Falcon 3D Simulator
 

Have anyone been able to setup and use the FMS simulator that comes with the Falcon 3D using the supplied cable and the Falcon Transmitter. Is it any good?

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

From all the Falcon emails I thought there were a few out there. Either nobody knows or nobody cares? Anyone?

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

If you read through the Falcon thread there are at least two full descriptions with pictures on how to setup your computer to run FMS with the Falcon transmitter. I even did it to test the software and it worked for me. The Falcon looks really nice in FMS but to be turthful it flies way to easy and once setup you can put it in a hover, walk away and get a cup of coffee, come back and it's still hovering, not very realistic.
There is also a website with info about the Falcon, it has setup instructions for the software there too. the link is: http://falcon.np.co.nz/index.php?q=node/28.

Gary Morris

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

Gary,

Thanks! Your the man for falcon questions. That website is great! THanks for the link. I am reading the falcom thread but I as still on page 20 so I may see that description soon. If the falcon is too easy to fly on FMS maybe I can try other heli like Blade or Trex. This is my first heli and I have never even seen an RC Heli before so I am a real nooby for this. I am not sure if I should buy a different sim or save that money for spare for the falcon and stick with FMS.

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

FMS is a very low quality simulator compared to what else is available today. True, it's free and is better than nothing as long as you keep in mind that your real heli isn't going to behave much like the ones in the sim. If you want a simulator that's realistic enough that you can actually transfer the muscle memory you've built up on the sim to your real heli, then you need to pay for one. Probably the most realistic heli simulator today is Phoenix RC. You can get it for about $160 from Tower Hobbies, and it works great with the Falcon transmitter. If you don't want to pay that much, ClearView can be had for only $30, and is still a lot better than FMS for learning hovering. You can find ClearView here: http://rcflightsim.com.

Adam

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

ajenkins,

Thanks for the heads up on the simulator. I read a lot about the Phoenix but I was not sure if if works with the Falcon transmitter because it is not a Futaba or a known branded transmitter. Today before seen this reply I found a Real Flight G3.5 on ebay brand new for $182 delivered and I bought it. If I have known about the Falcon Tranmitter and the Phoenix a few hours before probably I would not buy the G3.5 and get the Phoenix since it iwas stil cheaper but I guess is too late now because that was on ebay and I already paid for it on paypal. One thing I like about the G3.5 is that it comes with a transmitter and it does not needs batteries to operate. It takes the power from the USB port. I hope the G3 is a good one for a newbie to lear to flies helis.

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

I could fly the airplanes, but the helis just sat there and twitched. I found that my problem with FMS was 2 different issues

1) I found that using FMS1 worked better than FMS, although I have no idea if they are actually different
2) remap the default channels. go to Control|mapping/calibration. For the helis when using the Falcon TX and the audio/mic cable to my PC, the trick for me was to map the tail, nick, roll and pitch to channels 1,2,3 and 4 respectively, so from top to bottom it goes 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 (starting with rudder and ending with pitch). Then I have channels 1,3 and 4 inverted with no exp set for both the top and bottom sets of channel mappings. Apparently the top 4 channels are for fixed wing and the bottom 4 are for rotary wing. The defautls are 1-8, but with the Falcon TX that isn't right.

good luck

Then

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

Tried it on my comp. and all I got was the heli, a blue sky and a black background. Didn't go any further than that.

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

I just posted info regarding the Falcon 3D and the FMS setup and although you will be getting the G3, you should still be able setup your ART-TECH Tx and FMS by design.


Ask ten folks what they think and you'll probably get 10 different answers..........

If you bought the G3 sim for under $200 you did well and you should be able to upgrade to G3.5 once installed, (adds some options). As you’re new to the hobby, you should enjoy the simulator experience however; it's nothing like the real thing.

Not too many Electric Helicopters to date which is why I'm trying to model a Falcon 3D to bring into G3.5 as well as a few other models.

Just remember to be patient, practice, ask for help from experienced pilots and Have FUN!

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

That depends on the simulator. I learned to hover well with the micro heli in Phoenix RC, and when I tried my RotoFly I was able to hover keeping it solidly within a 2x4 foot space on my second battery. I probably could have done it on my first battery but I was being cautious, and started out doing the Radd's method, but soon realized it felt enough like the simulator that I didn't really need to go through all that. I'm not claiming Phoenix is exactly like the real thing, but it's also definitely not "nothing like the real thing".

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

Didn't mean "nothing" by stating nothing....... I love the sims and have to agree, the physics in these simulators do VERY well to simulate the experience, which is why I'm trying to design this FALCON 3D in GMax and AC3d to create a G3 model as well as for Clearview.

Years ago when I got my shirt tail cut for my first "Airplane" Solo flight.............. I spent alot of time on Dave Brown and AeroChopper Sims and credit my success to my flight Instructor(s) as well as the simulators...........

Haven't flown the Pheonix nor the Reflex XTR however; still want to add one of those to the hobby tools as well.

Regards -

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

I do realize you didn't mean "nothing" literally; sorry if I made it sound otherwise.

My point was that with older simulators like FMS, the statement "it's nothing like the real thing" is more true. They're good for working out which way you're going to need to move the controls to do different things, but they're not accurate enough to actually train your muscle memory for flying the real thing. The conventional wisdom about simulators that I've seen repeated in a lot of places is, they're definitely useful and will save you money, but they're not realistic enough to be a substitute for a program like Radd's.

With the best new ones like Reflex XTR and Phoenix, I think that conventional wisdom is no longer completely true. At least in my experience so far, learning on Phoenix really is a substitute for going through something like Radd's. By the time I went to try an actual heli, I found I could already hover it just fine. In fact if anything I found the RotoFly slightly easier than the micro helis in the sim since it doesn't respond as fast. I was surprised especially because I'd seen plenty of statements saying that small FP helis are the hardest of the hard to fly.

Adam

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

Adam,

Well stated post ......... and the intial posted quotes not taken personal. It's thoughts, information and especially experience shared simply, helps everyone! Which is what these forums are for, heck I'm new to the Helis and need all the help and patience I can muster.

Side note; have you flown the G3.5 to compare to your Phoenix or the Reflex XTR?

Thanks

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

I have only tried G3.5 briefly a few times at my local hobby shop. I don't have enough time on G3.5, or on actual helis, to make any conclusive claims about G3.5 based on personal experience. I did a lot of reading around on RCU, rcgroups, heliaddict, trextuning, and other forums before I bought a simulator. I tried to mainly find posts from people who had actually owned more than one simulator AND had a bit of actual heli flying experience. Just about everyone in that category who had tried Phoenix said it was more accurate than the others, especially for helis. I also generally found people said that G3.5 was the least accurate for helis among the high end sims. Note though that that's "among the high end". It's still considered a lot more accurate than FMS, and in fact pretty good just for hovering. People generally seemed to agree that Reflex XTR was the most accurate heli sim before Phoenix came out. Again, this is just what I gathered from my research of other people's opinions, not based on personal experience.

The only thing I can say from personal experience is that after learning to hover well in PhoenixRC, I was able to hover tail-in within a 2x4 foot box for as long as I wanted, and do some fairly well controlled side-in hovering as well, on my second battery with an actual heli. So to me that seems to contradict the "it's nothing like the real thing" conventional wisdom about simulators. I assume this is mainly because simulators have just gotten a lot better since that conventional wisdom was formed.

P.S. Forgot to say I also have tried FMS, which came with my Falcon 3D, and it is much less realistic than Phoenix, to the point where I'd say that if a new user wasn't warned about how unrealistic it is, it might actually be worse than nothing because it would mislead them about how difficult flying the real thing will be. As long as you realize FMS isn't very realistic though and still follow Radd's when you first fly the real heli, then I think practicing in FMS could definitely be useful.

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

Thanks again for the info and your take in this area of simulators. I appreciate sharing the research, comments, ideas and opinons other had posted around the RC Community. As I've mentioned before I'm working in 3d modeling to hopefully bring some aircraft to FMS, Clearview and G3.5.

I will be getting either Phoenix or Reflex however, leaning closer to Phoenix now - Thanks Again

RE: Falcon 3D Simulator
 

I have never used any flight simulator other than the fms included with my falcon, and u guessed it i am a newbie....when i got the sim i had problems with vista...downloaded a file and zoom i went!!!! yes i experienced the same thing...that fms 1 worked and fms didnt...i also had to reconfigure and calibrate the controls but that was all covered in my manual!!! now to all you people who have other sims.....no this isnt very realistic i suppose but i couldnt just walk away from the sim and leave it hovering though...besides the only reason i am even using a simulator at all is because i get all screwed up when the controls are reversed and i am flying back towards myself...so i am trying to use this to make reversed flight like a second nature so when i am out in the yard i dont FREAK out man!!!!!!!!!! AND ANOTHER THING.....BOOGITY BOOGITY MOTHERFLYERS......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!