An article in the August 2006 issue of Scientific American titled The Expert Mind offers some interesting data on how to become an expert in any field. In summary, it takes about 10 years of concerted effort. Experts are not born, they are made, or so the research suggests. There are plenty of examples, mostly from study of chess grandmasters. Apparently, grandmasters are not necessarily geniuses in any particular respect. Rather, they just put in their time and become good at it.
Of course, there are no guarantees, but at least it suggests that if you apply yourself, there is a strong possibility of becoming an expert. In my opinion, it’s a lot easier if you enjoy those 10 years. If not, it’s more like work and more likely you will give up too soon. An interesting corollary is that it’s theoretically possible to be an expert in more than one field. I like that.
I finally got around to purchasing Microsoft Flight Simulator. Several months ago, I bought a Thrustmaster Top Gun joystick at a local computer show for a song ($5.00). It was used, but works great! The original sticker price was $70.00, well worth the gamble, IMHO.
Flight simulator out of the box has a few interesting planes, but only two helicopters: Robinson R22 and Bell Jetranger. I downloaded F-16 and Hughes/MD 500D models. Even though, I’m a pure helicopter pilot, I still like the idea of full aerobatic maneuvers with jet power and speed!
My initial attempts at simulated airplane flight were not a problem. I broke many altitude and structural limits, but at least I could keep it in the air without too much trouble. I was able to achieve reasonable forward flight in helicopters also, but hovering was a problem. After quite a bit of twiddling with the realism settings, I was convinced I had something set wrong. Both the R22 and Bell just did not fly like the real thing. The Bell clearly showed it’s sluggishness compared with the R22, but both were far too twitchy.
After some Googling, I stumbled on Hover Control. They had some good tips on how to configure FS 2004 properly for helicopter flight. The most important appears to be the general adjustment in the realism tab. That should be one click less than hard right. That seemed to do the trick.
Now the R22, JetRanger, and Hughes 500 all seem to work more or less like the real thing. There are clearly some limitations. The engine and rotor tachometers don’t change at all under any flight condition. This is not a big deal under powered flight, but it’s a real problem during autorotation. The JetRanger model at least flares without power, but the R22 just slams into the ground with 100% RPM. Without response from the rotor tach, it’s hard to determine what the collective setting should be.
I haven’t been able to find any information on the Web about simulated autorotation. If you know anything about it, please let me know.