Hi, I live in the city of
I remember the days when my computer was just an Amstrad CPC464, & I used to spend my time flying in ‘Ace’ & ‘Fighter Pilot’ - The graphics & sound effects etc, were practically non-existent. The 464 was my first computer (if you can call it that), it had a built in cassette recorder/player to load the software, & a small green monitor.
A few years went by, & I had managed to get hold of a second hand pc, this was a 386 with 4mb of ram ! While visiting a friend one day, he wanted to show me a program on his 486, called FS4. This was the first time I’d seen anything like it, & I must admit, I was very impressed. All those different aircraft, & even an aircraft editor which would allow you to change the dimensions, colour & tail numbers…wow ! This was great. I was hooked.
So, as soon as I could, I bought my first decent pc, a 100mhz Pentium, followed by my first flight simulator…
Microsoft Flight Simulator 5.1
Since then, I have upgraded several times, & have bought many flight sims, including:
ProPilot 1& 2 Falcon 4
Flight Unlimited 1, 2 & 3 Jetfighter III
Xplane 5 & 6 F/A-18E
Fly! 1 & 2, Hangsim
Air Warrior 2 & 3 F22 Lightning II
IL2 S & R 2
& every Microsoft sim since 5.1 (inc Combat sims) & of course many, many add-ons.
I now run a Athlon
3200+, with 1GB Ram.
I use a GeForce FX5600XT card, which powers the 2 main monitors. I have a smaller pc, connected to the main one via network cards/cable. This also runs FS2004, & displays things like the radio panel & GPS.
Regarding the rest of my flight sim hardware I have a CH Products Yoke LE & Pedals, VRF Tactile Seat Pad, 3D Glasses, & IR Tracker from eDimensional.
Excluding the joystick/yoke/pedals, the best piece of hardware is the seat pad from www.vrf.com . It is brilliant ! It has 8 motors which vibrate to give a realistic sensation. On many occasions I have landed a plane only to actually feel the wheels touch down ! It really is my favourite piece of kit.
The 3D glasses from www.eDimensional.com are good, although to be honest, I rarely use them. When I do wear them, I find that I cant really do it for any length of time.
The IR Tracker (also from www.eDimensional.com ) is something else, I love it ! It’s a strange feeling, it makes you think that you’re actually sat in your arcraft, rather than at a desk. It does take a lot of getting used to though. It comes supplied with 40 small adhesive dots. You have to stick one of these on your forehead, or somewhere similar. Then, when in virtual cockpit mode in FS2002, simply moving your head slightly, will pan your view in the same direction. It’s great!
I found that putting the dot on & off soon wears it out, so what I use now, is some old ‘clip on sunglasses’ - I removed the lenses, & simply stuck a dot onto the front of them. Now I just clip them onto my glasses when I want to use the tracker !
Another useful piece of kit that I use is ‘Game Commander 2’ - This comes in handy, especially when I’m using the tracker, & don’t want to keep looking down at the keyboard to use the atc etc. Now all I do I say ATC to bring up the atc box, & then say 1, 2, or 3 etc, or even sentences like requesting taxi to straight out’ or request take off vfr’ etc. It dosen’t need much voice training (if any !) & works brilliantly.
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