of tiny adversary T-38s. After the fray they joined up to come home and, did I mention dark night and tiny, he found himself with too much overtake. A Cub and biplane pilot first, he kicked his jet into a skid and slipped neatly into position. The instructor had a coronary and asked,  "WHAT was THAT?" but not in those words. "A slip, Sir," says he. "We don't slip Hornet's, Mister." "Sir, yessir." He got the top grade for the flight.

[VH-KDK]

Very well done video and an interesting demonstration.

[lifejogger]

Wow, nice video!!!!!!  How did you do that????

[BradB]

Heck of a video mate !! .

 

Cheers

 

John

[Bermuda425]

Say, that's a neat video! Adds life to the shots from your trip!

[Ken Hall]

Gee that was fun, love a good sideslip, I really felt like I was watching a real world video not a sim. Keep all this great stuff coming, the guys love it.

cheers

Ken

[flyingleaf]

Alright Tom you make it look bloody real. Great vid. and the maneuvers you made, made my heartbeat go faster. I heard you cough and wondered why you didn't say "scheisse"

[European Mountain Man]

super video thanks enjoyed it regards stewart

[Jack Sawyer]

Nice little air show Tom!

[bernd1151]

Really cool, Tom 

[Tailspin45]

16 hours ago, lifejogger said:

Wow, nice video!!!!!!  How did you do that????

 

I used FS Recorder (hereinafter FSR). It's a free FSX addon, available here. The primary advantage was it allowed me to plop a camera in the middle of the runway. And, of course it recorded the flight so I could replay it and watch from several angles. (Just occurred to me I missed an opportunity during the boring turn around to cut to a regular FSX spot camera and then briefly to the VC for a look at the runway. But since I have the saved recording I can still create two new movies and clip out the best parts and added it in, which is a nice fringe benefit.)

 

Using FSR, you can define VC, tower, or spot cams. I created a tower cam because it automatically follows the aircraft, and I placed it where the aircraft was sitting (in the middle of the runway) when I created it. You can define lat., long., and altitude for the camera instead, but that takes a lot of trial and error. Simply putting the airplane where I wanted the camera was easier.

 

Then I told FSR to start recording the flight, took off, bent her around, slipped in and stalled it on where I estimated the camera was located. Once I was stopped and turned around I stopped the FSR recording and saved the small file. 

 

Off topic, but you can play back a recorded flight as AI and fly formation with yourself, too. But trust me, it's a lot harder in a sim than in real life thanks to sloppy controls and lack of proprioceptive cues. But it can be done--mind you this is one frame from many FSR flights. I've since learned it's a whole lot easier to do this kind of thing with AI Tracker X (there are several freeware equivalents if you rummage around).

 

 

Anyway, after recording the Kokoda demo flight, I replayed it and judged I didn't look too foolish, so I replayed it again and created a video of what I was seeing with GeForce Experience (but FRAPS or equivalent would have worked just as well).

 

The recorded MP4 movie needed to be edited slightly to take out some menu fumbling captured at the beginning, so I imported the video to iMovie on my Mac. And that's where I also cropped it, converted to black and white, added a little sepia tone and contrast, and prepended the title.

 

It's a pity my system choked on the dust and made it flash unrealistically, but the rest was rendered OK and it all turned out okay. Gonna have to remake it with the new angles I mentioned earlier, though. I'll post it here, later.

 

So that's how ya do it. Happy to help if you try it and have problems.

 

 

 

[Stillwater]

Absolutely outstanding, this piece of work. Now I get an idea of how to fill my days when there is no honeydo to be done.

[lifejogger]

3 hours ago, Tailspin45 said:

 

I used FS Recorder (hereinafter FSR). It's a free FSX addon, available here. The primary advantage was it allowed me to plop a camera in the middle of the runway. And, of course it recorded the flight so I could replay it and watch from several angles. (Just occurred to me I missed an opportunity during the boring turn around to cut to a regular FSX spot camera and then briefly to the VC for a look at the runway. But since I have the saved recording I can still create two new movies and clip out the best parts and added it in, which is a nice fringe benefit.)

 

Using FSR, you can define VC, tower, or spot cams. I created a tower cam because it automatically follows the aircraft, and I placed it where the aircraft was sitting (in the middle of the runway) when I created it. You can define lat., long., and altitude for the camera instead, but that takes a lot of trial and error. Simply putting the airplane where I wanted the camera was easier.

 

Then I told FSR to start recording the flight, took off, bent her around, slipped in and stalled it on where I estimated the camera was located. Once I was stopped and turned around I stopped the FSR recording and saved the small file. 

 

Off topic, but you can play back a recorded flight as AI and fly formation with yourself, too. But trust me, it's a lot harder in a sim than in real life thanks to sloppy controls and lack of proprioceptive cues. But it can be done--mind you this is one frame from many FSR flights. I've since learned it's a whole lot easier to do this kind of thing with AI Tracker X (there are several freeware equivalents if you rummage around).

 

 

Anyway, after recording the Kokoda demo flight, I replayed it and judged I didn't look too foolish, so I replayed it again and created a video of what I was seeing with GeForce Experience (but FRAPS or equivalent would have worked just as well).

 

The recorded MP4 movie needed to be edited slightly to take out some menu fumbling captured at the beginning, so I imported the video to iMovie on my Mac. And that's where I also cropped it, converted to black and white, added a little sepia tone and contrast, and prepended the title.

 

It's a pity my system choked on the dust and made it flash unrealistically, but the rest was rendered OK and it all turned out okay. Gonna have to remake it with the new angles I mentioned earlier, though. I'll post it here, later.

 

So that's how ya do it. Happy to help if you try it and have problems.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the info!!!!!  I use to have FS Recorder but I did not know it would do that.

[Tailspin45]

Here ya go. The Director's Cut featuring a little Garageband ditty I call Country Spin (because I damn near did on short final, if you watch the airspeed indicator). I told you I got slow but didn't realize how slow until I watched the landing replay from the VC view. Lucky thing it was a 185, an AT-6 would have rolled over on its back and killed me.

 

 

[Tailspin45]

Rats. Just noticed the video capture didn't leave out the cursor. Grrrr.