When I started work way back in the 19xx’s, Sorry smudge on the screen there, one of the guys I was working with was seriously into flight simulators. So much so that he had several Apple II computers which he used to set his own system up. Nice chair, control sticks, footpads for the rudders etc. It cost him several thousand pounds and several hundred hours of hard work programming and building and he had line art for his terrain and plane. He left to develop a flight simulator system for the MoD.
I’ve been waiting for a long time for someone to develop a system that was both cheap and something I was prepared to pay for. MS FS was good but nowadays you can’t fly into Manhattan or the Pentagon so it isn’t very realistic. Have to stick with an old version if you want to do that.
Anyway, there are several add-ons you can buy to give you that feeling of sitting in a cockpit and flying but nowadays I am not interested in doing so.
But I was interested in this simulator from Honda. Something more practical although the cost does seem high for what it is. If it was cheap enough we could ensure our kids got plenty of practise before we let them near our precious cars. I’ll never forget sitting in the passenger seat wondering how I was verbally going to control the vehicle. I think Driving Instructors are brave people.
The benefits of simulators like this for cars, trucks, even bikes is that it a risk free environment that enables them to make the basic mistakes of calculating distances, speeds and gaps where they only get a beep rather than a squished pedestrian. Then when they have reached a basic competency then they need real world experience. Can’t spend forever risk free if you want to get anywhere. (Someone pass that on to our government will you)
The main reason that the cost should be lower is that if the cost was lower then we could get every learner to get one and we could keep them off the roads until they are at least a little competent. For some they would never get near the road.
Simulators
When I started work way back in the 19xx’s, Sorry smudge on the screen there, one of the guys I was working with was seriously into flight simulators. So much so that he had several Apple II computers which he used to set his own system up. Nice chair, control sticks, footpads for the rudders etc. It cost him several thousand pounds and several hundred hours of hard work programming and building and he had line art for his terrain and plane. He left to develop a flight simulator system for the MoD.
I’ve been waiting for a long time for someone to develop a system that was both cheap and something I was prepared to pay for. MS FS was good but nowadays you can’t fly into Manhattan or the Pentagon so it isn’t very realistic. Have to stick with an old version if you want to do that.
Anyway, there are several add-ons you can buy to give you that feeling of sitting in a cockpit and flying but nowadays I am not interested in doing so.
But I was interested in this simulator from Honda. Something more practical although the cost does seem high for what it is. If it was cheap enough we could ensure our kids got plenty of practise before we let them near our precious cars. I’ll never forget sitting in the passenger seat wondering how I was verbally going to control the vehicle. I think Driving Instructors are brave people.
The benefits of simulators like this for cars, trucks, even bikes is that it a risk free environment that enables them to make the basic mistakes of calculating distances, speeds and gaps where they only get a beep rather than a squished pedestrian. Then when they have reached a basic competency then they need real world experience. Can’t spend forever risk free if you want to get anywhere. (Someone pass that on to our government will you)
The main reason that the cost should be lower is that if the cost was lower then we could get every learner to get one and we could keep them off the roads until they are at least a little competent. For some they would never get near the road.