For years, 35+, I’ve looked at a computer screen running some sort of flight simulation software. Using a mouse certainly was a big improvement over a command line interface, clicking, dragging… scrollwheeling (is that a word?).
As the resolutions improved, more and more detail appeared. Then we could add more than one monitor. More views! This is improving. And then a few smart people figured out how to recreate 180 degrees or more of views out the window. This whole thing is becoming right downtown! (That’s an old guy phrase, meaning cool.) I stumbled on a live stream one day from a guy going by the name of BasementFlyGuy (ontheglideslope.net). He was streaming this new fangled thing called VR. People were in the chat asking about the details and he mentioned that the immersion factor was something beyond what he had experienced before. We were seeing what he was seeing on the stream, but he was seeing it in 3D, with depth cues, etc. because of the binocular vision system (exactly how our two eyes help us perceive depth in the real world).
So a few months later I’m in Portland, Oregon on business and I walk past an not-so-busy Microsoft store with a Oculus Rift demo just inside the sidewalk window. I thought to myself, “this might be a good opportunity to try this in person.” Into the store I go… headset on… and magically I’m transported to another world without ever leaving the store. What is this magical device on my head? Am I really in some virtual world, or in a store in Portland?
Well, that quick 10 minute demo became an expensive 10 minutes because this VR thing went straight to the top of the wishlist for me. A few weeks later and one shows up at my door, gets plugged into the PC, I start up X-Plane and magically I’m transported into, inside, seated in a simulated Cessna 172 at my local airport. Everything is to scale. I can look up, down, left, right, backwards, and it’s just as if I’ve rented this bird and I’m getting ready to fly. The immersion factor is suddenly ramped up to an entirely new level, one that you just have to try for yourself. I can see I won’t be going back to a flat, 2D computer screen anymore.
Now, I will admit, it’s not perfect. The resolution isn’t like what can be achieved on a 4K flat panel, but the depth perception, the feeling of sitting in the aircraft, the ability to interact with the panel knobs and switches developing muscle memory, and the ability to look ANYWHERE you want is what I call… a game changer.
Want to fly a traffic pattern and know exactly where you’re at all the time? No problem. Want to experience what it’s like to fly in the soup under IFR conditions? I’m suddenly appreciating the technique of proper instrument scanning. Want to virtually walk around the aircraft, with everything being to scale (ducking under the wing of a 172)? Don’t bump your head! Maybe this is the beginning of the Oasis… are you ready player one?