Simulators in aviation began as a training device. They were setup to help train pilots fly flying machines (as they were called in the early days of aviation). They had a role to play.
Fast forward a century…. the same technology (more advanced, no doubt!) is now used to design and test the very machine that it was to help train people for.
Flight simulators have come a long way in their evolution. This is a classic example of how the role for technology can shift 180 degrees with time. The accuracy of flight models on modern simulators is astounding. I have had the opportunity to measure and compare distinct performance parameters between real-world aircraft and a few different models of aviation training devices, and the coherence of software models to the real-world object is so precise. The picture below is an example of such a comparison. It is hard to tell which one is the real thing. Stall performance, fuel burn, climb and descent profiles, lift modeling are accurately engineered.
Instructing a computer to do all this through programming is very valuable. The next generation of this evolution has the machine learning by itself, and beyond that telling the human what to do. Indeed a powerful sequence of outcomes.
For flight enthusiasts, even 40 years of using flight simulator products cannot dampen the enthusiasm and excitement of hearing that a new version of a flight simulator or a new product is being launched. The childlike excitement that builds up upon hearing of a new flight sim product is beyond words. So was the case with me as well…. although I admit that experience does bring in a little more patience. For once, I did not download MSFS2020 on August 18, the day it was launched. I waited a little for the software to settle down. Although with each passing day, my patience would ebb, and finally in the middle of September I couldn’t wait any longer and hit download!.
The installation went off with little effort, no hung machine, no crashes, etc. Although it was long download 90+ GB. I had to find a long ethernet cable to wire the PC to the router. Otherwise, despite the fast internet service I have, this download would take forever. The machine had been upgraded to Win 10, a good I7 4.2Ghz 64GB, 4GB GPU NVIDIA card, enough to run the new simulator.
Then came the time to start the simulator. I clicked on it, and the wait was long. My initial thought was that it was because the first run of any software does take a little longer. With some intro music in a loop, the -re-load was painfully long, then came the selection screen. I first set the simulator down to the barest, simplest settings. Rendering on LOW, Traffic OFF, base resolution.
The Ux is pretty intuitive. Setting up controls was not straightforward. Especially setting up the CH Yoke, a long-standing standard in simulation, was not simple. Having that out of the way, I started my first flight using a C172S. CTD!
Had to restart the simulator, another 10-15 mins gone. Flight config done, aircraft at the runway, CTD.
Reduced settings even further hopping to eliminate CTD issues, restarted the simulator. Took off from my favorite airport EDDF (Frankfurt Main). Rendering was not smooth. Tuned aliasing. Got better. However, the aircraft felt jittery and a little too much in-air movement. Being a real-world pilot who flies the Cessna 172S regularly I can say confidently that the real aircraft doesn’t feel anything like that unless there is severe turbulence. I tried to turn on auto-pilot to see if the physical controls were causing noise and hence the jitter. That did not fix the issue. Clearly, it was not something that The user or controls were causing. The jitter appeared to be in the simulator or the flight model. I made one turn on to the downwind leg. CTD.
Restarted the simulator and got the aircraft positioned. This time managed to complete one flight around the pattern.
On another flight, I used the Boeing 747-8. The aircraft booted up correctly. However, the joy was shortlived. A few minutes after takeoff, on climb-out the simulator stopped working.
The real-time traffic feature is a splendid one – however, I don’t believe it functions correctly. It is designed to use FlightAware traffic data however, at no point is the simulator reproducing any of the real-time FlightAware traffic correctly.
The color textures are very nicely done. haven’t really experienced all of the variety yet. BING Maps integration does bring an element of reality to the terrain around. It fills the void in prior simulators.
Overall, I spent 3-4 evenings using it, and then finally last weekend, I stopped wasting my time with it. I am serious about using my simulator for safety and proficiency gain. Like everyone, time is limited and I would rather use a simulation that works and gives me max benefit for the 45 mins to 90 minutes that I use it. Spending 10-12-15 mins to load up a simulator, and then not have it stay on is not a good use of time. MS or Asobo Studios needs to look at this product again. Tune it for efficiency – and ensure that it stays up. Knowing that it is software, yes, it will have some errors and will CTD at times. But that can’t be the norm.
Will wait for it to stabilize before I try it again. In the meantime, I am back to X-Plane and P3D… CJ
Life is generally busy. Between home and work, and the all the maintenance that goes into keeping life running, there isn’t much time for anything else. Until you make some.
Over the past 6-8 weeks most of us have been under lockdown or ‘shelter in place’. During this time, many have asked me what I do or how I spend my time. The fact is that I really have had no time to ‘spend’. It has been busier than ever and as always, when I have any spare time, I just route towards doing things that matter to me.
On the other hand, even when life is routine. I ensure I make it a point to dedicate my time to those things that define me, make me who I am, grow as an individual.
There are 1440 minutes in a day, times 7 days, times 52 weeks. It is hardly possible that we can’t find the time to do the things we want to do. The question is never about time. There is always enough time for everything. Talk to people who speak about the quantum realm and they will be first to point out that time will warp to allow one to do the things they are passionate about.
For many, perhaps I should say most, the hardest thing is to know what they would like to spend their time on. Before we can be passionate about anything, one has to know oneself.
What do I like to do? What would I like to spend my time on? what do I want to create? What impact do i want to leave behind? What do i want to be known for when i am done? What problems do i want to solve? Who can i help? Who can i serve?
Most people go about life living through the drudgery of tasks and when they look at others doing things that matter to them, it appears like those people are blessed. The fact is that those people are neither anymore blessed than us, nor are they gifted with any more skills that we have. The fact is that those individuals have identified one or more things they are truly passionate about and they pursue it relentlessly.
In simple terms, some of these ‘things’ are known as hobbies. they are different from interests. They are not pastimes. Hobbies involve deep engagement, a form of ‘doing’.
I consider myself very blessed to have had a passion for aviation. This passion has led to various related hobbies and I have more than one. Model aircraft building, drone flying, simulator construction, real world flight, aviation photography and videography, composing guitar solos to mirror the sentiments that aviation produces. These keep me grounded and level-headed. Working on my hobbies brings in a focus, keeps the mind engaged, provides a sense of calm, generates immense gratification, and increases creativity exponentially.
One of the questions that i get asked when someone sees my work is how did i begin. I don’t think there is a single day when a hobby becomes a part of one’s life. Most of my hobbies came in naturally. They grow on me. Aviation has been a passion since my childhood. Music has been with me since my high school days. I was building transistor radios when i was 12. So most of my hobbies have stayed with me since i was little. Indeed with time, the size and scale of my hobbies have grown much. Where I would build a small scale model aircraft, I am now inspired the next larger one. Where i used to have one certificate to fly, I am now inspired to pursue the next block of learning and get the next certificate. Where a couple of decades ago, I was only interested in finding out how to eliminate the keyboard and replace real switches and knobs into a flight simulator, I started on building a scale size flight simulator. It turned into a 20+ year project and to this day gives me immense satisfaction. I call it it my life’s work.
Yes, hobbies can lead to life size work. There is always something to do. Replace the engine on a model aircraft, try a new propeller to test for efficiency, build a foam plane with electric propulsion. Fly to a new non-towered airfield in the real-world. Plan a project to fly to the sand dunes at Kitty Hawk where the first powered flight occurred. On the simulator side, update navigation data, upgrade the software, add a new aircraft, or fine tune performance. If all this is finished, sit by a small airfield and do some plane spotting, or curate some aviation pictures. When this done, come back to composing a new solo in A minor to mirror the feelings of being in the air. There is no end of the avenues that hobbies open up.
The hardest for many is to identify what they are really interested in. The best way to get past this point is to try a few things. Its easy to gravitate to one or more things if we try them, It’s also important to separate out pass-times from hobbies. Hobbies are most likely things to do. Pass-times are meant to pass one’s time. Rest assured that having a hobby will leave very little time to pass.
A hobby can be in any field or realm. Tending a garden, collecting stamps, curating pictures of building architecture, sewing, knitting. cooking, painting, woodcraft, restoring a vintage car or plane, curating artifacts for a museum.., there is no end to the various things that one can do with time.
At few points in our past would having a hobby be as immensely valuable as it has been over the past two to three months with the COVID-19 situation.
In the spirit of not leaving the sight of a goal without taking a step towards it, let’s begin! Let your creativity blossom.
The DJI Mavic Air is one of many DJI UAV products. The Mavic Air is best known for its portability and serves the high-end hobbyist and serious enthusiast range of users. DJI has implemented some very unique design ideas to make the drone portable.
The Mavic Air folds up for storage, is very well built and looks aesthetic. The Mavic Air weighs just under 1 lb. and is very easy to carry around. The Mavic Air shoots 4K videos at 30 fps and still picture capture is performed at 12 megapixels. This works very well for its intended audience. The Mavic Air has a battery endurance range that results in flight times between 18-21 minutes. Strong winds alter battery endurance ranges. In terms of line of sight range the Mavic Air has a 2.5-mile control range using the remote. The drone comes equipped with internal and supplemental storage, the Mavic Air has 8GB of internal memory. The USB-C port allows for transfer of files. The supplemental microSD slot has support for microSDHC and microSDXC media. For power charging, the remote requires Micro USB and the drone has a USB Type-C port to transfer footage.
The Mavic Air is equipped with GPS and GLONASS satellite positioning. The GPS sensors are accurate and reliably enable automated and semi-automated flight modes. The Mavic Air performs well in steady hovering. Its GPS sensors make the ‘return-to-home’ safety feature very reliable. Location detection enforces no-fly zones and is once again very reliable. For example, the system will alert you to get authorization before flying at an airshow location with a TFR around it. There are a number of warning levels. Some warning levels can be overridden with necessary authorization and there are others that can’t be overridden.
The drone supports QuickShots. These automated camera shots move the drone through the air in a predetermined pattern such as a helix or spherical shot and allow for quick capture of the surrounding. This improves productivity and reduces the amount of manual programming needed to get the footage. Even with forward and rear obstacle detection, QuickShots must be used with care. In the QuickShot modes, the drone flies itself, and there is always a risk of collision.
The Mavic Air will fly at 17.9 miles per hour with obstacle avoidance enabled, or at up to 42.5 miles per hour in Sport mode, a mode in which the obstacle detection system is disabled. With a climb rate of 13 feet per second in Sports mode and 5 feet per second in Positioning mode (both using the Remote Controller), the Mavic Air is found be very useful in most situations.
The maximum service ceiling for the Mavic Air is 3.1 miles above sea level. One of the important considerations with regard to UAVs or drones is their wind resistance capability. The DJI Mavic Air wind limit is 22 miles per hour. Beyond this number, the Mavic Air will generate a warning for high winds. This can be somewhat limiting in certain circumstances. The Mavic Air’s obstacle detection and avoidance system is very much reliable. The Air has forward, backward and downward sensors. The Advanced Pilot Awareness System (APAS) leverages all of these sensors. Coupled with this intelligence, instead of simply hovering in place when it detects an obstacle blocking the drone’s path, the Mavic Air explores the situation and automatically adjusts flight to avoid it, either by flying to the side or rising above it. Burdziakowski, P. (2018). UAV IN TODAYS PHOTOGRAMMETRY–APPLICATION AREAS AND CHALLENGES. International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference: SGEM: Surveying Geology & mining Ecology Management, 18, 241-248. DJI Mavic Air. (2019). Retrieved May 5, 2020, from PCMAG website: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/dji-mavic-air Fintan Corrigan. (2020, January 13). DJI Mavic Air Features Review, Specifications and FAQs Answered. Retrieved May 5, 2020, from DroneZon website: https://www.dronezon.com/drone-reviews/dji-mavic-air-review-features-specifications-faqs-answered/ Yousef, M., Iqbal, F., & Hussain, M. (2020, April). Drone Forensics: A Detailed Analysis of Emerging DJI Models. In 2020 11th International Conference on Information and Communication Systems (ICICS) (pp. 066-071). IEEE.
