Why??

O

Old Airman

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I'm new to the sim game and I'm "flying" old rag and wood aircraft. My question is; why did the aircraft designers stick a cylinder or other obstruction right in the pilots line of sight? In researching the old Call Field training base here in Wichita Falls, Texas I found out that they did their training in the Standard J-1. It had a radiator sticking up from the engine up past the upper wing, right in the pilots line of sight! WHY?

And if a seven or nine or even a three cylinder radial engine will work with several cylinders at less than vertical why must one cylinder be straight up in the pilots way? There must be a reason but I don't know what it is.

Old Airman
 
Old Airman said:
I'm new to the sim game and I'm "flying" old rag and wood aircraft. My question is; why did the aircraft designers stick a cylinder or other obstruction right in the pilots line of sight? In researching the old Call Field training base here in Wichita Falls, Texas I found out that they did their training in the Standard J-1. It had a radiator sticking up from the engine up past the upper wing, right in the pilots line of sight! WHY?

And if a seven or nine or even a three cylinder radial engine will work with several cylinders at less than vertical why must one cylinder be straight up in the pilots way? There must be a reason but I don't know what it is.

Old Airman
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because as bad as that cylinder or radiator were - it was still better than this
 
In the real world its OK as one can move ones head to one side of the cockpit, so ones view is not obscured as much as one thinks. For an obscured view try flying the Spitfire!
In the Sim world to move ones eye point to the left use CTRL+SHIFT+Backspace. To get back to the preset view press the Spacebar.
HTH
Keith
 
Dev One said:
In the real world its OK as one can move ones head to one side of the cockpit, so ones view is not obscured as much as one thinks. For an obscured view try flying the Spitfire!
In the Sim world to move ones eye point to the left use CTRL+SHIFT+Backspace. To get back to the preset view press the Spacebar.
HTH
Keith
Click to expand...
This is why we have TrackIR, best addon ever. :applause:
 
When the Alphasim F-106 was released, I commented on the odd “to me” decision to place the canopy frame right down the middle on the wind shield. One of our SOH members, who flew them, replied that with all the equipment piled up in front of the pilot inside the cockpit, you couldn't see that canopy frame part anyway :)icon_eek:), and with the small size of the canopy, and while wearing a helmet, you couldn't move your head much side-to-side either. I guess they could see "enough" ...
 
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