Mercy! Mercy! That Dang Nabed PERCY!

A Motion Emulator

A Motion Emulator

I have been waiting for some time for someone to develop and market an RC Airplane Motion Emulator.

I use the term “Emulator” because I am not looking to acquire a “Simulator.” The difference is that a simulator is virtual reality while the emulator I envision is real world. Let me explain.

At the present time an RC Airplane student stands on the side of the club field and under the best of circumstances has an experienced RC flyer as instructor pilot on the buddy cord. The buddy cord allows the instructor to take control of the model if the student gets into trouble. The problem with this is that because the models are small it is easy for the student to lose orientation and possible control of the airplane.

What I would like to see is a piece of equipment that the student could sit in that emulates the orientation and direction that the airplane is flying in. In an enhanced version there would be a camera in the airplane with a feed to a screen in the cockpit of the emulator. Keep in mind this is not simulation! There is a real model airplane flying overhead that is being controlled by a student/instructor pilot on the ground.

Anyway the idea is that this emulator would sit in the back of a pick-up truck. When it came time to take off the truck would accelerate to emulate the centrifugal force of an accelerating airplane. This would not require a long drag-strip because RC airplanes usually get airborne in less than 5 seconds.

Meanwhile, inside the emulator, the student and instructor would watch the model airplane taxi and gain airspeed. When transitional lift was achieve the student would give a little up elevator by pulling down slightly on the right hand stick and the airplane would become airborne. Now his part of the process is well known and has been along forever, however visualize that as the nose of the model comes up, so does the emulator. As the servo in the airplane moves the elevator, a servo from the same transmitter activates a linear actuator in the emulator to rase the pitch of the cockpit in the bed of the pick-up. Further, that when the student moves the aileron stick to the right the same signal is transmitted to a slave servo and the emulator banks to the right. I think you get the idea. The emulator, emulates the motion of the model airplane and the student feels the same effect on his body that would be experienced inside a full-scale airplane. This is much different than standing as an observer watching from the edge of the field.

This brings us to an innovation in the Hobby called First Person View (FPV). Already the technology exists to put a camera in the cockpit and have the real time image downloaded onto a video screen. Thus the student could learn to fly the model in the traditional mode by watching its effects (while fully oriented) but also see the vista as an actual pilot would.

A possible enhancement would be a compass in the aircraft linked to the emulator that would keep both pointed in exactly the same direction. As much as I am reading on the internet about the technology coming on line to do this sort of thing I am not seeing an affordable motion emulator being developed, which I am sure is something that every RC model flying club in the country would salivate to have.