Flight Simulators

[Neil1993]

On a halfway related sidenote, I was doing turbulence tuning with some evaluation pilots from an airline the other day. It was basically 2 hours of the scariest (most fun) landings imaginable. The turbulence was as high as possible and we all had to be strapped in to keep from being thrown around.

[Beowolf]

Just saw this Ford truck sim: http://mashable.com/2015/04/02/ford-f-150-raptor-simulator/

Picture that seat paired with an Oculus Rift headset, and with a physical panel with switches and controls. So the headset is providing the outside view and instruments.

What do you think, Neil? It sounds cheaper than the ones you work with, but more capable than any PC-based sim I know of. Where would it fall short?

[cpast]

Just saw this Ford truck sim: http://mashable.com/2015/04/02/ford-f-150-raptor-simulator/

Picture that seat paired with an Oculus Rift headset, and with a physical panel with switches and controls. So the headset is providing the outside view and instruments.

What do you think, Neil? It sounds cheaper than the ones you work with, but more capable than any PC-based sim I know of. Where would it fall short?

An FAA-approved flight sim is a complete replica of a cockpit of a specific single type of aircraft; a class C or D sim lets you get a type rating to operate a specific sort of aircraft without ever having set foot in the real plane. To do that, it's not enough to have a single panel with a few switches; you want the exact control layout replicated, and everything doing the same thing it does on the real plane. Given that the sim has to have the hardware to exactly replicate the real control locations and switch types and similar, it's really not much (if any) of a savings using an Oculus, because what you basically save on are the big screens outside the cockpit windows (and that's not all that expensive to make, since it's not like it needs ultra-HD outside views). Where you might get savings is replacing the full-cockpit motion system with a seat-based motion system, but you don't need an Oculus for that.

[Neil1993]

Just saw this Ford truck sim: http://mashable.com/2015/04/02/ford-f-150-raptor-simulator/

Picture that seat paired with an Oculus Rift headset, and with a physical panel with switches and controls. So the headset is providing the outside view and instruments.

What do you think, Neil? It sounds cheaper than the ones you work with, but more capable than any PC-based sim I know of. Where would it fall short?

Where this specific simulator falls short, I couldn't say. It looks like it's more of a promotional device for use at conventions, and, in that department, it's probably totally fine. However, if you wanted it to be a better simulation, you would need to have a simulated hood that you could go open and yell at every time it breaks down (jk jk)

[magnemoe]

An FAA-approved flight sim is a complete replica of a cockpit of a specific single type of aircraft; a class C or D sim lets you get a type rating to operate a specific sort of aircraft without ever having set foot in the real plane. To do that, it's not enough to have a single panel with a few switches; you want the exact control layout replicated, and everything doing the same thing it does on the real plane. Given that the sim has to have the hardware to exactly replicate the real control locations and switch types and similar, it's really not much (if any) of a savings using an Oculus, because what you basically save on are the big screens outside the cockpit windows (and that's not all that expensive to make, since it's not like it needs ultra-HD outside views). Where you might get savings is replacing the full-cockpit motion system with a seat-based motion system, but you don't need an Oculus for that.

True and its an good decision, this fight sims are rated pretty equal to real flight time and let you do stuff you could not do with an real aircraft as it would wreck it.

This has the benefit that the pilots has emergency procedures as instincts. My guess they also have non moving versions for more basic training as in learning how to handle the plane.

Private pilots regularly use Microsoft flight simulator and similar to get experience with procedures like instrumental flight, know a guy who did, this cut down the flight time needed.

Oculus rift is more suited for other sort of stuff, we are looking into it for training on oil rigs, stuff like navigating around the rig and find the manual override shutdown valve.

Benefit is having the techicans qualified faster so they are ready then the rig is and familial new one before they are sent out.

[Fel]

I'd gladly see pilots replaced with AI. List of perfectly healthy aircraft crashed due human error, bad judgment and bravado is a lot longer, that list of damaged aircraft saved by human creativity and non-standard thinking. And AI don't need training - it's proficient out of the box.

If the autopilot fails, and the pilot fails to correct the situation, the flight did not crash due to autopilot error, it crashed due to pilot error.

If a pilot IGNORES air traffic control and sets the autopilot to attempt a maneuver, and the autopilot crashes the plane, the flight did not crash due to autopilot error, it crashed due to pilot error.

Autopilot crashes are often reported as pilot error because the pilot is expected to be in control of the plane even when the autopilot is engaged.

NAV update causes FMS crash? Very funny. I hope manufacturer is already gone bust?

There is a difference of sanity checks that can be formalized and automated, and those that cannot at our current AI knowledge level. But sooner or later, we will have enough knowledge and knowhow to automate ANY decision making. AI can be made perfect, humans are always faulty at some point.

Seriously? The only thing AI does is follow a series of commands; how it does this depends on the method of creating it... it may have adaptive routines; but it can never be perfect for the same reasons humans can never be perfect; having 100% prediction of the future is impossible and you can't really get 100% perfect universe data despite all of our... aging... technology ;p.

Actually, they aren't heading that way. Google is aiming for cars without human controls, and have been slammed for it by regulators a couple times... The scary end goal is that they want to give cars to the legally blind.

Now, even more scary... since AI DOES FAIL, what happens when a blind man runs over a crowd of children in the Google Car. Who gets charged with what?

Very interesting. I haven't even considered that the point of view might be changing, and therefore the displayed scenery should too (how often would the trainee actually move from the pilot's seat enough for this to be noticeable?). Also, would the tech be able to deal with latency due to all the necessary processing? (I imagine seeing your hands with considerable lag would be unusable, but the lag being applied only to the images behind the "windows" sounds more bearable)

Let's see.... a cheap VR headset... or a multi-million dollar VR simulator. Do you REALLY think that putting a few cameras, or using IR sensors, is THAT DIFFICULT such that they cannot do the same thing?

VR headsets are overhyped for no good reason. Pilots are more likely to operate controls by touch than by sight, which means you now have to build the "control cage". Having the chair shake is unrealistic and also moves the location of where the physical buttons are, so you might as well have external hydraulics. That really only leaves the windshield monitors; from which the benefits of a simulated virtual cockpit vs a virtual cockpit end up being more about the "cool" factor.

[Dispatcher]

Then there is a point about halfway between a real simulator and a PC flight sim:

[mrfox]

Just saw this Ford truck sim: http://mashable.com/2015/04/02/ford-f-150-raptor-simulator/

Tried this at Ferrari world, the dof was very limited and it did not feel very realistic.

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Then there is a point about halfway between a real simulator and a PC flight sim

http://www.flightexperience.com/

You can rent these fixed based sims by the hour.