I think it would be amazing to have a flight simulator that I could hand off to potential camera operators and have them learn the basics and get fine tuned in the skill of camera operating. Just something that acts as a FPV view in which you can use your joy sticks to practice tracking objects. etc. Does this exist? or is there a flight simulator that could kinda work for this? If not, maybe a software engineer would build one. I would be willing to pay well for it, as it seems like I sacrifice a lot of time training camera operators. Thanks!
I've been in conversation with one of the existing flight sim vendors and extolling the virtues of such a feature. However, I don't believe it's happened yet -- but it would be an excellent feature, IMO. Andy.
Awesome Andy, your one step ahead of me. Please let them know that there is a need for it, and it is relevant now and will be more so in the future. Let me know if they decide to add the feature to the software, and if you need me to be a second voice requesting the feature I will happily do so!
I've made those points, Chris. I'm in the same situation that you are in -- spending too much time training camera ops and having to burn actual flight time to get them the hand-eye-control coordination that they need to make certain camera moves. I've gone so far as to take the gimbal off the Cinestar and suspend it, and then put a tennis ball on a stick to simulate a "target" and let the camera op practice tilting and panning as I move the stick around the gimbal to simulate moving targets. That at least allows the camera op the ability to learn how to track, and help me adjust the expo/dual rate values to make it easier for them. Andy
It's pretty good for learning how to do what I call the "Gomez" manouver -- where you fly towards something on the ground, overfly, and then fly away and you want to keep it in frame by doing a blended tilt down/rapid pan/tilt up. (My primary camera op's last name is Gomez....so no deep meaning to it. I was going to call it the Crazy Ivan after the movie Red October -- who knows it may already have a name....anyway, it's now known as doing a Gomez™ around my place...... Andy.
use aerosim simulator you can buy it in mikrokopter store or may be in quadrocopter.us it has an fpv (did not tried, but saw this feature in a menu list)
Well Andy that is much more advanced than my requirement that my camera ops play Battle Field 4. Being a gunner in one of those helicopters is great for teaching them how to track a moving object from a moving object. Joking really, but I have seen a correlation between good ops and how much time they spend playing video games.
a camera opp simulator would be a godsend!.. currently i just put the gimbal on a home made motorised zip line and get people to track objects whilst its zipping up and down.. massive ball ache but easier on batteries than flying!