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Enjoying FlightGear helicopters

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Enjoying FlightGear helicopters

Postby Grumpysanta » Mon Aug 24, 2020 4:43 pm

Split off from the topic FlightGear Scenery.


vnts wrote in Mon Aug 24, 2020 6:05 am:
Grumpysanta wrote in Sun Aug 23, 2020 2:55 pm: FlightGear takes information from openstreetmaps, which is fine, however does omit some of the finer details. What it does is take an area of housing and paints a generic overlay which fails to represent the actual area. Notably FlightGear also omits a lot of roads which can be seen from the screenshots that I have taken.

Did you, by any chance, happen to read this (link) recent linux-magazine.com article? Just curious :mrgreen: . Was it how you came across FG, or were prompted to take a look after some years :) Edit: fix url

How I came across FG. A good friend of mine had been secretly (well he didn't tell me until after he'd been doing it) taking helicopter lessons. He'd been learning in a Robinson R44, should have been a Robinson R22 but he's a big heavy chap and the combined weight of the the instructor and him was too much for an R22 so he was learning in an R44 instead. The flying school decided to not keep the R44's any more and his instructor introduced him to FG as a means of continuing his flight training. From that my friend decided to test me as well on FG using the R44, because as a young lad I had flown Chipmonks in the Air Cadets, we both got hooked. Since that point we have tried many other helicopters for fun and we have stayed pretty much on the Eurocopter EC135 P2, mainly because it's used by so many different organisations.

I've even written a program to generate flights with different loads/cargo to alter the flight characteristics. So generally we fly the EC135, if we find a situation that is complicated, landing on lighthouses was one of our fun tests for a while, we might revert the the R44 as it's smaller and easier to handle, having completed the test we go back to the EC135 and then just for shear stupidity we'll do it again with an Osrey or Sikorsky Super Stallion.

I think the first version of FG we were using was 2018.3.2, might have been even earlier. I've looked at other flight simulators and to be honest none of them can do all of what FG can do and some of them (FSX) were so bad they were unusable. So we stay with FG because it just works so well.

I had not seen the link to the article in linux-magazine.com, although for a few years I was also using linux (I would not insult my computer with Windows VISTA).

And thank you for the link for screen shots of OSM2City in use, they are stunning. As I said in an earlier post, it's not about photo realistic images, just more recognisable areas.
Last edited by Johan G on Tue Aug 25, 2020 6:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Split off from the topic "FlightGear Scenery". Qute added for context.
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Re: FlightGear Scenery

Postby StuartC » Mon Aug 24, 2020 7:11 pm

Try the Everest landing challenge in the AS350 . We developed the FDM and a specific load configuration to match the Actual AS350 weight that did the real Everest summit Landing ( as in he touched the skids down on a ledge ). We were in contact with the actual pillot, Didier Delsalle, who was kind enough to provide us with data.
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Re: FlightGear Scenery

Postby Grumpysanta » Mon Aug 24, 2020 8:22 pm

Lol - thanks, first I'll have to learn to fly the AS350 before attempting that, might give it a go, sounds like fun
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Re: FlightGear Scenery

Postby StuartC » Mon Aug 24, 2020 10:09 pm

I cant even do it, and I wrote the FDM. But Im not a good High Altitude Heli pilot. Down low and dirty is more my territory.
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Re: FlightGear Scenery

Postby vnts » Tue Aug 25, 2020 4:12 am

As you like helis :mrgreen: , the turbulence, and also convective conditions (general instability in the air column, which affects strength and shape of thermals) is turned to a minimum by default IIRC - AIUI this is the minimum possible interpretation for a given METAR (?). It's probably done to make it easier to learn to fly - but maybe the users should be told of a list of such things via the UI if these sliders are turned low by default. I believe (?) the turbulence slider just scales down turbulence - so the realistic value should be around max(?). The turbulence slider affects Yasim & JSBSim craft differently. AW has gust control as well. The AW controls are in weather > detailed weather > advanced settings. FG actually models terrain driven weather at different scales, which is the other side of the physics forces exerted on craft. So not surprising your instructor would have heard about FG.

Grumpysanta wrote in Mon Aug 24, 2020 4:43 pm:I've even written a program to generate flights with different loads/cargo to alter the flight characteristics. So generally we fly the EC135

Changes to the EC135 systems like passenger/internal cargo loads can be submitted to be merged if you think it's suitable and are looking to do that.

There is already an (external) cargo towing addon (link). It has default attachment positions already set for the EC 135 IIRC.

Kind regards
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Re: FlightGear Scenery

Postby Grumpysanta » Tue Aug 25, 2020 11:15 am

Think I'm being a bit of a Richard Cranium here, I've downloaded the AS350.zip from http://www/fguk.me , the UGUK Hanger, unzipped it and first I tried putting the complete folder in C:\Program Files\FlightGear 2018.3.6\data\Aircraft> I then had 2 listings for an Aerospatial AS350, one gave me instruments, and the other showed nothing in sim, however apart from starting engines nothing else worked. So I removed the folder and placed it in my Add-On folder C:\Users\Michael\Documents\FlightGear\Aircraft , and the path is listed in my Add On section, however FlightGear doesn't see any new aircraft. I've even tried C:\Users\Michael\Documents\FlightGear\Aircraft\AS350 and adding the path to Add On's, still nothing. So obviously I'm doing something wrong. this is on 2018.3.6 and I've also tried the same thing in 2020.1.3. Any help would be appreciated.
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Re: FlightGear Scenery

Postby Grumpysanta » Tue Aug 25, 2020 12:02 pm

I mentioned the little program I wrote to generate flights. It does not make any changes to Flightgear, you have to manually enter the destination and cargo for each flight. The idea really was rather than sitting there and thinking where to next, it does that for you, most of my flying is done south east of England. Anyway here are the links to downloadable zip files if you are interested.

Flight Creator Win 10 64Bit https://drive.google.com/file/d/14UUhEY ... sp=sharing

and if you are not using Win 10 64Bit these ares the Lazarus files so you can make your own Flight Creator
Flight Creator Lazarus Files https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pj_Ugl ... sp=sharing

If nothing else you can have a good laugh at it.
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Re: FlightGear Scenery

Postby StuartC » Tue Aug 25, 2020 1:39 pm

Sent you a PM about the AS350 to save cluttering the original thread with aircraft stuff.
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Re: Enjoying FlightGear helicopters

Postby Grumpysanta » Tue Aug 25, 2020 7:06 pm

Thanks, I now have a working AS350 model installed in 2018.3.6, I've done a few circuits to see how she fly's, yes she does lean to the right, but I've managed to compensate each time and I haven't crashed her, even managed a soft landing each time. so plenty of practice before I attempt the challenge.
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Re: Enjoying FlightGear helicopters

Postby Johan G » Tue Aug 25, 2020 7:09 pm

StuartC wrote in Mon Aug 24, 2020 7:11 pm:Try the Everest landing challenge in the AS350 .

At that altitude, density altitude and hence temperature should make quite a difference.
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Re: Enjoying FlightGear helicopters

Postby StuartC » Tue Aug 25, 2020 7:13 pm

The AS350 that they used on the real flight was an awful lot lighter than a standard Trim version. Flying it so high you are at constant risk of over torquing it, blade stalling and generally screwing up the transmission. Flying it in "Everest" configuration at low altitude makes it a very nible and quick chopper. So much so you tend to forget that its blades and transmission still have the same limits and you end up a large smoking pile on the ground ( but with a huge crispy grin on your face ).
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Re: Enjoying FlightGear helicopters

Postby montagdude » Tue Aug 25, 2020 7:25 pm

Please record your screen when you do it, if you don't mind. :)
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Re: Enjoying FlightGear helicopters

Postby wlbragg » Tue Aug 25, 2020 9:34 pm

Try the Everest landing challenge in the AS350 .

Is that the Everest S.A.R. mission on FGUK?
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Re: Enjoying FlightGear helicopters

Postby Warty » Tue Aug 25, 2020 9:40 pm

There are also some helipads being developed for the area, see:

http://fguk.me/forum/scenery/8610-everest-helipads

Image

Everest trip:

https://fgtracker.ml/modules/fgtracker/ ... ID=7310919
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Re: Enjoying FlightGear helicopters

Postby wlbragg » Tue Aug 25, 2020 10:11 pm

I guess I am looking for an ICAO starting location. I couldn't find any info on the Event that might have explained the challenge,
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