Ha, and you thought your
HotSeat Chassis was the next best thing to paying way too much to carry an appropriate amount of luggage on your next jaunt to paradise. Australia's own Matthew Sheil has been tinkering on his own personal flight simulator for over a decade now, but the latest iteration is just too good to ignore. Aside from setting a Guinness world record for his efforts, the man has poured over $300,000 into recreating the flying experience of a 747-400, which is dirt cheap compared to the $60 million that professional simulators generally run. Sheil flies virtually with legions of other enthusiasts around the world, and each year he hosts 15 folks as they rotate on an around-the-world flight that Qantas sponsors and where donation money is funneled to the Royal Flying Doctor Service. Hit up the read link to get a real gist of what this thing is capable of, and feel free to go in with stupid high expectations.
posted March 13th 2009 9:57AM
Typo.... "legions of other enthusiasts around the world, and each [B]yeah[/b] he hosts 15 folks"
I believe they're referring to the fact that through software he is able to communicate and fly with others who also use similar software. MS Flight Simulator has tons of people who can fly simultaneously with you in virtual airspace, and others who act as a air traffic controllers to avoid collisions. So yes, there are "legions of other enthusiasts around the world".
I bought a SEGA R360 arcade cabinet for my garage. If anyone saw one, it comes with G-Loc preloaded and it is a huge Gyroscopic ball with motors that lets you fly the onscreen airplane against computer enemy's - while it spins you 360'.
Does anyone know if there is a way I can reprogram it to accept another Arcade sim game with better graphics?
If only I could play Falcon 4.0 or JANES USAF...my life would be complete.
I just learned about the R360 the other week.
I wish they made a space based game for it. Something like Star Wars would be perfect.
If I had to get another game in there, I would hook up the computer inside the ball. You will only need power then, and the directional motor controllers should still be controlled by the joystick. Hooking that up to the new computer might be the difficult part, but there should be a similar joystick. The worst case is that you need to modify the internals of a second joystick to mate up to the existing one. The emergency stop button might not work either, or it would be tough to get it working the way it did. You could have it kill the power to the motors, but it might stop upside down.
You would then need to get a few LCD screens and secure them in to the place where the CRT used to be. Some small surround sound speakers and one of those Buttkicker gamer devices would work out well.
And to the OP, and Engadget, is that $300k Australian dollars? Even though it cost more then my house, and the graphics are still not quite where I would expect them to be with Google Earth and all, it is still impressive. I'm sure the software updates will only make it better.
If I had too much money and time that I didn't know what to do with it all, I would try this.
"Yeah": Mistake or phonetic?
Only time will tell...
As a Bostonian myself thats how I read it initially, but I would imagine that its prob a typo.
LOL @ George
He was probably in a hurry because he had to go help Bobby pahk the cahs in the Hahvahd yahd, hence the typo.
Get a PS3!
Seriously keep this away from Terrorists...
you are so dumb.
I miss california...
Me too...
sigh.
... where'd it go?
A typical 747-400 flight sim isn't worth 60 millions. Unless you're in the Arab Emirates and you ask for the full package. Even then, usually it doesn't total over 50 millions.
Most commercial flight sims (CAE for example) are worth around 25 to 30 million a pop.
did you know that feline aids is the number one killer of domestic cats
What do you call Magic Johnson in a wheel chair?
And he owns a Baron..... okay I am jealous.
Ok, but when you're done flying, you're still in your moms basement
When he's done flying he's still in his warehouse. I was hoping for a page on the build of this really cool contraption.
There's a photo gallery: http://www.smh.com.au/news/photogallery/technology/worlds-best-flight-sim/2009/03/13/1236447449989.html
Can we get the link to his instructables.com page, too?
Cool, but...
For the money he's invested you can buy many, many hours on a commercial Full Motion flight sim.
Yes, but you wouldn't get all the chicks this guy does...
or you could just take that 0.3 Million bucks and buy a smaller airplane than a 747 and call it a day.
Which he did do, the article says he also flies a real-world Baron B58
$60 million...ARE YOU SERIOUS...!!!!??? noooooooo... they can't really be that much...
we have a similar one at my school that i've been able to fly in. it's pretty amazing. you can actually get you license in the machine, and you can never step a foot in an actual aircraft until your first day of work.
That is just plain cool. This guy is a gadget god. I wish I had money to waste on sweet stuff like that. I would have a racing sim too.
I wonder if he wears a seatbelt
Yes, because it's so realistic that if he crashed it, he might die.
Ugh.....why not take your 40-60 million and buy a 747-200, better than any flight simulator I can guarantee, and with the prospect of fiery death the leaning process speeds up considerably
But if I had 300k I'd buy a Cirrus SR22. Or save up a little more for a Cessna 400. But if he has a Baron.....
SR22=The new doctor killer
Pretty soon that plane is gonna be uninsurable.
So why not get a job as a pilot and GET PAID!!!
[Insert Crysis joke here]
He seems to be using FS2004 and the PMDG 747-400 professional add-on.
I con only dream of such a cockpit for playing FS.....:(
Why doesn't he use X-Plane 9... on a Mac!
And why is Jason suddenly his Co-Pilot?
Is that a kangaroo on the runway?