Adam,
Great to hear your aerobatics story to date. I did all my aerobatic flying in a Decathlon which was great to fly but not so much to land (I just needed a few more hours to get more comfortable with the tailwheel). I would love to go up sometime in a plane like a Pitts, Sukhoi, Extra, …. to find out what advanced aerobatics feels and looks like. My body may protest but that would not stop me. I had not heard of Henry Haigh – he gives hope to the ageing pilot. I’m not 54 yet but I’m close.
You must have been doing well at aeros if you were competing in the intermediate competition, even without the amount of practice that you would have liked. Loved the pics of KGZ. I never knew the letters referred to the Zuccoli’s – another name in the aerobatic fraternity that is sorely missed.
Regarding my photos, feel free to post the links. These photos have been in an album for decades and if someone is interested in seeing them, that would be great. I’ll have to scan and post more of my photos from airshows at Archerfield, Amberley and a few other places.
I hadn’t thought about muscle memory and how it would be affected by flight simming. I do know that the sim feels very different to the real world though. I am very familiar with Flight Unlimited. I spent many hours in that sim flying and learning aerobatics. It had great views and replays and I think did an excellent job at teaching the novice by having control inputs come up on screen if you got them wrong through a manoeuver. Flight models in simulation is a topic that comes up often if you are into aerobatics. Some people just do a better job than others at this.
My current aircraft of choice at the moment for aeros in FSX is a Christen Eagle (by Iris). I think it flies well (but I can’t compare it to a real one) and is a lot of fun. I also have a freeware Zlin 50 which flies beautifully and is great fun to throw around the sky. There are plenty of addon aircraft you can get for FSX to do aerobatics. Alabeo (
www.alabeo.com) make some gorgeous looking aircraft – Extra 300S, Pitts S-2S, Su-26 – but some of the aerobatic components of their models were criticized when they first came out. They may have improved them by now. For Pitts, Addictive Simulation (payware) and Simviation (freeware) have models that have got good reviews. The list goes on. I haven’t seen much about the aerofly simulation but it is not as detailed (no switches in the cockpit) but the pictures from it look great. Reviews say the feel of the aircraft is good but they do not talk about aerobatics though. I would love to read a more detailed review.
My current hardware for simming is a CH Product F16 Combatstick and rudder pedals. The control force is light and it is easy to get to full control deflection. It is possible to change the springs on the Thrustmaster stick if you want to keep your current setup. A quick search will bring a video of someone doing this. The only times I’ve tried a Saitak or Thrustmaster stick, I didn’t like them but that may well have been because I have used my CH setup for so long.
Good luck at getting time to have a go at simulation. There are certainly times when other parts of life are more important, but why not squeeze in some simulated aerobatics in the downtime (just don’t make it too much of a habit).
Cheers,
Peter
