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Flight Simulator 2002 With 13 Monitors And 9 PCs
Ant points to Steve Ferris' site demonstrating what Ferris has done "using Wideview software, Multi Monitors and Fs2002 Panel Interior view Bitmaps. 9 PC's & 13 monitors. Server PC is a 2.0ghz AMD and has 1 Asus 4800se G4 AGP and when Motor flying 4 PCI graphic cards for the instrument panels.. All 8 Clients have AGP cards and are AMD 800 to 1.5ghz... My Ask21 Glider with 3 Asus 4800se G4 cards on the front 6 monitors, giving great downward landing view. When you sit in front, all screens line up reasonably well ... Windows XP on the 3 front PC's and 98se on the rest."
No, probably not.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Now here's a guy who loves his flight simulator!
Inconceivable!
but you`d need 4heads to be able to look at all those horizontal screens, wow 4 heads, now that WOULD be impressive.
WTF is a sig?
For the price of all that hardware, it'd probably be a lot more rewarding if he'd just purchased an aircraft. (Not sure how he'd manage to snag a 747, actually)
We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
Why don't you take some real flying lessons, and maybe buy a plane?
When you sit in front, all screens line up reasonably well ...
WHERE ELSE ARE YOU GOING TO SIT?!?!
Blarf.
seriously...wow.
Stupid people make stupid things profitable.
Flight simulator my arse, hes only saying that because of his wife!!! the real reason is his DVD porn collection!
There is no god
...incredible crash realism thanks to our friend Windows 98. :)
Nice, nice. But, isn't that seatbelt on the chair taking things a bit too far?
No sig
Comment removed based on user account deletion
ebay
Blarf.
13 monitors... not one is blue.
Now all we need is flight simulator in an IMAX dome. Now THAT would rock. Though the hardware to do that many pixels would prolly be more expensive than lessons, and an IMAX theater prolly goes for more than the $50/hr a plane usually costs.
Make me a friend and I'll mod you up
Cool, but where are his speakers?
With all them PCs running under his desk, the guy must be wondering why he still hears the wind roars when his plane is parked.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
when the win98 machines BSOD in succession, do the wings fall off?
expecting this to get slashdotted,
here's my mirror.
contains large images, please don't kill me needlessly
..I've always wondered what it feels like to be a hotdog inside a microwave oven.. There's a guy that knows!
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That room must be great for loosing a few pounds, you know, like in a sauna? My room only has 4 machines in it with 2 displays and it's a hot house....
Looks awesome. I've tried flying touch-n-gos in those Flight Simulators, and having only straight ahead views makes it impossible to judge when to start your turns. Switching between views sucks.
*wipes drool off of floor*
Does anyone remember battletech? It was kind of like an arcade, but just with the one game, a Mech type battle simulator, complete with cockpit, joystick, and multiple screens for views just like this. I remember playing at the Navy Pier in Chicago many years ago....
It's amazing how much multiple screens increases the realism. You look left, right, and there's still more game!
Doug
Venn ist das nurnstuck git und Slotermeyer? Ya! Beigerhund das oder die Flipperwaldt gersput!
...does that "expensive equipment" cost? I gues Al Quaida didn't need anything more sophisticated. And I wonder when this kind of software and hardware gets banned by the government because it may be used by terrorists?
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Separate all the screen tubes from their plastic casings, line them up together, then weld the tube edges together with a blowtorch. You might need to degauss all the screens when you're done.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Addition: He could have purchased a low-hour used ultralight for what he paid for this setup.
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Doh, you've never seen a BSOD on a telebeam? The kind that displays commercials on walls of buildings? THAT is some neat M$ commercial!
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
you mean they actually run those things on M$ - ahahhaha i would at least use MAC if not Linux.
Slashdot - The one stop shop for procrastination
Nine PCs and 13 monitors???? He must have one hell of an electric bill, not to mention that that room probably heat up to 103 with the a/c going full tilt.
So he'll get an even tan from all those displays...
Does he only have one sound card?
Like, "come on" you need at least 16 speakers to make the sound as realistic as the image..
"If you are going through hell, keep going." - Winston Churchill
to go with one of these babys
Can monitor radiation damage the skin (on anything else) in any way?
You can seriously crash a RL airplane once, with a lot of luck twice. And with this one you can crash over and over!
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Check out this page and look at the date on the bottom photo : does that look like a 1 1/3 year old news or is it just me ?
/. ...
Way to go
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
a KVM, and some LCD panels to cut down on the space & heat.
I count 9 keyboards - maybe some of them are for extra controls/buttons, but I doubt all nine are.
He could also use a custom LCD arm solution from these guys.
...I can tell you, that all flight simulators are missing two most important instruments - a piece of string and your butt. No, seriously. You don't look at instruments at all, you just check the piece of string stuck to the outside of the canopy to see if you are not flying slightly sideways. And when you find lifting air currents, you feel you're being pushed into the seat, even before instruments register anything. Other that that, you just enjoy the view (and fly in circles a lot :) ).
A wel known defense company has a full blown flight simulator (commercial grade, for development work and UI prototyping, workload analsys ets) written in C which runs on _two_ five year old computers - one to handle the flight model, one to generate the visuals. Plenty of eye candy projected onto a dome via 4 BFO projectors.
2 second hand SGI boxes fast enough to run it would cost you about $800 now, and give you a much more realistic and pretty experience. I wonder what his set up cost?
BLEH, I saw this like last year or smth. Maybe a different setup, but definetly the same idea.
-]Phreak Out[-
fov 360
Tada!
Hate me!
who here thinks this guy actually owns 9 Windows licensces?
None of the planes/jets in MSFS2002 use a flight stick, they all have yokes.
like Battlefield 1942, RTCW, etc. would be possible. :)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Let me be the first to say that's an amazing piece of work.
Of course, I wouldn't be, if he was running FlightGear on a beowulf cluster. People would be falling all over themselves to congratulate him then. But there you are.
How would one go about removing the gaps between the monitors?
The display is great, but The gaps between the monitors is not very attractive and could be destracting.
How can he stand the noise?
...oh wait.
What with all those psu, cpu, video and case fans blowing it must sound like a jet taking
Last year I've seen one of those during reboot - running on win 3.11!
Ah. 80.49.74.98 - IP of an "info booth" outside my school. Judging by the requesters on the screen, somebody's hacked it already...
(please, if modding down, mark as offtopic, not troll)
Windows XP on the 3 front pc's and 98se on the rest
That's a total of 13 licenses needed. Are you inviting the BSA into your home or is 13 your lucky number?
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
Notice that only 3 of the computers are running XP. I suspect that he installed it 3 times and couldn't get it activated the 4th time. This reminds me of an article interviewing some Microsoft executive regarding their product activation, which was new and contraversial at the time, where they said that they did not intend for it to prevent casual copying, because that would hurt regular customers, but rather they would only disable a product key after several hundred installs.
One of my bosses is a pilot on the side. Our current and previous offices have both been adjacent to an airport.
According to my calculations, having 9 AMD's running in that small room would bake the "pilot" in his own juices...
Does this make my brain look big?
Really - I'd rather have three projectors, front and two sides, than that.
The monitors on the sides are way too small in the vertical dimension to be convincing.
Compared to the multi-screen Air Traffic Control systems that are commercially available. Screens
Assembled
Some of the smaller models such as what are used at the FAA Academy use 3 27" displays. Of course the resolution is different. The big screens use $15,000 projectors and custom mounting hardware. And commercially available 3D image generation systems. But you can scale it down to a p4 and a Geforce card per screen.
With all the noise his Athlon-equiped computers make, it must feel like being in a real airplane ;-)
The CRTs can stay, but everyone else gotta go!
Hey no common, flight sims are remarkebly like flying for real. I mean after two hours in Flight Sim'95 I was a pro.... :-)
Yes, I am kidding and I have flown a real plane [though, not by myself] before.
And yes, mr. troll who seems to like to reply to all my messages, I am a latent homosexual asshat and I'd like to get your phone number so we can share some "feelings".
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
What about the other ones
Flightgear comes to mind, and being open source there should be the capacity to do this too.
I think I just felt a tear in my pants.
This guy would just have to get a nice sound card and some great headphones, since pilots use headphones...but then he'd be able to hear the props or the jets.
This is my digital signature. 10011011001
the guy is obviously a terrorist, sick Homeland on him NOW!
He failed the mention the added bonus of the nice glow you receive after a few hours in the virtual cockpit.
I'd hate to see this guy's electric bill....
X-plane does this sort of thing natively using TCP/IP,
costs less, and has a more accurate flight model.
Other info at theX-plane UDP networking information site.
-----
Receive Heaven's Punishment!
(please, if modding down, mark as offtopic, not troll) exactly, and even further (to the person who marked me as a troll) why try to styfle the natural evolution of the conversation it went
13 monitors for flight sim -->13 monitors bluescreeninging --> blue screening info boards--> laughing at idiots running info boards on M$--> commenting on info boards runing windows 3.11 why is any of that offtopic.Any people who only wanted to see the 13 monitors for flish sim bit could have stopped reading when it went to 13 monitors bluescreening.
Slashdot - The one stop shop for procrastination
It would take a Beowulf cluster to run one of these things.
He's got a frikkin' chair with a frikkin' joystick.
Anybody want a peanut?
"9 PC's & 13 monitors. Server PC is a 2.0ghz AMD and has 1 Asus 4800se G4 AGP and when Motor flying 4 PCI graphic cards for the instrument panels.. All 8 Clients have AGP cards and are AMD 800 to 1.5ghz... My Ask21 Glider with 3 Asus 4800se G4 cards on the front 6 monitors, giving great downward landing view."
Why is that special? Isn't that just the system requirements for Fs2002? Seems to be to me at any rate...
The title says it all. Stop being gay immediately and you'll find that life is not always filled with enema-raping and vomiting semen up after all-night sex-and-alcohol orgies with your local Linux Users' Group. There's a lot more life has to offer than waking up next to two naked, bearded college students covered in feces.
Once more, we come back to Linux. Obviously the gateway OS has led you to a sinister life of faggotry and cock-lust that has spun out of control. I mean, a man should not have to wear a pad to save his underpants from his bleeding asshole, and anything that leads a man to such depravity is surely evil! Chuck those 386s down a coal-mine shaft and be done with it! I cannot stress this enough; I just hope you listen!
Whew. Well, I hope you smarten up and follow my advice. It's the only way. And it all begins with the non-use of Linux. The sooner you make this change the sooner you will see your life turn around. I wish you luck in the next few weeks and months.
Let's see, what do F1 and F2 do again?
if he put some imagination into it and spent some of the Huge Wads of Cash on a few lcd projectors and fashioned some curved projection screens...
I mean, come on... It's hard to get excited about a field of vision one foot tall and 8 or 9 feet wide, plastic monitor edges chopping it up every so often.
Is there any software that would do this for just any computer program, not Flight Simulator in Particular? I can think of some mildy cool applications of this, like networked multi-monitor stuff?
Anyone?
Or, at least, a distant relative of the Waller Gunnery Trainer, which used five movie projectors. (Waller, who invented this system, went on to create Cinerama. Cinerama used three synchronized projectors to produce a wraparound widescreen experience).
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
I've set up WideView on my network of 3 computers and I think it sucks. Each machine is running an independent copy of MS FS2002 (which of course means you technically require 3 licenses). Since each machine is running it's own copy of the Flight Sim, it makes things real funky and is a real pain to get it all setup just right.
For example, if you set the weather conditions as cloudy and raining on your primary machine, your other machines wont just automatically receive that information without some additional configuration. It's a total hack of a project and uses an ungodly amount of network resources.
Buy a Matrox Parhelia card and wait for FS2004, due out in about a month, so you can play using some decent resolutions since FS2002 only supports up to 1920x480 (which is 640x480 per screen)
The average length of time taken to get a PPSEL (Private Pilot Single Engine Land) is around 70 hours. I got mine in 72. The FAA requires at least 40 hours of training. Most beginner pilots focus on the number 40, but soon realise that 40 is a pipe dream. If you're lucky you will solo in about 15 hours. At 40 hours you will have good allround experience and will be ready to plan the require 2 short and 1 long cross-country flights. If you're really good you will be ready for the check-ride at 60.
Initial reaction was literally "Oh, Geez" (/sound of awe, hold the shock).
/droooooolll
Of course the pr0n reference was already taken, but wouldn't that joy stick get in the way of...errr...forget I asked.
Heh, "Is that a fligh stick between your legs or... oh, wait, nevermind.
Have you read the moderator guidelines? Well, have you, PUNK? (and I want a Karma: Gnarly option)
I actually read this site just yesterday - He's using far cheaper gear.
10 CRTs (currently my company is selling off surplus for $50 a piece) = $500
TFTs - currently, 17" CRTs are about $400 = $1200 He said that they are mostly cheap-o video cards such as the nVidia GF4MX = $40 each ==> $520
PCs - most are of the 800mhz variety - can be had for $200/piece at an auction. --> $1800
Price Total: $4020.
Now, I don't know where this guy lives, but my Private Pilot Certificate PP-ASEL cost me approx $8000 in the SF-Bay Area.
I love flying - read: LOVE flying - nothing comes close.
However, let this guy have his kicks... if he got deals on the gear, it's only 33% more expensive than your high performance gaming PC setup listed on arstechnica and other hobbyist sites.
At least it's better and far cooler than having neon fans and powered liquid coolant systems overclocking by 10% to get 500,000 fps in quake.
Someone better chek to make sure this guy has bothered learning how to land with his super MS fligh simulator setup :O
Do you really want a guy who wires up 20 computers to make a virtual view to actually fly a real airplane?
This is my sig.
"I've got too much... time on my hands, and it's ticking away with my SANITY!"
(Okay, I admit! I'm jealous!)
dochood
When I was a boy...
Well, back in college,
You could sync 3 computers running doom and get the same fine looking effect.
These kids today with their 15 monitors, and their automatic weapons and such....
Kremvax
--- Little Atomo - The Amazing Thinking Robot from Atomocom! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIP9KisHi4k
Although made by MS, MSFS2K2 is actually a fairly polished and easy to use program.
:-(
On the other hand, I much prefer Fly2, which in comparison, is a pain in the ass, unpolished, and hard to get running properly - BUT, has far (and I mean far) superior out of the box airplanes. It's realistic enough to use the real checklists from the real planes for startup/shutdown procedures, where MSFS2K2 planes are a long ways from that. (There are some extra-cost commercial planes for MS which are close to the Fly2 planes in quality, but still lack some things, imho).
Still, MSFS2K2 has killed off pretty much all the competition now. Fly2 is no longer developed, neither is the Flight Unlimited series.
Much as with operating systems, it is now a mono-sim world, or pretty close. There are a few stragglers left - xplane I guess? But basically the competition is gone, despite having in some ways a superior product.
If I were in your pants I'd cry too.
Ok, only a complete idiot would spend all that time and money building a great display setup like that, but still be using just a simple JS, KB and mouse to control the plane. If you want realism, get some realistic flight controls. At LEAST a throttle and rudder pedal setup!
Not to mention, you could cut the number of computers needed in half if you used dual head video cards (like I'm doing with my GeForce 4 Ti.. 1 monitor hooked to the normal analog connection, 1 to the DVI-I connection through a convertor.. Works GREAT!)
Still, good idea... HAve fun with that brain tumor!
You'd think that if he can afford all of those monitors and a setup like that, that he could at least buy a KVM data switch.
Why one has not(atleast to my knowing) used this principle in watching DVD's. Anyone seen or tired this?
What's in a sig?
I wonder if there is a specific reason why he didn't make the circle tighter and go for a full 180 degree view. That way, you could set it up so you could look 90 degrees to the left and get a true left view, instead of "almost left." It seems as if you'd just have to turn each monitor in at a slightly greater angle, but is there another optical issue that I'm missing out on?
hem....doesn't CRT monitors blast radiation?
I wonder what is the effect of multimple crt being directed to a single human can have...
... means you're still $35k or so from being close to a real flight in a 737; and you'll still have a ways to go for a 747/777. $15K just means you can fly as an amateur while still forking out for rental time and fuel because you still don't have a plane. And in three years this fellow's computers will be obsolete but still able to do the same job as now so what's the diff?
Sorry, but credit where credit's due; this is a nice set up and way cheaper alternative to the real thing.
I've been away for a while - are people still cracking those 'beowulf cluster of these' jokes? If so, I want in on this one.
RTFM; please, I beg you.
please lord, if he was on the east coast, I'd donate one...
let someone on the west coast open their hearts./..
But why didn't he just invest in a good positional sensing VR helmet instead? 13 monitors (new) has to have cost him close to $1500, and another $3000-$4000 for the computers. There has to be a helmet that is about the same price.
Just because you can mod me down, doesn't mean you're right. Shoes for industry!
Surprised no one mentioned... :)
... in front of that many monitors and you can kiss your future family good-bye!
Oh well, we have an over-population problem anyway...
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
With the amount of money this guy must have spent on hardware he could have easily afforded flight school - not to mention a down payment on a Cessna.
I hope i didn't post this too late but... For those that have some knowledge regarding the following question please reply: in your opinion (feel free to state why) - what is the BEST more realistic / complex flight sim out there? ... and is it on kazaa? :)
Even with such an elaborate setup and an obviously hardcore fan ... I'd bet he has copied CDs from his friend!
Boy do I ever remember battletech. I had a birthday party there back in middle school, and it was amazing. I think we had all 8 or so machines filled, and it so added to the realism and fun being in enclosed in those cockpits with all the screens and buttons and lights...so sweet. Though I can't remember, was that stuff at Navy Pier or North Pier?
So.... Your place or mine?
Virtual World member card...
gonna have to round up the gang and kick some a..
because those hardware only cost about half as much in US.
For God's sake...if you're prepapred to spend that sort of money on hardware and that amount of time putting it all together, do the right thing and just buy a frickin' plane!
-psy
Heck, with all those PCs lined up on the floor it I bet it sounds pretty much like an airplane engine in there even without speakers.
I wonder how often he grabs the wrong mouse...
Terrorist training at camp of your choice: Free if you're a fanatic
Pilot training: ~$5000
Simulator cost (monitors, PCs, etc) ~$15000
Getting to fly planes into buildings over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over
PRICELESS
*ducks*
SB
It's old. The more humans I meet, the more I like my cats. At least they are honest.
No pilot can fly without a cupholder.
And a microphone to warn the neighbors of any turbulance every 5 seconds.
What happens if he has a BSOD? Is there a parachute?
Rus
Cheap UK and US VPS
Most people can only soar on the weekends, in good weather, when the tow pilot is out, durring the day, when the towplane and glider have had their annuals and everything is in working order, when the thermals are popping. Then, if you want to go x-c, you have to have a crew, a trailer, and a truck. Then you have to watch out for boulder-strewn fields because it's important that you bring it in in one piece. Granted, you aren't going to get the shit-eating grin of soaring for real, but there are advantages.
With a couple hours of instruction, any idiot can land a small airplane if you don't care about landing on the numbers. A license is the easiest thing in the world to forge -- it's just a piece of paper. You could run one off on any laser printer. A logbook isn't much harder. You'll want fake instructor and examiner signoffs, but they probably won't check the numbers, and a lot of those guys write illegibly anyhow, so in a lot of ways it's easier than faking a driver's license.
Sim1 calling controls
Sim1 calling controls
Blue screen
Blue screen
shhhhhhhtttttt
The lunatic is in my head
Is seriously in need of a KVM, he could clear up all that desk space easy.
The link is from the Netherlands (Holland).
I somehow doubt it would be anywhere near those prices to fly a real airplane anywhere in Europe, or the rest of the world for that matter. We actually pay the asking price for our oil, instead of invading and taking!
The setup just looks "plane" fantastic.
Projectors are down to about $2K each; it's not out of reach to do this any more.
KVM
What aircraft has 12+ windows in the cockpit?
Mmmmmm... Bold, yet refreshing!
Don't get me wrong -- this set up looks freaking awesome. However, the only pet-peeve is the gap between the monitors. With flight similator it's not as glaring because pilots have kindof a similar visibility.
However, couldn't you do much better if you decided to take some LCD monitors out of their casing? Don't LCD panels have a lot less unused space on the side? I'm surprised more case modders haven't done this for a poor mans widescreen.
DumbHypocriticalGuy...
And I suppose since you're so very concerned about our world's problems, that you're doing your part by scanning slashdot and reading all the articles whose headlines hint at possibly divulging solutions, right?
This particular article was a great place to start.
I just find all this techno-wankery that slashdot likes to promote is somewhat distasteful. I like to think that one day, Americans will wake up from their orgy of self-centered consumerism (of which this over-specced PC is just one example) and see the wider world out there.
You're right. Anyone reading or posting to this article is truly distasteful.
Its not about having a fast PC, its all about what you are like as a human being, relating to other human beings as equals.
Again, you're right. And I'm sure you're a fabulous human being to know, since you have such hardened principles that would never allow you to try to simultaneously mingle with and discredit a group of people.
Is it any wonder slashdot readers seem to have so much trouble getting laid, when they are all obessed with PC hardware and flight simulators ?
Well, as long as you're into treating us as equals, I'm sure you get laid several times daily, probably by condescending to your dozens dates like this.
Man, these things bother me too, but just like you, I have things to get done and obligations to fulfill. I've stopped in a suit and tie to help push a car out of an intersection, and I've waited an extra minute to help elderly women through the door at the mall, but I'm too selfish to volunteer at the soup kitchen. I love my comfort too much to join the Peace Core.
In between all the things I claim take up all my time, sometimes I like to relax. Just like you, one of the ways I'll do that is reading slashdot. I know I could do more, and I should. Right now, my son is asleep, my girlfriend is out with her friends, and I could be doing so much more with my time, but I'm watching the Man Show.
I hope you'll reconsider once you read this, but I doubt you'll ever see this post, because you're too philanthropic, and right now you're spending the money you were saving for next month's Internet access on the children.
}
Let this guy have his 13 monitors. No, it won't cure hunger or cancer, but it's still an accomplishment.
Mom says my
We need to get the guy who did the Xinerama-like Flight Sim setup together with this guy, and then we'll be getting somewhere.
Help us build a better map!
compared to this
Hey, I went and emailed Steve. No one told him that he made it onto Slashdot. What is the point of all of this adoration if no one is going to tell him about it?
WHY 98 on some of the boxes ?
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
About 10 years ago I was running multiple monitors in an "immersion" configuration for a flight sim. Granted, I only had 4 monitors, not 13, but then I only used one machine. A Mac Quadra 900. The sim was F/A-18 Hornet. No special software or configuration was necessary. More displays would have simply required more NuBus graphics cards and displays.
Of course, when I exited the sim, all four displays belonged to one machine and displayed one contiguous desktop area, and any game that was properly written supported the multi display.
Article X: The powers not delegated... by the Constitution...are reserved...to the people
Seth Fucklestein your mother is here say hi
I think Grand Theft Auto would be a heck of a lot of fun on 16+ screens.... Based upon that "careful conclusion" I should be out carjacking and pimping.... Wait, that does sound like fun.
I'm just curious how long it takes to get a screenburn when you have all those screens pointing at you...
I think he could have got a better system at a similar cost by spending more on video and less on CPU systems. 3 or 4 projectors or lcd/plasma screens would have given him a similar viewing angle with less joints.
He could've had
1) Front
2) Left
3) Right
4) Front down (for landing)
Another idea (not sure how good it is) would be to use those Matrox multi-head video cards or similar.
Also what I want to know is why he doesn't have a KVM switch to avoid the need for 9 keyboards and mice?
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
You could take flying lessons (it's easer than the Linux Command line
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock. Will Rogers
a fourner RF-4 can be snagged for about 25K (TradeaPlane)
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock. Will Rogers
there is an old saying "Nothing is as useless as Altitude above you or Runway behind you"
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock. Will Rogers
when you consume numerous Adult Beverages
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock. Will Rogers
Beowulf cluster of these!
He who laughs last is stuck in a time dilation bubble.
With the cash for all that gear, he could have got through flight school and be doing it for real.
I am an instrument rated pilot and personally have a simulator with quite a bit of high quality hardware from Prcision Flight Control Systems. It doesn't come cheap, but if you consider that you need around 300 hours to qualify for instrument rating and that depending on your abilities it might take you between 40-60 hours of training to be proficient enough not to get a "pink slip" on your check ride, a good simulator gives you hundreds of hours of instrument flying to practice all procedures. Heck, it even lets you go to that airport you've never been to before you even actually land there. See, when you are in the clouds your perceived sensations are worth nothing, they might even get you killed! that's when flying becomes more like a simulator and you are glued to that instrument panel. Who knows, it might even have saved the lives of John F. Kennedy junior and company if he had had a few hours of instrumen training.
Cheers.
You've all seen those ads......"take a discovery flight for $35 and see if you would want to be a pilot" bla bla bla....... Well, from what I hear, they take you up and let you have the controls. OK, here's what I wanted to do.....get on one, play up the fact that I've run MS flight simulator for years, and these controls look JUST LIKE what is on my computer. After we get up and the instructor gives me the controls (so to speak)......put the plane in a shallow dive, then ask the instructor....."hey, where's the ctrl-alt-del key so I can reboot this thing, it's in a dive and I don't want to crash" LOL
Now, no disrespect to non native English speakers, but I almost went into convulsions just trying to read the blurb here on slashdot. I think there should be a warning for native speaking people, much like the warning you get on some recent games for people with epilepsy. Something like "clicking on this link has been shown to cause severe mental and physical reactions due to the subtle, unintentional, grammatical errors that act much like a 'logic bomb' in intelligent homo sapiens. Proceed at your own risk."
Does anyone know of other recent games that you can run multiple monitors with? FPS games are more my thing.
isn't a real glider cheaper ;)
well, perhaps the winch / toe plane isn't
A blog I run for the wealth
He's probably a bad pilot...so this setup makes it much safer for him.
Also, what if this guy was handicapped in someway that made it impossible for him to fly in a real airplane? Or what if he was scared of heights? Those are all possibilities...
Though...I'm agreeing with everyone else and going with the virtual pr0n idea too.
Usually with a pilot's liscence you can only fly small private prop planes. This is cool, but a bit limited.
With a simulator like this he can get any airplane he can think of, and if he installs X-plane he can fly any airplane he can design as well.
- 5-8K for a pilot's liscence and a cessna
- 4k for every plane in the world and more
I think he got a great valuePerhaps the guy can't fly a real airplane; did anyone think of that?
His vision might not be correctable to within 20/20.
He may have a physical impairment that prevents him from flying (maybe a bad ticker).
He may live somewhere that is far away from the nearest airport that offers lessons.
Maybe the airports that do offer lessons don't fly the airplanes (gliders) that he wants to fly.
Maybe he has acrophobia.
Perhaps he doesn't have enough money to get a license - or fly as many hours as he wants even if he does. Aircraft rental is expensive - and I would hazzard a guess that the price has gone up since 911 - as well as the difficulty in getting approved in the first place.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
Saw a similar setup before; a few screens shorter though.
___
*insert sig here*
Yes, but from where shall he take off, now that Meigs Field (CGX) has been all carved up by the Evil Mayou Daley, and his goons?
Throw the bums out!
I cannot imagine the fields that are pulsing through this guys body. We should start a pool on tumors... Where he gets one first...
I remeber Battletech, I wrote the darned thing (or a goodsized piece of it anyway) I was the Chief Engineer at the company that made the games and simulators.
A good portion of the company was swallowed by Microsoft in '97 to become the MechWarrior development team but what's left of the original company (Virtual World Entertaniment) continues to operate quite a few sites.
True, it's not as nice looking as today's games but considering that the hardware hasn't been updated since '95 I'd expect that. What's really surprising is that this game has been in continuous play since 1990! How many games hold people's interest for that long?
I understand they are going through a hardware/software upgrade right now.
For some time I've been interested in starting up a new company to do something like this but haven't found anyone interested in putting up the money.
There's more info on the BattleTech cockpits on my website (which is a mess right now, look here and also here). And don't forget about Red Planet, the less popular (but in many people's opinion) more exciting second game we had.
Milo from Kangaroo Koncepts
The ASK-21 is larger and heavier than the Ka-7, and of course it has better performance. I have flown both -- my first glider solo was in an ASK-21, but I last flew a Ka-7 about 21 years ago so my memory may be faulty. In any case, I don't see any way to call an ASK-21 the "younger brother" of the Ka-7!
In the US (and elsewhere, I suspect), the easiest way to get into soaring is to join a club. No need to buy a glider before you know that you're actually going to like it, and before you know what kind of flying you want to do. Most people would buy a single-seat glider, because it will perform better than a two-seat glider (just about all of which are trainers). However it's hard to take your mother for a joy-ride in a single-seater!
Unlimited growth == Cancer.