Hey guys, I started my IFR training at the CAMS flight school at KPIE, it's a part 141 school, and they keep their planes in immaculate condition, also I did my taildragger endorsement there. They have a RedBird simulator and today was my first time in it, so I took some pics and made some observations from the simmer's perspective. For those who are unfamiliar, the Redbird is an FAA approved, full motion sim that uses FSX(or probably ESP).1) it uses Win XP2) It pushes alot of pixels, there are about 6 small widescreen monitors in a paroramic arrangement for exterior visuals and two larger monitors for gauges, much like VRinsight products(which are just additional monitors with guages displayed on them). There is NO autogen.3) This one simulates several planes C172, 172 RG, 182, and a twin engine piper4) it has a very nice quality yoke, like the ones from precision flight controls5) The graphic settings are very low, and the framerates are high(30+), and.... there's blurries. There is a high level of antialiasing, but I suspect the Anisotropic filtering was very low(hence the blurry textures)6) It's a one box solution, I saw the Acer logo on screen when it boots up7) it boots right from the XP splash screen into the sim, also it has "mission-based" training, with various flight situations preset. We took a flight around Austin Texas.6) The motion simulator is cool, it even gets simulated hard braking and turning, BUT there's no engine vibration, there is a fan blowing on you to simulate propwash7) the instructor has a PC that he can use to change weather etc...8) apparently people have gotten sick in it.On the whole it's a nice training aid, but as a simmer, I was wondering the whole time how low the sliders were set, the ground textures were like low quality textures from early fs9 even at 4000 - 7000 feet. The clouds were default. My CFI who is not a simmer told me it's good for practicing instrument procedures, because you can pause it and really parse out the maneuvers.I'll be back in it pretty soon, so if you want me to check anything else out, just ask.Cheers

Yes, the Redbird! Guilford Tech (my school before Embry) ordered two brand new ones. These things are pretty cool! That looks to be an older model; I'd be interested in seeing all of the differences! We have one setup for multiengine training and the other for --you guessed it-- for single engine training. I had the chance to play with them when we first assembled them but never have utilized them for my training through the commercial SEL.Will you be doing much training in them? Maybe I should think about it as the price talks to me (45$ an hour)As far as I can remember there was autogen and the like, though I could be mistaken... I'll get back to ya on that as class starts back Monday :(

Per FAA regs I can do 14 hours in it. so I will do as much as is feasible.You know there may have been several different models over the years, so this may very well be an older one. It's just a small flight school I attend so they are probably not going to get the top of the line Redbird.Although considering the costs associated with it...the motion cradle, the monitors, and control cabin etc... A high-end processor and graphics cards are actually some of the cheaper components.