FS1

[ClausB]

Did all my testing on emulators. Especially helpful is the fast mode, about 5x. Makes the motion more fluid and easier to see irregularities.

 

Flying FS1 is an exercise in patience. Once you build some skill, crank it up to 5x and fly around like a fighter jet!

[Keatah]

On that thought it would be neat to have a magically large fuel tank. One that's bigger on the inside than the outside. Would like to see 999 or a way to instantly teleport some fuel from the base to the gas tank via something like CTRL-R.

 

I get going on something and BAM! Outta gas!

Edited March 27, 2022 by Keatah

[ClausB]

Fuel quantity is in RAM $2178,9. So in your emulator set 2179 to 7F for max fuel (151 gallons), or to FF for infinite fuel (will display as 000).

 

With that I managed to climb to 30,050 feet and hit the "coffin corner."

Edited March 27, 2022 by ClausB

[ClausB]

Expanded the outside view to the Atari's full 160 pixel width, from the Apple's 140.

ATFS1w.COM

[ClausB]

One thing still lacking, IMO, is the overhead view which is present in the 2nd version of A2-FS1. I'm working on adding that to this port of the 1st version. Hope to share it this weekend.

[ClausB]

Finished early. The 2 key gives an overhead view and 1 returns to forward.

ATFS1v.COM

[ClausB]

On 3/19/2022 at 12:43 PM, ClausB said:

Press SELECT to enable a horizon line. This was lacking, IMO. The manual says you can easily lose sight of the scenery and you should then fly on instruments. Well, a primary instrument for blind flying is the artificial horizon. FS2 has one in its panel, but FS1 does not, so I added a horizon line to the outside view. It borrows 2 lines from the civilian airport and moves them up in front of the aircraft, so it's only available in the wide scenery mode (U key).

Any feedback on the horizon line? Anyone find it useful?

[Keatah]

I don't know. I don't think so. I learned to fly FS1 without it by keeping tabs on the turn rate and vertical velocity when I was a kid. Both those allowed me to visualize the attitude pretty well.

[ClausB]

Well you might make a good pilot then. They are trained to use the artificial horizon when the real horizon is invisible, but they also train to fly without any horizon reference using the other instruments as you have.

[Panther]

3 hours ago, ClausB said:

Well you might make a good pilot then. They are trained to use the artificial horizon when the real horizon is invisible, but they also train to fly without any horizon reference using the other instruments as you have.

My father tells me that real pilots need only a piece of string!

 

[ClausB]

A glider pilot, is he?

[Panther]

No, and we don't let him fly airplanes anymore...

[Keatah]

On 5/26/2022 at 7:29 PM, ClausB said:

Well you might make a good pilot then. They are trained to use the artificial horizon when the real horizon is invisible, but they also train to fly without any horizon reference using the other instruments as you have.

Right on. I still maintain a single-engine certification these days.

[ClausB]

4 hours ago, Keatah said:

I still maintain a single-engine certification these days.

There must be more to that story. Did FS1 inspire you to learn? When and where did you learn? What and where have you flown? Any great stories? Post away!

[ClausB]

Me first. AT-FS2 did inspire me as I posted above, but I've always had an interest since early childhood when I lived a mile from MKG airport and often saw planes flying over. Once I had disposable income from PDI, I started looking into flight lessons in the NYC area. But my next boss back in Michigan happened to be an instructor and we got to it in a Cessna 152 out of Grand Ledge airport. I soloed N24793 in spring, 1986, and by summer had my PPL. I rented Cessnas and Pipers and gave rides to all my friends. I flew my roommate to DTW in a 2-seat Tomahawk, landed between two DC-9s, turned onto the wrong taxiway, and came nose-to-nose with a DC-10!

 

Next spring I took aerobatics lessons in a C152A. By the fall I had my own Citabria, which I've flown north to the UP, east to NY, south to AL, and west to CA. In other aircraft I've earned a CPL, Instrument Rating, Instructor Certificate, and Glider Rating. I've competed in aerobatics, towed banners, taught students, and learned a ton. It's been a great hobby and it was fun to combine it with my other great hobby by porting FS1 for Atari.

[Keatah]

Pretty sure my "career" isn't as exciting or as colorful as yours, but..

 

I'm not sure what got me interested, was it riding in a Cessna 150 trainer(IIRC) with parents? Would have been no more than a year old. And I remember the OMI beacon lights flashing followed by enthusiastic vertical velocity changes. Not unlike a rollercoaster. Maybe they were just showing off because there was lots of activity in the front.

 

The other significant kid experience would've been visiting the flight deck on a 747-200 (100?) back when I was no more than 6 or 7. Got to sit in the captain's seat but couldn't see much outside. It was late evening and I was too short to see much over the glare panel anyways. But it was still fun of course. And I still remember the captain's name and the flight number. This was just after the time when folks were still getting dressed up for a cross-country flight. Still a few years before FS1 would come out.

 

I learned the basic principles with a book and FS1 and took few lessons in the mid-80's. Then didn't do much till the mid-90's when I had more income and a buddy showed me around Great Lakes region. Both of us were into photography and for a long time it was the primary reason we'd go out for the weekends.

 

Today it's all about getting access to dark skies and observing phenomena such as meteor showers, both solar and lunar eclipses, and aurorae. Just having an aerial view is awe inspiring and humble. Indeed it's rewarding though when hobbies synergistically meld together. A goal of mine is to own an SR-22. It may be I'll do a loop-de-loop in FS1 first.

[Tigerduck]

I started my flying career in 1990 with glider flying. Ok, first I was a skydiver, before I became aware that is possible to land with an aircraft...?

It was the tradional way, step by step. After the glider licence, I got my licence for motor gliders. After that I became a PPL-Pilot in 1992 and 1993 the CPL licence, but only VFR.

I got them all, glider and banner towing, aerobatics, flight instructor...

 

I teached for the radio certificate (it's seperate here in Germany) and wrote my own school book with the "Startexter" on the good old ATARI. I print it on a STAR LC-20 dot matrix printer and left some space between the chapters to insert the graphics and pictures by hand. Then I started to make copies of it. When I remember correctly, it took about 10 disks full of text. What an effort!

 

In 1999 I got my IFR licence. I trained basic IFR flying a lot with my ATARI FS2 cartridge and the book "Fliegen mit dem Mikro". OK, there were better solutions out there, for example the FS98 for Windows. But hey, I did my IFR-Simulator sessions on an electro-mechanical FRASCA 101(?) simulator. That was really "retro"and the ATARI FS2 was a kind of superior. Plug and play, not the raid for conventional memory in the "config.sys" and all the settings for the graphic and sound card...

 

In 2000 I make a living as an Pilot. I did aerial survey flights on a Cessna 206 till 2006 and then get a job on a Dash 8-100/300 for a regional airline. In 2008 I got a rating for the Dornier 328-100 and became a captain. (Now I could feed my family...)?

 

Since 2018 I fly an Embraer Legacy 650 for business charter...

 

Today my skills with the FS2 are not so good anymore. Most landings are horrible!

 

I hope that will not happend to me in real flying, till I get retired...

 

I had some experience with "Solo Flight 2" and was very good at "Tomahawk" witch I found very reallistic for those days. Kennedy Approach is still impressive for me.

 

That's the story of Tigerduck

 

Allways happy landings to all flying enthusiast on Atari Age?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[stepho]

My flight experience is a little different.
My actually flying is limited to a Stearman 75 on a tourist joy flight where the real pilot gave me a few minutes of "solo" while he kept his own hand on the stick.
Then he did some barrel rolls and stuff - lots of fun in a leather helmet and googles.

More interesting is that while living in Hong Kong a pilot friend got me on to Cathay's 777 full motion simulator.
Inside the cabin, everything is from a real 777.
Every switch, every dial, the seats, the carpets, etc.
Once the door is closed, you cannot tell the difference from a real 777.

 

The view out the windows had primitive 1990's graphics, but in the air this wasn't a big problem.

 

Spooling up, I felt the rumble of the engines through the seat of my pants.
At push off, I can felt little thumps as the wheels went over the ridges in the pavement.
I also felt the small G forces as the plane accelerated, braked, turned, etc on the tarmac.

 

At take off, I felt serious G forces pushing me back into the seat and lots of rumbling.
When the "wheels" retracted, I felt a small bump as they hit their "snubs" - all faked but feeling utterly real.

As we turn left and right, the cabin physically tilted left and right - with all the correct G forces.
Turbulence was fun and also fully realistic.

 

Landing gave an almighty thump (I came in too fast) that probably would have caused serious damage on a real aircraft.

 

As a bonus, he taught us how to do barrel roll in a 777.
First, fly under the suspension bridge (he did tells us that the tail doesn't fit but the software didn't pick up on that).
Then go up at 45 degrees until it nearly stalls.
As it stalls, turn the wheel hard left and the pedals hard right.
The aircraft slowly flips over onto its back.
Eventually you regain control, complete the roll and go back to normal flying.
This is probably the only part where the realism failed.
It couldn't do a fully upside down cabin.

Later, he told us the cabin dials, indicators, etc where all controlled by an IBM AS400 mainframe.
Since the real aircraft also drives them electronically (no mechanical linkages), the realism remains accurate.
The view of the cabin from outside was good too.
We could see the cabin mounted on top of 6 hydraulic rams.
He didn't show it working from outside but you've probably seen it on videos as it dances around on top of the rams.

I've played with most of the Microsoft Flight Sim series since 5.1 but after the 777 sim I just couldn't really get into them.

[Keatah]

While we're on sims.. I hear there's a new kind, a one-of-a-kind sim that is constantly in motion and can do G-forces in any direction. Similar mounting the whole simpit to a low-speed centrifuge. Doing important work on disorientation studies it is.

 

More down to earth, and in our bedrooms, PC software is exhibiting more detail in modeling than ever before. This time it's X-Plane 12. Lots of physics modeling being applied to more and more parts of the aircraft. Like entrained air flow, and parts of the landing gear, and so much more.

 

https://developer.x-plane.com/2022/02/x-plane-12-flight-model-update-supersonic-transition-delta-wings-and-mass-properties/

https://developer.x-plane.com/article/x-plane-12-flight-model-report/

https://developer.x-plane.com/

[Panther]

Okay, I guess we're doing this.  I flew on light aircraft when I was very young, as my father was a pilot, as had been my grandfather.  My mother went as far as a few solo flights, and my father's brothers also became pilots.  All recreational.  I had no interest in becoming a pilot though.  I did enjoy flight sims, but only when I had guns and/or missiles and an opponent to use them on.  Well, about five years ago my wife was bugging me that I should get a pilot's license to make weekend getaways easier and more places accessible.  This went on for awhile until I finally relented and started lessons.  After a few lessons at a local flight school, I was struck by a car while walking, only hours after a flight, by some old guy who had forgotten which was the brake and which was the accelerator.  Even a Ford Explorer accelerates awfully quickly when the driver floors it.  It broke my back, among other things.  While lying in bed recovering, a friend, who had a pilot license but hadn't flown in years (and I'd never flown with him), started sending me links to used airplanes for sale.  One looked really nice, so I bought it.  A few months later, once my pain became more tolerable, I went to Tennessee (from Los Angeles, California) to pick it up.  Of course, I brought along a flight instructor since the few lessons I had wasn't quite enough yet.  I earned my PPL and have been enjoying the added freedom of flying places.  Besides the trip back from Tennessee, I've flown my plane north to Seattle, Washington and as far east as Colorado.  I'm sure I will cover more area over time.

 

[ClausB]

1 hour ago, Panther said:

One looked really nice, so I bought it.

What kind?

[Panther]

1 hour ago, ClausB said:

What kind?

Piper Archer II (PA-28-181), leather interior, dual Garmin G5's, digital engine monitor and fuel totalizer, GNS 430W, nice new paint, wing tip HID lights, gap seals and other speed mods.  Super clean, I couldn't resist.  Seemed like a good choice for finishing my flight training and suitable for long trips.

 

[stepho]

6 hours ago, Keatah said:

While we're on sims.. I hear there's a new kind, a one-of-a-kind sim that is constantly in motion and can do G-forces in any direction. Similar mounting the whole simpit to a low-speed centrifuge. Doing important work on disorientation studies it is.

Similar to 2-degree motion simulators like https://dofreality.com/
Hobbyists have been building similar at home for decades.
It's surprising how much realism can be got from a pair of car starter motors that can tip the platform left/right and backwards/forwards.

Do you have a link to the centrifuge sim?
The only links I can find are for high G scenarios for fighter pilots or motion sickness.

[Keatah]

No I don't. And I only saw a brief clip of it on Air Disasters. A recent episode talking about the kobe bryant incident. Aired on Smithsonian Channel.

[+slx]

On 6/5/2022 at 8:22 AM, Panther said:

Well, about five years ago my wife was bugging me that I should get a pilot's license to make weekend getaways easier and more places accessible.  

Your wife could probably sell seminars for husbands to gift their wives....

 

I was born into a flying family (my father learned flying in WW2 and my mother was a skydiver) and exposed to GA flying from a very early age. Most of my childhood vacation trips to various parts of Europe were on a plane. My parents allowed me to earn a gliding license and then a PPL at minimum age and I had a PPL a year before I was allowed to drive (min. age for driving was 18 back then).

 

I racked up some hours towing gliders and then got my CPL/IFR and joined a regional airline which was later merged into the national carrier I fly for now.