Simulation Workshop

Brad · February 08, 2008, 03:45:10 AM

Hey peoples. It's still in the planning phase right now, but Tuesday night my Wing DAE (SCWG) dropped by and told me that the simulation workshop I'm trying to get going with my Squadron has actually led to us being designated as a host squadron for the event. She also gave me some ideas on how to expand it. One thing that was suggested would be to have a competition of sorts.

The sim package I'm looking to use is the one that Abacus is selling that is a CAP-dedicated addon for FS2004. So I figure we could have trophies or something for "Quickest Find", etc. My SQ/CC is in the process of acquiring a yoke-throttle and rudder system for one of the setups, plus we could simply use joysticks for the other setups, maybe make the cadets work their way up to using the yoke setup on the big screen projector for the finals or whatnot. (Donations/loans of joysticks would be appreciated, although DAE said it should be no problem to get what we need.)

I'm also in correspondence with fellow VATSIM members, trying to see if we can coordinate live controllers for this event to up the realism.

Anyways, just tossing this out there to pass along ideas for my fellow AEOs out there. Also if there's anyone in SCWG on here who would like to get with me on this, please don't hesitate to get in touch!

Edit: I'm also stoked because this counts under my AEX goal since it covers AE and ES, plus even DDR if, as the DAE suggested, use the beer goggles and have the cadets fly their approaches wearing those, haha.

mynetdude · February 08, 2008, 04:15:21 AM

Quote from: Brad on February 08, 2008, 03:45:10 AM
Hey peoples. It's still in the planning phase right now, but Tuesday night my Wing DAE (SCWG) dropped by and told me that the simulation workshop I'm trying to get going with my Squadron has actually led to us being designated as a host squadron for the event. She also gave me some ideas on how to expand it. One thing that was suggested would be to have a competition of sorts.

The sim package I'm looking to use is the one that Abacus is selling that is a CAP-dedicated addon for FS2004. So I figure we could have trophies or something for "Quickest Find", etc. My SQ/CC is in the process of acquiring a yoke-throttle and rudder system for one of the setups, plus we could simply use joysticks for the other setups, maybe make the cadets work their way up to using the yoke setup on the big screen projector for the finals or whatnot. (Donations/loans of joysticks would be appreciated, although DAE said it should be no problem to get what we need.)

I'm also in correspondence with fellow VATSIM members, trying to see if we can coordinate live controllers for this event to up the realism.

Anyways, just tossing this out there to pass along ideas for my fellow AEOs out there. Also if there's anyone in SCWG on here who would like to get with me on this, please don't hesitate to get in touch!

*drools* OMG... I had a dream that something like this was happening! My squadron just aquired a donated flight yoke from one of our members. I would so be there if I could, this very same member was going to donate the same Abacus CAP software to us but we don't have 2004, we only have 2002

I'm not all for finding the ELT or downed plane, I'm all for FLYING! haha!

DC · February 27, 2008, 05:08:01 PM

That's really cool. Every once in a while we do fly-offs here at my squadron, basically we just hook a computer with FS04 with a yoke and pedal rig, then the cadets have to take off, fly a proper left-handed pattern, and land safely. We grade the cadets on proper form and actually landing, on the runway, plane intact... It's lots of fun and gives the cadet that wins something to brag about...

We also do combat flight-sims for fun occasionally. We link 2 or 3 computers together and have dogfights...

mynetdude · February 28, 2008, 05:07:43 AM

Quote from: DC on February 27, 2008, 05:08:01 PM
That's really cool. Every once in a while we do fly-offs here at my squadron, basically we just hook a computer with FS04 with a yoke and pedal rig, then the cadets have to take off, fly a proper left-handed pattern, and land safely. We grade the cadets on proper form and actually landing, on the runway, plane intact... It's lots of fun and gives the cadet that wins something to brag about...

We also do combat flight-sims for fun occasionally. We link 2 or 3 computers together and have dogfights...

If we had any computers that were powerful to do such, I'd be doing that in the spring/summer months.

Brad · February 29, 2008, 02:45:24 AM

Well, called Microsoft with regards to licensing. Slightly confused about the group licensing process as it relates to their games (surprised? I mean this IS Microsoft, heh) but I'll figure it out eventually. That or I could just run the op "under the MS radar" using some tricks I know...

Anyways....so my Squadron finally got our projector, yay! Waiting on a yoke, throttle, and rudder setup as well. I also found a non-VATSIM ATC system which I'll try to use to train the Cadets to get used to working with ATC. Eh, most flights would be VFR inside Tower airspace, maybe drifting into Approach, and I'll be getting my Approach training started with VATSIM soon enough so I can work that pretty soon. Yay! Then I can do flight following and all that other cool stuff.

I'm pumped.

DC · April 11, 2008, 03:21:50 PM

Quote from: mynetdude on February 28, 2008, 05:07:43 AM
Quote from: DC on February 27, 2008, 05:08:01 PM
That's really cool. Every once in a while we do fly-offs here at my squadron, basically we just hook a computer with FS04 with a yoke and pedal rig, then the cadets have to take off, fly a proper left-handed pattern, and land safely. We grade the cadets on proper form and actually landing, on the runway, plane intact... It's lots of fun and gives the cadet that wins something to brag about...

We also do combat flight-sims for fun occasionally. We link 2 or 3 computers together and have dogfights...

If we had any computers that were powerful to do such, I'd be doing that in the spring/summer months.

We scrounged a bunch of old computers and made it work. (Flight Sim is like the only program on there...). If you hunt around when businesses are upgrading you can often get what they are throwing away for free.

Brad · April 11, 2008, 07:48:25 PM

Well Wing can get us the laptops issued out to our Squadron. The problem's the software. Wal-Mart doesn't have FS2004 on the shelf anymore. It's also out of stock online. Could just go under the radar and use no-CD cracks if I have to.

DC · April 12, 2008, 05:44:02 PM

Check game stores. Also ask the people in your squadron, I'm sure someone has a copy.

And for a no-disk crack don't you usually have to download the program onto the computer first (off the disk)?

Brad · April 15, 2008, 01:02:58 AM

PM sent with explaination.

We have a copy of 2002 in the Squadron, plus one cadet has FSX, but we're not using FSX.

MikeD · April 18, 2008, 06:35:45 AM

Who here is familier with Flight Gear (www.flightgear.org)? It's free, and the source code is freely available? Is there a mod for CAP tasks yet?

IF not, the source code is avilable....

Capt Rivera · June 26, 2008, 02:59:05 AM

Quote from: MikeD on April 18, 2008, 06:35:45 AM
Who here is familier with Flight Gear (www.flightgear.org)? It's free, and the source code is freely available? Is there a mod for CAP tasks yet?

IF not, the source code is avilable....

Familiar... yes.... I think FlightGear and other Free & Open source software would be beneficial to CAP's use. Yes theres a slight learning curve to using OpenOffice vs MS Office etc, but it is well worth the money saved in my opinion.