homepage Forums Technology Flight Sim Pit Builders Here's a pit idea

An acquaintance of mine has a cool offering on Kickstarter. It's a motion simulator for flight.

Cloud Flyer



Cheers,

Flying Colander

Interesting stuff. If you google around, you'll see Doc first built one of these http://www.acesim.com/main.html then started making his own improved version out of metal. I built one years ago but have since abandoned it -- the PVC version was too creaky and a bit scary. I didn't realize he was still around doing this!

Doc keeps banging away and pushing the envelope. This is third or fourth generation now and ready for prime time, I think.

http://3dflymotion.ru/fly-motion/ http://kb-tk.ru/production/fly-motion.html

Yes, you are right Flyguy; I had a Joyrider made from aluminium profiles. Hard te get in, but what a feeling! It was a great machine, to bad the mrs did'nt want the thing inside so I sold it. Think they made a second version called dream flyer.

Baur
Now that looks like it could be some serious fun. Mind, so does the cloudflyer.

I enjoyed this amusement. Nothing to do with flying. Toy dare to 30 minutes.

I wouldn't recommend this for anything other than an arcade toy. It's a nice design, but it's like the physical manifestation of World of Planes on "easy" mode.

g.

Gene Buckle absolutely true!

if i knew how to weld, and if i had the space, i would make this..

I was about to say, isn't the "motion" of the sim driven physically by stick input, versus simulation controlled motors?

Yeah, the "simulator" motion is directly due to stick motion. The only way to do it right is to build actuators that are controlled by the simulator software, not by stick input. http://www.builtforfun.co.uk has some _excellent_ DIY actuator designs to try. He also sells plans for force feedback controls, a very clever "rumble" system and the electronics & software to drive it all.

g.

The Fly Motion machine costs nearly a million rubles and weighs 350kgs. That's 21,000 euros; 28,000 US$ and so forth plus shipping.

The Cloud Flyer is 1,700 Canadian. 1,100 euros or 1,500 US$ and you get nearly the same number of axes of motion.

The elegant conceit of the Cloud Flyer is unbalancing the inner ear in coordination with the on screen movement. Just a minor tilt or roll and the disequalibrium lends a terrific illusion of flight. No motors, no ac and no noise.

Flying_Colander, if you get the opportunity to experience an actuator-driven motion base, take it. You'll instantly understand what I'm talking about. The Cloud Flyer is a very nice product, but it can't approach the onset-cues that an actuator system can provide.

Now that I've firmly entrenched myself in the "snooty simulator snob" category, I'm going to go lay down for a while

g.

Joyrider + RIFT would likely be sufficiently immersive for me... and actually within the realm of affordability! Now I just need the kids to move out so I can take over a bedroom

Set up a tent in the back yard and tell them they need some "outdoor living experience". Problem solved!

(Alternately, sell them for science experiments and put the proceeds toward a new sim rig!)

g.

Now I understand how you're able to afford to make that collimated thinga-ma-whose-it and 3D printer!
So obvious, why didn't I think of these options before?!?

I'll take ten dome tents please!

Yeah, I have to agree with Gene and Baur.
While they are a neat arcade novelty, the problem with either a stick controlled or motor controlled JoyRider design is that the motion cues are exactly opposite of what they should be. (Beside the obvious problem of being held in the tilted position, instead of just onset cueing.)

Sure, you feel your body moving around, but the open design and always leaning in the same direction as the screen actually betrays the true motion cues you should be feeling and makes the experience seem less real.

A few examples.....

If you go into a steep dive, in a JoyRider, you tilt forward and feel yourself coming out of the seat, right?
But if you have ever been on a roller coaster, what happens when you start screaming down the hill?
You feel yourself pinned to the seat because of velocity. A motion platform would have to tilt back, to give you the same sensation, not forward.

If you bank right, in a JoyRider, you feel yourself leaning right. Now imagine yourself in a car. You make a sharp right turn. Where does your body go? It gets pushed to the left, not to the right. So the motion platform should dip left.

Or, if you bank and you are coordinating your turn perfectly and keeping the ball dead center, you would feel no cues left or right, yet the JoyRider would have you leaning the whole time.

They're neat. They're fun for a party, or for the grandkids to play in.
But they are the antithesis of what a good motion platform should be.

Gah.... You're right, Grizzly. Thanks for those examples. I hadn't thought about the G-forces vs. aircraft position.