Small NY Times Story on Flight Sims

[TEShaw]

You can find it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/15/technology/circuits/15flight.html

If you're not already registered at the NY Times (Hah!,) you'll have to register with e-mail address.

It's the paper of record.

regards,  Airman T. E. Shaw Cpl., RAF

[Edbert]

In case nobody want to bother with giving the lefties their email addy...

September 15, 2005
Flights of Imagination
By TIM GNATEK

IRVINE, Calif.

Five F-14 fighter planes from the VF-103 Jolly Rogers carve through the sky over Nellis Air Force Base. "Single left-hand roll," calls the flight leader, Frank Ferrante, better known as Trapdoor. On his cue, the planes peel off in unison, barrel-rolling over the desert.

Suddenly, a distress call issues from the radio. "No. 1, I have engine problems," reports the pilot, Dave Rose, known as OneEye. His plane drifts, impossibly, horizontally before crashing into flames on the tarmac.

But the day isn't lost; George Schafman, the director of flight operations, saves the pilot with the push of a button. "Rebooting the system," Mr. Schafman says from the control tower, and as if by magic, the planes reappear lined up on the runway, and the flight-simulator squadron can take off again into the digitally rendered skies.

The pilots are not actually at Nellis, near Las Vegas, but at the Flightline Flight Simulation Center in Irvine, 45 miles southeast of Los Angeles. It is here, in an industrial park less than a mile from John Wayne Airport, that fans of military aircraft gather to fly simulators designed to give the look and feel of high-performance fighter planes.

With cockpit controls built from actual F-15 molds, commercial software modified to render the flight characteristics of dozens of warplanes and a control tower that can manage data and communications, public simulators like Flightline are a rarity. Once reserved for those who had taken an armed services oath, such centers bring the sensations of military flight to the public.

They provide a particularly exciting experience for those aviation fans who think keyboard-driven flight simulators on a PC are not real enough.

A typical first flight session at Flightline costs $40, which includes a preflight briefing, a question-and-answer period and about 35 minutes of simulator time. Repeat visitors can forgo the preliminaries and fly for nearly an hour at the same price.

For the fans, it is more than gadget lust. "They're looking for real-world camaraderie," explained Mr. Ferrante, a 47-year-old copier repairman from Lakewood, Calif. "You can get out, shake hands and brag with each other face to face," he said.

Rich Rebenstorff, the squadron leader for the Hounds of Heaven, which pays tribute to the Air Force 524th Fighter Squadron, said, "Some guys have a bowling club; we have this."

Mr. Rebenstorff, like a number of regulars, has military experience. During his 10 years of service, he worked as an avionics technician on Air Force flight simulators before retiring from the military to work as the director of operations for the Montebello, Calif., school district.

Mr. Rebenstorff's simulation team sometimes dresses in flight suits with patches bearing their call signs, earned for aerial daring or a colorful attribute.

But unlike the Jolly Rogers, who are formation fliers, Mr. Rebenstorff's group re-enacts wartime scenarios by editing the simulator software and adding satellite imagery of battle zones. "We'll tailor our flights to resemble missions being flown," he said, "although we will fun it up quite a bit."

Although the experience in the simulators may be remarkable, the software behind them is not. The planes at Flightline use a consumer software package, Jane's USAF, a flight simulator. Flightline's license agreement allows it to modify the programming, update the simulator planes' flight characteristics with more realistic handling and build custom fantasy missions for clients.

At Flightline, each custom simulator fuselage houses three computers that separately control communications, flight control and graphics rendering. In the tower, nearly a dozen computers are linked to handle the networking and communications among machines.

Most of the regulars at Flightline are former patrons of Fightertown, in nearby Lake Forest, which gave Southern California flight fans their first taste of realistic fighter simulations in 1992.

Since then, advances in technology have made simulators powerful yet economical, said Curtis Platt, who opened Flightline five years ago. "When Fightertown opened, they had to build their own network cards at about $15,000," he said. "Today, I can buy that very same card for $5 at Fry's."

Although it closed in 1995, Fightertown is partly responsible for the two major simulator centers operating today: Flightline and A.C.E.S., in Bloomington, Minn.

Mike Pohl, owner of A.C.E.S., first heard of Fightertown through members of his flight simulator club in the early 90's. "The entrepreneur in me thought it would be cool to open one up, too," he said.

At A.C.E.S., visitors can choose between flying modern F/A-18 jets or World War II fighters in a cockpit resembling a P-51 Mustang. Both simulator modules look like halved eggs, and project the flight program onto the interior curve of the shell, giving an almost 180-degree field of vision.

The location draws many tourists, who pay $45 for a one-hour flight, but has not attracted squadron clubs. To expand business, Mr. Pohl packages corporate training sessions at A.C.E.S., using teamwork as a marketing hook. The package has attracted local companies, including 3M, Land O'Lakes and General Mills.

"We set people out in teams and have them decide how to plan out missions," Mr. Pohl said. "It's applicable to the business world: execute a plan and debrief afterwards."

As an additional draw, Mr. Pohl worked with a former Blue Angels pilot, Rick Adams, to lead the training. Mr. Adams flew with the Blue Angels in 1968 and 1969 after completing 125 missions in Vietnam and being shot down twice. In the training seminars, he compares his combat experience to the working world.

"I want them to perceive that even the mundane parts, the decisions they make day to day, are just like the fighter pilots," he said. "Knowing the enemy is important. If you're fighting for shelf space, the more you know about the other product, like a fighter pilot, the better."

After a lecture and lunch, the trainees have a dogfight, and Mr. Adams sometimes joins in. "It's close enough to the real thing," he said. "Close enough for a fighter pilot."

Flightline, in California, has also expanded its business by holding birthday parties, bachelor parties and office events for companies like Taco Bell and Motorola. "We invite corporate groups to come in and let off a little steam," Mr. Schafman said. "We've assigned administrators the pilot role and made the executives the co-pilots," he said. "It's been very effective in getting them to think about how they communicate with each other."

Access to cheaper components has allowed Mr. Platt - who sold the business to Mr. Schafman but remains involved - to continue pushing simulator development.

His latest project is a 747 flight simulator, which seats five and moves on hydraulic pistons in synchronization with the flight. The simulator runs Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 on eight computers, one for each of the seven monitors around the cabin and another to control communications and networking with the rest of the center.

With the constant evolution of hardware and flight software, Mr. Platt says it is nearly impossible to stay in the forefront of simulator development. "Everything becomes outdated in a matter of months," he said.

But the latest processors or programs come with challenges, too, he said. They can overheat or work poorly with existing systems.

"If something works really well, it's often best not to change it," he said. "Reliability is sometimes better than a faster computer."

[Herbie]

Or visit This Page for a username and password to use.

[Donzo]

I've been to the A.C.E.S. in Blooming, MN and it looks cool.
Birthday's coming up and wifey better be gettin me at least 1 hour in the A.C.E.S. sim!

[SkyLab]

Originally posted by Edbert
In case nobody want to bother with giving the lefties their email addy...

hehe

Thanks Edbert.

[DREDIOCK]

Do they mean This place?

Flightline Flight simulations center

Looks ok.

but Jussst a bit pricy for my tastes

[Gryffin]

Originally posted by Herbie
Or visit This Page for a username and password to use.

This is brilliant, thanks Herbie

[bustr]

Some years ago as a team building exercise my manager took us all to flight line. It's a sports bar, with a large waiting room with consols showing guncam from the game while you sit in easy chairs and sip your favorite adult beverage. They also have an arcade if you are bored waiting for your 10-15 minute flight.

15 minutes before your group flys you are brought into a breifing room that looks like one on a carrier. You are breifed and then taken to the waiting room. Then you get taken to the simulator room and strapped in. In our group we were broken into two groups using the simulators along each side of the room.

Inside you are semireclined and have a single monitor with a ch flight stick. Your cockpit is closed and you wear a headset. The flight begins and its a basic jet simulator with con indicators, a pipper, and what ever else gets you by with the basics of a jet. And the pod you are locked in has piston actuators to rock your butt around kinda like a real ride.

My department knew I flew AW at the time. But they were not amused when I shot them all down along with the staff kids flying lead and won the door prize for the evening. Frankly AH2 is much more satisfying. And if you need piston actuators for your seat,  build them.

Oh and the staff were all in Top Gun Jumpsuits. Not very plesant 20 somethings, bored with rubes who pay the bills and crash on takoff...reminded me of shane. They all worked as staff to pay for their free after hours furballing. I mentioned AW and they all thought it blew chunks and could take AWers in seconds...yaddidy yaddidy..and such. This was in 1998. Maybe it's changed.

[Shane]

bah! i'm not bored with noobs...

it's the so-called "vets" who still suck like a hoover yet think they're all that which i have disdain for.  boredom?  naw, they're fun squeek toys.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

For VR simulator.. I'd pay money.

[x0847Marine]

Originally posted by TEShaw
You can find it here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/15/technology/circuits/15flight.html

If you're not already registered at the NY Times (Hah!,) you'll have to register with e-mail address.

It's the paper of record.

regards,  Airman T. E. Shaw Cpl., RAF

http://www.bugmenot.com Firefox plug inis a MUST have/use, it by passes all that registration shinola.

[Krusty]

There's a "Dave and Busters" in Denver that does similar stuff (bar and grill with VR pods and various other games) only instead of flight sims I think it just has mech warrior type of pods. I've heard it has groups of business men coming in, also.