My wife's fear of flying and DCS

[Mars Exulte]

My wife had never flown before she met me, and she had a significant fear of flying, didn't particularly like me doing it either. She was forced to fly on a couple short trips to Kyiv, and then the big trans-Atlantic flight when we moved to the US and they didn't go real smoothly (I looked over to see her in tears repeatedly crossing herself during the first takeoff )

Anyway, fast forward a few months and I'm trying unsuccessfully to coax her into a sailplane and she wasn't having it. Some of you may have noticed me struggling with my VR headset lately, and now I've given my wife a couple flying lessons in VR. Being able to learn in the same aircraft used by the Ukrainian Air Force (L-39 obs), in an area strongly resembling the Carpathians where she grew up (the mountains south of Kobuleti) was icing on the cake.

She is no longer afraid of flying. Learning about the aircraft a bit, how they fly, how you control them, made a big difference. It's no longer ''unknown and scary''. It was also nice seeing her quietly looking at the mountains getting homesick and remarking how beautiful it is. She said it's not ''almost'' like real, it IS real.

My wife is now willing to give the glider a try, and we can also play DCS together a bit now.

Thanks to @Barthek for the lovely Caucasus textures she was admiring, @Strikesabre98 for the UAF skin her plane was wearing, and Eagle Dynamics for the simulator she used to experience it all

[KenaiPhoenix]

Im happy for you and your wife! 

 

DCS is one of the best experience on VR, in my opinion. These kind of tech can help a lot of people to overcome their fears without putting them in danger.

[Yurgon]

Wow that's so great to hear!

Next thing you know, she'll want to purchase her own glider and there'll be no funds left for a future DCS rig upgrade, so I'd tread carefully...

[Exorcet]

Such a nice story, I know I'm biased but flight and aviation are wonderful things to get into. It's also great to see someone conquer their fears like that. The view from a few thousand feet up never gets old.

[Svsmokey]

I had a similar experience with motorcycles and the wife . Beware . I came back from a trip to find My bike dolled up the way She wanted it . I ended up having to get another - bike that is

[Mars Exulte]

In line with this developing story, my wife will be using my VR pit with VKB/Viril/SLAW all of established reputation. I will be using a laptop w TrackIR and a entry level HOTAS. I have used mostly Saitek units in the past such as FLY5 (very good except for poorly designed buttons), X52 (crap), and X55/56 (overall good, but persistent power issues with every unit I've ever touched).

This time I've opted to go with something new, and ordered two separate units as candidates.

The T16000M w TWCS combo

 And an unknown unit that appears to be somewhat related/or cooperative to VKB based on my research. The Flashfire Cobra V5 whose styling I really like.

 

  The TWCS arrives today, the Cobra in a few weeks. Will update with thoughts in separate threads in appropriate forum sections.

-update

My TWCS is lost in the mail evidently, it went from 60 miles away to ''the great void'' and who knows when I'll get it now. Will be funny if the one shipping from China gets here faster than the across town @@

Edited September 13, 2022 by Mars Exulte

[Aquorys]

That's a pretty cool story. Whenever you wanna try multiplayer, I'll be looking forward to flying with you. My personal recommendation for a smooth start would be the 504VFS and 162nd Vipers servers, or if you want to get into flying combat missions, the 4YA servers. You'll probably find me on one of those every now and then if you wanna drop by and say hello.

Cheers!

[Mars Exulte]

Well, in a bizarre twist, I have ended up with exactly zero sticks. Somehow, both ended up lost in transit. I don't know what the odds of that were... higher than you would expect, apparently. But... anyway... gonna try again, I suppose. Or something.

[AngleOff66]

I enjoyed reading this right up to where you are waiting on the sticks.

I hope that they all show up quickly.

Best of luck.

[Mars Exulte]

I think one of them was a bait and switch scam. I've had the same thing happen several times now under nearly identical circumstances. One was arrows, now this stick, both went exactly the same way.

Browsing products, notice one ''good buy'' item on sale, but it's not immediately available. Order, prepared to wait. Weeks then month+ go by, my order is never filled, but the item is now in stock (in one case even Prime ready) yet my order is never filled... also, the price has increased, substantially. I cancel or in some cases it's canceled FOR ME. If it was a one off, I'd think it was a fluke, but multiple times?

I think it's *insert expletive of choice* trying to bait purchases at lower prices, then they ''lose'' your order and hope you'll buy it again at the increased price. The stick went from $130 to $170, before it was arrows $50 raised to $60. I'm 99% certain it's a scam.