[NTLUG:Discuss] AVCATT, was: Re: Linux Journal article

[Kevin E. Ivey]

Kevin E. Ivey wrote:

> I'll be flying one of those (if AVCATT is one of yours) in about a week.

Yeah - AVCATT uses my visual/sensor systems.

For the benefit of those who have no idea what AVCATT is - it's
the Army's reconfigurable/mobile helicopter flight simulator - we had to 
squeeze
six mini-simulators, a conference room and an instructor suite into a couple
of 18 wheel truck trailers!   It can be configured to simulate any of a half
dozen Army helicopters in battle situations with all the fancy electronics
and sensors simulated to a reasonable fidelity.   The graphics system 
alone has
(IIRC) something like six Linux-based PC's for each of the six 
simulators - using
1.4Ghz CPU's and GeForce-4 cards.  They all run a 
customised/stripped-down Gentoo
distro with five of the PC's being disklessly booted from the sixth.

The pilots wear 'virtual reality' style helmets - but with a fancy beam
splitter arrangement that lets them see their hands and the real-world
instrument panels at the same time as the synthetic view out of the window.

It's a *cool* toy!

> I can impart a user's point of view...

Be gentle!  :-)

> I sure wish the CH-47D(F) SFTS could be updated with some high-speed 
> (tm) Linux clusters!

They know where to come!

Howdy,

Here's an update:

The AVCATT is indeed a cool toy/tool.  The experience of flying a 
virtual helicopter with flight characteristics identical to the real 
thing is eerie at first, and then the "virtual" part is quickly forgotten.

I fly the full-motion, big-as-a-house Chinook helicopter simulator, and 
the realism on the AVCATT is equal to the bigger machine, despite the 
lack of motion simulation.  The seat does bump and vibrate, so there is 
a portion of the realism there...

The hardware for the system, a VR helmet made by Kaiser, is slightly 
clumsy and requires an extensive fitting procedure.  Overall, the 
fidelity (realism) is outstanding.

Probably the most fun of using the system is seeing the GNOME desktop 
with GIMP graphics on the big screen in the After Action Reveiew 
theater!  The playback modes and "God's eye" view is very cool.

I'll send some more impressions after my full-blown mission flight later 
this week.  Obviously, I can't discuss details of what I am doing, but 
I'll try to focus on the Linux-related aspects of the AVCATT system.

Out here,

keVIn