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Post by Stearmandriver on Jun 10, 2021 1:10:28 GMT -5
The Cub logo stuck on the panel of a Cessna is heresy. The rest is fine  . I fly for a living, and it's not a bad way to make one of those. I used to have to commute from Seattle to Houston as a passenger every week, and that was horrible haha. I typically don't airline anywhere that's less than a day's drive away now. I do some part time instructing for a group that owns a bunch of classic airplanes, so I get my fun flying fix on my days off. You're a lucky man! 👍 I feel lucky, definitely. The airline career is something most folks can do if they put in the work and investment, but I'm still grateful for the opportunity... but the fun flying on the side, that truly was just dumb luck. Right place at the right time... twice, now, in two different states. Not sure how many more times I could pull that off! 👍 |
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Post by Stearmandriver on Jun 10, 2021 1:29:33 GMT -5
...I would rank DCS as the greatest computer game ever made. From the size of the buttons to the business model, they just don't make any mistakes. My pc is too old to run the latest, but they still offer 1.2 on their website for free, so all I get is the Su-25T, but I still get all the training, instant and campaign missions. If you don't know who Growling Sidewinder is, check out his youtubes. He flies all the planes, stays calm and precise in the cockpit, and always finishes with a TacView to analyze what went wrong or right. Last week's video is the F/A-18 in Desert Storm, and is only sixteen minutes. www.youtube.com/channel/UCh2rDh7vXGeoh1LlzL3QEwgPS I still like flying even commercial in coach, because you get to go flying. It's the airport people that suck, and some of it's not their fault. Haha I do know Heidi. I don't have a lot of computer game experience, but I'll say this about DCS: when my boy told me I needed to try it, I was mostly humoring him. I figured it was just another blow-'em-up game, but with airplanes. But I'll tell you what, I've never seen better flight models in a desktop sim. I mean I've never flown an F/A-18, but have plenty of time in 45,000lb jets, and it's incredible how much that software actually feels like an airplane. I mean... I don't even understand how they did it. The airline travel experience is certainly not what it was, but... that's cost pressures in a safety-critical environment for ya. When the first priority of a majority of consumers is "cheap", well... you can't cut operational corners, so you cut customer service ones. And then people complain about being given what they asked for: cheap. I mean, look at the prices quoted in this thread; you couldn't take Greyhound for half that, but instead you're blasting through the atmosphere at eight tenths the speed of sound. 🤔 Of course, if you're familiar with Allegiant, you might take Greyhound instead... 😁. |
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Post by simnettpratt on Jun 10, 2021 3:54:05 GMT -5
ep. Folks who only know of computer games through tv ads and consoles (ick), will tend to think of them as rubbish childish cartoons. They are presented with arcade crap like World of Tanks and told this simulates WWII armored combat. There are real simulations out there that perform as well as you can expect when they have to run on a home computer, and feel as good as they can when all your input is through a 2D screen. The guys who made the Cub with Heidi, A2A Simulations, are all pilots that only modeled their general aviation planes after those they actually owned, so they'd make videos of the real plane at various settings, then tweak the sim plane until the numbers matched. DCS will tell you up front they try to make their WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War and Cold War planes as accurately as they can, but for the more modern classified stuff they get their numbers from wikipedia or some such, which is why the range of the AIM-120s is what it is in the wiki. Real fighter pilots won't make youtubes with the modern planes using any of the avionics, in case they launch an AMRAAM at 60 miles, when the game's range is 40. This is also why they don't model an F-22 or F-35, because everyone would know it would be completely made up. For folks who think computer games are like World of Tanks or War Thunder, here's a screenshot of the cockpit layout from DCS' 432 page manual on the magnificent Russian Mi-8 medium twin turbine helicopter. The next pages go into detail on each area. Then you have to learn how to use them - every button, knob, switch and toggle work and have to be used correctly.  |
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Post by Plainsman on Jun 10, 2021 7:17:35 GMT -5
I wanna know all about Cockpit Funs.
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Post by Ronv69 on Jun 10, 2021 9:48:23 GMT -5
I wanna know all about Cockpit Funs. I was just thinking the same thing! 😁 |
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Post by Ronv69 on Jun 10, 2021 9:52:38 GMT -5
ep. Folks who only know of computer games through tv ads and consoles (ick), will tend to think of them as rubbish childish cartoons. They are presented with arcade crap like World of Tanks and told this simulates WWII armored combat. There are real simulations out there that perform as well as you can expect when they have to run on a home computer, and feel as good as they can when all your input is through a 2D screen. The guys who made the Cub with Heidi, A2A Simulations, are all pilots that only modeled their general aviation planes after those they actually owned, so they'd make videos of the real plane at various settings, then tweak the sim plane until the numbers matched. DCS will tell you up front they try to make their WWII, Korean War, Vietnam War and Cold War planes as accurately as they can, but for the more modern classified stuff they get their numbers from wikipedia or some such, which is why the range of the AIM-120s is what it is in the wiki. Real fighter pilots won't make youtubes with the modern planes using any of the avionics, in case they launch an AMRAAM at 60 miles, when the game's range is 40. This is also why they don't model an F-22 or F-35, because everyone would know it would be completely made up. For folks who think computer games are like World of Tanks or War Thunder, here's a screenshot of the cockpit layout from DCS' 432 page manual on the magnificent Russian Mi-8 medium twin turbine helicopter. The next pages go into detail on each area. Then you have to learn how to use them - every button, knob, switch and toggle work and have to be used correctly. That's actually mind blowing. I would have to start with a 1st generation Wright Brothers or an Ercoupe. The Ercoupe is supposed to be simplest powered airplane  . |
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Post by sperrytops on Jun 10, 2021 10:54:50 GMT -5
Did too much flying from 1980 to about 2015 for business. Even when you got to upgrade to Business or First, they were little better unless you were flying international. Maybe a little more room. The best experience was when I was working with a client in Western Canada. They had a corporate jet. I got to book it for my travel when I went on business for them, usually to Calgary or Salt Lake City, but only if someone else wasn't using it. Now that is in a class by itself. These days, I will not go near a plane if I have any other options.
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Post by simnettpratt on Jun 10, 2021 11:22:27 GMT -5
The fully cockpit clickable DCS aircraft are an extreme example. Plus, you have to fly and also fight in those. But even if you want to fly a simple plane like an Ercoupe in civilian aviation, you have to learn stuff like heading, course and track, coordinated flight, crosswind takeoffs, airport procedures, radio communications, navigation, emergencies, all kinds of stuff, and that's without any complex avionics. Navigating in that tatty old Ercoupe you posted would actually be more work than finding your way in a nicer plane with even a handheld battery operated GPS - that little guy has only an oil compass. You'd be using that, your watch, a map made of paper, possibly an E6B flight 'computer' and your Mark I eyeballs. This is why I love flying, even commercial in coach: there's a lot more to learn than is possible in one life.  |
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Post by Ronv69 on Jun 10, 2021 12:25:29 GMT -5
The fully cockpit clickable DCS aircraft are an extreme example. Plus, you have to fly and also fight in those. But even if you want to fly a simple plane like an Ercoupe in civilian aviation, you have to learn stuff like heading, course and track, coordinated flight, crosswind takeoffs, airport procedures, radio communications, navigation, emergencies, all kinds of stuff, and that's without any complex avionics. Navigating in that tatty old Ercoupe you posted would actually be more work than finding your way in a nicer plane with even a handheld battery operated GPS - that little guy has only an oil compass. You'd be using that, your watch, a map made of paper, possibly an E6B flight 'computer' and your Mark I eyeballs. This is why I love flying, even commercial in coach: there's a lot more to learn than is possible in one life. No radio in an Ercoupe. 😜🤠 |
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Post by Ronv69 on Jun 10, 2021 12:26:19 GMT -5
The fully cockpit clickable DCS aircraft are an extreme example. Plus, you have to fly and also fight in those. But even if you want to fly a simple plane like an Ercoupe in civilian aviation, you have to learn stuff like heading, course and track, coordinated flight, crosswind takeoffs, airport procedures, radio communications, navigation, emergencies, all kinds of stuff, and that's without any complex avionics. Navigating in that tatty old Ercoupe you posted would actually be more work than finding your way in a nicer plane with even a handheld battery operated GPS - that little guy has only an oil compass. You'd be using that, your watch, a map made of paper, possibly an E6B flight 'computer' and your Mark I eyeballs. This is why I love flying, even commercial in coach: there's a lot more to learn than is possible in one life. No radio in an Ercoupe. And you just follow the roads. 😜🤠 |
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Post by Stearmandriver on Jun 10, 2021 14:36:31 GMT -5
I miss flying airplanes without radios. There's no way around radios being a safety advantage, and so the owner has put them in all the classic planes I fly, and that's great... but it's a lot more peaceful without a radio.
And following roads is 100% legitimate navigation in a plane that often gets passed by cars if there's any headwind. 😉
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Post by Ronv69 on Jun 10, 2021 15:20:17 GMT -5
I miss flying airplanes without radios. There's no way around radios being a safety advantage, and so the owner has put them in all the classic planes I fly, and that's great... but it's a lot more peaceful without a radio. And following roads is 100% legitimate navigation in a plane that often gets passed by cars if there's any headwind. 😉 Yeah, nobody buys an Ercoupe for speed. |
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Post by trailboss on Jun 10, 2021 16:18:01 GMT -5
Yep!
I take Allegiant strictly for the price, pretty much all airlines suck in the customer service department.
Allegiant has a niche market in that they fly into secondary airports that would require transfers and would be a lot more pricey.
Wearing a parachute on Allegiant is uncomfortable, sad they took my breaching tool.
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Post by Ronv69 on Jun 14, 2021 9:04:05 GMT -5
I reckon it all depends on where you are driving. Driving up the washboard two lane I-5 with trucks required to drive 55 mph, and cars drive 100 creates a really shitty drive. And driving through the LA basin twice with numerous road construction projects and horrendous traffic, if I had my druthers, I would have flown into the bay area, rented a car drove down the coast and flew out of Santa Barbara. But on that trip, the wife wanted her own wheels there. She is going back to care for her sister, but she is flying both ways. Meanwhile, I am flying to hang with my brothers for four days around independence day. I will grant you that driving in California is a unique experience. I still have nightmares about the Oakland Bay Bridge during rush hour. Motorcycles cruising between stopped traffic like they were invulnerable, etc. |
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Post by Scott W on Jul 3, 2021 19:47:40 GMT -5
Just got word from work that I have to fly to Vegas in Sept. I’m not a fan of that but I haven’t been to Vegas since 2008 so I guess I’m looking forward to that part
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