Flying in SL using SL GO on an iPad

Wow, that blog post title is a mouthful but I'm going to add another word - "Flying a helicopter in SL using SL GO on an iPad" - and as a teaser for a future post, I also flew an airplane using SL GO on an iPad. More about that peril later.

Open the inventory window, select your helicopter, drag and drop on the ground.

 

 I don't have any shots of my take off or first moments of flight because... to be honest it was total craziness. I wasn't even sure I was moving at first. My helicopter seemed frozen on the ground. Was it the ice, or those rare SL GO glitches?

Anyway, back to the flight. After about 30 seconds of wild flight - trimming trees and house roof with the rotor blades - I finally got the hang of the controls.


I highly recommend slower speeds than you would normally fly on a computer viewer.

I'd also stay away from the higher advanced flight scripted aircraft that are available in SL. Save those for the PC or Mac. Flight on an iPad should be easy-peasy.

The left and right arrows control your helicopter turns (Just like walking).

The up and down arrows control your movement forward and back (Again just like walking).

The arrow keys on the right part of the screen control altitude.

The next photos show mid-flight and landing.

  

After landing it's time to take it back into inventory.

It isn't easy to get the menu pop-up for an object.. 

Keep trying, it'll work...

So to wrap up, not so great first take-off, great recovery and landing. Stay away from complex aircraft scripting and attachments.

It's far easier to fly on SL GO for PC (or Mac), but an iPad with SL does offer a great back-up solution when a computer is dead, too old, or when traveling.

The screen may be small, but the lush graphics and animated-movie-like frame rates make the experience a visual treat.

Gusty Winds

For now, this pilot is grounded....



In the past few weeks I've encountered unusually strong and distracting sim-cross effects that make flying and navigation impossible. The effect lasts anywhere from 5 to 20 seconds.

I wondered if other SL Pilots have had this experience as well. Please let me know in the comments

RCAF Command Promotion - Vickster Kuhn

I'm pleased and honored to annouce the promotion of ace pilot Vickster Kuhn to the rank of Air Vice Marshal (AVM) of the Royal Caledon Air Force. AVM Kuhn has demonstrated not only great piloting skills, but command skills in several aviation/combat related SL Groups. Our new AVM will be responsible for RCAF events - including dogfights - following our summer hiatus. Please join me in congratulating her on her new promotion.

~ Zoe Connolly, RCAF Air Marshal

Results of the Tiny Dogfights in Steelhead

I missed the Tiny Dogfights in Steelhead, but here are two accounts of events....

A Stroll Through Caledon: Steelhead Goes Tiny for the Dogfights!

Through the Filter of a Victorian Aesthetic: Tiny Dogfights in Steelhead

Love the Tinies!

They're both cute and fierce!...and...CUTE!

Because I Fly (by Grover C. Norwood)

Because I fly

I laugh more than other men
I look up an see more than they,
I know how the clouds feel,
What it's like to have the blue in my lap,
to look down on birds,
to feel freedom in a thing called the stick...

who but I can slice between God's billowed legs,
and feel then laugh and crash with His step
Who else has seen the unclimbed peaks?
The rainbow's secret?
The real reason birds sing?
Because I Fly,
I envy no man on earth.

— Grover C. Norwood

Great Aviation Quotes: Poems

Tinkeratrix :: Ilsa Munro

One of my favourite people in Second Life now has a blog....

May I introduce my Tinkeratrix friend Ilsa Munro. She's a duchess, she builds, and does so with style, humour, and in spite of what she'll tell you, great aplomb as well.

From Ilsa's first blog post....

"I've been repeatedly informed that having a blog is a necessary step on the whole "getting the word out there" part of running a SL (tm) business so here I am catching the tail end of this particular trend. My problem is that I'm truly awful at self-promotion. It took forever for me to work up the nerve to post in the various forums in which I occasionally participate.

Two things have prompted me into action - or a reduced level of inaction. First, a friend basically told me to "shut up and do something about it" and since this is free it's the obvious choice :)

Second I can comfort my sense of modesty with the almost certain knowledge that almost no one will read this and as such it hardly makes a difference how self-aggrandizing it seems to me as I write it.

That of course leaves me with the question of exactly what to write.

A few of you might know that I build aircraft, so naturally I've decided that I'll - ahem - blog about fashion.

What's that you say? SL Fashion is already covered at great and extensive length by everyone and thier cross eyed cat?

Oh... Well then aircraft it is I suppose."

Rise of Flight

new generation combat flight simulator

Yes it's true....I'm the Queen of NINGs!

I have another NINGnetwork to my NINGfleet....

WW2 in Second Life - World War Two combat roleplay in the virtual world of Second Life®

Allied and Axis World War Two combat roleplay in the virtual world of Second Life®

WW2 in Second Life - World War Two combat roleplay in the virtual world of Second Life®

Requiem For A Battle Sim

The Great Locomotive Chase IL-2 Movie

an IL-2 machinima from ufo19831026

Lockheed U-2 Flight - 70.000ft (2 Seat TU-2 Trainer)

"Surely the most amazing and humbling views to be seen by any human on a regular basis. The view from a U-2 cruising at 70,000ft as the sky above turns black and the curvature of the Earth is visible.

Despite first flying over 50 years ago, the U-2 continues to serve in the USAF, having outlasted its Mach 3 replacement, the SR-71 (also from Lockheed)."

WW2 Sanctuary Combat Roleplay Sims in Danger.... Vickster Kuhn Comments

Vickster Kuhn commented on my post WW2 Sanctuary Combat Roleplay Sims in Danger.... PART 2

"Tough times I guess.

Anyone involved with our SL flying group, the RCAF, will know that we've been struggling to keep our own home base in Caledon going.

The Sanctuary sims are quite unique in SL, and they represent the fruition of many residents' work.

It's a showcase for SL aviation and the development of the the VICE combat system, and the playground of the most active and well known flying groups in Second Life.
A favorite of newbies and veterans alike, Sanctuary has been my home and home to several squadrons to which I belong.

I've been working as an admin there in exchange for a base for my own squadron, JG 132, the Richtofen squadron.

Things in SL happen pretty quickly, and just when you think you can count on something as a given you turn your head and it's gone.

Sanctuary will always be one of my most favorite places. I've been flying for most of my SL career, but Sanctuary is where I got to employ all I've learned from some of the best aviators in SL, including Niki Wilder and MeganAnn Mills, Zoe Connolly, Noel Oh, Cody007 Skytower, Bradyn Halcali and Whitewolf Mumfuzz.

It's heartbreaking to see something like this come to an end, and I'll always wonder what I could have done to help make it work.

It's my hope that there will be something in the future to fill the vacuum that will surely be created by the loss of Sanctuary.

There is still time to play there, and if you're into it you won't regret going. Search for Fallout, Bastogne, or Rangoon, which is the Legends of WW2 sim, and the only one of the three likely to be around next month.

Tell 'em Vickster sent you!"

[Aether Inglewood destroys a V2 Rocket. London is safe!]

de Havilland Beaver Plane Crash at Lake Hood

Thanks to GoSpeed Racer for posting this on Plurk

Air Battle Over Bastogne

Video captured in the virtual world of Second Life® during an air battle in the WW2 combat sim known as Bastogne. One of three sims that comprise WW2 Sanctuary (Legends of WW2, Fallout, Bastogne).


Find more videos like this on Royal Caledon Air Force

Bird of Prey

a machinima from Virrginia Tombola

Action over Aeronautica (part 1)

Sunday May 3rd is RCAF Dogfight Sunday

Sunday May 3rd 2009
9:30 AM SL time
Liberty Lovelace

Any aircraft is okay as long as you use TCS.

Air Combat Rules of Engagement will be a variation on the "King of the Hill" game. Two pilots at a time.

IL-2 Comedy

An amusing IL-2 machinima showing a few strange scenes from the IL-2 combat flight simulation game....



And IL-2 Batman....

Remembering World War Two Airmen: Tuskegee Airman Marches in Inauguration Parade

From the blog Remembering World War Two Airmen....

Remembering World War Two Airmen: Tuskegee Airman Marches in Inauguration Parade

"....Roscoe Brown will march with pride in the Inauguration Day Parade in Washington. For 86 years this New Yorker has fought battle after battle against what he calls “the stupidity of racism.” This will be the ultimate day in a lifetime of helping to break down barriers. Brown and about 330 of his fellow pilots and ground crew members who still live have been invited to attend the inauguration of the first black president, Barack Obama. Brown, a professor and former president of Hostos College, will be wearing the black cap of the Tuskegee Airmen, the African-American men who fought for America in World War II...."

For more click Remembering World War Two Airmen: Tuskegee Airman Marches in Inauguration Parade

Speed and Angels

From dogfights in the Nevada desert, to night landings on aircraft carriers in the Atlantic what begins as a story of realizing a childhood dream turns into a story of fighting for one's life....