Any DU Flight Simulation Fans?

[maine_raptor]

If so, I just finished my simpits and wanted to show you all what I got for flyin' and furballin' pleasure.

Side view show both pits:


Close up of the second pit:


Both are fully Thrustmater equipped (Cougar HOTAS and Elite pedals) and have 19" monitors running at 1600x1200 res. Each pits's PC is a 2.6 gig AMD with 1 gig Ram, 128 Mb video cards, and 5.1 surround sound (headphones and mics for pit to pit communications during missions), with the subwoofers buried under the seats - for that "extra" bit ot realism.

Took me about two years to assemble the PC hardware and upgrade the computers along with building the pits.

Any other DU flight Sim fans with a home made cockpit?

[Parche]

1. sim fun

I dont have one of those, but I do fly the 757-300
around mostly PDX-ORD-JFK PDX-LAX

it is awesome, the best scenery ever, and i have loaded
a lot of other airline traffic project ai of course!!

[maine_raptor]

2. Roger that

I use WWII prop fighter sims myself. Nothing like defending London in a Spit during the Battle of Britain or trying to land a battle damaged F4U-D Corsair on a rolling and pitching carrier deck to get the old heart a'thumpin'!!!!

Have several friends that like the airline sims, but for me, the un-friendly skies of WWII.

[DS1]

3. No doubt

Without guns or something to bomb my interest doesn't last about 5 minutes

[maine_raptor]

5. Guns are only half the fun

Trying to out think your target and get on his six, now that's "interesting"....LOL

A lot of simmers like the jets. Lock'em up from 20 miles away and punch a button...BAH!!! Nope get in close and personal, I say 100 ft or so, and let those guns rip. But it's getting within that range that's the challenge.

[DS1]

6. okay, switch guns for combat

you get what I'm saying


btw my favorite flight sim game ever was F19 stealth fighter

[maine_raptor]

9. Have you tried any of the IL2 series?

Lots of mud-moving there. And you can set up your own missions with moving ground targets. Built one that recreates the wounding of Rommel in July of '44. Damn hard to find the staff car and even harder to hit it.

[Parche]

10. combat

I have to get pacific combat simulator again

i love flying the Hellcat off the carrier!!!!

F6F was one of the best fighters out there!!

[maine_raptor]

16. Try Pacific Fighters

Damn fine sim on Pacific fighters, the F6F is great, but my fav is the F4U-D Corsair, now that's hairy to land on the deck.

[Cannikin]

4. Nice set up!!

I fly the PMDG 737 and 747-400 as well as the LevelD 767, CRJ-700 and ERJ PIC.

I thought I was the only DU flight simmer

[maine_raptor]

7. Naw, there are a few

A DU poster out there with the handle "Hawker Hurricane". That kinda make me think he sims...LOL

[matcom]

8. question from someone interested in this

i've wanted to get one for a while now. what's a good one for a newbie?

can i get away with just a joystick? do i have to spend $100's for a decent program?

would like something with good scenery and fairly realistic to learn on and keep my interest.

THANKS for any advice you (or others) can give! :hi:

[Parche]

11. sim

I just do it on the computer keyboard, i dont know how
much it would be to make a sim like he has with a stick

Mrs Matcom says your joystick is just fine....................

[maine_raptor]

13. It depends on what you want.

The program I use is called IL2 Sturmovick Forgotten Battles with an expansion module called Aces Expansion Pack. It has all of the most popular WWII fighter, fighter/bombers, and regular bombers. This includes not only US planes, but planes from the UK, USSR, Italian, German, Romanian, and some Japanese. The retail price for IL2 is about $40 and the APE add-on is about $25. Check the on-line stores.

As for equipment. First and foremost is a good PC, at least a 2.0 GHz processor, 512Mb or more RAM (1 Gb better) and a 128 Mb video card for these programs is necessary.

As for the stick and such:

You can get a halfway decent stick for under $50 bucks. If you do go the single stick route, get one that "twists" and has a throttle lever. I don't normally like those sticks and the reason is simple; Never saw a real live cockpit yet that had a twisty stick instead of pedals.

What I have is a Thrustmaster HOTAS Cougar with rudder pedals. The stick and throttle are both modeled after what is found in a real live F-16 and are not plastic, but medal (each weighs about 7 Lbs). They are fully programmable, capable of over 4000 commands total.

I have had several of the cheaper plastic sticks from other manufacturers, but the TM gear outlasts and outperforms any thing else on the market. The retail price for a new Cougar (stick and throttle) is just under $300 and you can pick up a set of pedals for about $75.

As far as "scenery and fairly realistic", the IL2 series is the best in that regard that I have seen in the WWII sims. But a lot of the eye candy (in any flight sim) depends on the video card and the monitor being used.

Flight sims take a lot of time and practice to get right, and that's just in learning how to take off and land. Dogfighting is something else. But there are settings within the sim that allow you to start off in easy mode and work your way up. Once you get to the point where you want to take someone on, there are a number of game sites where you can meet up with other simmers and fight it out. Remember though, they are probably going to be better than you and thus you'll find yourself making a big smoking hole in the ground a lot at first.

[matcom]

17. what about straight flying?

at real airports?

[maine_raptor]

19. Not too sure on which sim is best.

Most others out there seem to fly Microsoft's Fight Simulator. I do know that there are all kinds of downloadable files for many different aircraft, cockpits, scenery, and plane paint schemes.

Like I said, my interest lies with the WWII planes. But check with the posters at http://www.simhq.com/ They can give some good advice.

[Parche]

21. real airports

flight simulator 2004.........the best scenery
load different aircraft and traffic...........
it is the real thing

[matcom]

22. Microsoft?

[Parche]

23. flight

Yes microsoft flight simulator 2004, i have 2002

then go to www.projectai.com

and load other airline traffic

go to www.projectopensky.com

and load other airplanes, me i fly the 757-300 all the time
it is awesome to fly

right now i am in Honolulu, and will fly to Pago Pago
on a charter flight

[anarch]

12. that's a pretty serious set-up

Personally, I'd just be happy if somebody can tell me how in the hell to run one of the old Jane's combat flight sims (IAF, USAF, a couple others...) on Windows XP. My pathetic old box with 98 on it finally died, and I can't get the games to run on anything current. It seems kind of ridiculous to install Win98 on something just for the sake of an old flight sim...

[maine_raptor]

15. You should be able to run Jane's WWII fighters on XP

Check with the folks over at SimHQ, the Jane's WWII Fighters forum.

http://www.simhq.com/

I don't run it anymore because, quite frankly, it's not as good as the newer (IL2) sims.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

14. My friend made a chair setup, looks different.. I used to be a Falcon 3.0

fanatic, but haven't been interested in any sims for a while.

[Oeditpus Rex]

18. I've got a few thousand hours in AOTP and AOE

That was back in the DOS days. Horrible graphics by today's standards, but, gawd, it was a blast — especially when Sierra/Dynamix added the "WWII — 1946" scenario to AOTP and we got to fly the Bearcat and Tigercat. Bugs the hell out of me that they never released upgraded versions of these sims.

Flew a few hundred hours in F-19 Stealth Fighter, too. Unrealistic as all hell, but a lotta fun, especially when on the deck dodging radar.

These days all I fly is Red Baron 3-D. I'd like to get a Voodoo card for better graphics and a game card so I can use my pedals (CH). I've got a MS Force Feedback II stick, but I'd much rather have pedals than twist the stick for rudder.

On edit: Roger maine_raptor about getting on a bandit's six. I'm no fan of fire-and-forget. Had a few hours in F-16 Strike Eagle, and it's just no damned fun if you're not pulling serious Gs. Dogfighting is the sport; kills are the trophies.

On another edit: Falcon 3.0, not Strike Eagle. (Brain cells dying by the brazillions.)

[maine_raptor]

20. Nice thing about the newer sticks

is that they are all USB. My pedals (gameport) plug into the stick base, along with the throttle, and the whole thing plugs into one of the PC's USB slots.

If you have an AGP slot, then try a GeForce card. Graphics are damn good and with the 256mb cards and PCI-Express cards on the market these days, you can pick up a 128Mb card for under $100.

[maine_raptor]

24. I got Falcon 4.0 as a B'day present a few years back.

My wife gave it to me, but I didn't have the heart to tell her that the kerosine smell from "bunsen burners" makes me sick.

BTW: The IL2 Forgotten Battles/Aces Expansion Pack has several German "1946" planes including the Horton Wing (a real gold-plated bitch to fly I might add).

[KG]

25. I fly Aces High - WWII fighter combat sim

the best MMOLG going
http://www.hitechcreations.com

[maine_raptor]

27. What's the monthly rate on that, KG?

[KG]

29. first 2 weeks free. no credit card needed and you get total

access to the game. if you decide to stay it's 14.95. there is also a free hosting system. great on-line community. scenarios, snap-shot, historical set-ups. totally cool.

[maine_raptor]

31. Aces High...

From what I've seen of it, the graphics (eye candy) doesn't seem as up to date as the newer sims. Plus on-line flying does have a few drawbacks, such as lag. I run on a LAN with 0 lag (pings are less than 3 most times). Also, when I do fly on-line, I go thru Kali. $19.95 one-time, lifetime fee, or thru Ubi.com also free.

But hey it's living and die'ng in the virtual sky, so go for it, S!

[KG]

26. I fly Aces High - WWII fighter combat sim

the best MMOLG going
http://www.hitechcreations.com

[Jamastiene]

28. I can't afford to, but if I had the money, that looks so

super awesome. I bet it's fun. I'd like to do a sim boat type thing. I love that feeling I get after being on a boat. It relaxes me so much. Maybe we could open up our own amusement park and charge for "rides". I've always wanted to do some RC (remote control) stuff too. Love your setup, btw.

[maine_raptor]

30. Not all missions end with you winning

For example:



I'd love to make a business out of this, but I think the price for one pit would be out of the range of most Du'ers

[maine_raptor]

32. One other point

If you ever find yourself in Maine, PM me and I'll let you take it up for a check flight.

[maine_raptor]

33. Kick and an add-on for thise sim fans thinking of doing a moving pit

Try this:



It's called a "Joyrider".

The JoyRider is a two axis flight motion simulator you can build without the use of expensive hardware. It's VERY fast, and SMOOTH and best of all it can be affordably constructed from readily available supplies with simple hand tools.
The "JOYRIDER"s design specs include;

* REAL FEEL responsiveness and balance
* Maximum motion range (positive G's only for now)
* Progressive stick resistance and stability
* Simple low-tech mechanical control activation
* Smooth ball-bearing suspension
* Full motion range, figure "8" stick stir - 2 SECONDS
* 24 degrees (12+12) of pitch and roll range
* Hands off stability with one finger sensitivity
* Weight range - fully motion tested with a 210 pound pilot
* Can use a variety of display and controller options

See more at: http://www.acesim.com/main.html (and you GOTTA check out the Ready Room link at the bottom of the page).