Sorry I haven't been around much of late, but I've just got back from a short holiday "up the Murray" (coldest I have ever had it there). Needed to take a break from the computer screen. I've joined a WW2 bomber squadron and have been flying (in real time) missions over from France and Germany. The aircraft is a magnificent and detailed B-17g and the missions are based on actual sorties flown by the 91st Bombardment Group during WW2.
Some flights need over 6 hours to complete so you can see it's quite consuming (and tiring) and because the flights are out of Bassingbourn in the U.K. (about 60kms north of London), I have to start about 11.00 p.m. and could end around 4 or 5 a.m.
But boy!!! it's great fun and expecially talking with the other pilots flying in formation in real time makes it virtually real.
-- Edited by Muso on Tuesday 21st of August 2012 06:40:19 AM
Wombat 280 said
01:40 AM Aug 23, 2012
Muso wrote:
Sorry I haven't been around much of late, but I've just got back from a short holiday "up the Murray" (coldest I have ever had it there). Needed to take a break from the computer screen. I've joined a WW2 bomber squadron and have been flying (in real time) missions over from France and Germany. The aircraft is a magnificent and detailed B-17g and the missions are based on actual sorties flown by the 91st Bombardment Group during WW2.
Some flights need over 6 hours to complete so you can see it's quite consuming (and tiring) and because the flights are out of Bassingbourn in the U.K. (about 60kms north of London), I have to start about 11.00 p.m. and could end around 4 or 5 a.m.
But boy!!! it's great fun and expecially talking with the other pilots flying in formation in real time makes it virtually real.
-- Edited by Muso on Tuesday 21st of August 2012 06:40:19 AM
Like all fixed wing flying. hours of boredom punctuated by moments of shear terror At least rotary wing puts you on the edge of the seat from the moment you hit the starter
milo said
02:00 AM Aug 24, 2012
hi muso
sounds like me with my star trek game ,star trek online
I travel the Galaxy with like minded trekkies some from the Uk , some from the US , all different time zones its amazing what we can do with tech stuff these days
you can team up with people do missions together all real time as well
also I am a Starfleet Engineer, as I love computers.
I made Captain in 7 months and have flown escorts to cruisers to the current Advanced escort , the USS Nowra - E
that I'm flying now, she has a great turn rate and has a great crew including a few aussies
(there not real but I've given them all bios etc and backgrounds and they have there own bridge stations) ,
even though I've ranked to Vice Admiral, which is the highest level in starfleet ,
they still call me Captain, so I wear the captains pins as honour to them..
I may make a blog about it some day... Its a great way to pass the time when the weather is crap
I too also am up till 3 or 4 in the morning,
which is ok in the summer but not much fun in the winter
i hope you dont mind posting up a couple pics ,feel free to add yours muso
first pic is me in the captains chair on the bridge of the the advanced escort
2nd pic is my view from the bridge,
the other pic is the USS Nowra - E an Advanced escort
other pic is my ready room, kind of like an office..
I can go in there to get away from the daily grind of the bridge or just to be on my own.
you can also walk around the ship too , to enineering to crew quarters etc
I love it.. can you tell Im a trekkie!!
Live long and prosper (wish i could do that Spock vulcan thing they do)
-- Edited by milo on Friday 24th of August 2012 02:50:31 AM
I bet he has never tried a deck landing in a Venom during a gale.
thanks wombat,..
in some flight sims you can set whatever weather you choose! quite a chalange actually
milo said
09:47 PM Aug 25, 2012
by the way Muso, what flight sim are you using last one i had was microsoft flight sim X or gold or what ever it was..
flying I was good at , take off I was good at , sadly landing ,no !!!
I fly better in my starships , just got a new Assault cruiser , USS Nowra
-- Edited by milo on Sunday 26th of August 2012 05:19:20 PM
03_troopy said
10:12 PM Aug 25, 2012
milo wrote:
ibbo wrote:
03_troopy wrote:
Hmmm you haven't flown i jets eh wombat... lol
I bet he has never tried a deck landing in a Venom during a gale.
thanks wombat,..
in some flight sims you can set whatever weather you choose! quite a chalange actually
LOL Milo, Ibbo and I weren't talking about Sims.. Although the best flight sim I have flown is the F-18 simulator at RAAF Williamtown. It is a fully accurate life sized ****pit with computer graphics projected onto screen that fully suround your canopy. Even withought the G simulation pressure bags, you almost lose your lunch when you pull not quite a hammer head stall, but close to it. The only problem I had was that I landed it a bit hard... they said approx 10' below ground level.. oops
_wombat_ said
10:54 PM Aug 25, 2012
I've just been looking at the Concorde Simulator in the UK, maybe going to try it out
That would be an unreal experience wombat, especially if it still had the hydraulic rams functioning. Sadly the F-18 sim at RAAF Williamtown isn't a hydraulic version. One of the more experienced blokes there (he was a tech on the sim and got to fly it nearly every day) Showed that it was possible to fly an F-18 inverted under the Sydny Harbour Bridge, but he hit a pylon when trying the same stunt under Stockton Bridge back near Williamtown. I got in trouble for shooting down a passenger jet that happen to get in my way with an AIM-9 Sidewinder heat seeking missile.
_wombat_ said
03:51 PM Aug 27, 2012
Troopy, looks like it does have the large hydraulic rams, it's the original BA one, so would be well worth the cost for 15 mins.
What trouble did you get into when you shot down the passenger jet?
Concorde Simulator History:
Two Concorde simulators were built at a cost of around £3 million each (£20 million at today's prices) and entered service in 1975. One sim was designed and built by Redifon/Singer Link-Miles and was used by British Airways and based at the British Aircraft Corporation facility at Filton, near Bristol. The other was designed and built by Le Materiel Telephonique (LMT) and was used by Air France and based at Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris (see photo). The simulators stood on motion systems consisting of large hydraulic rams. In its original form the view out of the BA sim's ****pit windows was generated from a small camera moving over a giant model landscape that was fixed to the wall in an adjacent room. The images from this camera were then projected onto large screens in front of the ****pit windows. By 1987 the sim had undergone a graphics engine makeover, at a further cost of £3 million, and which brought it in line with all the very best sims around the world. The upgrade included an intricate collimated projection system that involved 'back projecting' onto a mirror that gave pilots a 165° view of the computer-generated images. The updates to the system also vastly increased the scope of the artifical landscape that it was possible to fly over. The original sim setup was limited to the single airport and surround scenery of the giant model, whereas the new system enabled pilots to 'fly' to many of the major airports around the world - all accurately computer generated.
03_troopy said
01:34 AM Aug 28, 2012
That's something that would be too good to miss if you're in the area eh wombat. I didn't get into much trouble, I just got told that it was supposed to be a serious exercise and not a shootem up game. Although, we were supposed to engage enemy interceptors and use guns and missiles to bring them down to demonstrate the functionality of the systems that we worked on . They have no sense of humor sometimes eh?
ibbo said
02:21 AM Aug 28, 2012
03_troopy wrote:
milo wrote:
ibbo wrote:
03_troopy wrote:
Hmmm you haven't flown i jets eh wombat... lol
I bet he has never tried a deck landing in a Venom during a gale.
thanks wombat,..
in some flight sims you can set whatever weather you choose! quite a chalange actually
LOL Milo, Ibbo and I weren't talking about Sims.. Although the best flight sim I have flown is the F-18 simulator at RAAF Williamtown. It is a fully accurate life sized ****pit with computer graphics projected onto screen that fully suround your canopy. Even withought the G simulation pressure bags, you almost lose your lunch when you pull not quite a hammer head stall, but close to it. The only problem I had was that I landed it a bit hard... they said approx 10' below ground level.. oops
Before i forget,Darling Harbour Sydney has a a great simulator,not sure if it is for a 747 or similar.I did not have time for a flight but from the info and comments from people who did have a "Go"it was not a cake walk..........talking of c.o.c.k pits,how the hell did we ever fit into them??.Lol.
_wombat_ said
02:46 PM Aug 28, 2012
ibbo wrote:
03_troopy wrote:
milo wrote:
ibbo wrote:
03_troopy wrote:
Hmmm you haven't flown i jets eh wombat... lol
I bet he has never tried a deck landing in a Venom during a gale.
thanks wombat,..
in some flight sims you can set whatever weather you choose! quite a chalange actually
LOL Milo, Ibbo and I weren't talking about Sims.. Although the best flight sim I have flown is the F-18 simulator at RAAF Williamtown. It is a fully accurate life sized ****pit with computer graphics projected onto screen that fully suround your canopy. Even withought the G simulation pressure bags, you almost lose your lunch when you pull not quite a hammer head stall, but close to it. The only problem I had was that I landed it a bit hard... they said approx 10' below ground level.. oops
Before i forget,Darling Harbour Sydney has a a great simulator,not sure if it is for a 747 or similar.I did not have time for a flight but from the info and comments from people who did have a "Go"it was not a cake walk..........talking of c.o.c.k pits,how the hell did we ever fit into them??.Lol.
ibbo, I have booked a flight sim here in Perth for the 737-800 for a 60 min flight, now I only have to sort out when I am going to take it.
regards fitting into the c o c k p i t, we were all thinner in those days gone by.
milo said
08:05 PM Aug 28, 2012
wonder how much they cost to fly wombat? would be expensive i guess
_wombat_ said
08:28 PM Aug 28, 2012
milo wrote:
wonder how much they cost to fly wombat? would be expensive i guess
normally $350 for an hour I got a special for $149 for 1 hour, could not pass up that price, will take my flight in October
Sorry I haven't been around much of late, but I've just got back from a short holiday "up the Murray" (coldest I have ever had it there). Needed to take a break from the computer screen. I've joined a WW2 bomber squadron and have been flying (in real time) missions over from France and Germany. The aircraft is a magnificent and detailed B-17g and the missions are based on actual sorties flown by the 91st Bombardment Group during WW2.
Some flights need over 6 hours to complete so you can see it's quite consuming (and tiring) and because the flights are out of Bassingbourn in the U.K. (about 60kms north of London), I have to start about 11.00 p.m. and could end around 4 or 5 a.m.
But boy!!! it's great fun and expecially talking with the other pilots flying in formation in real time makes it virtually real.
-- Edited by Muso on Tuesday 21st of August 2012 06:40:19 AM
hi muso
sounds like me with my star trek game ,star trek online
I travel the Galaxy with like minded trekkies
some from the Uk , some from the US , all different time zones
its amazing what we can do with tech stuff these days
you can team up with people do missions together all real time as well
also I am a Starfleet Engineer, as I love computers.
I made Captain in 7 months and have flown escorts to cruisers to the current Advanced escort , the USS Nowra - E
that I'm flying now, she has a great turn rate and has a great crew including a few aussies
(there not real but I've given them all bios etc and backgrounds and they have there own bridge stations) ,
even though I've ranked to Vice Admiral, which is the highest level in starfleet ,
they still call me Captain, so I wear the captains pins as honour to them..
I may make a blog about it some day... Its a great way to pass the time when the weather is crap
I too also am up till 3 or 4 in the morning,
which is ok in the summer but not much fun in the winter
i hope you dont mind posting up a couple pics ,feel free to add yours muso
first pic is me in the captains chair on the bridge of the the advanced escort
2nd pic is my view from the bridge,
the other pic is the USS Nowra - E an Advanced escort
other pic is my ready room, kind of like an office..
I can go in there to get away from the daily grind of the bridge or just to be on my own.
you can also walk around the ship too , to enineering to crew quarters etc
I love it.. can you tell Im a trekkie!!
Live long and prosper (wish i could do that Spock vulcan thing they do)
-- Edited by milo on Friday 24th of August 2012 02:50:31 AM
4 u Milo
thanks wombat,..
in some flight sims you can set whatever weather you choose! quite a chalange actually
by the way Muso, what flight sim are you using last one i had was microsoft flight sim X or gold or what ever it was..
flying I was good at , take off I was good at , sadly landing ,no !!!
I fly better in my starships , just got a new Assault cruiser , USS Nowra
-- Edited by milo on Sunday 26th of August 2012 05:19:20 PM
LOL Milo, Ibbo and I weren't talking about Sims.. Although the best flight sim I have flown is the F-18 simulator at RAAF Williamtown. It is a fully accurate life sized ****pit with computer graphics projected onto screen that fully suround your canopy. Even withought the G simulation pressure bags, you almost lose your lunch when you pull not quite a hammer head stall, but close to it. The only problem I had was that I landed it a bit hard... they said approx 10' below ground level.. oops
I've just been looking at the Concorde Simulator in the UK, maybe going to try it out
149quid for 15 mins http://www.concordeproject.com/index.html
That would be an unreal experience wombat, especially if it still had the hydraulic rams functioning. Sadly the F-18 sim at RAAF Williamtown isn't a hydraulic version. One of the more experienced blokes there (he was a tech on the sim and got to fly it nearly every day) Showed that it was possible to fly an F-18 inverted under the Sydny Harbour Bridge, but he hit a pylon when trying the same stunt under Stockton Bridge back near Williamtown. I got in trouble for shooting down a passenger jet that happen to get in my way with an AIM-9 Sidewinder heat seeking missile.
Troopy, looks like it does have the large hydraulic rams, it's the original BA one, so would be well worth the cost for 15 mins.
What trouble did you get into when you shot down the passenger jet?
Concorde Simulator History:
ibbo, I have booked a flight sim here in Perth for the 737-800 for a 60 min flight, now I only have to sort out when I am going to take it.
regards fitting into the c o c k p i t, we were all thinner in those days gone by.
normally $350 for an hour I got a special for $149 for 1 hour, could not pass up that price, will take my flight in October