Proficiency Sim. In corpus, you had to sign up to use the sim when people weren't scheduled for them. If weren't slots, you were SOL.
Whiting's T-34 Sim Boneyard is usually wide open. Does anyone know what's going to happen to all of those simulators?
The control consoles are probably going to Cape Canaveral to go back into the Apollo Program spare parts room where they came from in 1975.
Much like phrogs in the boneyard, I'd imagine those get picked over for parts in Corpus's old sims. I think about half of them were the old style with monochrome monitors and no GPS/NACWS in the cockpit.
Believe it or not, most of the T-34s were pretty new. When I left in 2008, there were only about 4 "old school" hydraulic sims left and I think all of them had the computer screen/mouse controls. I never saw a sim w/out GPS/NACWS, which makes sense since the only non-NACWS aircraft were in the fleet and not at the TRACOM.
I've walked through the Whiting sim bays and they had a lot more of the gucci new T-34 sims with color operator consoles, and only a few of the older style with monochrome monitors. The older ones were all secured, probably because they're not needed. Plus those dedicated CPT trainers. In TW4 we had 3 of the "newer" style sims with color monitors at the operator consoles and GPS/NACWS inside the cockpit. The other 4 or 5 were the older school style with monochrome operator consoles. Six pack was on the right, but NACWS was just a DME display. I forget if the GPS worked in the older ones. No dedicated CPTs, just the statics. The older motion sims were "finicky", to say the least.
On the older ones in Corpus the GPS was pre-programmed IIRC. There was a preloaded Flight Plan and data set from 2007 or something like that. You could only load up what they had for the I2505 GPS-sim. Remember trainer 13? The dead-zone was a good two inches from center and the trim changed every time you moved the stick.
It is still tormenting, however last I was in there they were not using it for BI's or RI's because the seat "somehow" broke all the way down, maybe it will stay that way.
Damn, the GPS was fully functional in the Whiting sims. You could have a pretty easy flight if you knew how to set it up, and if the instructor forgot to turn it off.
I had a CSI do this to me when I was an IP doing an EP sim. It ticked me off because the sim isn't meant to be an instrument check with no GPS, and if I was in the real aircraft and had an EP in the goo, I'd be using every available tool at my disposal. Whether in the sim or in the plane, if I was shooting something OTHER than a GPS approach, I would always spin out the FAC on the GPS in OBS mode. It gave a quick glance look to see which way you should be turning and how far off you were from the FAC, which is helpful on an ILS where you're just floating out there in space until your needle comes alive. I had forgotten about that instructor doing that to me until your post and it's pissed me off all over again.
Yeah right. Trim for level flight, glance down at your approach plate, look back up...and you're damn near inverted.
That is why it was fun. It was a challanging machine... LOL! Like 2 sec glances between approach plate and intruments.. LOL!
I think I mentioned this in another thread at some point, but on the older 2B37 sims, if you wiggled the stick, basically giving the "computer" some sort of stick input every second or two, it would fly "better." Apparently it was designed to put in it's own inner-loop input if no user input was detected. The intent was so that studs had to learn how to constantly trim. Or so I was told by a CSI guy when I was an IP.
We called it 'stirring the pot'. You'd move the stick in small circles, letting it softly bounce off the edge of the null zone.
