Sycamore Flight Simulator- One step forward ……
For some time the Link Team have been working on creating a realistic helicopter flight simulator. The eventual aim is to work this directly from the controls of the cutaway Sycamore. The initial problem however is to get the controls synchronized to the flight simulator software.
Today we have achieved that first step. We were able to fly the helicopter using cyclic controls, rudder controls, collective control and throttle all at once. Currently, all of these controls are hand operated from a makeshift rig mounted on a wooden base, so that means that the pilot has to operate three different controls at the same time, all with their hands. I was nine flights in before I managed to not crash the simulator within the first two minutes.
The next stage is to connect the actuators to more realistic controls and get that working. Then we can start to connect the actuators to the controls in the Sycamore….
Well done ‘boys’.