[HN Gopher] Airbus pilot tries Microsoft Flight Simulator [video]
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Airbus pilot tries Microsoft Flight Simulator [video]
Author : doener
Score : 86 points
Date : 2020-08-23 19:53 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| prennert wrote:
| His voice is unbelievably recognizable a pilot voice. Is this
| something (commercial?) British pilots learn during their
| training?
| bartvk wrote:
| Authoritative and soothing at the same time.
| thom wrote:
| I assume it's not so much that, and more that it's another
| industry with a sub-optimal diversity record.
| thom wrote:
| I appreciate the downvotes, but there is a reason that most
| people in this job (that costs tens if not hundreds of
| thousands of pounds to train for) sound reassuringly like a
| middle class man. I am not trying to make anyone feel bad for
| noticing the pattern, and certainly not for enjoying planes
| or computer games, but given that the UK government, industry
| groups like IATA, and several airlines all admit the issue,
| let's all take a deep breath.
| sk5t wrote:
| A wide diversity of humans can and have learned to speak
| the pilot/ATC dialect and cadence; and, English is the
| generally accepted lingua franca for flight.
|
| I am not sure how class enters the equation, although it
| seems to me likely that travelers would prefer to hear
| neither George Plimpton nor an East-End eelmonger over the
| intercom.
| thom wrote:
| There are probably thousands of people who would be
| better pilots than the current average, who have no hope
| of ever qualifying because of either the cost, or the
| traditional hiring/training patterns of airlines. Maybe
| that doesn't bother you as a passenger, but it does seem
| to bother the airlines themselves, who keep introducing
| programs to address the issue which everyone here clearly
| knows better than them about.
| sgt wrote:
| What if I told you diversity record doesn't matter as much as
| you think it does? You've been brainwashed by left-wing
| media.
| thom wrote:
| In classic Hacker News style, you're now being downvoted
| too. So clearly the truth is somewhere between "diversity
| matters" and "diversity doesn't matter". Who knows?! Best
| not talk about it.
| antioink wrote:
| For a site that supposedly prides itself on discussions
| that gratify one's intellectual curiosity, there
| certainly are some jarring taboos on acceptable topics to
| be curious about.
| [deleted]
| duskwuff wrote:
| Given how much pilots and ATCs talk among each other on the
| radio, I suppose it isn't all that surprising that they would
| develop an identifiable accent.
| bredren wrote:
| It is often said that many pilots emulate Chuck Yeager's
| voice.[1] Yeager was a US test pilot and jet flying ace.
|
| Tom Wolfe has a great novel about Yeager and other test pilots
| called "The Right Stuff."
|
| [1] https://www.wearethemighty.com/history/silky-smooth-chuck-
| ye...
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np272lmVRkU
| FpUser wrote:
| Have never heard of Yeager before but after quick reading of
| Wikipedia ... OMG, what an amazing man and amazing life.
| caspper69 wrote:
| And he's still alive! Wow, 97 years old.
| ojbyrne wrote:
| The Right Stuff is non-fiction, not a novel.
| bredren wrote:
| Ah, I had remembered it written as a story. Presumed it
| took some dramatic liberties / based on a true story.
| HenryKissinger wrote:
| From the blackbird copypasta:
|
| Now the thing to understand about Center controllers, was that
| whether they were talking to a rookie pilot in a Cessna, or to
| Air Force One, they always spoke in the exact same, calm, deep,
| professional, tone that made one feel important. I referred to
| it as the " Houston Center voice." I have always felt that
| after years of seeing documentaries on this country's space
| program and listening to the calm and distinct voice of the
| Houston controllers, that all other controllers since then
| wanted to sound like that, and that they basically did. And it
| didn't matter what sector of the country we would be flying in,
| it always seemed like the same guy was talking. Over the years
| that tone of voice had become somewhat of a comforting sound to
| pilots everywhere. Conversely, over the years, pilots always
| wanted to ensure that, when transmitting, they sounded like
| Chuck Yeager, or at least like John Wayne. Better to die than
| sound bad on the radios.
| bhupy wrote:
| I think it's the subtle audio interference combined with the
| distinctive commercial pilot vocal fry.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I usually fail miserably at driving simulators because I drive by
| the "seat of the pants" feeling, and you get none of that with
| the driving simulators. It's similar to how badly I do with
| flight simulators, as I constantly overcontrol it because there's
| no feedback to my body.
| dmd wrote:
| I'm guessing you're not a pilot, then, because the first thing
| you learn is to absolutely NOT trust your body (by which I mean
| your vestibular system) - you have to rely on your instruments
| - your body will always lie to you and get you killed.
| WalterBright wrote:
| I presume you're right about that, but up to a point. My
| father was a fighter pilot, and he said you live and die by
| how tight you can turn without stalling out ('cuz then you'll
| fly right into the crosshairs of the guy behind you trying to
| line up on you). This is done by feeling in your seat and the
| control column the minute trembling of the wings as they
| reach the stall point, and that's exactly where you need to
| place the airplane.
|
| I took a class in performance driving once. They say to cinch
| the belt down as tight as you can so that your seat feels
| every nuance of the road. And it does, and it works. With
| some practice you can feel when the tires are right at the
| limit of their grip. It's just like reaching the stall point
| in an airplane when the wings lose their grip.
|
| Also, airplanes have a "feel" in the control column, and they
| definitely fly by that pushback. It's so essential that
| Boeing jets have a "feel computer" to push back on the stick
| to simulate what the pilot would feel if he were directly
| controlling the surfaces. There's none of that in the flight
| simulator games.
| olivermarks wrote:
| The driving sims with feedback rams under moving seats are
| amazing, this is how pretty well how all of the new generation
| of racing drivers learn tracks and skills. Very expensive
| though. https://youtu.be/X9PoorzvU2k
| ourmandave wrote:
| To compare, here's a real A320 landing in Nice France during the
| day.
|
| It kind of has the same over the water coastline approach.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjWG3WRM5yk
| Nition wrote:
| Imagine putting this much work into every detail of your
| simulation, and then getting negative reviews on Steam because
| there's background music during the initial download.
| gambiting wrote:
| tbf, the initial download screen is so bad I can't believe it
| was actually coded by a microsoft studio. It's a 120GB
| download, so I thought ok, I'll just play some other game in
| the meantime, right? Nope, they forgot to check if the
| application is in the foreground and check for button presses
| even when the download window is minimized, meaning that when I
| play something else pressing "A" on the controller presses the
| "help" link on the download screen, opening a new browser
| window and microsoft help page. So....nope, I can't play
| something else while Flight Simulator is downloading its data,
| because whoever coded it doesn't know basic principles of input
| capture on MS platforms.
| Nition wrote:
| Yeah, it's bad, and it's the first thing you see as well. But
| it's not "negative review for the whole game" bad. I just
| muted it in Windows in the volume mixer (although I bet a lot
| of people don't know you can mute individual apps). I didn't
| notice your input problem but that sounds pretty annoying.
| gambiting wrote:
| No, of course, I wouldn't go an review the entire game
| based on that one screen, but yeah, it's a pretty stupid
| thing to have right at the beginning as every single player
| will see it before trying the game.
| Nition wrote:
| Yeah for sure, even just _having_ a download inside the
| game after downloading the "game" is pretty strange.
| When you uninstall it via Steam, those files don't go
| away automatically either, so now you mysteriously have
| 90GB less hard drive space. Gives me the feeling that
| things were pretty rushed up to release.
| hirundo wrote:
| I feel like learning to safely land whatever plane I'm flying in
| is just due diligence. I wish each seat had a simulator for the
| current aircraft available as an entertainment option, for me to
| brush up on in case everyone else who could fly it chooses the
| wrong entree for dinner. You know the toy steering wheels that
| children play with in cars? Like that.
| Svip wrote:
| The pilot and co-pilot are not allowed to eat the same thing
| for this reason.
| gruez wrote:
| >in case everyone else who could fly it chooses the wrong
| entree for dinner.
|
| I thought modern airliners can auto-land? All you need is
| someone to walk you through dialing in the numbers.
| aaronmdjones wrote:
| First you need to know how to use the radio to ask for that
| help. Just putting the headset on isn't enough; finding the
| microphone button is half the battle, and then you need to
| know what frequency to tune to, and how. Then you need to
| follow along with those instructions.
|
| Even assuming everything goes perfectly up to that point, the
| plane can only /land/ itself -- assuming you're approaching
| an ILS autoland-capable runway, in a plane with autoland
| equipment installed. You still have to idle the engines on
| touchdown and engage reverse thrust. You may have to keep the
| aircraft on the runway centreline after touchdown. Then you
| need to shut down the engines so emergency vehicles can
| approach and passengers can evacuate safely.
|
| It's not as simple as "dialling in the numbers".
| bleepblorp wrote:
| In addition to that, you also need to know how to:
|
| Read the instruments. This is non-trivial with modern glass
| cockpits as the readings on the screen don't necessarily
| have labels.
|
| Set the flaps at the right time. Too soon and you'll tear
| the wings off or run out of fuel before you make it to the
| runway. Too late and you will be flying too fast to land.
|
| Lower the gear, again at the right time to prevent them
| being torn off by airflow or not being down when you hit
| the runway.
|
| Know that, once on the ground, the nose gear is steered
| with the footpedals and not the sidestick (Airbus) or yolk
| (Boeing).
|
| Set the autobrake so you don't need to brake manually at
| touchdown. If you get this right, you don't need to mess
| with reverse thrust.
|
| It would be helpful to know how to turn off the cabin
| pressurization system so no one is blown out the doors when
| they are opened.
|
| Even if you're lucky enough to get all this right, you're
| only going to make a smoking hole somewhere near the runway
| if there's any significant crosswind.
| aaronmdjones wrote:
| Right, my assumption up to the landing point was that the
| radio help included the instructions for all of that.
|
| Note it's called a yoke. :)
| paranoidrobot wrote:
| Unfortunately this is typical "All you need is..." fallacy.
|
| Even assuming for a moment that yes, all you need to do is
| dial in the numbers...
|
| Have you ever tried to run tech support over a dodgy phone
| connection to someone who's never touched technology before?
| Where one wrong button push turns off all of that automation?
| Where there's no chance to go "Ooops, undo that!"? Where it's
| a very high stress situation, involving a huge number of
| acronyms?
|
| Even just managing radios could be a major problem - you may
| quickly find yourself out of range of the controllers, and if
| you haven't figured out how to ask for and change frequency,
| well you're now not talking to anyone.
| jacquesm wrote:
| The salmon mousse strikes again...
| disposedtrolley wrote:
| That would be awesome, but it would also mean that IFE systems
| would actually need to be made well!
|
| The current ones from Panasonic seem to have caught up to the
| original iPad: https://www.panasonic.aero/our-
| offerings/systems/x-series-bl...
| niklasrde wrote:
| It's hard! They're not slow by choice, they're slow because
| of the years it takes for safety approvals, testing, and
| certification to complete. I've met a creative director who's
| responsible for Norwegian's IFE last year, and she was
| telling me about some of the crazy challenges it is to try
| and work with the hardware and software constraints they get.
| The software teams certainly have the resources and knowledge
| to build a great, modern platform.
| jamiehall wrote:
| > Nearly every element [of an airplane seat] undergoes a
| safety-enhancing process called "delethalization": seats
| have to withstand an impact equal to sixteen times the
| force of gravity [and many other constraints] .... Largely
| as a result, in-flight entertainment systems are almost
| unbelievably expensive. The rule of thumb, I was told, is
| "a thousand dollars an inch"--meaning that the small screen
| in the back of each economy seat can cost an airline ten
| thousand dollars, plus a few thousand for its handheld
| controller.
|
| https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/04/21/game-of-
| throne...
| galkk wrote:
| There was a similar recording 2 years ago: retired soviet
| military pilot (no piloting experience in 20yrs) is trying
| simulator of MiG 29 (with VR helmet). He did some maneuvers and
| even land the plane.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEGH965Dvp8,
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjDhZ2Qx2bw
| sdfhbdf wrote:
| I love his reference to feeling the texture of the seat just by
| looking at it. Pretty relatable
| fakwandi_priv wrote:
| Does anyone have any insights regarding licensing?
|
| Is MS opening a big wallet or is it the other way around where
| these companies want their newest planes in these type of games?
| In the video you see "unbeatable fuel efficieny" and I remember
| seeing Iberia on one of the boeings in the launch trailer, seems
| like adverts to me.
| bjarneh wrote:
| That was unexpectedly interesting.
| kergonath wrote:
| The best kind of interesting!
| js2 wrote:
| Passenger[0] lands King Air, with his family aboard, when pilot
| died shortly after take-off:
|
| https://youtu.be/aqPvVxxIDr0
|
| The video is a reconstruction from the radio recordings. I
| learned that air traffic controllers are rarely themselves pilots
| and that finding someone with King Air experience during an
| emergency isn't easy. This video is recent, but the incident
| happened in 2009. News story from that year:
|
| https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2009/april/14/u...
|
| [0] He'd earned a private pilot's license 18 years prior, but had
| quit flying shortly after with only 80 hours total time logged.
| Waterluvian wrote:
| 80 hours decades earlier is probably enough to have the
| fundamentals down. Even just knowing how to use the radio puts
| you quite far ahead.
|
| It's kind of the argument for basic first aid training and
| other things like that.
| js2 wrote:
| He only knew how to use the radio because he'd had the pilot
| show him before take off. He described the King Air as being
| so different from the plane he'd learned on that it might as
| well be the space shuttle.
|
| One of the controllers who helped get him down realized she
| had to simplify the plane for him. He had been struggling
| with the autopilot and she got him to turn it off and fly it
| manually. He was fortunate to have some great controllers to
| help him and a clear day with no wind.
|
| After the incident, he started flying again and went on to
| become a rescue pilot.
| Jerry2 wrote:
| Just yesterday I watched a few "real X pilot flies X in a
| simulator" videos. One of my favorites was a real Rafale pilot
| flying a Mirage 2000C in a dogfight in DCS [1]. Amazing instincts
| and skill.
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlM53d9g9q4
| agumonkey wrote:
| pretty strange slow pace and large landscape with a imposing
| sense of death coming
| rediguanayum wrote:
| There's a Youtube channel with a former US submarine sonarman.
| Here's his channel:
| https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9bMgCQyFNaMPsK9GtzM5dQ
| Watching him play in a submarine video game as an Astute SSN is
| interesting as he tries to dodge torpedoes using noise makers
| and obstacles is interesting due his commentary and tactics:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHnt_uJqTUA
| pmoriarty wrote:
| Are there any good videos like this where the dogfights are
| many-on-many instead of just one-on-one?
|
| I'm not a pilot, and my knowledge of dogfighting is next to
| non-existent, so please correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd expect
| that it would be much harder to utterly dominate one's
| opponents when there are a lot of planes in the air, any one of
| which could take you out when you think you've got an advantage
| on someone else.
|
| A busy dogfight would probably be more exciting to watch, too.
| Jerry2 wrote:
| > _Are there any good videos like this where the dogfights
| are many-on-many instead of just one-on-one?_
|
| Something like this?
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWa7NrSd55w
| unoti wrote:
| > Are there any good videos like this where the dogfights are
| many-on-many instead of just one-on-one?
|
| Tons, yes, here's one to get your started:
|
| Superior Dogfight: 4 x Navy F-18 vs 4 x Air Force F-15
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80rDX3pANeE
| beobab wrote:
| I have GamePass, so I thought: "I'll give this a go. How hard can
| it be? I'm really good in Elite Dangerous."
|
| Turns out: Quite hard. I have a newfound respect for airline
| pilots.
|
| On a related note, even my RAF cadet experience 20 years ago
| counted for naught. Whilst I could keep the plane in the air,
| landing proved the most difficult, and I crashed and bounced and
| would not have survived without invulnerability switched on.
| x86_64Ubuntu wrote:
| I can only imagine what the features to implement spec sheet
| looks like for creating a flight sim.
| ygra wrote:
| I certainly didn't think about that they would have to re-
| implement the entire (or at least most of the) computer system
| the pilot is interacting with as well.
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