Scale Ops

whackflyer

Master member
I think it would be cool for FT to find a flying club or somewhere that has a decent length asphalt runway, get some civilian aircraft of similar scale. Out of foam board, build a control tower, fuel depot etc scaled similarly to the planes. Have someone be ATC, and do ATC communications etc as realistically as possible. If they wanted to pull out all the stops they could put a pan and tilt FPV camera in the control tower and have the ATC man look thru that. Planes pull up to the fuel depot to change batteries etc.

Just my suggestion!
 

evranch

Well-known member
I've always thought this would be fun to do with some guys. Josh has his private pilot's license, so he could put on a quick ground school for everyone to learn some basic radio work, then he could yell at everyone as ATC and try to space out the traffic. Somewhat modified since nobody has a compass or altimeter or airspeed indicator. Climb to 20' and turn 20 degrees to the left. Maintain current heading. It would be a real challenge for the pilots, actually.

The planes would have to be real scale flyers or even slower, otherwise it will just be a big pileup. I'd say slower since any traffic pattern flown LOS is going to be a lot smaller in scale terms. FPV planes over Edgewater, of course, could fly a totally scale pattern.

Unfortunately the camera in the tower wouldn't work very well, not enough resolution to spot little planes in the air at any distance. Just consider the better view that ATC has to be the equivalent of having radar available.
 

clolsonus

Well-known member
You guys should check out FlightGear. Free, open-source flight simulator. All the realism, none of the FAA. :)
 

evranch

Well-known member
I've been a Flightgear pilot for years! It's a pretty great simulator that doesn't require a super-hot PC. I like FlightGear's C172 more than the XPlane 11 one - I never learned to fly with all that glass cockpit stuff.

I did recently switch to XPlane because it can be linked to the VATSIM network - where you can fly with other pilots and real ATC online. VATSIM is super cool and it's all volunteer run for free. Anyone who has an interest in general aviation should check it out, but know that you have to do tests, checkrides and get certified to fly! There's no goofing around allowed, it's considered a full simulation environment where the goal is to improve your real piloting skills.

I'm almost certified for VFR there but I can't set aside any specific block of time during lambing to fly. So I'm hanging out on forums and getting in the occasional RC/FPV flight when I can.

I started my PPL many years ago but life got between me and my license, so RC and simulation are my aviation outlets for now. Was hoping to get back in the air this year, but our flight instructor left at the local airport... (n)