T E A M
Leo's R/C Flight Simulator. Another Free R/C simulator to try
While browsing a PDA freeware site, I stumbled across a flight simulator program for PDAs. "So what has that got to do with our R/C hobby?", you may be asking. Well, I followed the link to the author's webpage:
Look at the first link on the top-left of the page(Leo's RC Simulator). The author has also produced an R/C flight simulator for the PC! It's free to download, and I've tried it out.
The PC used to try this simulator: AMD Athlon 1.97GHz, 512Mb RAM, MS Win-XP. Radeon 9600 128Mb graphics card. (pretty old stuff :>)
My impressions? It uses a photo-realistic panoramic backdrop for scenery, the default collection of models provided is quite generous, and, it works! Of course, please don't expect Reflex-XTR standards. The background scenery is realistic, but on my PC, the background scrolling is slightly jerky, but still workable. The models do respond to controls quite realistically, but may experience a slight lag in response, though again, still workable. The models appear to fly somewhat faster than, for example, FMS models. I would say if you've been practising on FMS, this sim can further hone your response time since the models fly a little faster. There is also an attempt to provide realistic model collision detection against surrounding objects, so you will see your model bounce off scenery objects and the ground quite a bit. You can even import FMS and Aerofly models to use in this sim. I've only tried one FMS model import, but I can't vouch for Aerofly models as I don't have that.
I connected my Tx to the PC using the SmartPropoPlus general interface driver and PPjoy. You can get this via the FMS website, or directly from:
Just follow the instructions at this website to install PPjoy, the general driver, and set it up. This will actually turn your Tx into a generic PC joystick which could be used with other programs that accept joystick input. The Tx-to-PC cable is the same as that used with FMS, of which you'll also find cable schematics at the SmartPropoPlus website if you want to make your own cable.
To use the general SmartPropoPlus driver with this simulator, you'll need to start SmartPropoPlus first, then launch this simulator.
Overall, I will say that this sim is a workable program. It's not perfect, but then again, remember that it's free, so adjust your expectations accordingly. If you're tired of FMS and don't want to invest big bucks on a commercial R/C flight sim program, you may want to try this one out.
Hat's off to Leo Bueno Castillo for this valiant programming effort. Hope he'll continue to improve on it!
OK, FYI. Enjoy!
Pete
Look at the first link on the top-left of the page(Leo's RC Simulator). The author has also produced an R/C flight simulator for the PC! It's free to download, and I've tried it out.
The PC used to try this simulator: AMD Athlon 1.97GHz, 512Mb RAM, MS Win-XP. Radeon 9600 128Mb graphics card. (pretty old stuff :>)
My impressions? It uses a photo-realistic panoramic backdrop for scenery, the default collection of models provided is quite generous, and, it works! Of course, please don't expect Reflex-XTR standards. The background scenery is realistic, but on my PC, the background scrolling is slightly jerky, but still workable. The models do respond to controls quite realistically, but may experience a slight lag in response, though again, still workable. The models appear to fly somewhat faster than, for example, FMS models. I would say if you've been practising on FMS, this sim can further hone your response time since the models fly a little faster. There is also an attempt to provide realistic model collision detection against surrounding objects, so you will see your model bounce off scenery objects and the ground quite a bit. You can even import FMS and Aerofly models to use in this sim. I've only tried one FMS model import, but I can't vouch for Aerofly models as I don't have that.
I connected my Tx to the PC using the SmartPropoPlus general interface driver and PPjoy. You can get this via the FMS website, or directly from:
Just follow the instructions at this website to install PPjoy, the general driver, and set it up. This will actually turn your Tx into a generic PC joystick which could be used with other programs that accept joystick input. The Tx-to-PC cable is the same as that used with FMS, of which you'll also find cable schematics at the SmartPropoPlus website if you want to make your own cable.
To use the general SmartPropoPlus driver with this simulator, you'll need to start SmartPropoPlus first, then launch this simulator.
Overall, I will say that this sim is a workable program. It's not perfect, but then again, remember that it's free, so adjust your expectations accordingly. If you're tired of FMS and don't want to invest big bucks on a commercial R/C flight sim program, you may want to try this one out.
Hat's off to Leo Bueno Castillo for this valiant programming effort. Hope he'll continue to improve on it!
OK, FYI. Enjoy!
Pete