The Shocking Affair of the Kicked Butt

I was wondering how many folks out there use something along the lines of the Aura Systems Interactor Cushion or the ButtKicker. I’ve got a bunch of the Aura Cushions which I picked up cheap off eBay. I use them as a pillow to sit upon, with another behind my back and another shoved under the rudder pedals. This makes for some serious tactile feedback, I can tell you. Pushing throttles forward or lowering flaps and gear has never been such a moving experience, especially during a thunderstorm. I feel this is an essential piece of simmer’s equipment and of course delivers great bang for the buck as you can continue to use it when playing your favourite first person shooter.

I wonder how long it’ll be before the recently released toys which use an electric shock when your opponent ’shoots’ you will begin to influence simmers. A USB electronic shocking device? Even flight simmers could use this because its primary role, from when I can see, is to induce fear in the mind of the player/user. I can freely admit that when I was playing a game with my son, which involved getting shocked if you were hit by the opponent, I really did not want to get hit again. So I guess one idea would be to shock the pilot if he/she crashes the aircraft, or perhaps it would have a good deal more use if in a combat flight sim, whereby the pilot it shocked when his aircraft is hit, simulating damage to the pilot.

Having said that, even civil aviation simming could use it when problems occur during flight to simulate stressful situations which induce fear.

I am sure a lot of readers will be wondering what the heck I am suggesting be done to the relaxing hobby of flight simulation? Giving electric shocks to the pilot? Well, I’m really just exploring ways that the experience can be experimented with, after all, we’ve all been on rollercoasters and seen movies which are designed to frighten us.