It is possible to use FlightGear by just using the mouse and keyboard, but it isn’t much like flying a real plane. A joystick with a throttle and twist will also do the job with a bit more realism. When I was using Microsoft Flight Simulator a couple years ago, my wife bought for me (let me buy) a FlightSim Yoke and Rudder Pedals from CH Products. That and some real flight navigation charts is what really turned this from a trivial game into a simulation.
I hooked up my yoke to my desk and plugged it and the rudder pedals into my USB port. To start up FlightGear, I opened up Konsole and entered fgfs which starts up the default scenario. I’m sitting in a nice little Cessna in San Francisco, California. I try moving the hat switch, nothing. I move the throttle forward, nothing. I try wiggling everything, and nothing happens. Shoot. Not as easy as I thought it would be. I need a mechanic.
I rotate my 3D desktop to another desktop, and open up Mandriva Control Center, this requires entering my root password. Then I click on “Browe and Configure Hardware.” It takes about 30 seconds to scan my laptop for various hardware devices. When it is finished I see that it has found my rudder pedals and my yoke and they are listed in the “Other” category. Mandriva just needed to be told that I had plugged in something it needed to look for. I rotate back around to my FlightGear window and now the hat switch works, as well as the throttle and suddenly I was hurtling down the runway and lifting off. I flew around the airport and landed, and the yoke and pedals worked perfectly, even the toe brakes.
I was surprised I didn’t even have to calibrate the yoke or pedals. I checked it in my OS by opening “Configure your Desktop” and then “Keyboard and Mouse” and then Joystick. Both devices are listed in a drop down menu, and I checked each one and they are already well calibrated. If yours aren’t there is a wizard you can use.
I also tried plugging in my Cyborg 3d Gold joystick. Mine is made by Tsinghua TongFang and was bought in Asia. I think it is a copy of a Saitek joystick. While I suspect Saitek’s version is already calibrated correctly, my joystick isn’t and I have to run the joystick calibration wizard before I use that each time.
If you don’t have a yoke and rudder pedals, then a joystick like my Cyborg 3D Gold works fine. Twisting it to right and left acts as rudder pedals. With this you don’t have a lever for your fuel mixture and you can’t use differential breaking without the keyboard, but you can still have a good flight experience. Be real good to your wife though and hang a picture of CH product yoke and rudder pedals next to your computer, and occassionally make comments that you are trying to decide between buying a real Cessna, or just buying the simulation yoke and rudder pedals. Also it helps if Father’s Day or your birthday is coming up soon!
Technorati Tags: yoke, rudder pedals, flightgear, flight simulation
