Try the Hawk. Talk with the developpers. Enjoy yourself at a really big FlightSim Event

We’ll be there. Will you?

This show is hosted by Simon Tolley who gave us a warm welcome.

This Flightsim weekend is held at the Weston Helicopter museum where quite some extraordinary helicopters are shown. During this weekend some of the cockpits were open for the public and many visitors could sit in the pilots seat for a moment.

Highlights of the exhibitors:

Mutley’s Hangar www.mutleyshangar.com brings original cockpit instruments back to life for use in simulators. David and Jack are critical guys and they were blown away when they used the Paccus Hawk.

Spitsim www.spitsim.co.uk has realistic Spitfire controls. Combine that with an aeroplane body of www.creativecockpits.com and your Spitfire experience comes to life.

The Virtual Red Arrows www.virtualredarrows.com had an interesting setup, a large quarter dome screen with 2 projectors that create a near surround view. I can imagine a screen like that can make a simulation very real for the pilot.

Moving and vibrating flight seats are also becoming more mainstream like this helicopter chair that can tilt or the vibrating chair with the ButtKicker from www.modularsim.com

I checked out this chair and combined with the large screen and the sound, the vibration makes it very real and I noticed being pulled into the sim. For a moment the hall was completely gone. Just me flying a jet that occasionally suffered from some turbulence.

Outside the museum is a helicopter scrapheap near the helicopter landing area. Old carcasses waiting for their second life or being ripped apart to complete another heli of the same type. Here you could get into a heli and be flown around for 6 minutes to see everything from above.

Power and realism

For the Hawk joystick it was the first presentation in the producable form. Everybody who touched it was very impressed. With the hydraulic feedback switched off, helicopter pilots unanimously agreed that it feels like it is a real helicopter. It feels smooth, light and has no center point or dead area around its center position. This allows for very precise movements and comes close to the real thing. At least when the aircraft has a seat stick.

With the hydraulic force feedback active again, everybody was impressed about both the precision and the smooth feeling combined with very fierce and strong force feedback coming from the flightsim. Most flightsim pilots are not into combat flying, but they all loved the feeling of the recoil when they pulled the trigger to take down the enemy. It gave them a real sense of power and realism.

What people said about the Hawk

Nearly everybody who tried the joystick was more than happy to tell you about it on video.

The guys from Sky High Radio www.skyhighradio.co.uk gave us the 70′s and 80′s music all weekend and I loved it. Is that because of my age or is it just because the music from that time was absolutely unparalleled in greatness?? Only one drawback, it created quite some background noise that made the video testimonials of enthousiastic visitors a bit harder to decipher. (Follow this link to see the video’s with transcriptions.)

Auction

Sunday afternoon Simon held an auction. A lot of flightsim gear and related personal objects found their way to new owners. Everything was donated by the exhibitors in one way or the other and Simon auctioned his collection of framed aircraft pictures. I tried to get the Thrustmaster Wharthog, but it was sold way over my personal budget. Next time I hope to have a better chance.

Wonderful people

Well, that’s about it for now. Everybody that I did not mention, you were great as well. All the sim builders, repair and restore guys, the ‘scary gals’ who can make you look very injured, ‘sweets Tanya’ and the rest, you were all wonderful in this very nice event.

FS Weekend Lelystad

I really hope to see you all overhere at the FS Weekend in Lelystad www.fsweekend.com on November 5 and 6, 2011.

We are working hard to make a unique setting by getting together some builders and exhibitors in one large stand. It’s our dream and goal to have this simulation setup:

A cockpit from Creative Cockpits for instance, put on a tilting plateau, a ButtKicker in the chair and a Paccus seatstick in the chair. Large screens for optimum view and good speakers with subwoofers that allow all low and high frequencies to be heard and sensed. Real instruments in the cockpit and off you go. Guaranteed to lose any sense of reality and get immersed into the flying.

If anyone is interested in joining the stand, looking for lodging or someone who has things to contribute to this simulation dream, just drop me an e-mail at tjark@paccus.com.

No guarantees, but we’ll see what we can do.

David Williams
www.mutleyshangar.com
 

“My name is David Williams from www.mutleyshangar.com. Like Jack, I am not really an expert on flightsim but the thing I do like about this is it is really heavy! It really does feel like a joystick and when you fly …. hello, here we have a Messerschmitt coming up here, I mean it really does feel as if you got the plane. It is incredible!! The force feedback gives you the impression that the plane is at the end of the stick, it’s not you just simming. And the other thing I do like about it is that as you take the plane up and down there is no dead space in the middle. You can feel the joystick all the time, it really is. From the immersiveness point of view it is really terrific!”
 

Graham
 

“My name is Graham Flare. I am from Bath. I am testdriving, if you like ‘test flying’ this stick. It is very nice smooth. I fligh the PH28 and I find the response of it is very very precise and so it is very nice to fly and I wish that real flying was as precise as with this stick which has been designed for flight simulation and it is very realistic in a way and I find it very relaxing. I could spend 20 hours on flight simulation and training with this like and when I go out to do the real thing it obviously helps me to hone my skills.”
 

Jack Whaley-Baldwin
www.mutleyshangar.com
 

“This is Jack Whaley Baldwin from www.mutleyshangar.com using the Paccus Interface Hawk hydraulic force feedback joystick and we are just flying a combat simulator here. You can really feel the force feedback certainly on the joystick. For example, I am firing now, you feel the joystick moving forward and backwards. It really is an excellent simulation force feedback, I am lost for words really. It really is a marvel of engineering. Yes!”
 

J.D. Ashley
 

J.D. Ahsley: “I came to the exhibition really to look for a force feedback stick. Because I am not been very happy with the one’s I have seen so far. I am glad to see that Hawk/Falcon stick, excellent feel to it. My slight criticism would be that it does have a kind of hydraulic feel to it which doesn’t perfectly replicates what one feels as a pilot in one of these World War II aircrafts. You know, operated by wires and pulleys and that sort of thing. But I am sure that for modern day aircrafts like jets it’s totally perfect but I’m no expert there really. The only other comment, and I realize this is a prototype, is I think this should be more made to look like an aircraft control coming off the period. I’m actually quite happy to hear that you are going to make separate sticks, joystick handles to replicate the various types of aircrafts. Wel anyway, I wish you well and hope to test some more of your products in the future.”
 

John Fellows
www.spitsim.co.uk
 

“My name is John Fellows, I make Spitfire controls under the name Spitsim. This is the first time that I have seen this particular control and I am very impressed. I believe it is possibly the best joystick I have used. It has a lovely feel to it, it is light, it is precise and it has nice feedback, I am really impressed.”
 

Mack McCarley
www.komodosimulations.co.uk
www.aacsim.com
 

“My name is Mack McCarley and I have spent 20 to 25 years simulating and I was invited over today to have a look at the control mechanism with the force feedback. I think the force feedback is wonderful. It certainly gives you the impression of flying and feeling the G which I did not have with any other product. I think that the fidelity of the product is ideal, there is a lot of sensitivity there and it does actually feel that you are feeling the G when you are pulling in the power and pulling back on the stick. So I would rate it as a 10 of a 10.”
 

Oliver Warren
www.modularsim.com
 

“Hi, my name is Oliver Warren. My flight experience is rather limited I have done some light aircraft flying. I have also done some professional military flight simulation flying at the US Airforce. The Paccus Interfaces Hawk joystick I found to be very, very good. It gives you the feeling of the weight of the aircraft which is unique in products in this range. Traditionally we’re very used to having soft sprung joysticks and this one really gives you the sensation of the G forces acting on the aircraft. And not only that, acting on your body as well in having to lift up the weight of the aircraft.”
 

Terry Young
 

“Hi, I’m Terry Young. I’ve come to the show today and I have seen a super new hydraulic joystick. I fly Cessna’s from Bourne in Cambridge and I particularly I wanted to look at the new joystick today. I like this one because has very smooth operation and the force feedback really does give you a nice cue when you are flying the aircraft. The only disadvantage for me is the price, but certainly it’s on my Christmas list.”
 

This is how righthanded people hold the stick and operate the buttons:

The same for lefthanded people:

We developed a multi purpose joystick for gamers but the enthusiastic response from (semi)professional flightsim captains made us realize we have to make the powerful hydraulic feedback core available for builders as well.

There is a high demand for a yoke with the same realistic touch and feel as our Hawk. We have to work on that, too.

The hydraulic feeling is perfect for all plane types and helicopter simulators. You will feel the wind presure on your ailerons and elevator. In the near future we’ll also bring you hydraulic feedback pedals. So then you can feel all control surfaces (aileron, elevator, rudder and gear.)

Throttle, yoke, flap control panel and built-in unit will be developed in 2011.

Quote: “This can pull you right out of your chair!”

If you want to be the first to know, send us an e-mail at contact@paccus.com