Was out flying some loops and rolls in the Safir yesterday. It’s an old military trainer, and I came to think of the Yak-52.
DCS has made a Yak-52. Look at this video 
Your SIM setup
I use X-plane 10 and FSX, both steam versions, with a simple Xbox USB controller. Mainly I use them as trainers to remain mentally current on my IFR procedure skills.
However, my “gaming” computer has started giving up recently and I’m thinking of upgrading the whole setup, with something more than an Xbox controller. Stuff like having to pause the game to change a frequency gets a bit annoying.
If you have a setup that you would like to share please do so! I’m looking forward for some inspiration.
For instruments, I use RANT now for procedures: no flying but nice for “workflow” and keep current during winter, some databases are outdated tough. I used to fly FSX earlier for instruments with Saitek Cessna yoke, throttles, rudder, freqs…but sold the whole lot and now fly mainly an old MS joystick, still I use FSX to play and do stuff I can’t dare to do in real life: experience death, let-down on 2*DMEs, instrument failures…
For VFR I use VR headsets, very cool stuff especially with nice FSX scenery for fun, aeros, nav, gliding… but you get daisy after 1h and you loose sense of reality once back on earth (my rig is very flimsy: oculus developer kit 2, costs me 190£ in 2014, but not looking to upgrade for a commercial VR product with 700£ yet )
It is real flying as far as I can feel but “a chacun à son goût” (I had a non convinced pilot friend who destroy the whole station after he crashed with VR headsets )
Initially, I used a desktop PC to run Oculus, but later it became possible with a laptop. This one: https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-ZEPHYRUS-GX501/ Works well. Not too heavy.
I have XP-11 and Reality XP (both GNS and GTN) on a fairly simple PC with Brunner force feedback controls (yoke and pedals), two touchscreen screens and an iPad running Duet for the GTN.
I think it’s superb for IFR training, which is all I do on it.
Visitors welcome in SW London.
What sort of PC hardware do you people use?
The last few PCs I built used a 6-core (“12 core”) i7-970, which is quick, and a GTX 750 Ti Fanless Silent Kalm Graphics Card, which is only average and can just play HD video at 60mbps / 60fps smoothly. 24GB of DDR3-PC3-12800 RAM. I buy this stuff on Ebay… Simming and of course gaming has been the frontier for hardware and people have been using all kinds of graphics cards but by the time you have 3 fans on one of these it gets pretty noisy.
loco wrote:
Initially, I used a desktop PC to run Oculus, but later it became possible with a laptop
Yes, the reason I use RANT is laptop is convenience, easy deployment and getting focus while PC it feels like “preparing for a theatre show” as my wife quotes, but I am not looking to get a Laptop+VR combo yet.
Peter wrote:
course gaming has been the frontier for hardware and people have been using all kinds of graphics cards but by the time you have 3 fans on one of these it gets pretty noisy.
For FSX on a screen, I think any decent specs (>400£) can do the job even with high resolution scenery (1 meter)
The VR thing was a game changer for graphical cards, yes you see 3 noisy fans or even external video units, but tbh it is too much stretch for flight simulation but for gaming it is probably fun (I wish they have invested that much on aerodynamic models rather than getting 100fps on 7000 × 4000 pixels with 1500 levels for someone who wear spectacles )
Ps: in IFR sims who cares about the scenery as long as you can show an instrument panel
The thing I lack in flight sims is ATC performance when you need it (tried many combines but nothing reliable & professional yet)
On gadgets prices, sometimes virtual things may exceed the value of the real, I come across this at Harrods store in London a while ago
It costs more than a porsche 911 carrera from new or a second hand lamborghini huracan
Not sure if I will pay the same for a C182 simulator ?
When I tried VR, using quite decent goggles, the outside world was superb, but the resolution of the instruments was a million miles from being good enough for IFR.
I run X-Plane 11 on a MacBook Pro (top of the line specs) that drives a 4k monitor which I switch to HD for better performance. Input hardware is a FlightSim yoke with integrated throttle quadrant and ProPedals. Works great for instrument procedures, which is what I mostly use it for. Sometimes also to ‘fly’ into an unfamiliar airport I’m going to in the real airplane if I feel the approach might be a bit interesting.
