How close to the real thing is Phoenix?

[ajenkins]

I found I was able to fly my real heli the first time I tried it, after learning to do the same in Phoenix. I tried hovering in all orientations on my first flight, and tried some forward flight, circles and figure eights, on my second flight. No possible way I could have done that without the sim. If I'd been very patient and followed RADD's flight training method religiously, I MIGHT have been doing a tail-in hover on my 10th or 15th flight without crashing.

Don't just take off and start trying to do all the same stuff you can do in the sim though. I found in some ways my real helis are easier than in Phoenix, specifically hovering. However I find it a bit easier to lose sight of which way the model is pointing in real life than in the sim, so that's one difference I had to adjust to. Another is that the wind and turbulence simulation in Phoenix isn't all that realistic, so if you're flying on a windy day, expect your heli to get bounced around considerably more than it does in Phoenix. Also make sure you're practicing in the sim on a similar heli to the on you'll buy. Don't just practice with a Raptor if you're going to buy a Trex 450 for instance.

[Beans]

More difficult working out orientation of a real heli? Crikey, I have problem working it out in Pheonix sometimes.

[ajenkins]

Well, it could have something to do with the color scheme. My Falcon 3D has a solid red canopy, except for the windshield, and I often find when it's at an angle I can't tell if it's angled toward me or away from me, since the silhouette is the same either way. The Falcon is around the same size as a Trex 450, but I don't have that problem with the Trex 450 in Phoenix, at least not until it's so small that it's just a speck on the screen. Maybe if I put more markings on my canopy like the Trex has, it'll be easier to see.

My Blade CP Pro has more markings, but it's much smaller, so it gets hard to see for a different reason.

[moyesboy]

When you fly high, so ther is no ground in sight on the sim - then its more difficult to work out where the heli is comparewd to the flight line than in real life.
In real life getting the heli overhead is completely different to how it is on the sim and its very easy to lose the real heli if you end up with it hovering straight above you.

The sim encourages lots of low flying - which is not what you want to be doing for real. I'm trying to force myself to fly the sim higher on the circuits and take the crashes more seriously. Particularly the flying into pilot ones now I got a .50 nitro. Though the trex450 is scary enough when it gets too close.
A bit of blood and gore, or the "cameraman" getting knocked over might be an amusing addition to the flown into pilot crash scenario. Maybe when they have multiplayer you could also injure your friends...

[Ade_Law]

its amazing how much difference a good canopy design makes to maintaining orientation some of the aftermarket decal sheets for the raptor are a nightmare even in good light. you need reasonably large panels of solid colour preferably 2 or 3 different colours that contrast with eachother. 2 colours should be visable no matter what the orrientation (other than straight tail in obviously!)

Ade

[LipolyGone]

what about if phoenix disabled your computer for a few days and charged your credit card 100ukp everytime you crashed?

Ade

It would then be ultra realistic Ade

RCSlopes