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Dave Brown Products RCFS 2001 Flight Simulator
By Frank Granelli
Dave Brown has been U.S. National Precision Aerobatic Champion and is one of the “legends” of model Aviation. His company offers those “hard-to-find” accessories that advanced sport and competition flyers need. Items such as ultra-light wheels, affordable aluminum spinners, and a simple, practical and inexpensive fueling system (see Sport Aviator’s review of this fueling system) are just a few that most model pilots don’t know they need until they see them for the first time. Then it is hard to fly without them!
Flight Simulators are discussed in general in Sport Aviator’s “Way Up High in the Virtual Sky” article. This article series will examine every simulator in detail. Not to compare them, but to highlight the features of each. Since Dave Brown Products was probably the first company to produce an RC Flight Simulator, we will examine theirs first.
Photo 1
Dave Brown Products RC simulator comes in a small box but includes everything you need to soar into the virtual skies. The program itself is on a CD-Rom and includes 14 different aircraft representing all the major RC types. A five-channel “transmitter” with “dual rates” on elevator and aileron controls is also included. The fifth channel is used to operate retractable landing gear.
Computer Requirements
This simulator has minimal computer requirements. The Central Processor (CPU) needs to only be a Pentium 266 MMX or equivalent. The RCFS 2001 is compatible with Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME, and XP operating systems. The software only uses 16 MB of RAM and takes up just 50 MB of disk space. A 3-D graphics accelerator card, with at least 4MB memory and Direct X support, a gameport and at least a 4X CD-ROM drive round out the computer requirements.
These very minimal requirements allow almost any PC-compatible computer made in the last decade to run this program in the basic graphic mode. Surprisingly, the basic graphics are very good and not that much different from the “picture quality” graphics available with a slightly more advanced computer. Using just a Pentium 400 with 64 MB RAM, the same operating system choices and a 16 MB graphics accelerator yields photo-quality flying site graphics. A sound card is also a good thing to get the most out of any RC simulator.
Photo 1A
If your computer has only USB connections without a game port, you will need the Radio Shack USB adaptor No. 26-164 (photo 1A). The setting should be adjusted to no. 4 “wheel” and the USB plugged into your computer. The SimStar “transmitter” plug attaches to the adaptor’s game port input.
If there is another game controller connected to your computer, it must be removed before using this simulator if the operating system is Windows XP. The program requires that the SimStar controller be the first one listed in the controller inventory. XP seems to make that adjustment itself and places the SimStar in second position.
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