40 Great Flight Simulator Adventures

by Charles Gulick

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North Position: 21414	Rudder: 32767
East Position: 6599	Ailerons: 32767
Altitude: 1200	Flaps: 0
Pitch: 358	Elevators: 33279 (IBM only)
Bank: 344	Elevators: 37887 (all except IBM)
Heading: 348	Time 17:15
Airspeed: 109	Season: 4-Fall
Throttle: 19455 (IBM only)	Wind: 3 Kts, 360
Throttle: 17407 (all except IBM)

	As soon as you exit edit mode, take a 90-degree view out your left side. Directly off your wing tip, as the mode settles down, you'll see the Seattle Space Needle. And it'll pretty much stay there without your touching the controls.
	Apply a little left aileron to steepen the bank if it unsteepens. You may also need minor power adjustments to hold your altitude.     Your aircraft is performing a shallow, slowspeed, wide-radius turn around a point (flying in a circle while keeping a specific landmark or target in view and in the same relative position). This is a very valuable maneuver to have in your repertoire and is always included early in flight instruction curricula. It doesn't take much imagination to see how valuable this type of turn can be in everyday flying.     You can almost see inside the restaurant, which is in the observation tower at the top of the needle. It's dinner time, and the patrons can't fail to notice your low-altitude shenanigans over the tops of their heads.
	After you've made a few circuits, and maybe watched the maneuver on radar, too, take over completely.     Experiment with the concept of the turn. Try a steeper bank and different pitch and power settings, the object being always to keep the needle-the point-right where it is off your left wing tip. See if you can tighten the circle or change the perspective of your view. Practice until you feel comfortable with the maneuver.
	Straighten up, fly around, then come back and see if you can set up the turn yourself, but turning to the right this time. If you can, you'll have something to celebrate at your own favorite café after you land.

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