Phoenix RC Flight Simulator

My last RC flight was some 25+ years ago and after many successful flights, albeit two and three channel, I had a trilogy of disasters.

A Hughes helicopter - this had taken weeks to build, even more weeks to set up and stop destroying rotor blades. After I had finally mastered hovering, I took it up high and the collective broke. A 75 foot plummet to the ground and everything fitted nicely into a carrier bag!

A scale Tiger Moth with a .35 engine (rescued from the helicopter!). Ten successful flights following tuition from a pal but I thought it too slow and ponderous. A bout of over confidence, followed by an attempt at a fast landing............matchsticks!

A minature hand launch glider (minature by the standards of the day). A lot of nice flights but each one not long in the air - two or three minutes at the most. I therefore started catapult launching - much longer flights but one day found a thermal. Too long a flight and the onboard button cell battery expired and the g;ider was never to be seen again!

Lastly, having spent weeks building models, I bought a glider kit with a fibreglass fuselage and foam cored wings. It took no time at all to complete and bungee launch. I had several flights with it but wanted more in the way of performance.

Another thermally day and it had climbed high. The flying field is on the flight path to Heathrow and has height restrictions and so I put it into a dive. I over did the elevator as it was a bit slow to respond and thought it would loop. Wasn't fast enough and so a sort of semi stall which a recovered from.

I let the glider climb again and this time prolonged the dive, pulled the stick back and ............... the wing snapped!

After the most amazing pirouettes, twists and shimmies.....



So, I have been reluctant to venture out to the park armed with radio gear and a model. I have been using the weather as an excuse and then, I came across the Phoenix RC simulator. I searched this site and found the venerable John Goddard recommended it.

Bought it, installed it and it is superb. I found on it a flying field that looks like my local, 3 minutes walk, park. Set everything up and first of all found that I definitely wasn't ready to march out there with the Spitfire IX that I had bought. Way too fast and responsive.

I also realised that a full camoflage upper with a sky blue under belly is not a good idea to learn with in a park surrounded by trees. It is easy to get disorientated. I must have smashed the thing about twenty times! (simulated of course).

I then changed the plane to a Piper Cub. Much easier to see and tamer to fly. Not long before take offs and landings disaster free. The graphics are superb.



I even connected it to the TV.



It has been a superb learning experience and I can even now manage the Spitfire - I quickly (well slowly actually!) realised that I could alter the controls on the transmitter (Spektrum DX8) to tone things down and stop me getting into trouble quite so quickly. This also means that I can't get out of trouble quite so quickly but I have now progressed onto some of the stunt planes. Each one of these simulated planes has its own characteristics.



I also learned something else. I used a camera to take these pictures, hence the poor quality, but there is always a clamour for "videos" on this site. Trying to fly one handed and operating a camera ends up like this!



I have not compared this to other simulators but have changed the flying areas, models, views and generally fiddled with it and found it superb and easy to recommend. The only thing I don't like is that although you can record a flight, it is not in a distributable format. Can't have everything!