General? Hi I'm Choppergirl - What's a Good Flight Sim to Practice Flying Ultralight In?

[CHOPPERGIRL 7]

 

 

Guess I should make an introduction...

 

Hi, my name is Choppergirl, and I am a former video game modder and coder...  who modded a game called Battlefield 2142 into a total war futuristic aerial combat game called AIRWAR...   by reprogramming the game extensively to be air combat focused, and focusing on the interaction of air ground interaction and battle, turning the skies into a poetry of debris.  

The original game was stodgy, slow, spartan, buggy and infantry / land warfare centrific, with few aircraft.  I spent about 5 years playing the game, with about 3 years of that being development to fix the game and make it as hard core as possible, clean up a lot of bugs, and write a lot of automated code to marginalize the impact of douchy little players (of which there was an ocean) and make the game actually rip roaring fun to play.

 

I have since retired from coding video games, as I see no future in it for me, as its just too competitive and without a degree nobody will even look at my resume.  So anyway...

 

The planes we flew were futuristic VTOL type aircraft such as these:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, I recently bought a 1980 Volmer VJ-24 ultralight project off of ebay for $38, which I am working on restoring.

 

 

 

 

You can read about my restoration progress here.

 

 

So my question for everybody is, what is a good flight sim that has a couple of Ultralight models available for it, that I could practice flying in.    

I wanted to use the built in Flight Sim mode in Google Earth, because my main interest was in becoming accustom to how the land around my home area looked from above, so that I could fly from air port to air port around my house and recognize major land marks on the ground and not get lost.

But the slowest built in plane in Google Earth goes 160mph cruise... which is much too fast...  by the time I get to close to finding my house below, I have pasted it, and gotten lost, and have to circle around again and fly west until I find a major road on the ground as my land mark...

So if anybody can help me change a planes specs in Google Earth that would cruise at about 45mph, that would be awesome.

If not, I am also open to just practicing in other flight sims what have some ultralight models (like a Phantom or Quicksilver, for example) available to import into them...   so let me know, of all the flight sims that have some good ultralights some homebrew users have created for them, and where...  to find the install packages for them ... :-)

 

TIA

CHOPPERGIRL 

 

 

http://air-war.org

[Richard Sennett 2,499]

Welcome and a heck of an entrance  :wink:

[carmined 132]

QUITE the accomplishment and don't UNDERSELL YOURSELF!! I started coding when I was 9 years old and have a 2 year Electronics degree but have worked as a Professional Programmer for MANY YEARS.  If you have the talent and the aptitude to learn in business then you will accel.  Most people fail because they have a strong technical background and ability but lack people skills or business ethics.  I know because I HAD TO LEARN MYSELF!  As far as flight sim, there is no question but I would go with Prepar3d as it has been improved from the base of what USED to be Microsoft Flight Simulator.  You can also add this ultralight package which is very good and fun: http://www.antsairplanes.com/drifter.html.  As well you can download TONS of addons and MODDING is pretty easy for a lot of items as there are extensive SDK's.  Good luck in your project and I am inspired and enjoyed reading about your accolades and endeavors and look forward to your finished aircraft!

 

Carmine

[CHOPPERGIRL 7]

Thanks, I'll look into Prepar3d...   I have some of the more popular free flight sims installed on my Xeon E5450 3.0ghz Quadcore / 6gb RAM/  Geforce GT520 I built from junk, but haven't really mucked about in them much yet.

 

For the modelers and aircraft skinners out there, here's some paint scheme ideas I've been kicking around and mocking up in a Paint program...    kind of trying to figure what I really want because I have to repaint my undercarriage suspension first after I de-rust it, so that color I have to decide on soon... everything else as far as color scheme I have forever to decide on, as wing covering comes almost dead last.

 

I was thinking a "D-day stripe" theme in all black and white, or black and white and red (or orange)...










I wanted a "Pirate" type theme...    therefore, the nothing but Black and White...  or maybe with a little Red.  But after looking at other black planes on the internet, black looks really heavy and depressing for an airplane....   so I don't know, maybe go back to my original NASA ("The Martian") looking color scheme of Orange and White:

 

 

 

Or maybe a "Red/Black/White" theme that nods to the Red Barron:





 

 

 

Programming sucks and I.T. In general, I think I'm done with it, even though I'm a pretty kick &@($* Python programmer and those are supposedly in massive demand... *somewhere* and pay big bucks... if you have a degree.    Just not where I live.  And not with the distaste I have with filling out job applications, let alone enduring a job interview, which practically gives me a heart attack.  I'd never do one of those assanine Google Type irrelevant question type interviews.  So, so far I've stuck with trying entrepreneurial things which hasn't been particularly profitable at all so far.   Lots of donations for my game but it was like wringing coins out of a dead man's rigor mortis hand...  from stingy broke players, and kids who had no credit cards or even paypal accounts.

Not a lot of options in this country for someone with no job history, who won't fill out job applications (even online... its like pulling teeth with me), can't stand answering telephone calls even if they did call me, and can't do job interviews...  let alone... well.

No idea what's next for me, so buying a plane was something to jump ship to and do to keep from going... crazy...      its been fun so far, hanging out and posting in home builder airplane forums...   you learn a lot from a bunch of smart, opinionated guys.  

 

~

Its been kind of odd I guess to have an airplane fuselage and rudder as tall as me in my living room I guess...  most you I doubt would mind...

[CHOPPERGIRL 7]

My plane has some little interesting curious history to it...  thought I'd share, with some actual "links"....

The same guy that designed my VJ-24W, Volmer Jensen, also built the StarShip Enterprise for the TV Show "Star Trek" in his workshop... perhaps you've seen it in some opening credits.    It now is in the Smithsonian Institute where they spend boodles of dollars to keep it up and restore it...

 

 

Also, a guy by the name of Irv Culver designed my wing profile (which is also used on the Boeing 747 which you've probably ridden on)...  coined the name "Skunkworks" at Lockheed, and went on to design the SR-71 Blackbird...  as well as fix some compressibility problems in a dive about the P-38 Lightning.

The P-38 was a plane which my grandfather flew as a fighter pilot out of the Port Moresby Complex in New Guinea in... (he also flew P-39 Aircobras, P-47's, and training planes like the  PT-17. BT-13 or AT-6, etc) My grandfather had to bail out once, earning him a parachute card.  I believe he told me he met Charles Lindberg, when Lindberg was explaining to them how to extend their P-38 fuel and range.  


Another interesting side note, is my grandfather's flight leader and wing man, Sully, crashed his P-38 in the jungle and had to hike it out, killing a native headhunter.  They made a little indie film about it called Injury Slight, Please Advise (watch trailer).  What's totally cool, is the P-38, the Marlee 2, is still sitting on the jungle floor today and you can watch Fred Hagen and a video of an explorer hiking to it.  ( You can see more pictures here )

 

 

The business end of a P-38 :-)


 

 

 

Another guy, by the name of David Cook, was the first person to fly an ultralight across the English Channel... he flew its earlier predecesor of my model plane, the VJ-23 Swingwing...

My dad was an air traffic controller, so I've actually flown for all of maybe 15 seconds when I took the wheel as a little kid in our Cessna 170 former military trainer sold as surplus, which has long since been sold.

 

It was an interesting long 700 mile trip to pick my plane up... we saw lots of mountains and even broke down by the side of the road for a short time because I was flooring it through the mountains and the automatic transmission did not appreciate that at all.  I brought my engine home on a seperate epic 160 mile trip on the back of my motorbike.

Since I'm pretty much broke, this project is a mad experiment of mine and an exercise in scrounging to see if I can build a flying 3 axis controlled wheeled airplane for under $999...


Interestingly, I live only a dozen miles or so from an overgrown and completely forgotten WW2 airfield called Yawn Field, that is now entirely lumber forest, where BT-13's like my grandfather flew, flew in great numbers and one once crashed.

[vololiberista 205]

Most of the best artists are the ones that haven't been to art school and are self taught. So in that sense your actual practical works speaks for itself. The likes of Daniel Hardcastle would be very interested in you of that I'm sure.

[carmined 132]

Not a lot of options in this country for someone with no job history, who won't fill out job applications (even online... its like pulling teeth with me), can't stand answering telephone calls even if they did call me, and can't do job interviews...  let alone... well.

 

 

This all sounds JUST LIKE ME!!!  I always tell them just tell me what needs to get done and when it's due by and I'll have it ready!  Unfortunately when you work for the big bucks in a corporation, they will expect you to be a "team player" and fill out your TPS reports like everyone else.  Unfortunately, since I don't have a 4 year degree I don't get the BIGGEST bucks but do ok.  I HATE looking for work and applications and phone calls as well.  I actually paid a firm to make my resume because I'm a developer, not a wordsmith.  SOOO, in order to keep the big bucks I have to hold my nose and step in line as well as do my FUN stuff on the side like Software Design/Microcontrollers/Hardware as well I was rebuilding a whole new flight sim from scratch.  Right now I have a product to start selling for quadcopters/planes/cars in the near future which was scratch built/designed from my idea last year.

[CHOPPERGIRL 7]

I always joke to my best friend who works for Olympic Paints that she's become one of the Borg, and she needs to fill out her TPS reports.  Cause she does lots of that rubbish, at home, on her own time.  Her previous employer, Anderson Merchandising, was about 10x worse though in mentality...   totally the Borg collective hive mind of absolute corporate speak rubbish.  I'd listen in on her conference calls on their corporate iphones that they all kept connected with.  Every morning they'd have to call in and listen to a bunch of spammed out pep talk voicemails from Corporate.

Its not that I can't make a resume (I have one) or write (I'm an excellent writer), its that I absolutely can not do a commute 9x5 job... I'm not even sure I can work with other people.  I did that for 12 years going to school and it was absolute hell.  I'm not a morning person, and in fact, I'm all over the map when it comes to sleep schedule sometimes.  I use to be super shy, so I will not do job interviews...    but mostly, I have nothing to put in this big blank place called "work experience".   Because what I've done with my life, has all be entrepreneurial, and most of the time, never about making money.   I bust my &@($* cleaning things, fixing them, repurposing them, creating new things, helping other people, and so on...  a jack of all trades... and none of it fits at all into a 3 section Work History on a Job Application.   So I'm left thinking "none" and feeling rotten, and chuck the whole horseshit.  I don't even try any more, because every app has that on it.  

I'm kind of like The Wolf in Pulp Fiction.  You got a situation or SHTF problem, and you call me, I'll come and fix it no matter how bizarre it is.

So far it seems like I'm doomed to live outside the system on the fringes and between the cracks like The Stainless Steel Rat

 

~
 

I should start a black company to weaponize drones, and sell them on the black market as weapons packages/systems to shady characters and third world bannana republic dictator regimes.  One way or another weaponized drones and a Terminator/Bladerunner type future is coming...  heck they are already here, DARPA is gungho on them and the military is creaming its pants over them.   I've never flown a drone IRL, but I'm one hell of a VTOL combat pilot.   I've flown an RC plane I had once, but couldn't fly it from the 3rd person view.  From a first person view however, totally.... like a bat out of hell.

 

CHOPPERGIRL

http://choppergirl.air-war.org

 

 

If anybody knows any other free flight sims with some Ultralight planes in them, let me know.  Amazingly sad how under-represented Ultralights are in Flight Simulators...  when they are or were basically the stepping stone to a lot of people into the sky... at one time in the Roaring 80's.

 

[HighBypass 2,339]

Hi and welcome Choppergirl!

 

Don't know if I'm allowed to post up links to other sites but if you have FSX or buy Prepar3d then these might be worth a look:-

 

http://simviation.com/1/browse-Gliders+and+Ultralites-130-0

 

Or, closer to this forum:-

 

http://library.avsim.net/search.php?SearchTerm=ultralight&CatID=fsx&Go=Search.

 

I saw that you mentioned perhaps you cannot work with other people.. Well, you might have to "work" with them in aviation. Not so much if you're flying VFR, but if you progress to IFR then you'll end up working with ATC

 

Good luck with the restoration! I like the orange & white or the red & white paintjobs over the invasions stripes one.

[vololiberista 205]

 

If anybody knows any other free flight sims with some Ultralight planes in them, let me know.  Amazingly sad how under-represented Ultralights are in Flight Simulators...  when they are or were basically the stepping stone to a lot of people into the sky... at one time in the Roaring 80's.

 

 

There are some models in the avsim library. Some for FS2004 and a couple for FSX. How well they are modelled I cannot say though.

[CHOPPERGIRL 7]

I think Prepar3D wants $59 for its cheapest license.... to rich for me.  Looks pretty realistic though.  Targetted at people that own planes that cost more than my entire house though....

 

~

 

I won't go as far as getting a pilot's license, its just WAYYY too costly, so its strictly ultralights and VFR for me.   But I probably will buy an airband handheld transciever on ebay just as cheap insurance to hear other aircraft communications on the COM channel and the tower...   most airports I'll be flying out of have dead silence on their air band, unless maybe its a fly in.... and no manned tower.  

I have a hand scanner that covers the airbands and its always empty save for an occasional passing jet over head talking to the tower.  I don't really have an ear for discerning air communications and plan to stay off them as much as possible, as even knowing the order they are supposedly saying stuff in, all that rubbish and milspeak alphabet they mix in just sounds like a jumbled hot mess to my brain and I can make out very little information out of it.  If ever I say anything at all on an air band radio, its going to be the bare minimum before I make an approach... to probably nobody listening at all.
 

~

 

I will probably do the black and white with red tips scheme.... I really like how that red "pops".   If I get tired of the red parts, repaint them a different color occasionally... orange, green, blue, yellow, etc.  :-)   I want to eventually have a three color smoke oil system on it, so I can mix and maybe do 7 colors... if it would work...  so that will be my "color"....  to an otherwise colorless plane.   Writing my name on the top of the wing may be too ambitious... marking off all those lines on a non-flat surface.  The bottom of the wing is flat like a poster board, but not the top... 

[CHOPPERGIRL 7]

[propsfan 52]

For someone who is into modding, perhaps X-Plane 10 might be a better fit. The tools to build what you want come with the sim and there is a very active community, you can create your aircraft of choice in Planemaker. Also you can generate your own photoreal scenery for your area provided Bing or Google have good imagery in your area. Just a thought you might want to look into.

[CHOPPERGIRL 7]

I have Xplane installed but couldn''t figure out even the basic controls... to throttle up/down the engine, and turn left/right/stick up down/rudder pedals...   at least from the keyboard.  

 

Either it expects a flight sim joystick, or I need to go read a Readme help file somewhere, or bring up a key config menu...

 

A bit frustrating, since I'd think they'd make these essentials defined to be something intuitive... like a WASD,Numpad or even arrow key layout...

 

--

 

LOL, okay I got it to throttle up with the F keys, and immediately flipped it on its side with the numpad, and the plane is bouncing up and down with an alarm bell going off and smoke pouring out the engine... within the space of 5 seconds.  Fastest crash in the history of flight.

[Alpha Floor 237]

 

 

it expects a flight sim joystick

 

It definitely does. The bare minimum is a simple joystick with 4 axis: pitch, roll, yaw and throttle.

 

You can fly it through the keyboard, but it's really not designed for that. I bet you can find a cheap joystick with 4 axis in any used electronics shop for 5 bucks.

 

Have you tried DCS World? It's free to install, flies great but I have no idea about freeware aircraft, there might be ULMs. That's a new line of research for you.

 

Very interesting thread by the way,