Having followed Radd's flying lessons I managed to keep my heli in the air in a stable hover. Even landing was getting less and less rough. I wanted to progress, but what's next. Do I simply start moving forward, do I yaw left or right and try to keep it stable in that possition,I didn't know. Radd is working on follow up lessons, they will be online in the near future. I wanted to progress, but at the same time was afraid to have a “Hard Landing” with the necessary repair costs.
After some threads on the Ikarus BBS, I decided to bite the bullet and get me an interface cable to connect my Tx to my PC. This way I could use the free FMS RC simulator and get some stick time without the cost of possible crashes. I knew after 20 years of modelling that reflexes need to be trained. The only way to do that is by stick time.
I bought a USB cable from RC Electronic using my PayPal account. They are the only company I found that support my brand of transmitters : Multiplex. Shortly after the order I got a confirmation that my cable would ship two day later. The mailman must have knwon I was waiting for it because only two days after the order was shiped I received it in the mailbox. Talk about fast service! Take into account that I live in Belgium and RC Electronics is operating from England!
The cable looks very nice and consists of a 6 foot (1.8m) cable with a little black box in the middle. One end connects to my Tx and the other to an USB port of my PC. It is recognised by the PC as a regular 4 channel, 4 button joystick. This way I can use my Tx with every application that supports a joystick. Playing Quake with my Tx is a bit cumbersome as the switches on my Tx are pretty difficult to use with fast fireing. :-)
The most difficult part about setting up the cable was programming my Tx. Channel 5 through 8 had to be controlled by a switch. I have enough switches on my Tx, but never used tehm with a pure on-off function. Getting the manual out quickly solved the problem and I could start calibrating the “joystick”.
The interface cable is incredibly precise and this makes flying in FMS very comfortable. After a few hours I could land the Cobra on the shed! This doesn't mean that I would be able to do it in real life, but it does mean that I will have my ECO a lot more under control.
This cable is very highly recommended!
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