Cap'n Tarmack is on drugs...

[Guest BC_KBOS]

and he ain't sharing!Jumpin ******* in a sidecar! The Captain has taken "WideView" to a new level!I had two screens going for a while and M'Lady thought I was nutz, but she tolerated it. I mentioned the full motion thingie, ya know, the deal with the PVC tube type cockpit that rocked and rolled as you flew and I almost became a single person.All I can say is: Far OUT!Captain, you have a heck of a setup and I gota tell you: Well DONE!...and we all thought those stick actuators were just looking for the room numbers of the stews. Dang! This boy did his homework!Nice Job!BC

[ejoiner 21]

##### are you talking about?Does this refer to something cool in another thread?Eric

[Guest]

I think he's talking about a news article on the front page. It is QUITE a video set-up!

[Guest SlimDady]

Yepo its on teh front pagehttp://www.avsim.com/pages/0103/mellott/allz i can say is get a life and stop burning money.Its excessive. Id rater just spend that money for real flying.

[Guest WorkingStiff]

Obviously you don't know anything about Cap'n Tarmack.:-lol

[Guest SlimDady]

Your right..Im not saying its not cool. Id like to try it myself.But buyinh like 20 monitors is crazy. To much money for me o spend on simming

[Guest]

WorkingStiff,>Obviously you don't know anything about Cap'n Tarmack.:-lol >Thanks for the support. GrinThe only "drugs" I have ever used was when I DRUG this huge 40" monitor into my home cockpit room...a 10x12 sized addition in my garage. I had to do it all by myself because I didn't want the wife to know and thought I could HIDE from her. I figgered she wouldn't notice it IF I had enough other monitors on each side. Grin.She caught me in about 15 minutes....but SINCE I have been doing this sort of thing for so many years....she understands my need for completion....there is no good reason to stop short of doing a job the right way. I wrote the following "article" in December of 1998 on another simulation web forum....that shows my interest in flight simulation since the middle 1960's.....==========================================================The 50's and 60's had pretty rudimentary flight simulation systems. Those years continued to use a system invented and first produced in the World War II era, the venerable "Link Trainer".This was an "ungainly" mock-up of a rudimentary cockpit with one VOR, one ADF, and one artifical horizon, plus an "intercom" for communications between the student and the instructor. The "cockpit" was mounted on a system of rubber "bellows" that were filled with air. To accomplish a "banked" turn, one set of bellows would deflate and the whole structure would lean to the deflated side. The "cockpit" could also "swivel" around a central point, driven by a small electrical motor to allow turns to a new heading. Surprisingly, with the cover pulled down over the pilot, that pilot was soon totally on instruments and would be unable to fly the airplane without total reliance on his instruments. His "inner ear" system of "balance" was soon unreliable. Just the way the instructor wanted it to be !!!The system also included a "crab". The "crab" was on the instructors desk and laid down an "ink" line on a map for movements that coincided with the cockpit headings. It was awfully revealing to crawl out of the cockpit and then take a close look at your "traces" over this map as you tried to follow the instructions of the instructor. He may have told you to fly Direct to the Narco ADF Outer Marker(266khz) and then to complete the published Procedure turn for an approach to Runway 29L at Minneapolis. Flying direct to any ADF is usually a series of "recoveries" from a constant heading and the "squiggles" on the chart proved that your mental computations of crosswind corrections for the UNKNOWN wind factor, could always use more practice !The Link Trainer was in use the Private Pilot area of training for many years after the airlines converted to more elaborate flight sims. When NWA converted to more elaborate sim systems they auctioned off the old Link Trainers. I placed a bid but with a copilot salary I was soon outbid by a couple of old senior birds with 4 stripes and HUGE basements. My apartment would have been a poor choice for installation! As you can see.......the SEEDS were sown some 40 years ago for a home cockpit simulator!Those early editions of simulators that followed the Link Trainer era actually used a small video camera that was placed a couple of inches above a LARGE table that had been constructed by "model builders". On the surface were little plastic buildings, "painted" roads, model railroad bridges, etc. The cockpit forward windows were simply 2 CRT's and for most of the flight the only view out of those windows was "milky" as you were always flying IFR. However, in order to land, you had to see SOMETHING in those days ! Hence, all of a sudden on an ILS approach the "milky cloud" would go away in your TV screen to be replaced by a "model" view of terrain that "kinda" resembled your home airline airport.In the early 70's the simulators became much more realistic with their ability to harness the power of computers that finally had the capacity for speed and storage and soon the whole world was mapped and placed on a hard disk !An engine failure on takeoff out of Hong Kong on Runway 31 was a darn good place to "practice" while IN the simulator. Doing that same thing for real would have scared the beejjeezus out of most pilots AND the people that lived below the flight path. However, having done that departure with an engine failure 20 times or more, in the flight simulator, would have made it MUCH less stressful if and when it would have happened for real.I believe that the FIRST airplane simulator that allowed the pilot to NEVER have to fly the real airplane before being released to the line for a flight WITH passengers was the 747 sim's and I believe that occurred in the middle to late 70's. So, by the time I got to the airplane in 1980 it was old hat !As time continues to march on, simulators will continue to be improved and someday I feel that even the Private Pilot license will use the simulators for the MAJORITY of the flight training.See how lucky you are now to be ahead of that !!!The simulators are so real that sweaty palms and wet underarms can appear with in a minute or two of takeoff !!! A memorable time for me took place in 1996 during a checkride in July of that year. I had long "looped" the 747-400 in FS95 and FS98. I found that in order to complete the loop and keep it somewhat "round" in nature that I had to enter at a speed of at least 420 knots. I found that when starting the maneuver at 4000 feet MSL, that I would go "over the top" at approximately 10,500 feet and would be indicating about 120 knots IAS at that time. By pulling all power to idle as I started back down to complete the loop I was able to recover at "about" 4000 feet and back at my original entry speed of 420 knots. My checkride went very well and we had completed all of the required "stuff" in almost record time leaving us with 15-20 minutes to "kill" until our period was up. The Instructor asked me if there was anything that I'd like to practice or do with the simulator and simply said

[Guest WorkingStiff]

Edited since Cap'n Tarmack was kind enough to respond in his own words......

[Mike S KPDX 597]

I hope you really did not take any offence to his comments, I doubt you did. As you know, we get a new 'crop' of 'em every 30 days or so.I consider myself a newbie and I have been doing this stuff since '88.It is really good to hear your still around with us, your comments are absolute read for many of us.many many thanks. :-)

[badderjet 181]

WHAT DA HECK!?! :-eekOutstanding. Just outstanding :-hah.You somewhat crazy dude, eh?Nice start mate... LOL :-lolKeep it commin'... Yo!BestEtienne

[Guest]

Mike,Thanks...and NO problem.I was used to being under suspicion of the use of drugs anyway....had to take a whiz in the bottle for the fed's on a regular basis under the airline drug testing program.My generation grew up thinking that putting salted peanuts into a bottle of Coca Cola was a pretty daring thing to do....but we were warned to never drive a car if we were doing that. Grin.Beer and cigarettes were our pastimes in High school, college and flying the line. Grinning more!Regards,Mel>I hope you really did not take any offence to his comments, >I doubt you did. As you know, we get a new 'crop' of 'em >every 30 days or so. >>I consider myself a newbie and I have been doing this stuff >since '88. >>It is really good to hear your still around with us, your >comments are absolute read for many of us. >>many many thanks. :-)

[ejoiner 21]

Cap'n you must have some serious extra cash in your pockets...wish it was me. My wife wouldnt put up with that rig either...(of course she'd have taken her cut of the extra cash off the top!)Looks seriously cool to me. Eric

[Guest JonP01]

I have no problem admitting that I am in awe of these sorts of sophisticated setups and quite jealous of the owners. On the other side of the coin, however, I've seen other appalling setups that make me wonder how on earth the user can ever experience any sense of immersion at all.When I built my house last year I even made sure there was a room put aside for the future in which I could build my dream flight simming / motor sport simming setup.I'm hoping it will happen to me one day as well.I really take exception to people's comments stating that people who establish theese sorts of setups should "get a life" or spend their money or time elsewhere. As far as I'm concerned, people such as Tarmack very much have a life. And I can assure you that when you are no longer in the workforce, projects such as these can be the very life blood of one's continuing sanity and enjoyment of life. I'm quite sure Captain Tarmack has a very good sense of proportion and does not spend 23 hours 50 minutes each day simming and tweaking and the other ten minutes for food and comfort breaks.

[Guest BC_KBOS]

Greetings Captain!There are times when my sense of humor eludes me and this time it may have eluded more than me.The title I selected for this epistle may be misconstrued to mean something it does not.I use that expression often when describing how someone solved a pretty perplexing problem, along the lines of: "Gee whiz, I don't know how he figured it out, he must be using some pretty good...etc..."That may sound lame, but in no way was it my intention to suggest that you were doing anything untoward.Your home sim is amazing! I wonder how many people know how difficult it had to have been to get all the PC's and all the monitors to work together in concert? Just the idea of setting up the views must have been, well, you know.Sorry if I came across like I was meaning something other than what I was, which is you did one heck of a job on your setup.Are you going to do a story on the whole thing? It would be something, that's for sure!Again, sorry about the bad joke...Regards,Bill (BC)