advice on sim

[tomola]

so ive been having a go on my new sim (next on mac with my dx8) and ive just about got hovering sorted on it, suprisingly hard, has anyone got any tips on how to transfer what ive learned from the sim onto my actual heli trex 450L dominator, the sim actually seems more sensitive than the heli itself from the quick go ive had with teh heli which resulted in needing nre tail rotors, hence the sim purchase ha

[mahbouni]

Play with the settings and try to get it to fly as close as possible to your own heli.

There will always be a difference between sitting down on a chair in front of a screen and standing in a field with real spatial awareness, wind and sunlight. Not forgetting the fear factor. Some people make the mental transition easier than others. The more you practice both sim and outdoors, the less you will think about it.

[Smudgyboy]

I use neXt on my iMac using a PS3 controller, I dial in a bit of wind/gusting into the sim. There are tabs you can change above the picture of your heli that give you soft, medium, etc, try soft to start with and go fly. Set yourself a target like side on and become happy with that view, if you get bored just fly around for a while and try it again, then move onto another orientation.

Another good example is try flying the sim hell into the sun or near it to give you a silhouette of the heli, that will give you an idea of what it will look like in real life on a grey cloudy day, dusk or even lost in the tree line!

Use the sim as much as you can. Use a 600 size hell on the sim which to give you a change in learning to fly and play around with the wind and gusting, I know it sounds like Christmas evening after a big dinner but try it.

[SaneAdam]

[QUOTE=mahbouni;1160201
There will always be a difference between sitting down on a chair in front of a screen and standing in a field with real spatial awareness.[/QUOTE]

Don't sit down in a chair When simming, imo, you should be standing exactly as you would in real life. I stand in the middle of the living room simming on the big flat screen. There is no way i could sit down and sim. Arms, fingers, hands are all in totally different places in relation the the sticks and tx when sitting in comparison to standing. It just feels so unnatural To me anyway.Everyone is different obviously. But my ability to turn sim work into reality stepped up massively once i realised i should not be sitting down

I am very picky and sensitive to things like that though. Where others simply don't seem to care or notice. I find it perplexing though that anyone would sit down to fly. Unless that is what you do all the time. I just wouldn't switch between the 2

[Peteski]

Yeah, I stand up while on the sim too most of the time - I just stand back and tilt the computer screen up. The controls feel surprisingly different that way and it's one less difference to the real thing.

I'm also using neXt with a DX8. Rather than trying to match any specific real heli, I just play with lots of the different heli models (but mainly the 500+ size ones) just to get a feel for differences in flight characteristics etc. I find I can now switch heli and adjust very quickly to the different feel, which I'm hoping will translate to making those adjustments in the real world. A bit like driving different cars. People who only drive one specific car for many years (like my dad) struggle to adjust to driving anything else. My dad would take several days to get used to driving a new car. Whereas I'm used to driving lots of different cars all the time (both right and left hand drive too) and can just hop into anything and drive it.

[myxiplx]

It all comes down to practice and stick time.

If you can make the sim more realistic it helps, but even when the sim flies totally different to your real models if you put in the stick time I'll improve your flying.

The first few times you fly a real model after starting on the sim it's weird. Depth perception is different, judging speed is different. It's the same if you've never simmed, people who have done years of flying but never practised on a sim often don't like the sim, their skills don't translate straight across and they struggle.

Making the transition between sim and a real model is something you have to learn, but the good news is that it doesn't take too long. A few weeks of simming and flying and it will start to click. I used to love my old mCPX BL for that, having a micro that you can fly at lunchtimes or in the garden allows you to get a fair amount of real stick time as well a sim stick time, and within a few weeks of flying both regularly you find that things you learn on the sim translate to real life really easily.

And once it does start to click you'll find you can switch between sim and real life without even thinking about it.

[myxiplx]

Yeah, I stand up while on the sim too most of the time - I just stand back and tilt the computer screen up. The controls feel surprisingly different that way and it's one less difference to the real thing.

I'm also using neXt with a DX8. Rather than trying to match any specific real heli, I just play with lots of the different heli models (but mainly the 500+ size ones) just to get a feel for differences in flight characteristics etc. I find I can now switch heli and adjust very quickly to the different feel, which I'm hoping will translate to making those adjustments in the real world. A bit like driving different cars. People who only drive one specific car for many years (like my dad) struggle to adjust to driving anything else. My dad would take several days to get used to driving a new car. Whereas I'm used to driving lots of different cars all the time (both right and left hand drive too) and can just hop into anything and drive it.

That's so true. I used to drive tractors on a farm, and when you're swapping between 3 different vehicles with *totally* different clutches you soon adapt. I used to be able to get in any car and drive it well within seconds. Nowdays I drive my own cars all the time, anything else feels really odd.

[Peteski]

That's so true. I used to drive tractors on a farm, and when you're swapping between 3 different vehicles with *totally* different clutches you soon adapt. I used to be able to get in any car and drive it well within seconds. Nowdays I drive my own cars all the time, anything else feels really odd.

Yeah, it's like your brain has a whole catalogue of clutches stored in its memory bank and just selects the appropriate clutch "map" within the first few seconds of driving something new. I imagine that's what it's like for an experienced RC pilot who has flown dozens of different models.