The talk by Danny Chapman, the creator of the excellent – and free – Picasim RC simulator made for a very interesting evening. Danny talked through how and why the simulator came about and also outlined some of how it actually works. The simulator uses aerodynamic modelling on various parts of the virtually model to create a simulation that mimics the real world of model flying very closely.
If you haven’t tried Picasim then its a free download from the link below.
http://www.rowlhouse.co.uk/PicaSim/download.html
PicaSim is a flight simulator for radio controlled aircraft. At the moment it concentrates mainly on gliders, but it has a few other aircraft too and I expect the stable will expand in the near future. You can get it for free (no ads etc) on Android, or so-cheap-it’s-nearly-free on the Apple app store, or free-but-donate-if-you-like-it on Windows.
Picasim is, I think, the only model flying simulator available that features control line (CL) aeroplanes. Clearly, using an RC transmitter for CL means that some realism is lost, but it’s worth looking at these videos, courtesy of ‘Huan’, which show how innovative people can be regarding home-made bespoke CL controllers: