As soon as Pete parked his car outside the
premises of RC Simulations, I kicked myself for not having taken
my camera! We had travelled to Bristol to attend RC Simulations open
day, and they are located amongst the outbuildings of Bristol
International Airport alongside a private flying club, and there on the
tarmac was a beautiful Learjet; very sleek - although smaller than I had
imagined a Learjet to be - and well worth a shot or two. The camera would have been of even more value later, when we
were drooling over some rather exciting hardware that is the subject of
this item, but I have managed to find some reasonable images off the web
for you to see what it was all about.
RC Simulations is a small, private family-based company that
specialises entirely in flight simulation products and services and
nothing else - the only one of its kind in the UK, they say. They stock an amazing
selection of software and hardware to suit beginners, the avid flight-sim
enthusiast and even 'real' pilots.
First
thing to catch my eye as we walked into a small but impressive
exhibition of flight-sim equipment was this amazing set of Copycat
MRVC (Multi-Role Virtual Control) helicopter controls for coupling
to your PC. The kit consists of a collective lever, joystick/cyclic
control and rudder control pedals as illustrated, and there is now also
a throttle control which mounts to the right of the central cyclic stick
on its own independent mount.
The
joystick/cyclic control has been developed around the Saitek Cyborg 3D
joystick. If you look at the picture on the right, you will see the main
base of the Saitek joystick at floor level at the base of the equipment. The hand
control has been stripped off the joystick and is mounted at the top of
the column. In between is a beautiful piece of engineering which allows
for precision adjustment to provide total control of range of movement,
sensitivity, tension, etc., etc. Referring again to the picture on the
left, the collective lever on the left of the
set-up is a full-size dedicated control as found in the cockpit of any
Jet Ranger helicopter. Its fully adjustable hydraulic damper feels and
responds just like the real thing.
Forward
of the set-up is a set of MRVC pedals. They are made of steel and
extremely strong and durable. Their position along the main frame can be
adjusted to suit leg length.
In use, the front legs of a four-legged chair are
placed forward of the main cross-bar of the main frame so that the
cyclic control is nicely placed between the knees of the operator. The
rudder pedals could go under your PC table, of course, but our
demonstrator had his PC mounted on a support forward of the rudder
pedals with an additional small mount rigged to the mainframe to hold
his keyboard within his own comfortable reach. He was very expertly
flying the Bell helicopter in MS Flight Simulator 2000 and it looked
great! He was actually using two monitors, with the heli control panel displayed
on a small monitor mounted to the left of his main monitor on which was
displayed his full-screen cockpit view.
The cost of the complete outfit as illustrated,
together with a small add-on platform for you to adapt to any purpose
such as a keyboard support or just somewhere to put your cup of coffee,
is £545.95 plus shipment. I know that's a fair bit of money but I was truly amazed at
what is really an amazingly low price,
given the quality of this superb equipment. All the units are also
available separately, so you could choose to rig up the collective lever
and pedals, for example, whilst still using your existing joystick
set-up.
Another tempting item of particular interest to the
fixed-wing flight-sim pilot was the new CH Flight Sim Yoke USB. I
use the earlier version of this yoke, but I'm now thinking of going for
this one. The CH range of yokes is now available for connection to USB
ports (of which most modern
computers have at least two, but which are often not used). This type of
connection is extremely easy to set up, with no calibration necessary as
Windows 98 automatically detects the presence of any device attached to
the port and does the job for you. You need one port for each device and
you must not mix devices of two different types (for example, yoke and
pedals must both be USB). Pictured here is the three-lever yoke costing £109.95
whilst the single lever LE version costs £99.95. Couple one of
these yokes with the CH Pro Pedals (not shown), and you have even more
realism!
And
finally, have a look at this neat little radio stack! It's the ACP
Compact Panel, a brand-new addition to RC Simulations' range. It has
knobs and switches for tuning radios and frequencies as well as gear up
and down. It really looks good - I saw it mounted on the side of a
monitor (Velcro, I think). Not much need for a keyboard once this is in
use and it can be used with all the mainstream flight sims like Fly,
FS98, FS2000, etc.
If you want to know more about any of this lovely
gear, visit RC Simulations on www.rcsimulations.com
from where you can also place your order!
ModelFlight is keen to hear from you if you have any
contributions to make on the subject of flight simulation - whether the
mainstream 'games' or the dedicated r/c model versions.
Click on the post-box to e-mail me now!
First
thing to catch my eye as we walked into a small but impressive
exhibition of flight-sim equipment was this amazing set of Copycat
MRVC (Multi-Role Virtual Control) helicopter controls for coupling
to your PC. The kit consists of a collective lever, joystick/cyclic
control and rudder control pedals as illustrated, and there is now also
a throttle control which mounts to the right of the central cyclic stick
on its own independent mount.
The
joystick/cyclic control has been developed around the Saitek Cyborg 3D
joystick. If you look at the picture on the right, you will see the main
base of the Saitek joystick at floor level at the base of the equipment. The hand
control has been stripped off the joystick and is mounted at the top of
the column. In between is a beautiful piece of engineering which allows
for precision adjustment to provide total control of range of movement,
sensitivity, tension, etc., etc. Referring again to the picture on the
left, the collective lever on the left of the
set-up is a full-size dedicated control as found in the cockpit of any
Jet Ranger helicopter. Its fully adjustable hydraulic damper feels and
responds just like the real thing.
Forward
of the set-up is a set of MRVC pedals. They are made of steel and
extremely strong and durable. Their position along the main frame can be
adjusted to suit leg length.
dern
computers have at least two, but which are often not used). This type of
connection is extremely easy to set up, with no calibration necessary as
Windows 98 automatically detects the presence of any device attached to
the port and does the job for you. You need one port for each device and
you must not mix devices of two different types (for example, yoke and
pedals must both be USB). Pictured here is the three-lever yoke costing £109.95
whilst the single lever LE version costs £99.95. Couple one of
these yokes with the CH Pro Pedals (not shown), and you have even more
realism!
And
finally, have a look at this neat little radio stack! It's the ACP
Compact Panel, a brand-new addition to RC Simulations' range. It has
knobs and switches for tuning radios and frequencies as well as gear up
and down. It really looks good - I saw it mounted on the side of a
monitor (Velcro, I think). Not much need for a keyboard once this is in
use and it can be used with all the mainstream flight sims like Fly,
FS98, FS2000, etc.