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Model Flight SimulatorsIt's often quite hard to get enough 'stick time' when you're learning to fly models, especially in the winter. So how about using a simulator on your PC? There are plenty of commercial ones available, offering different levels of realism. None of them is quite like the real thing, of course, but they can be quite helpful in certain areas. One simulator that I found quite useful, and also appealed to my pocket, is FMS. FMS is freeware. That's right, it doesn't cost a bean except for the time online needed to download it. FMS offers different aircraft, including helicopters and gliders, and also different landscapes. It can be controlled via your keyboard (not recommended), a computer joystick (OK), or, via a home-built interface, from your transmitter. I found that the ground handling was not at all realistic, but once airborne it's not bad at all. It shares the problem that all simulators have in that it's very hard to set up a landing approach, as you don't have the wide angle of view that you have in real life. Where it can prove very useful is helping you get to grips with orientation and 'wrong sticking' and, of course, crashing a simulation is not nearly as painful as crashing the real thing. Why not give it a try? You can download it from: http://n.ethz.ch/student/mmoeller/fms/index_e.html ... and here's a screen shot of a model ready for take-off.
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