I was wondering if any has used X-plane with it's real physics engine? I downloaded the demo and it had a r/c to fly, but it might be a bit to tempting to jump into a japanese animae to just have some fun.

Mr B

Glad it worked for you because the demo that I downloaded from their's mirror give me error on XP

Aerodynamics of a Jumbo Jet and a .40-powered R/C plane is quite different. The same numerical model, which describes high-Re flying pretty accyrately, may be inadequate for low-Re flying planes. Besides, R/C planes are usually way over-powered, which is never the case with real planes.

My impression of X-Plane was that it's flight model was not suitable for R/C. (I only tried it once, though.)

i think that it could help you learn the physics of your aircraft due to its realistic flight physics no matter what size. Once you get good, you can make your own plane identical to what you are trying to learn.

Well, I actually used it a few time. Good in real scale, interesting compared to MSFS but of NO USE at all for serious R/C models. The reason ist quite simple. As bluesky pointed out, aerodynamics are pretty different. Xplane is made for heavy stuff AND for cockpit view. In aerodynamics, unfortunately 1000 devided by 100 doesn't compare to 100 devided by 10. We call it the "secret of the smallest number".

Xplane just scaled down their trainer - they are not using a seperate calculation model. Some did that in the early 90th and failed resp. redesigned their program entirely. Xplane can irgnore about 20 aerodynamic equations or at least consider them with fairly large umbers or even pattern of constants - but these 20 equations make the difference to the sudden jumps, to elevation/aileron response and the way the 300% overpowered propeller drives the wind against giant (if scaled) elevators etc.

There is one more difference: real aicrafts are designed to carry man. If they fail, somebody dies. Failure is our daily biz in RC modelling (...unfortunately), we fail in steering, we fail in constructionor building so what we fly is cutting edge technology in any respect. Xplane as much as MSFS is designed for the normal, safty redundant stuff - they have no idea of what we rc folks do with a trainer 40.

Walter Extra is a pretty tough guy if it comes to aerobatics. I wonder how green his face would look like if he steps out of a regular aerobatic trainer in the hands of an average pilot R/C pilot.

Nice toy to learn the real stuff but unsuitable for serious R/C.