Airienteering with 13MIKE

by Fred J. Calfior and Douglas W. Miller

Preface

One evening as I was playing King's Quest for the 10th time (I'm a slow learner), a thought started to slowly make its way to the cockpit of my brain. I said, “Hey Doug! Why don't we write a book that has a multitude of routes that you can choose from to take you to an unknown airport?” “Well Fred, that might be fun if we made it a little more challenging. You know, kind of a choose your own adventure type book.” “Yeah, we could use aviation trivia questions, puzzles, and all kinds of tricky riddles, limericks, and such.” “I don't know Fred, we can't make it too hard. We could make it challenging by using loops and dead ends in the routes.” “Doug, this sounds fun! I like puzzles and since you teach aviation history, we have a ton of aviation trivia questions. I'm excited! Let's get started!” “What about your game, Fred?” “Let's write the book first, then I'll finish the game!”

Well, that was the beginning of quite an adventure. Doug and I have spent hundreds of hours generating AirLegs, questions, puzzles, riddles, limericks, etc. to make this book the most challenging book of its kind. You are going to find this book quite unique in its approach. The flights are divided into three major areas. Not only are the flights divided by geographical area but also theme.

The first flight is entitled The Early Pioneers. All the trivia questions in this section pertain to our aviation forefathers, the people who risked their lives to push the frontiers of aviation. The scientist and the daredevils, the entrepreneurs and the consumers, the pilots and the passengers. This set of AirLegs takes place over the skies of Los Angeles. It's a pretty area, but I'm afraid you will probably have your head buried in the Los Angeles Terminal Area Chart provided in appendix Al.

The second flight is called Highways in the Skies. The skies are full of air highways. You say you don't see any highways up there? Well, all you need is a road map. They call them aeronautical charts. All the highways are on these charts. You will also need to know how to read these charts. This scenario is flown over the beautiful airways of San Francisco. We have provided all the information you will need to navigate in this area in appendix A2. You, on the other hand, must be able to utilize this information to find your way.

The third flight is called Air Warriors. The brave air soldiers and their trusty steed, the fighter plane, are the main theme of this section. How much do you know about these heroes and the aircraft they flew? You will battle with your own ability to decipher the symbology on the Terminal Area Chart for New York, found in appendix A3, on this flight. The battle can get ugly, so guard your loins, or loin up your girds, or is that gird up your loins - anyway, get ready for battle!

All Terminal Area charts, and chart symbology information are authentic in every detail.

NOTE: The charts are intended for use with this book in flying the scenarios utilizing Microsoft's Flight Simulator program. Please do not try to use these navigational charts for actual flight purposes. Reason - they are no longer current.

This is the third book of a vast series of upcoming action books for the Microsoft Flight Simulator program. The books have been designed to be flown in sequence, even though it is not required. The action books come in two levels. Level A is primarily visual flight (VFR), keeping the non-pilot and student pilot well challenged but within reach of everyone's flying ability. Level B, on the other hand, is a book geared to anyone who has completed the first book or is an experienced pilot.

Airienteering with “13MIKE” - Book Three - Level A has been prepared and written so that it challenges the non-pilot, student pilot, instrument pilot, and commercial pilot.

What would it be like to do a little orienteering with an airplane? Well, jump into old 13MIKE, get out the chart, and let's hit the sky. This book, in the 13MIKE series, is written in a “choose your own adventure” style format. It is loaded with aviation trivia and little known facts to test your knowledge and skill. You need to solve puzzles, find answers to aviation trivia questions, and locate clues on the charts, to enable you to find your way. For any given flight scenario, there can be a multitude of different paths to arrive at a successful destination. The puzzles are demanding and the questions are worthy ofentrance into the Guinness book of world records. Answer a question or puzzle wrong, and you will find yourself eventually running out of gas, flying into a mountain, encountering severe weather, or looped to an AirLeg you've already flown, among other mishaps! You never know your destination airport until the very last moment when you are cleared to land. It is not wise to try and second guess either your route or your destination. The clock is ticking and it looks like a storm is brewing. How good are you at chart reading, puzzle solving, trivia research, and flying at the same time? Well, let's go Airienteering with 13MIKE and find out.

You will notice that there are scoring points throughout the flight scenarios. They are weighted according to their degree of importance. The purpose of the scoring is so you may have a target of proficiency to shoot for. We'll tell you, based upon your score, to which category of Airienteermanship you belong! The answers for each scenario are provided in the back of the book, so that you can tell how close your skills are to whatever goals you've set for yourself.

It is assumed the user is familiar and versatile with Microsoft Flight Simulator Versions 4.0 or 5.0. This is not a teaching aid on how to fly the simulator - we assume that you have already practiced using the Microsoft Flight Simulator's own manual and guide. So whether you have version 4.0 or 5.0, this action book provides you with a custom program geared for your needs no matter what version you own.

The airplane in which you will be flying is a Cessna 182 RG, a retractable gear airplane. We recommend that you use the map display very sporadically - more for curiosity sake than anything else. The areas are default areas which come automatically with your original Microsoft program. You won't have to build any scenery, locations or navaids unless you want to do so for your own personal thrill.

You may fly each one of these flight scenarios using your keyboard, mouse, or joystick. There is no specific preference.

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As you progress through this book, we would enjoy hearing about your triumphs, thrills, and any other comments you may wish to share with us. We are always eager to hear from our fellow flyers. All comments are appreciated. Please send them to CalMil Publishing, 2224 Katahn Drive, Prescott AZ, 86301.

Professor Douglas W. Miller

Professor Fred John Calfior

Table of Contents
Previous Section: Dedication
Next Section: Flying The Scenarios