In response to the dramatic rise in interest worldwide in simulated
flying using personal computers (with programmes such as Microsoft
Flight Simulator), the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) invited
leaders of simulated flying organisations to a historic meeting in
Paris on 8th December 1997. Four FAI founder members - France, Germany,
Italy and Spain - were represented and the Netherlands submitted a
detailed report.
The meeting, held at the prestigious headquarters of the Aero Club de
France - which next year celebrates its centenary as the world's oldest
national aero club - agreed that the Fédération Aéronautique
Internationale should help develop international contest rules for
simulated flying and should encourage the formation, within its national
member organisations, of simulated flying groups.
A FAI Simulated Flying Working Party was established comprising
representatives from FAI Air Sport Commissions (to ensure that simulated
flying competitions remain as close to reality as possible) and leaders
of national simulated flying federations. The group will assist in
developing contest rules and defining levels of personal achievement. A
report will be made to the FAI Council in May 1998.
A FAI Simulated Flying mailing list has been established. Anyone
interested may subscribe by sending an email message to:
simflying-info-request@fai.org, mentioning "subscribe" in the subject
line.
THE FUTURE OF SIMULATED FLYING IN SPORT AVIATION
An Interview with Alvaro de Orleans-Borbon
First Vice President, Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
(Reprinted by kind permission of "Volare", Italian monthly aviation magazine)
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- Question:
-
The "big news" of the last months is that FAI is preparing to
recognise Virtual Flying as a truly new airsport discipline. What does
it practically mean ? How is FAI organising itself ? What is the foreseeable
timing for the official recognition and which will be the successive
steps ?
- Answer:
-
FAI is continuosly monitoring many aspects of existing and prospective
airsports, and it has now become obvious that serious simulated
(international) flying competitions and records are becoming technically
feasible in the near future.
FAI's airsport organisation operates through the FAI International Sporting
Commissions, one for each of the nine currently recognized airsport
disciplines; this is where the rules for international competitions and
record categories are constantly being updated by delegates
designated by many different countries. In over 80 countries the National
Aero Clubs or Federations, members of FAI, organise or supervise
international competitions and certify world records according to
these rules.
Working groups for virtual flying are now forming in those FAI
Commissions that have a direct interest in it, like General Aviation,
Aerobatics and Gliding. These working groups will be coordinated
by a central Virtual Flying group, and this process should take a few
months. One of the first tasks is to discuss and prepare rules for
international competitions and records, a task helped by the
immediate access to the well tested FAI rules of real flying
competitions.
In addition, good contacts have been established with the leading
producer of flight simulation software, in order to enhance even
more its suitability for sporting and competition purposes.
- Question:
-
People are talking of a new "revolution", equal or greater than that of
Aeromodelling and, more recently, Hang Gliding. Your opinion ?
- Answer:
-
I agree with the word "revolution". Simulated flying has a revolutionary
capacity to reproduce quite realistically the experience of flying,
at such a lower cost that it will make this form of flying affordable
to a much larger number of persons all over the world.
This, in turn, will promote and open up the world of real flying, arousing
in many more people the desire to try out the real thing, and increasing
participation in real flying.
The "revolution" is caused by the extraordinary amount of cheap
computing power, still growing monthly, now offered by the modern
personal computer, by the availability and the extraordinary market
acceptance of cheap but increasingly realistic flight simulation
software, and by the fast establishment of a new "flying community"
through the internet.
This continuing progress will soon allow serious international
competitions, a possibility that FAI decided to support as a
potentially new airsport discipline.
Millions of people, including active airline pilots, are already
practicing it at high levels of sophistication.
The revolution is well on its way!
- Question:
-
What is the sporting [competition] potential of simulated flying ? Can
"leading" countries be singled out in this discipline ? Can one estimate
numbers about the worldwide "population" of virtual pilots ?
- Answer:
-
As mentioned before, during many decades FAI competition and record
rules have been refined in many disciplines, and many of these rules
are in principle applicable to simulated flying competitions and records.
The actual FAI rules for real competitions are one good starting
point to prepare the rules for simulated flying competitions.
FAI's viewpoint is that only the community actually engaged in
simulated flying should decide which competitions will
ultimately become popular. FAI will support the decision making
process with its organisation and general experience in
international rule making, but will never dictate "a priori"
what types of competitions should be flown in cyberspace - this
must be left to grass roots representation from the simulated
flying community.
- Question:
-
Spring 2001: 1st "Simulated Air Rally" World Championship. Let us imagine
we are already there: how would it take place ?
- Answer:
-
I am already sure about one detail: the tension and the sweaty palms
will be identical to those of today's real rally championships...
Windows 98 will introduce some little known, but critically important
features for simulated flying: for instance, up to nine monitors may
be used concurrently. This means that three low cost 14" for left,
center and right windscreen views plus one, say, 17" lower monitor
for the instrument panel, while costing less than a single 21" monitor,
will add another great step towards improved realism and user
satisfaction.
I mention this only as an example that the progress of virtual flying
is so fast that in 2001 the 2nd or 3rd Simulated Air Rally
World Championship may happen - maybe in 2001 we should be
already thinking of the Virtual Flying Championships at the 2nd
World Air Games?
Where and how: it is hard to anticipate whether a Virtual World
Championship will happen with all the simulators in one physical
place, like the finals in a World Chess Championship, or in
delocalised, distant flight clubs connected by the internet, but
remember that champions who win a virtual championship will
be as human as those winning a real flying contest, and want
their prize giving, cheering and champagne to be real, not virtual.
So I believe that the World Championship will likely be held in
one physical place, organised by one national association, even
if in cyberspace national boundaries have so little significance.
Difficulty: I do not think that the flight challenges and
techniques will be significantly different from those of a
"real" championship, and I believe that there will be little
difference in the human qualities that make a great real flying
champion vs those of a great virtual flying one.
Like in a real rally world championship, at one moment you will finally
climb into an airplane or simulator, start the engine, take off and fly.
- Question:
-
Will simulated flying have an impact on other airsports ? Is there a risk
that these will be penalised ?
- Answer:
-
In my opinion simulated flying will have a significant, very positive,
impact on other airsports, and I cannot see any penalisation. There will
be a number of people who will start with real flying, others, a larger
number, that will begin with simulated flying and later include or
switch to real flying, and the largest number will only practice
simulated flying.
In other words, I do not see a loss of future real pilots
"because virtual is good enough but so much cheaper", but rather a larger
number of pilots that would have never taken up real flying if they
had not discovered it through simulated flying.
- Question:
-
Could this form of (in its own way) "advanced" flying contribute to the
spreading of aeronautical education, and how could it do so?
- Answer:
-
Serious simulated flying requires practically the same knowledge
needed for real flying, although with a lower training cost. There is,
for instance, a good potential for cost-effective training of
airspace use up to, say, PPL standards, for microlight pilots,
enabling safer aispace sharing.
Flight simulation does not involve only piloting. A controller's job may
be simulated, and meterological simulation and forecasting, both local
and large scale, is feasible and would lead to better meteorological
understanding.
It is easy to simulate, for demonstration and practice, the changes of
flight characteristics due to center-of-gravity shifts, or even airframe
modifications. All this may lead to better pilots, real and virtual, in a
"learning by doing" context.
A reasonable fear could be that simulated flying will "overtake" actual
flying in a few years. The problem here is that, numerically, it may
already have happened, so that for those, like me, who like both forms
of flying, the best strategy is to help "anchor" simulated flying as
much as possible to real flying, so that they offer two perspectives
of the same thing.
More important is that virtual flying will introduce a wide section of the
public, young and old alike, to the basic principles of aviation. Not only
is this enriching in its own right for these individuals, but it will help
educate the public towards an understanding of why people fly, and
encourage more positive attitudes towards our activities in discussions
about airfields, airspace and the environment.
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