pnk

My Feedback: (2)

Hi Everybody,

I've been waiting a long time to get into Helis and have taken a step in that direction by getting a hold of the FMS r/c flight simulator. I've flown fixed wing for about two years now and have had sim time before but never for Helis. Not having had the simulator for too long, I have about two hours of sim time maybe. It is a ton of fun, and without a doubt, takes every ounce of concentration I have. Now the big question being.....do i need to invest in a more expensive simulator before I can buy a small electric heli. I'm not going to attempt flying a heli before i get many more hours of sim time, but does the FMS flight sim provide a realistic enough experience. so far, it has been fantastic. I would appreciate any input on this subject.

P.

Charlie

I haven't tried FMS in years, but from what I have seen it doesn't come close to the three big simulators (Reflex, AFPD and G3). I'm a big Reflex fan, but that's just because I own it. From everything I've read about the simulators, everyone pretty much agrees that Reflex is the best for helicopter. If your happy with FMS keep using it. Are you using it with your radio? You don't want to use it with a keyboard, joy stick or a game pad, that won't teach you anything.

pnk

My Feedback: (2)

Yeah Charlie, I am using my own radio. I'm happy with it becasue I can positively learn tons from using it and hopefully improve my reflexes, but it might not be of much help if it's not realistic enough. The realism of the graphics doesn't bother me too much (the screenshot you posted btw is beautiful), it's the physics that I'm worried about.

I would ideally like to get a micro electric heli in the next few months, one like the Blade CP or the Century Hummingbird V4 RTF from tower hobbies (any suggestions would be appreciated) . The V4 has a terrific deal on it right now, would it be worth getting one over teh Blade CP?

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...=++&search3=Go

P.

-Inverted-

I own G3. You will need to upgrade to a better sim for real practice. FMS just isn't realistic enough, it's more of a game then a sim. BTW, if you want to save some money, get a Honeybee CP2 instead of the Blade CP.

pnk

My Feedback: (2)

Inverted,

Thanks for the advice. What do you think of the Honey Bee available at this link, and if you don't approve, is there one that you do suggest.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ESky-Honey-Bee-C...QQcmdZViewItem

P.

-Inverted-

Parvez, go with [link=http://cgi.ebay.com/2006-VERSION-HONEY-BEE-CP2-6-CH-RC-HELICOPTER-CCPM_W0QQitemZ6051166910QQcategoryZ2563QQssPageNam eZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem]THIS[/link] one. it's the one I got as it is easily the better deal. It comes with two batteries.

pnk

My Feedback: (2)

Thanks Inverted.

-Inverted-

No problem. The one nice thing is the Idle Up is on the left. Its on the right on the blade cp which gets confusing, as all quality radios feature the idle up on the left.

PlaneHeli

Id get a better sim. Ive tried FMS an dont think its realistic.

The good thing about these sims is as they are very realistic, and have many planes and helis, you can still use it once youve learnt the basic flying skills. Use it to practice more advanced skills, or even just for a quick spin when you dont have time to fly your real model.

I have reflex and think its great.

Cheers

KC36330

While i agree that the G3 has great graphics and plane flight characteristics are very realistic as well, the heli flight characteristics are as far from realistic as you can get. they've put to much into making the picture look good and not nearly enough time into realism of how a true RC heli flies. i used the CSM V9 for many years and got the V10 in 99 or 2000 when it came out and it's the one i still use, the graphics aren't as great as G3 but it flies EXACTLY like a real RC heli. I've used it to learn advanced 3D, inverted and back wards as well as rolling pirouettes, it's one heck of a great simulator for both planes and helis.

kc

pnk

My Feedback: (2)

is there a link you might be able to provide to this sim KC? I'd definitely be interested. Thanks.

P.

KC36330

[link=http://www.rcmodels.org/csm/]CSM Simulator[/link]

kc

Charlie

CSM won't run on Windows XP, CSM does have a patch but it doesn't work either, and the cable hooks into a parallel port, a lot of new computers today don't come with a parallel port. You can make it work in DOS (if you have a parallel port) , but that's a pain in the butt and it won't remember your settings when you shut it down. I run CSM V10 for years, it was a good sim in it's day.

PlaneHeli

Just another point about Reflex XTR.

The upgrades are free. Thats a big bonus if you dont want to pay every time a new upgrade comes out.

Then again, maybe they will post upgrades to the physics, models and sceneries more often if they are charging you.

Time will tell.

Cheers

KC36330

i run XP and have to use the simulator from a boot disk, it takes all of about 20 seconds to boot the program and it does save all settings to the floppy when you change them if your smart enough to click on 'save settings' it was defiantly a good simulator in it's day and IS still a good one.

kc

Charlie

You should post in the simulator forum exactly how your doing it with XP. I haven't keep up on it in years (I sold my CSM), but back a couple years ago (probably more) their were a lot of people out there that couldn't get CSM to work on XP, even with the patch. I guess things have probably changed since then.

I stand corrected [&o].

KC36330

as mentioned above i use a MS DOS boot disk. you simply can not patch XP to allow a DOS ran program access to peripherals on the PC. i really haven't tried running it from DOS with the program installed onto a NTFS harddrive but the floppy works perfectly and can save setup data as well as the heli visuals.

kc