Very, very off-the-wall hardware idea

[MarkH]

Okay, I've been looking at FsXPand, which is a cheap and quite easy way to build cockpit instruments, and I wondered if it might be nice to build an open-cockpit biplane such as the Wacos I'm currently flying around. Very few instruments required, so it would be cheap and relatively easy to do, and of course I'd recoup a lot of screen real estate by being able to use my entire TH2GO/TrackIR combo for the outside view.

One of the difficulties in flying the biplanes well (and other things like the Piper Cub and Realair Scout) is co-ordinating the turns, and it's not very realistic to have to keep fixating on the turn co-ordinator. But short of getting some sort of very expensive motion platform, I just couldn't imagine it getting any easier. And then I remembered this, from the discussion of slipping and skidding in turns from the book Teach Yourself to Fly, by Nigel Tangye:

Both these mistakes are very easily recognised by a pilot. If his machine is slipping inwards on a left-hand turn, he feels a draught on his left cheek, and if it is skidding outwards, he feels a draught on his outside, or right cheek, at the same time feeling a distinct tendency to be thrown against the inside (or left side) of the cockpit.

Tangye was describing training in open-cockpit Miles Magisters. By now I'm sure you will have guessed the off-the-wall hardware idea. What if I had two variable-speed fans, positioned somewhere off to the front/sides, and controlled by an interface driven by the turn co-ordinator, which ought to be readable via SimConnect? With a bit of tuning this ought to give a very good facsimile of slip and skid effects for an open-cockpit aircraft!

Is there any relatively straightforward way to build this? I can cope with a bit of programming, but it's the hardware interfacing that's a bit of a mystery to me. Some kind of USB interface board such as I could buy in Maplins would seem like a possible starting point, but I'd have to wonder if someone's already produced something fairly FSX-specific for cockpit builders...

Would be interesting to hear some thoughts 

[MarkH]

Of course, I've now realised this doesn't necessarily have to be physical. I'm sure something useful could be done with differential stereo wind noise!

[flyguy737]

this might help you abit.

along time ago I bought FSXPAND and it was ok but then I bought Project Magenta software both GAIFR and Boeing Suite. Now the GAIFR is a very good set of instruments and looks very real. Price is very comparable to FSXPAND. if you want more realistic instruments go for Flight Illusion but can be pricey but worth it.

There is plenty of information on home cockpits in the GA areas just good and check and look in you tube for ideas

Colin

[TenBlade]

Hey, I´d love to have some fans blowing like relative wind! Dispite my northernly lattitude hot summerdays do occur, and I´d definitely fly the Tiger Moth more often in the summer 

Bjorn

[MarkH]

What if I had two variable-speed fans, positioned somewhere off to the front/sides, and controlled by an interface driven by the turn co-ordinator...?

Well now I have. Check it out...

[alan2]

Interesting, I can understand the fact that the fans are following the ball but how are you extracting the information and converting it to fan control ?

[Remko]

Mark, can I just say, I admire your perseverance in trying to get it all as realistic as it gets. It's a very original idea, well done mate!

[MarkH]

Interesting, I can understand the fact that the fans are following the ball but how are you extracting the information and converting it to fan control ?

Hi Alan. You can read the guages and pretty much everything else using SimConnect, so that part's quite easy. The hard part was finding enough off-the-shelf bits and pieces to cobble together something to work the fans. I will probably make another video at some point showing the details.