A working flight simulator, no computers necessary [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJAYZgOZS08

by sohkamyung • 4 years ago

196 45 4 years ago

daly• 4 years ago

I gave my friend an hour in the link trainer for his retirement. He tried to take off, enter the approach, and land. 45 minutes later he failed. When he stepped out of the trainer he had sweat so much he looked like he took a shower.

I got a turn after him. Just a simple task, take off, enter the approach, and "follow the needles" back to the runway. I managed to get it down on the grass parallel to the runway. I also looked like I had taken a shower.

The wild part is that (a) it feels REAL and (b) they added weather while I was flying.

I want one of these at home.

pengaru• 4 years ago

Does the blue box have any ventilation? The video makes it look like a hot box.

capableweb2• 4 years ago

How do you "follow the needles" when the machine has no screens and I guess all you have is communication is with a person outside the machine who tells you where you are? Normally, you'd have a visual on the runway when you land, so I can understand its much more difficult when you're sitting in a dark box with someone just instructing you what to do. Flying by instrument is really really hard, especially if you have zero training.

they added weather while I was flying

This I don't understand, like they spray water on you when you're in the cockpit or how was this implemented?

monkeywork• 4 years ago

Adding weather is likely extra wind and reduced "visual" to the ground

deelowe• 4 years ago

Tom said all of the gauges are non-functional. That would seem impossible. Not sure what the point is without them except as a mechanical curiosity.

NovemberWhiskey3• 4 years ago

Yes, it's sadly quite pointless without.

lambda• 4 years ago

There's more than one surviving Link Trainer in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_Trainer#Surviving_trainer...

The gauges on that particular one have been removed; on others, they may have been replaced, or the radioactive paint stripped off, or the dose deemed low enough to not be worth worrying about.

drewzero1• 4 years ago

At another point, one of the others mentioned that the original gauges had to be removed because of radium in the dials. It's a bit sad they couldn't have been replaced with non-radioactive replicas.

bergenty3• 4 years ago

The sweat is because it’s an enclosed box with no ventilation right? Why else would you be sweating, you’re not physically strained too much in it.

chiph• 4 years ago

Nerves & stress.

I had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours in a full-motion T-38[0] trainer while in the Air Force (a roommate was there TDY making some repairs and needed a hand testing them). The motion makes you feel like you're really in a plane. I made three approaches - the most "successful" of them had me run off the runway into the grass and slide sideways to a stop (landing a jet is no joke). While the Link Trainer is obviously primitive compared to the one I was in, the sensations are just as real, as is the stress of trying your hardest not to crash.

While I will give the Navy grief over nearly everything :) I have the utmost respect for carrier pilots.

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6Hs4ll93Ms

2143• 4 years ago

I've sweated in a cold AC room.

Btw, sweating when it's cold somehow feels much worse.

graton• 4 years ago

Your comment made me think of this story: https://interestingengineering.com/a-pensioner-accidentally-...

A 64-year-old French pensioner was recently peer pressured into flying in a fighter jet to celebrate his retirement. The man was so nervous he reached out during the flight and accidentally ejected himself mid-flight, a report from IFL Science reveals. ...

eurasiantiger• 4 years ago

An analog computer is still a computer :)

kwhitefoot• 4 years ago

Not in the modern sense of a programmable device that can straightforwardly solve logic problems.

TylerE• 4 years ago

Is this really that different from a niche ASIC board or something?

EvanAnderson• 4 years ago

All computers compute but not all computers are general purpose.

bgribble• 4 years ago

As a schoolkid in 1970's Lubbock, TX we got to visit Reese AFB where they did jet training on the T37 and T38. The simulator room had a set of enormous landscape dioramas, my recollection is that they were something like 20 feet by 20 feet. The simulator would "fly" a camera over the diorama. There was a cockpit on hydraulic actuators. I don't remember what the display looked like (or even if I got to see it), but I do remember those huge dioramas and thinking how funny it would be if you "crashed" into a spiderweb on the simulator :)

KineticLensman• 4 years ago

The Lunar Module simulator used by Apollo astronauts used a similar technique.

CmdrKrool• 4 years ago

Thread of pilots reminiscing about these simulators including common japes of putting spiders or kids' toys on the landscape. Don't miss post #4 for a cool video:

https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/499352-military-fli...

sithadmin• 4 years ago

My father used to work at Link (Singer at the time, technically) and later CAE-Link. His office had a 'Blue Box' trainer in the lobby. It was supposed to be a museum piece, but his management was known to look the other way when employees brought their kids in after hours or on the weekend to sit in the trainer. Kid 'ride alongs' in the motion base simulators on site weren't officially condoned, but happened a lot too.

Didn't realize how lucky I was to have such experiences until much later in life.

griffinkelly• 4 years ago

There's one of these in Cleveland at the Air & Space Museum

marcodiego• 4 years ago

Why it spins continually?

Animats• 4 years ago

Because the pilot is in a graveyard spiral but feels he is going straight. With no instruments and no outside visibility, that's what happens.[1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graveyard_spiral

jacobkg• 4 years ago

I couldn’t tell from the video, what do you see inside the link? Just the gauges? Is the idea to simulate flying in total darkness or cloud cover?

NovemberWhiskey3• 4 years ago

When it was working, it apparently had your typical six-pack of steam gauges.

The one that the Youtuber was looking at had all the gauges removed because they had radium paint; honestly, without the gauges it's really only a good demonstrator of how it's completely futile to try to fly a plane without visual cues or instruments due to somatogyral and somatogravic illusions of the vestibular system.

anitil3• 4 years ago

Silly question, but is radium paint that bad? Like you wouldn't want to eat it obviously, or wear it on your arm your whole life, but would occasional exposure be an issue compared to other sources?

I could only find this [0], but I'm not sure how to find information about radium paint.

[0] https://www.nrc.gov/about-nrc/radiation/around-us/doses-dail...

skybrian• 4 years ago

Yes, this kind of training is for flying by instrument, which is quite hard. That's why they needed simulators.

When I was taking flying lessons, for one session the instructor had me wear a visor so I could only see the instrument panel for a while, and then try holding a course. I believe it's mostly just to demonstrate that you shouldn't try it until you're trained for it.

nodesocket• 4 years ago

I've been playing a lot of flight simulator 2020 lately. Besides it looking absolutely amazing with photo realistic terrain, scenery, and water it is very detailed and accurate.

So much so, that I would feel comfortable if in a pinch, attempting landing a handful of the planes I have been flying in FS. Full disclosure, I also do have around 4 hours logged with an instructor as well so it's not like I have zero real-life flight experience.

eddyschai• 4 years ago

I have my first hour booked Thursday lunch (I took a few hours lessons in school as part of the Air Cadets but lost the log book). I've also started playing Flight Simulator. All I've managed to do there is wreck a few F-18s :( What planes are you flying? Something more realistic to your lessons?

sokoloff2• 4 years ago

For FAA pilots, I can heartily recommend ATOP for an airline 2-day intro, including sim time.

I did the 737 course when it was at United and it was some of the best fun/interest per dollar and hour.

http://www.atopjets.com/ (no affiliation other than long-ago satisfied customer)

anamexis• 4 years ago

Oh wow, this looks amazing. Do you need to be a licensed pilot to participate?

sokoloff2• 4 years ago

Unfortunately, yes.

The ATOP offers any FAA certificated U.S. pilot with an interest in the airlines...

I can also recommend that, but it’s admittedly not something to just do on a whim some weekend sometime… :)

lsh123• 4 years ago

Just to clarify, this is an instrument flight training device, not a primary trainer. The benefit of moving the trainer as pilot moves controls is to recreate similar illusions to the ones found when flying in instrument conditions and teach the pilot to rely on instruments instead of the pilot’s senses.

bergenty3• 4 years ago

Didn’t Tom say the instruments are non functional. I’m confused, how is this useful at all besides spinning around.

stetrain• 4 years ago

They used to be functional when it was actually used as a trainer.

Kozmik1• 4 years ago

My small town carnival in Wachapreague, Virginia, had a ride in the 1980s called (most likely from research and my fading memory) the Fly-o-Plane in which you climbed inside a similar metal can on arms and rotate around an axis while having the ability to tilt the 'wings' to mostly change the roll of the plane. If you were pretty aggressive you could fly basically upside down the whole ride. I LOVED it! There were certainly quite a few of the planes that ended up dripping vomit. I was quite sad to visit that fairground this year with my kids to see the planes no longer exist.

Here is a video of a similar ride in Georgia. Is it still there? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWZwda9_8pc&ab_channel=rtrav...

Atlas Obscura talks about several of these type rides over the years in amusement parks: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/classic-carnival-rides...

simne• 4 years ago

I'm sad, nobody still made replica replacements for instruments. I think this is very possible task, even not hard with current tech.

A working flight simulator, no computers necessary [video]

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