Fly or Drive

[EVVFCX]

Hi all fellow simmers,

Now the title may make you think of holidays or trips but I don't mean that.

From an early age, around 4,5 yr old I had an interest in racing cars and aircraft.
I made models my parents bought me and otherwise I was always playing on my scalextric (or train)

I applied for flight training with Britannia (now Thomson) but didn't get through.
I once applied to Jordon Racing team when they advertised for somebody to work on building electronic prototypes.

Now where am I going with this, I took up gliding because it was the only thing I could afford to do, I tried a few
flights in 2 seat Cessna's (152's ?) and did as much Karting as I could.

Now this year I was looking at trying a British Airways 737 simulator, until I do I will always wonder ' could I have
done it, could I have been a good pilot on airliners, maybe I will still try it one day.

What has won my enthusiasm was a session at Silverstone, driving one of the single seater cars at the Experience centre,
in my opinion, it's been the best thing I have ever done, I wasn't the fastest and by far not the slowest but I got the sensation
that I was racing.

I believe I'll get similar feeling from a sim, not sure.

With the driving, my adrenaline was so high I didn't feel the pain that was to come some 5 hours after leaving Silverstone,
my right elbow must have been banging on the cars frame and I had not noticed, I had one huge bruise the following day.

If anybody wants to look at my own driving video it's one youtube.com, search for ashton 09 or my ss15 external.

When I was looking at doing the flight sim, they say your not allowed to video in the sim cockpit but you can take pictures, does anybody
on here know why your not allowed to film your 'flight' experience.

regards


Steve

[OldAirmail]

I just watched your YouTube video.

What a thrill that must have been!

Sorry I can't help answer your question.

Have you called around to see if that prohibition is common? Mandatory?

Good luck anyway, and congratulations of your race track experience.

[EVVFCX]

It was a superb day altogether, can't wait till I go again.

I can watch my video and others over and over again.

Next thrill to come? sept 22nd, manchester uk to cancun Mexico, Dreamliner 787-8.
The wife is having kittens (as we sometimes say) she's not a good flyer at the best of times
and we had one very rough flight 2 years ago coming home from Turkey, our captain had not experienced anything so bad,
wife's meal drink etc went everywhere, missed her mouth tho :0
I'll never understand how that happened.

regards

Steve

ps
other place I like thrashing round a track is the International kart circuit in Tenerife but find it tiring

[BLAZE]

That was real cool to watch Steve. Thanks for sharing that. That's my favorate way to watch a race, in my opinion they don't
show enough of that view in race events.

Damn! you look like a whilie old veteran behind the wheel there Steve. Passing on the inside and the harder outside. Hell
you didn't even loose your composure when that cat went off the track on lap-3.

What's the blue flag mean? I can't remember.

[EVVFCX]

Hi Blaze,

Long time no chat, remember I once asked you if you had anything to do with a company called Blaze that I once worked for?

The blue flags mean that a faster car is behind you and they suggest that you back off on the throttle after the corner, move over to the
right hand side and give the car(s) chance to pass.
Only restriction was not to do it on the major corners such as at north corner at the entry to the long straight, the corner after the long straight, ( were the guy went off in front of me, and your right, it didn't bother me one bit, a quick glance to check what he was going to do, whether he would try and bring it back across, he was called into the pits after that to discuss if he knew what he did wrong) and the corner before the start of the pit straight. He had changed down without braking hence the smoke from the rear tyres (tires).

Annoyingly in some ways, there were times when I was quicker than the car in front especially on the corners or sequence of corners (The Esses in particular) but just didn't get enough speed on the straight to pass, at least one occasion you can see on the video that one car at one point by his/her own choice moved over but I wasn't close enough to get by well before the chicane.

There were several occasions were I was quicker than the car in front but because I couldn't get past at the time other cars were catching both of us.
You know the saying 'red flag to a bull' and 'road rage' , well look at the start of the long straight on lap 12 were I'm passed then on lap 13 I did my fastest lap.
If you combine all my fastest sections together, my quickest time that I could have done at that time was about 2 sec quicker.

Personally I felt the 'warm' up laps behind the pace car was too long, I would have preferred more time doing the driving without pace car, we all learn at different rates and main thing is safety and enjoy the experience, I think that is why it's so long.
Annoyingly today Thursday 19th it was half the price it was when I did it in early august.

For £35 you get a usb stick, 2gb I think it was, this is were the video is recorded, you also get the software that lets you study your laps, were you were braking etc. You can export the video in any size, resize the maps and dials, with or without dials and maps or lap time info, that's why you'll see various videos on youtube.

Well I think that's a book written above

The main thing is that it's just for fun, I know I'll be quicker next time with same weather conditions, and like my thoughts on flying, it's always
on my mind : what if, if you don't try you'll never know.

If I'm not on FSX or FS9 I'm on the ps3 on Gran Turismo 5 (or sniper elite v2) or I'm busy with radio control flying.

Basically I think it's all because I refuse to grow up - I'm 56! I'm also addicted to roller coasters.

regards

Steve

[Steve M]

I still like flight sims because I relax more. In a driver sim (such as the one in your excellent video) I tend to stay tensed up, more immersed, but not relaxed. I think.

[BLAZE]

Hi Steve, Yes it has been quite a while. I didn't know it was you there. I didn't put your name and your handle (2+2) together.
Last time we talked, you had "Tiger" as your avitar if memory serves. Now its just that default icon.

Its good to talk to ya again Steve. I would ask ya what ya been up to but we have a pretty good idea with the video, Lucky devil!
Nice drivin' there man!

Dwayne

[BLAZE]