Find your way into flight simulator cockpit construction
6.14 Complementary simulation
However good the functionality of the Microsoft Flight Simulator, on various areas in your flight simulator cockpit you will at some stage want to add additional simulation functionality.
A very advanced supplier of complementary simulation is Project Magenta. They offer a product family mainly focused on Boeing and Airbus. This is a site "jet builders" have to visit. Of special interest is the product pmSystems that allows users to define (simulate) aircraft systems on top of the Microsoft Flight Simulator using FSUIPC. By means of WideFS pmSystems can be used on a client PC. For area's defined by the user where the Microsoft Flight Simulator does not provide enough advanced simulation pmSystems takes over. The pmSystems software has a point and click interface and can be connected to custom flight simulator cockpit hardware.
An other example for the A320 is HCSDT (HCSDT). Basically they simulate on top of the Flight Simulator whole flight systems of the specific aircrafts (both systems will be discussed in more detail).
All parts of an aircraft are exposed to malfunction, either because of (material)
failure or because of being exposed beyond their operating limits. For this group
of simulation effects special software is available that can be used on top of the
Microsoft Flight Simulator. Using these types of add-
Depending on your ambitions and aircraft type you still will end up with the need to model additional complementary simulation yourself. Examples are:
- When the aircraft is (too) heavy, breaks will get hot fast. This will eventually result in malfunctioning (like fire or blocking).
- In some aircrafts the engines can only be turned off after they reach a certain temperature.
- When moving the needle of an analogue gauge, the needle movement is also influenced by the mechanics of the gauge.
- Some procedures only work if they are performed in the correct order and with the correct timing (e.g. starting an old piston engine).
So finally in a more advanced flight simulator cockpit setup there is the need for a "complementary simulation manager" as shown in the figure below.
Figure: Complementary simulation
In total 5 basic mechanisms for complementary simulation can be distinguished (see figure above):
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1.
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Generating additional data to be used in the cockpit based on data from the Microsoft Flight Simulator and custom made calculations.
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2.
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Calculating data for the Microsoft Flight Simulator based on data from the cockpit and custom made calculations.
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3.
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Generating additional data to be used in the cockpit based on data from cockpit and custom made calculations.
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4.
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Calculating data for the Microsoft Flight Simulator based on data from the Microsoft Flight Simulator and custom made calculations.
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5. |
When more than a hand- |
