Cleveland Model Helicopter Club Learning To Fly Page

Simulators

Flight Simulators

We encourage all beginners to get a computer simulator wherever possible. They are used as a great tool to improve your hand-eye co-ordination and help you keep your hand in, between flying, practicing the things you learn at the field. You can learn everything from basic tail-in hovering to extreme 3D on the simulator and it goes without saying that it's cheaper to crash on the simulator than at the flying field. The simulator is used to teach yourself the basic flight characteristics and stick movements needed for a manoeuvre. This can then be transferred to the model and perfected much quicker than by using the model alone. There are a huge variety of computer flight simulators. Listed below, not in any particular order, are the most popular available on the market today:

Phoenix RC Flight Simulator
A brand new simulator that flies accurately has a good selection of models is very easy to set-up and is reasonably priced.

Approved and developed by former British Champions, industry professionals and 3D master flyers. Stable, powerful and accurate custom-built dynamics engine. Advanced graphics capabilities with special effects. Over 50 beautifully modelled and realistic aircraft, including autogyros, tilt-rotors and sea-planes. 10 unique 360°x180° photographic panoramic sceneries - no lost coverage or fake areas. Realistic fully interactive panoramic water environments with splashes, wakes and spray. Intuitive, easy-to-use yet in-depth graphical interface. Incredibly powerful flight recording and playback tools with flight "shuttling" for instant motion. Exciting Night Flying mode with realistic glow-schemes and dedicated aircraft. Detailed professional customisation system with revolutionary in-flight tuning system. Advanced training modes for helicopters and fixed wing aircraft. Unique competition modes make improving your skills fun and exciting. Support for up to four people flying simultaneously via split-screen. Custom Plug and Play USB interface included.
Expect to pay around £79.99.

Reflex XTR
One of the newest and most advanced R/C flight simulator. You can download very realistic helicopters and also insert your own photographic panorama backgrounds into the simulator. You'll need a powerful PC and graphics card combination to get the best out of this simulator.
Expect to pay around £119.99 for USB.

You can find a great Raptor 90 model at RChelicopterweb designed by John Vugts & Vincent Charbonneau.
Nightflying scenery and a nightflying heli can be found at Thomas Hanser's website.

There are also a few models below that can be downloaded. The files are zipped and will require unzipping and adding to the C:\Program Files\REFLEX\Heli directory on your PC.

Tru-Flite 3D
Although the graphics are pretty basic, the flying qualities of the helicopters are excellent. This is one of the most common simulators used by members of Cleveland Model Helicopter Club although it is now slowly being overtaken in popularity by the newer Reflex XTR simulator which is described below.
Expect to pay around £69.99 for the serial version and £79.99 for the USB version.

RealFlight R/C Simulator G2
This simulator has much better graphics ability than Tru-Flite 3D but the flying qualities are less realistic.
Expect to pay around £149.99 for the USB G2 version with transmitter and £99.99 for the G2 Lite version.

Aeroflight Pro Delux USB

USB RC flight simulator. Superbly detailed photorealistic sceneries with new impeccable physics and flight engine. Features 2-pilot option, competitions, indoor sports hall, over 50 models including Ikarus Shock Flyers. The result of five years of intensive programming work. The most remarkable plug and play professional simulator to date.
Expect to pay around £119.99

Ripmax RC Simulator

Ikarus Aerofly Professional
Expect to pay around £89.99 or £119.99 including a game commander transmitter.

Piccofly
This simulator is designed for indoor Piccolo flying and as such the simulator background contains chairs and tables and other items found around the house.
Expect to pay around £79.99 including the transmitter.

EasyFly
Expect to pay around £49.99.

CSM R/C Flight Simulator
Expect to pay around £69.99 for the V10 version and £49.99 for the V9 version.

FMS 2 Beta 7.0

A freeware simulator that you can download from the internet. It's a very basic simulator and you will need to make up or purchase an RS232 transmitter lead or use a suitable joystick if you don't want to use the keyboard. There are hundreds of different aircraft and helicopters you can download from the web too. Click this link to visit the FMS website. For around £29.99 you can now purchase a USB transmitter style controller with this simulator included which is ideal to get you started out in the hobby.

ClearView RC Flight Simulator 2.0

ClearView can be downloaded from the internet at www.rcflightsim.com. The program downloaded is fully functional except that the flight time is limited to 60 minutes initially. After you verify that the program is working well on your computer, you can activate your copy by online purchase. You will receive e-mail with customer login id. After logging in, you will receive instant activation code. All registered users get free ClearView RC updates posted on this website. Windows 2000 and XP supported. Video card with OpenGL support required. You can import scenery from the Reflex XTR simulator or you can also use your own 360x180 field panoramas. OpenAL is a cross-platform 3D audio API that is used by ClearView. You must install Creative Labs OpenAL before installing ClearView.
It costs $30 to unlock the simulator to run on your PC.