Originally posted by sns3guppy:
quote:
Originally posted by bendable:
Would Phoscheck drop in a Forrest fire work ?
Or crop duster sim?
These aren't really simulators. Computer games, but definitely not simulators.
Replicating fire drops isn't possible. Whatever someone puts on a laptop won't come close. Or ag work, either.
Simuflite, I think, has a sim for the Air Tractor 802, but it's only real value is engine starts and malfunctions. Outside of that, there's only one place to learn it, see it, or do it, and that's in the cockpit.
The National Aerial Firefighting Academy is held in Sacramento each year, and features a room of "simulators" that are set up to feature generic lead aircraft, air attack platforms, helicopters, single engine air tankers, or heavy air tankers; each has the graphics and a non-motion cockpit to sit in, and all are linked to a joint software so that numerous aircraft can show up at a fire simulation. Everyone is linked in on headsets to communicate, and the entire simulation starts with a fire dispatch, all the way out to entering the fire traffic area, the drop, and the load and return at to the tanker base. Each cockpit has yokes, sticks, throttles, power levers, collectives, cyclics, etc. And multiple screens with graphics.
It isn't remotely close to realistic. More of a communication exercise. Mindbending graphics wouldn't make it more realistic, either.
If you want to simulate that, put on clothes over clothes, heavy boots, gloves, and a helmet and pick a good 120 degree day. Sit in your car with no windowshades, roll up the windows, and give it an hour or so to get the feel. Then drive it off a cliff into a fire with more energy than an atomic bomb. It's a start.
