Pre-flight sim

[omega blood]

Some one here on another thread posted a link to this freeware sim. Looks better than FMS with more options such as retract and moving controll surfaces. One major problem. The planes don't feel or act real ( to me anyway). The control surfaces don't have any authority. My slow flyers fly better than the planes in this sim.
It's a shame too. It looks realy nice for free ware. I tried messing with the seting wiht no luck I. About the only plane I got to fly well was the mustang. What does everybody else think.

http://www.preflightsim.com/PFSAVER.HTM

[Basketcase]

I can't get Pre Flight to recognize my transmitter with FMS USB interface.

[Wright Flyer]

You know it's funny. I used to be the biggest fan of FMS and even made up some new models for it. Then I got interested in helicopters and it became clear that it's simulation was nothing like the real thing (far too easy) so I got the commercial Piccofly product and while that's great, around the same time I read about Pre-Flight and downloaded it. When I first tried it I thought it was absolute rubbish. The planes and the helicopters seemed to be far too "sluggish". So I stopped using it.

Then later (on RCU I think) I read reports from others saying that it's heli simulation was "far more realistic" than FMS so I thought I'd give it another try. But it was still sluggish. So, intrigued to find out why other thought it was so much better than FMS I started working through the menus to see if there was some option that might affect performance.

And then I found the "magic". In the scene menu there's a "quick edit" option and in the property sheet that appears under "Timing and Calculations" there's a single setting called "Time factor" and strangely this wasn't set to 1 (not that I really understood what it meant!). So I changed the value and then tried the aricraft again and they were TRANSFORMED. They now had sharp reactions.

Then it struck me. At the start of the program I'd been picking the "Heli training scenery" each time and apart from the visuals one "hidden" aspect of this selection is that "time factor" is set so that everything runs like it was on Prozac. If you pick the real heli scenery then the helicopters are VERY realistic. They are FAR more difficult to fly than in FMS and much more like my real Corona (which actually flies a bit like a cross between the Ergo and the Raptor in Pre-flight).

Wayne, another thing I discovered when I tried to use my Tx-USB interface (USB JSIM form www.rc-electronics.co.uk) was that while FMS sees the aileron, elevator, throttle and rudder channels of my FF6 as 1,2,3,4 in Pre-Flight they appear as 1,2,6,7 - wonder if this might explain the USB interface problems you've had??

Cliff

[omega blood]

Originally posted by Wright Flyer

And then I found the "magic". In the scene menu there's a "quick edit" option
Cliff
Yes I found it too. You can do a lot more changes more easyly.
I wonder how long it will stay free?

[dpoles]

what number are you using for a time factor for planes?

[Wright Flyer]

Personally I don't fly planes in PreFlight as I think FMS is just great for planes. I just use PreFlight for heli simulation as it's helis are definitely much better than FMS.

Cliff

[dave_lilley]

I feel the best sim (helicopters, sailplanes, and powered planes), is Aeroflight Pro, especially now that you can design craft and import other people's creations, just like FMS.

I tried to learn to fly helis with G2, and that didn't go well. However, with AFP, I have learned to hover and fly pretty good. In fact, I think I'm just about ready to buy my first training helicopter.

I have also used AFP to help me learn how to hover 3D planes, and I frequently use it to practice slope soaring.

[All__talk]

Hi guys

Dose anybody know a way to run FMS or Preflight on a Win NT4 system, I’d love to use it at work during lunch. I know I could do a partition with a second OS, but if I get a call during lunch I need access to my NT4 apps. Any ideas?

Gary

[Basketcase]

Hi Cliff, thanks for the detailed info. I have the same USB-JSIM interface from RC-Electronics. I'm guessing my problem is I'm trying to use a HiTec Focus 4 and you have a Futaba which is accepted by the Menu?

Do you use the Joystick+keys setting, or the Futaba Tx setting? I'm hoping it's the Joystick.

I'd like to get it working but until I do FMS is going to have to do.

Wayne

[Zflyer]

To All-Talk, I run FMS on XP Home wich is very similar to NT in many respects I think it should do fine in NT

[All__talk]

Zflyer, the trouble with NT is that it will not support DirectX after something like 3.2, the sims require a more current version. I am just hoping that someone more tetchy than myself has figured out a way around it.

Gary

[Wright Flyer]

Originally posted by All__talk
Does anybody know a way to run FMS or Preflight on a Win NT4 system, No dice I'm afraid as they need a minimum of DirectX 6/7 support and NT4 stopped supporting DirectX at V3. Is there anyway you can persuade your IT people that you really NEED to have Win2K or WinXP? They are effectively NT5 and they have DirectX 8 support as standard.

Believe it or not, I was finally persuaded to switch over to Win2K on my work machine from NT4 solely so that FMS/PreFlight/Metasequoia could be used in the lunch hour. In addition the machine doesn't have a joystick port which is why I bought a USB-JSIM so I could connect up my FF6 Tx through the USB port. :)

Originally posted by Basketcase
I'm guessing my problem is I'm trying to use a HiTec Focus 4 and you have a Futaba which is accepted by the Menu? Wayne, I don't think it is that as the choice of "Futaba" is for when you are using the special PreFlight lead. When you use the USB-JSIM then whatever Tx you have it should just "look" like a standard joystick to any sim. So in PreFlight I've just got it set on "Joystick+keys" then _Throttle is Joy Ch 7, _Aileron=Joy ch 1, _Elevator=Joy ch 2, _Rudder=Joy ch 6, _Aux1 (which is blade pitch) is Joy ch 7 (like the throttle).

As well as this just check your general Windows control panel setting under "gaming options". My USB-JSIM appears their with the rather strange name"�çb" but it shows "OK" and going to Properties then wiggling the sticks shows some movement. If this low level stuff isn't working then your Tx is not going to appear as a joystick in ANY software (though the fact you can use FMS presumably means this bit IS working OK?)

Cliff

[Moses2u72]

It was my understanding that you neede at least a five channel Tx to operate Preflight. Am I wrong? That's why I don't use it. I have a Focus 4 as well.

[Wright Flyer]

Hi,

Nope, although I have a 6 channel radio, when I fly the helis in PreFlight I just use 4 channels (to save me having to set up the Tx for "heli" mode). as I have a Corona I just fly it in "aero" mode on four channels.

The "trick" is simply to put the throttle channel on both PreFlight's "_Throttle" AND "_Aux1" channels.

This way when you increase the throttle on your Tx you are actually increasiong both the helis throttle AND it's blade pitch. So the collective pitch helicopters actually behave as if they are fixed pitch.

I did try putting the throttle on a simple Tx switch (channel 5 - the "gear" channel) and the blade piutch on the throttle stick so I could flick the switch to start the blades rotating at full speed and then lift off by using the throttle stick to add collective but, as I say, there's no major benefit in doing this - you might as well just have the throttle control the two things unless you want to try some negative pitch manoeuvres (but I actually find this is better in FMS if you want to try loops/rolls/inverted in a heli)

Cliff

[Robbie d]

the jsim usb just acts like a joystick, you have to treat it as such. I'm using a JR 3810 on mine. channels 1 and 2 and 6 and 7 were the main controls R,E,A,T

[Skua]

I've just started using FMS. My only major wish is that the models were more fragile. It's too easy to make a landing in a nose-down or wing-down attitude and get away with it. But in terms of basic maneuvering practice, I think FMS is excellent. The PAR files are easy to edit, so I can make the models perform very much like the real ones fly at the field.

If there IS a way to make the models in FMS less crash-resistant, could someone let me know, please?

Thanks,

Skua

[Xoltri]

Originally posted by dave_lilley
I feel the best sim (helicopters, sailplanes, and powered planes), is Aeroflight Pro, especially now that you can design craft and import other people's creations, just like FMS.


Aerofly pro is cool because the damage model is more realistic than any of the others, and it has cool features, but I still like realflight G2 the best.

[Matthew Allen]

I only discovered the time thing in Preflight today and now someone's explained after all my fiddling:rolleyes:

I use an Ikarus game commander which is a joystick shaped like a tx. One problem is that I can't seem to set it up for inverted heli flight - as far as I can tell it won't detect the button on the tx.

Why are the planes on PF so unrealistic when the helis are so good?:confused:

If I am competent at heli flying in PF does that mean I could fly the real thing?;)

Matthew

[Robbie d]

i am withdrawing my support for pre-flight. The older version was great but the new mutli-player version stinks!!!!!!. my usb interface uses channels 1,2,6,7 for elevator, rudder, aileron and throttle, but the new version only lets you use channels 0-3 unless you buy the whole version.
Not Happy.

[William_Sidney]

Preflight Version 2 only supports a single 2 axis joystick, even when you purchase the "Official CD"

"AirShow" has support for up to 8 channels of joystick with full multiplayer support.