Heliorb.com

While some may consider this a game, I see it more as a flight training tool. As a private pilot, I learned to fly Cessnas back in the 70’s before flight simulators on computers. Trying to fly my first radio controlled plane, I was astonished at how difficult it was to maneuver and land without crashing. The problem was not my lack of flight knowledge. It was a change of perspective to the aircraft. I was used to seeing the forward perspective through a cokpit window.

Any man who’s ever looked into a mirror to shave can do it without thinking. But try doing it while looking into a live TV monitor where right and left are reversed from what you see in the mirror. It’s really hard. Or try writing a sentence with your left hand if you are right handed (or visa versa). Your brain can not interpret the visuals without taking extra time to translate the new perspective. That extra thinking time flying an RC plane is enough to allow a crash. Of course, with enough practice, you can overcome this. But your brain needs to retrain itself to the new perspective. And that’s where this simple little program comes to the rescue.

First, setting up the program is simple. There is an easy menu that is self explanatory. You can select one of three craft for free; a plane, a helicopter or a boat. Other planes and vehicles cost extra, but for training purposes, you won’t need them. You can tailor the control sticks to allocate throttle, elevator, rudder and ailerons between the right and left sticks. Naturally, those with some level of flight experience will understand what each control does. Non fliers will be challenged at first.

Flying a remotely operated craft from a fixed location is quite a different perspective from flying with a forward looking view from inside the aircraft. I think it’s more difficult flying something remotely. At first, it was quite difficult to maneuver the helicopter, even though I completely understood the flight controls. I would get it in the air, and after a few control inputs, it would begin to spin wildly. After about twenty minutes of practicing with the helicopter in four different aspects (flying toward me, flying away from me, or flying it from the right or left side) I was able to keep the copter flying. When I wanted to yaw right, I had to manually think about it first if the copter was headed toward me, because in that position, right control turns left, and left control turns right. And that’s the crux of the problem flying any remote aircraft. The perspective is constantly changing depending upon the orientation of the aircraft. The beauty of this program is that you can crash to your hearts content until you get it right, and no aircraft is damaged.

Naturally, each flier will adapt to the new flight perspectives at different rates. I believe younger fliers will adapt faster than old guys like me. But after a few days of using this little simulator, it became much easier to fly a remote controlled helicopter without crashing it. And there’s a few hundred bucks saved just by learning on this free program. This program should be included with every RC device.