Instructor's Tool

To assist in teaching and learning, a simple tool would greatly helpful. What I'm suggesting, which would be in MP to allow a spectator's POV to be inside the cockpit of another person's aircraft, and give this 'instructor' a pointer, which the virtual pilot actually controlling the aircraft can see.

Currently a spectator can 'latch on' to an active aircraft and 'fly' along with it, but you cannot be inside the cockpit to see exactly what the pilot is doing--which switches and controls he is working, and how--, and there's certainly nothing that can be used by the 'fly-along' instructor to indicate--point to--controls or instruments.

The virtual pilot should have a selection in MP to either allow this in-general, or select a specific spectator for this option.

It could also be used the other way around with a trainee riding along with an experience pilot, who demonstrates some activity, while the trainee can see what the pilot is doing and how the aircraft is reacting.

Such a simple implementation would be module-independent and not require any current module to be modified to use it, nor future modules.

I think this is an excellent idea and I second it.

Just a suggestion for a quick solution at this time.

We use Teamviewer for now.

It's not ideal and "in game" but it offers the ability to see what the student sees.

Me and a friend bought the L-39 (which I wasn't interested in the least, but it had multi-crew, so I bought it) specifically so I could teach him how to fly and it was way beyond my expectations. You're there. You can see every little movement he does with the stick and throttle. You can correct him at a moments notice if he is flying too slow or coming in too low. I can even take over the controls if he is about to stall or crash, or if I just want to demonstrate a landing or manouver. And then there is that great feeling of accomplishment when you're finally just along for the ride when your student has mastered all of the basic skills.

I'm one of those guys who was growing tired of the endless stream of trainer aircrafts coming to DCS but the L-39 changed my mind on that. As soon as all other trainers get multi-crew, they'll be worth it. I've spent far too much time trying to teach people to fly via Skype and the like, but it will never even get close to actually being in the same aircraft. Can't recommend it enough for training purposes!

I think this is an excellent idea and I second it.

Just a suggestion for a quick solution at this time.

We use Teamviewer for now.

It's not ideal and "in game" but it offers the ability to see what the student sees.

The problem with using something like TeamView is that it is an additional system overhead to code and transmit a video stream, when your CPU/GPU/Network are already being pushed toward their limits. Any streaming software could be used, but they will all have their overhead-price to performance.

The InstructorTool should cause very, very minimal additional overhead, by presenting the Instructor's pointer, and that's it. The In-cockpit POV would be coming from the server and basically just mirroring what the tutor is seeing, so it should be no additional overhead from the server either.

Me and a friend bought the L-39 (which I wasn't interested in the least, but it had multi-crew, so I bought it) specifically so I could teach him how to fly and it was way beyond my expectations. You're there. You can see every little movement he does with the stick and throttle. You can correct him at a moments notice if he is flying too slow or coming in too low. I can even take over the controls if he is about to stall or crash, or if I just want to demonstrate a landing or manouver. And then there is that great feeling of accomplishment when you're finally just along for the ride when your student has mastered all of the basic skills.

 

I'm one of those guys who was growing tired of the endless stream of trainer aircrafts coming to DCS but the L-39 changed my mind on that. As soon as all other trainers get multi-crew, they'll be worth it. I've spent far too much time trying to teach people to fly via Skype and the like, but it will never even get close to actually being in the same aircraft. Can't recommend it enough for training purposes!

That's great that you and your flying buddy have found something exciting to do with the L-39, but that will do little to help somebody learn to fly the P-51D or the Bf109-K4.

But even sticking to the same era, no amount of training in the L39 will teach me anything about the A-10C weapon systems, which can be and often are extremely complex.

Having somebody who is practically on-board, and who can see exactly what is going on in your cockpit, and can instruct you, on which controls/switches to operate to perform a task, and can actually tell if you are doing it correctly, will be immensely helpful.

And being a core part of DCS-World, it could be used with every aircraft on every map as soon as it is implemented.

YES please!!

Would be so great for learning with a friend.

 

But even sticking to the same era, no amount of training in the L39 will teach me anything about the A-10C weapon systems, which can be and often are extremely complex.

 

Reading the manual should be very helpful in this case. ;)

That's great that you and your flying buddy have found something exciting to do with the L-39, but that will do little to help somebody learn to fly the P-51D or the Bf109-K4.

 

But even sticking to the same era, no amount of training in the L39 will teach me anything about the A-10C weapon systems, which can be and often are extremely complex.

 

Having somebody who is practically on-board, and who can see exactly what is going on in your cockpit, and can instruct you, on which controls/switches to operate to perform a task, and can actually tell if you are doing it correctly, will be immensely helpful.

 

And being a core part of DCS-World, it could be used with every aircraft on every map as soon as it is implemented.

That is indeed true. I guess it wouldn't hurt having access to both trainers and the system you propose. IMO, anything that will ease the learning curve will prove beneficial to the growth of the community.

Reading the manual should be very helpful in this case. ;)

That statement is way off in so many ways

I truly hope the next time you go to a doctor, he's had more instructions than simply RTFM.

That statement is way off in so many ways

 

Why?

I didn't write RTFM.

IIRC the A-10 manual has quite an extensive chapter on how to employ weapons. Don't see how that can not be helpful to read.

But we can just leave it at that.

Why?

 

I didn't write RTFM.

IIRC the A-10 manual has quite an extensive chapter on how to employ weapons. Don't see how that can not be helpful to read.

 

But we can just leave it at that.

Nobody said that the manual was unhelpful, but people learn in different ways.

When I went through flight school, studying the manual was just the ticket to the dance. We would brief with our instructor pilot so that he knew that we knew the book procedures, and then when we would execute them he would take the time to demonstrate how the procedures worked and would also offer techniques and reasons behind some of the steps we had to learn.

Nothing wrong with adding another tool to the toolbox, though in this case I think it's expected that the observer actually own the module for the cockpit under observation.

I didn't write RTFM.

IIRC the A-10 manual has quite an extensive chapter on how to employ weapons. Don't see how that can not be helpful to read.

 

But we can just leave it at that.

I never said the Instructor's Tool would be a means to eliminate reading the manual, which is what you insinuated.

Without being even familiar with the A-10C, from tutorial videos I've seen, there appear to be methods of doing some things, which are so obscure, they are not in the manual, but under specific circumstances, could be very useful.

Nobody said that the manual was unhelpful, but people learn in different ways.

 

When I went through flight school, studying the manual was just the ticket to the dance. We would brief with our instructor pilot so that he knew that we knew the book procedures, and then when we would execute them he would take the time to demonstrate how the procedures worked and would also offer techniques and reasons behind some of the steps we had to learn.

 

Nothing wrong with adding another tool to the toolbox, though in this case I think it's expected that the observer actually own the module for the cockpit under observation.

Exactly :thumbup:

There are studies on how effective different methods of learning are. Lowest on the scale are

- Listening to somebody explain how to do something. (lowest)

- Reading about how to do something. (next to lowest)

Doing what you are trying to learn (simply following a check-list of do A, B, C, etc.) is higher on the list.

Assisted instructions (somebody tells you to do A, explains why, you can ask about it (why not B first?, etc.)) is higher yet.

And every combination of these increases the learning process more than the sum of each method alone.

Any tool which allows for and supports these methods of learning are a WIN in my book.