Aero Mail 2013/07
If you have a letter to the editor, please submit it to MA Editor-in-Chief Jay Smith at 5161 E. Memorial Dr., Muncie, IN 47302, or email [email protected].
Flight Simulator Roundup
Good evening, Jay,
Just finished reading your article on flight simulators. Very interesting and a great article. However, for those who can't afford one of the three you wrote about, here is my solution.
I have been using ClearView Flight Simulator for over three years. I don't know if you've ever heard of that simulator, but it only costs $39. You do have to provide the transmitter, and my Esky transmitter works perfectly. If you have time, take a look at it at http://rcflightsim.com.
— Rex Williams Jr. Mather Aerospace Modelers Sacramento, California
Competition Driven
Dear Gordon Buckland,
I agree completely with your assertion in the May issue of MA that competition is indeed driving RC sailplane design and technology. But I question, where are we driving to? Does the average soaring enthusiast really want or need a $2,000 carbon super ship that launches to the moon and can be dropped like a pile driver, but that any old SD7037 relic can thermal right through? Yes, we have arrived at this point because of competition, but all our contest formats are fundamentally flawed, emphasizing launching and dropping instead of thermal soaring.
What we desperately need is a contest format with a graduated high-launch penalty where the pilot who maxes from the lowest launch wins the round. And a sliding requirement in the landing task that forces the pilot to control both the position and the energy of the plane. Then competition will drive the development of as-yet-unimagined super thermal machines instead of the launch rockets of today.
— Mark Hauschild
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
