The Tao of Walking Ridge

One of my back burner project is to build a cool retro RC airplane.  I’m still working on which one, but decided to start to get the skills ready so I could crash less at the flying field.  The newest sims have great graphics, but I’d be happy with just something that would let me learn the reflexes, in particular getting used to reversed controls when flying at myself and adjusting the elevator in a turn.

Before I started using Linux, I picked up an old old copy of RealFlight for the dark side with a “transmitter” controller that had a USB adapter.  It was supposed to work with Win2K and WinXP, but I couldn’t get it to work with either.  Finally after much searching I finally found an open source RC flight trainer for Linux that was really hard to find, but worked remarkably well for the purpose of honing your RC flying skills for model airplanes.

Visit the CRRC wiki homepage to read about it.  I run Ubuntu Hardy Heron which is a debian based Linux, and for a Linux program not in the add in menu of Ubuntu, installation could not possibly be easier.  Download the .deb file (I downloaded to my desktop).  Right click on the icon of the file, choose open with Gdebi package manager.  Simple as that.

Once installed, the .bin file (like a .exe in windows) is in the /usr/bin/ directory.  I just double click on it and the program runs.  Great for handlaunch glider practice, the default launched up a few feet and moving like a thrown glider. Another location let you fly slope by the ocean.

Best of all, my controller worked in the game, and configuring it was easy.  Hit esc for the set up menu.  I would expect that controllers and old software packages for the dark side are still available cheap on eBay.  Find one with a USB adapter, download this software, and practice.  No photorealistic graphics, but no worries about graphics card compatibility or an empty wallet either.

       - the Muse

Tags: Linux

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2009 at 11:24 pm and is filed under Journal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.