Posted by: Anonymous Coward
on December 05, 2006 07:30 AM
Because Flight Gear is open source it is used by a great number of impressive projects, from do it yourself simulators to university research even government projects in certain places around the world, I hear there is an FAA certified versions of it, and other projects seeking certification. Have a look at <a href="http://www.flightgear.org/Projects/" title="flightgear.org">http://www.flightgear.org/Projects/</a flightgear.org> . Many people have a need to change the software to meet their needs, MSFS and X-Plane may be great software, but they don't do much to help people building their own equipment, doing research and development.
Realistic simulation is much more than eye candy you see on your display. Go flying at night with FG in your area, notice the phase of the moon, then look out your window, see if matches. In fact look at the stars out your window, and notice the ones in FG should be in the same position in the sky assuming your computer clock is set correctly. If you fly long enough you will notice them change position as the earth rotates. Most simulators have flat runways, however in real life, runways have dips and hills in them, on some you can stand at one end and not see a cesna 172 sitting at the other. This is modeled in FG. There is much more.
There are lots of things like this that you will never notice sitting down for a short test in front of FG, but this sort of attention to detail provide real training value, they are the conditions that real pilots have to learn to operate with.
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Re:Welcome To 1990
Posted by: Anonymous Coward on December 05, 2006 07:30 AMRealistic simulation is much more than eye candy you see on your display. Go flying at night with FG in your area, notice the phase of the moon, then look out your window, see if matches. In fact look at the stars out your window, and notice the ones in FG should be in the same position in the sky assuming your computer clock is set correctly. If you fly long enough you will notice them change position as the earth rotates. Most simulators have flat runways, however in real life, runways have dips and hills in them, on some you can stand at one end and not see a cesna 172 sitting at the other. This is modeled in FG. There is much more.
There are lots of things like this that you will never notice sitting down for a short test in front of FG, but this sort of attention to detail provide real training value, they are the conditions that real pilots have to learn to operate with.
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