Hello,
I hope this will be a fruitful post for many people.
I think this excellent resource should continue to be developed as a TRAINER. Soon one of us will find the holy grail, (putting 2 E-Sky controllers in the 2 COM ports and "this patch"?), until then use your PS2 to dogfight. Tweaking of FMS should concentrate on making a realistic substitute to "re-kitting" a balsa trainer. So far the achilles heels (sic) are no wind, tunnel vision, and no prop-torque effects.
What I would like to see is a model that is "pretty close to what an (Eagle II?... AirCore?) feels like".
I'm looking for an EXPERIENCED real-world RC pilot who can tweak the .par parameters of existing models to come close to what a real trainer experience is like. It seems to me this would be the easiest way. Wanna create one from scratch? Knocketh thyself out.
From my limited and 100% artificial experience, here are some observations:
1. As others have mentioned, having to fly with a visible horizon makes landings MUCH more difficult. Approach from a greater height and the window of time to adjust the approach becomes anxiety free INSTANTLY! (particularly with sport planes)
2. My GUESS is that a real trainer like an Eagle II or an AirCore is tip-stally and waggy like Skyhawk.par. Anticipation and projection of the path will be needed to land where one wants. This is where my request for a model tweaked by an experienced pilot comes in handy.
3. Those new to FMS should start in chase camera mode to feel the model.
4. I found Fumaca.par to be an excellent way to make responses automatic. It doesn't fly "scale", but its size and SLOW speed are good to start, especially good for LOOOOOOOONG landing approaches. You get to SEE it the whole time. "Barnstorm" yourself over and over until you have the same control toward and away from you. (with fast planes too)
5. My plans are to use an inexpensive ARF to experiment in the real world and spend my time and effort in building a scale 2nd plane that flies like Supercup.par. The third bird would be a symmetrical wing (Tiger 2?) (I have no affinity to CG models, these are just examples. Suggestions are welcome here too.)
Without writing a book here, I am interested in concrete responses. I hope others would also find this information handy.
Regards,
magaphoto