Phoenix Simulator

Written by Ashley Davis Sunday, 10 September 2006 00:00

Every self-respecting helicopter pilot is the proud owner of a simulator. Usually this starts with a free download such as FMS and from there escalates to a serious commitment of cash. The potential for learning and the savings from not crashing whilst practising easily offset the outlay to purchase a good simulator. The acknowledged best helicopter simulator has for some time been Reflex XTR. This simulator was released some time ago now and its development since release has been mostly scenery and model upgrades. Anyone who has used this simulator for any period of time will be aware that there are some issues with the flight model. However, this has always been overlooked as there isn't anything better on the market.

Enter Phoenix, a new simulator touting to be the best helicopter and fixed wing simulator on the market. Certainly amongst the current crop of simulators it is the cheapest at £80. The UK distributor is www.skylinemodels.co.uk

As with any new simulator these days it boasts photorealistic scenery and models. In order to displace the current Best of Breed it also needs a superb flight model. Phoenix claim to have both and in this review I will investigate the robustness of that claim.

So, what do you get for your cash?

Opening the box there is a CD and the customary " dongle ". This device plugs between a transmitter and the USB port on a computer. Part way down this cable is a box of tricks that acts as copy protection for the software. You must have a proprietary "dongle" in order for the software to function correctly. This is also where we see the first improvement over Reflex XTR. The dongle for Phoenix has the box of tricks halfway down the cable. This means that an ordinary USB plug goes into the computer port. With Reflex the dongle is on the end of the cable and always interferes and obstructs other USB cables trying to plug into the computer. This has always annoyed me with Reflex and so I was glad to not see the same approach with the Phoenix cable.

On the CD is the simulator software and the manual.

Installation of the programme runs automatically from inserting the CD. As part of the installation the software upgrades the Direct X software to the latest level. Once installed a reboot is required. It is also important to make sure that the latest graphics drivers are installed for the graphics card.

Once installed the simulator can be started from the icon placed on the desktop or in the start menu.

In this review I will work through the functionality of the simulator a step at a time with pictures to illustrate the various functions and features. TrexTuning is a site about helicopters therefore I will be concentrating on the helicopter elements of the simulator rather than fixed wing. Below is an in-flight picture to give you a taste of what's in store.

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System Settings

The system settings menu is there to setup all of the global settings for the simulator. This includes configuring the type of transmitter used, the controls and their calibration, the graphical settings and sound settings, the units of measure used and the language. The simulator can also be shut down from the system menu.

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Simulation Settings

The simulation settings allow control of the main simulation itself. This includes setting wind strength, thermals, simulation speed. The background scenery, type of aircraft and aircraft settings can all be altered from this menu. The simulation menu also includes the flight recorder, flight viewer and the various demonstrations and tutorials supplied with the simulator.

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View Settings

The view settings allow tailoring of what is shown during the simulation. Most of the menu items are toggled on or off and show different information or visual effects when switched on.

The auto zoom function automatically keeps the model a reasonable size on the screen by zooming in. This can be useful when learning as the model will frequently get away and become an uncontrollable speck on the screen. However, this setting can be misleading when performing autorotations as it is difficult to judge how quickly the model is dropping with this feature turned on.

The rest of the settings turn on various visual aids such as a compass showing wind direction, visual indicators for thermals (a bunch of arrows pointing upwards), a variometer (so you know if you are going up or down in a thermal) which also has audio notification of up/down, streamers (like having a red ribbon tied to the back of your aircraft), the orientation of split screen mode (horizontal or vertical). The last item is a toggle to show a graphical representation of a transmitter. This allows you to record your flight and the person viewing it can see your stick movement's.

Here I discovered a bug in that on playback the throttle stick is showing the throttle settings rather than the collective pitch settings. Hopefully Phoenix will fix this shortly with a patch.

I also noticed the wind compass seems to have a mind of it's own and doesn't seem to point anywhere that represents the actual wind direction. Not giant problems but hopefully fixed soon.

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Some of the visual aids turned on.....

Notice the rather nice water effects :)

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Competition Settings

The competition menu allows you to select from five different competitions. The first of these is balloon bursting. Here you have to guide your model around bursting as many balloons as possible in the allotted time. The second competition is two player only and puts streamers on the back of each aircraft. Each player and has to try to cut the ribbon on the back of the other players aircraft. Thermal gliding is just keeping airborne for as long as possible using thermals. Precise autorotation draws a target on the ground and you have two autorotate and land as close as possible to the centre of the target. Spot landing is the same but for fixed wing.

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Training Settings

The training menu provides hovering and autorotation training for helicopters. For fixed wing it offers torque training (prop hanging) and landing training. Each of these options opens up a small on-screen control panel that allows you to configure the settings for your training session. More on this later.

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Layouts

There are two layouts, one draws a landing target the other sets out F3C markers for hovering practice. Either one can be used on any of the sceneries provided with the program.

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Configuring System Settings

If you select system settings from the main menu then you will be presented with the dialog box below. This allows you to change the screen resolution and whether the program runs full-screen or in a window. Also within this dialog box are the various quality settings and frame rate settings which allow you to tailor the quality of the simulation to match the capabilities of your computer system. Personally I am not running a very powerful graphics card and Phoenix seems to run remarkably smoothly even with high quality settings.

This dialog box also has some sound settings and the main volume control within it. Wind sound provides rather nice blade noises during an autorotation. The "glows" setting allows the night flying effects.

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Configuring Units

This option from the system settings allows you to configure all of the various measures and their units. Whatever is selected here will be used throughout the program for the various settings, views and information pages. As an example setting velocity to miles per hour will update the simulation dialog box such that all wind strength figures are in miles per hour.

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Simulation Setup

This is where the main settings for the overall simulation are configured. The speed that the simulation runs at is defined here and altering the slider will increase or decrease the speed at which the simulation runs. Slowing the simulation down can help beginners with their learning curve.

This dialog box also contains the weather settings for wind, thermals and turbulence. Further down, airplane smoke can be turned on in a variety of colours and the density of smoke can be configured. I found that turning on white smoke with 100% density was very similar to flying a helicopter using Magnum fuel.

The pilots start position can also be selected from this dialog box. Changing this value alters where the model will be placed at simulation start-up. As an example, if you are flying a seaplane on the seaside scenery then you will want to configure the start position for the seaplane as on the water.

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Selecting Scenery

This one really doesn't require any explanation. This dialog box is quite simply for changing from one scenery to another.

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Another in-flight screen shot, note the transmitter display in the left-hand corner.....

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Selecting Aircraft

The select aircraft dialog box allows the user to select exactly which model they would like to use within the simulation. All the models are listed down the left-hand side in small arrow shaped drop-down menus. The menus are simply expanded and then you click on the model of your choice. When you are finished you click the finish button and the selected model will be used within the simulation. This dialogue box has configuration parameters for multiplayer mode such that the various pilots start positions can be configured.

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Editing Model Attributes

Model editing is one of the very nice features within the Phoenix simulator. There are various pages for each model containing all of the parameters that define how the model flies in the simulation. These parameters can be changed directly in the dialog box or alternatively by placing a marker alongside each parameter Phoenix will allow you to configure this setting in flight. Each item that is marked will be displayed on the main simulation screen with a slider. The mouse can be used to drag the slider one way or another and this directly affects that parameter for the model currently flying. This makes model editing extremely straightforward as real-time effects can be felt as each parameter is changed. Screenshot showing inflight editing parameters below.

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The first page in the model editing menu is displayed below. This is mainly concerned with the physical parameters of the model, what motors and servos are installed and some settings around governors, gyros, what rotation and multi blade gyro compensation. This is the main screen for modifying the way a model flies and most of the very important parameters are listed on this page.

All of the parameters can be modified and hovering over each parameter with the mouse will give you a short explanation of what this parameter does. The manual also contains an appendix explaining each of the configuration parameters.

Once you have modified a model the program will automatically create a new version of the model and save it under a name of your choice.

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The second dialog box in the model attributes is for fine tuning the parameters set on the first page. So the basic idea is that you get the parameters as close as you can on the page above and then use the page below to fine tune those settings. Again this works by either directly modifying the parameters on this page or alternatively clicking the check boxes so that you can alter these parameters within the main simulation whilst you are flying.

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The third page in the model attributes defines all of the parameters for the main rotor. Here we can set the maximum and minimum pitch range, governor rotor speed, head damping, cyclic response and so forth. The main rotor diameter can be changed here as well as the main rotor chord. The settings in the "lift" box control how the model reacts to various forces such as ground effect, vortex lift and also how the model reacts to induced forces such as tail rotor inputs and cyclic controls.

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The fourth dialog box is for modifying the tail rotor. Here we can set the tail rotor RPM, tail rotor diameter, pitch settings, gyro sensitivity and pirouette rate. Additionally the surface area for the tail fins can also be configured which will affect how the model flies in backwards flight.

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The last dialog box is probably the least important in that here you can define the characteristics of your undercarriage. This includes friction settings, gear spring and how robust the undercarriage will be.

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Recording & Recorded Flights

Like most other simulators Phoenix also provides the facility to record flights and play them back. There are several flights that have been recorded and are available for playback. These come pre-installed with the software. The flight recorder can be used to record new flights and these files can be sent to other Phoenix owners for playback. The flight viewer can be seen in the top right of the screenshot below. It works very much like any other software based movie player. The flight recorder looks almost identical except that it has a record button instead.

When viewing a recorded flight it can be stopped, paused or played back and various different speeds (faster or slower). Additionally with the transmitter display switched on the stick movement's for the flight can also be seen on the screen.

The version of Phoenix currently being shipped does have a bug in the transmitter display during playback. The problem is that the transmitter throttle stick shows the throttle settings rather than the collective pitch settings when playing back. I reported this bug to Phoenix and they have provided me with a fix which will be available in the first update/patch that will be released.

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Tutorials / Demonstrations

The tutorials and demonstrations are just more recordings of predefined manoeuvres. However in each case the transmitter sticks are on display so you can see what the pilot was doing. The screenshot below shows all of the available tutorials and demonstrations.

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Training Mode

The training mode allows you to perform training with helicopters and fixed wing. With helicopters there is hover training (both normal and inverted). The training will also allow you to position the helicopter in any orientation (nose in, side on etc etc). Helicopter training has a separate option for autorotation training. In this mode you can set the height and distance that you want to start the autorotation from and also what orientation (normal or inverted). Autorotation training paints a target on the scenery for you to try to land as close to as possible.

Training for fixed wing takes the form of landing training, which is very similar to the autorotation training for helicopters. There is also torque training (prop hanging). This is very similar to hovering and therefore the training options are very similar to that used for the helicopter hovering training.

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Fixed Wing

In this review I am not going to concentrate heavily on fixed wing capabilities. However I will point out that there is a huge selection of aircraft to choose from including electric, jets, 3-D, performance and scale models. I did spend some time flying the fixed wing aircraft and was quite surprised that the flight model used for the aircraft is actually extremely good. I particularly enjoyed the shockflyer which can be flown on the indoor scenery. This model flies very realistically and is excellent practice if you are a shockflyer fan. Reflex XTR has always been very disappointing with regard to the flight model for fixed wing, Phoenix is most definitely not in this category and does an outstanding job. I would say it is comparable to Aerofly simulator for the accuracy and flight characteristics of the various models.

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Scale Helicopters

Phoenix includes a very nice selection of scale helicopters for the scale enthusiast. These fly very differently to the buzzard 50 performance model. As an example none of the scale models have a heading lock gyro but fly in rate mode instead. This allows the tail to weathercock nicely and makes performing a nice scale flight easier.

With the scale models it is very easy to feel the effects of wind and the movement of the model through the air within the flight dynamics. One of my favourites is pictured below. The Sea King has a nice retractable undercarriage but will also float on water. Therefore you can take off and land on the water as well as taxi it around on the beach using its undercarriage. Great stuff.

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Water & Water Effects

With the introduction of scenery including water Phoenix have added water effects. The whole surface of the water does not move but when you fly a model over the water you can see ripples and spray from the rotor wash. If you crash in the water you get a satisfying splash and your model sinks. This leaves a very nice effect and I spent quite some time delivering models to a watery grave :)

Helicopters and fixed wing models with floats can land on the water and take off from it.

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Indoor Flying

There is one scenery included which is of a sports hall. The hall is quite large and allows a variety of models to be flown within it. There are a number of indoor models included and my particular favourite as mentioned earlier was the shockflyer. There are two small electric helicopters provided, one is remarkably similar to a T-Rex the other is smaller a bit like a Hummingbird or Blade. The perspective in the hall works very well and it is not too difficult to judge where your model is in relation to the walls and ceiling.

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Night Flying

A unique feature with this simulator is the option to do night flying. In this mode you must select the night flying scenery, which obviously is very dark. Having done this you select the night flying model of your choice. There are two of these, one helicopter and one fixed wing model.

That's all there is to it. It is very difficult to explain what this looks like but suffice to say it is exactly like flying with night blades and glow ropes on the real thing. Hopefully the screenshots below will give some indication as to what to expect from this particular flight mode.

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Training Helicopter

Phoenix have included a training helicopter. This is worth mentioning as this helicopter is very stable and more easy to fly than most of the other models. It sports a training undercarriage which works extremely well, just like on a real model, stopping the model from tipping over easily. Collective response on this model is also very soft and it does not have a heading hold gyro so for learning to circuit the tail will weathercock nicely. This is exactly what is required for somebody using a simulator before going out and flying their own model for the first time.

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Scythe

If you take a look at the picture below you might recognise this helicopter.

It is named the Scythe and it is not difficult to see that this model is directly comparable to a T-Rex. In fact if you look at the physical parameters in the model editor it is not difficult to see what Phoenix were trying to achieve with this model. I have agreed to spend some time working on the physical parameters for this model to help Phoenix get it as close as possible to the real thing. That's not to say that it doesn't already fly like a T-Rex as the implementation is already passable but I find the model too twitchy and unstable. The lateral drag setting needs lowering from 0.102 as it is far too high and causes the model to fly oddly, I've set mine to 0 initially but I'll find the right value. A little tweaking here and there won't hurt ;)

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Buzzard 50

The best implemented model on this simulator ....

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This model is probably the one that has had the most configuration work performed upon it. The flight characteristics of this model have been based upon the Knight 50 from Compass. Specifically, it has been modelled upon the Knight 50 belonging to Ade Law, who has been one of the beta testers working with Phoenix to make the flight model as accurate as possible. Ade is a well-known 3-D flyer in the UK and usually does demonstration flights of the Knight 50 at 3-D Masters. The Buzzard 50 has been my favourite model to fly within the simulator as it is very well implemented.

That concludes the features tour. Phoenix has a very large number of features and options and I do not intend to cover every single one. Hopefully the above sections give an overall feel for what you get. I have not covered the multiplayer functionality as this requires two transmitters and interfaces. However should you wish to do it Phoenix can connect up to four pilots and have them all flying on the screen at once. There are various split screen modes to enable this.

Flight Model

The success or failure of a simulator comes down to the accuracy of the flight model.

It doesn't matter if the scenery is photorealistic or if the models are beautiful, if they do not fly correctly the simulator is not doing its job. Phoenix clearly has the photorealistic scenery, it has beautiful models, it also has an extremely good user interface that is logical and easy to use. This is all great but what about the flight model?

I'm very pleased to say that the flight model is one of the best I have used. It is certainly just as accurate as Reflex XTR and I would go as far to say that it is better. However, the improvements over Reflex XTR are not huge. Certainly with Phoenix gravity works properly which has always been one of my gripes with Reflex. Phoenix also flies more accurately in backwards inverted flight.

On top of this Phoenix allows you to configure the model without having to have a degree in physics to understand what it is you are changing. This means the standard models (which incidentally already fly extremely well) can be tweaked very quickly to be just like your own models.

Having spent a long time flying the various models the only comment I would make is that like all the other simulators the model does sometimes fly too perfectly when you know in real life you probably wouldn't have got away with that manoeuvre. However, there will always be a gap between simulators and real life and for me Phoenix has got close enough for it not to be a concern.

Sound

All simulators have sound effects and these at worst are implemented as an annoying buzzing. Moving up to some of the better simulators sound effects are included for blade noise and movement of the model through the air (such as the whistling noise that gliders make).

The sound effects in Phoenix are definitely one of its strong points. During a 3-D flight blade noises can be heard during the stressful manoeuvres. The blade sound effects are most apparent when doing an autorotation. In this instance you can hear whether your blades are speeding up or slowing down based on your control inputs. This is an excellent addition to the flight model and works extremely well in adding to the simulator experience.

Technical Problems

With any new product (particularly software) there is always going to be a few teething problems whilst the product matures. My experience so far with Phoenix support has been good. However, this review would not be complete without mentioning a couple of issues.

Firstly, there have been problems with using the JR 2610 transmitter with the supplied dongle. Phoenix have identified the issue and have a fix, anyone with a 2610 transmitter and an early shipped version of Phoenix should contact Phoenix in order to resolve this issue. All new stock has the problem resolved.

Secondly, the bug I have already reported and discussed earlier regarding the playback of recorded flights and how the transmitter display interprets the stick movements. This will be fixed in the first patch, I've tested the fix and it works perfectly.

System Requirements

Phoenix places very low demand on the machine specifications, the minimum specification on the box is as follows:

 

Windows XP
Microsoft DirectX 9C
1 GHz Pentium or AMD Athlon
Geforce 4200 / ATI 9600 with 128 MB memory
100% DirectX compatible soundcard
256 MB RAM
750 MB free disk space
CD/DVD (for install)
USB 1.1/2.0 port

Conclusion

Phoenix have clearly taken stock of what simulators are available on the market and analysed their strengths and weaknesses. In this regard Phoenix has improved on the other simulators in various different areas. When reviewing a simulator the easy thing to do is just to look at the flight model. If you take this approach with Phoenix then you can see that Phoenix have probably got the best flight model available. The difference between it and the next best simulator (if you are just comparing flight models) is not huge. However, just taking this approach does not do justice to the other improvements that Phoenix brings.

Phoenix to me represents the best simulator on the market. This is not just down to the flight model, if it were then owners of simulators like Reflex XTR would not have a compelling reason to buy Phoenix. When you consider the whole package, the excellent user interface, the ability to simulate helicopters and fixed wing extremely well, the training and competition modes, multiplayer features, model editing interface, in-flight model parameter changing, then you start to see why the simulator is a cut above the rest. Lastly Phoenix is two thirds of the price of its closest rival. If the features and flight model was not a compelling reason for placing Phoenix on your shopping list then the price tag should be.

Phoenix comes highly recommended by TrexTuning and my old faithful copy of Reflex XTR has been marked for an appearance on eBay.

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