40 Great Flight Simulator Adventures

by Charles Gulick

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North Position: 21740	Rudder: 32767
East Position: 6375	Ailerons: 32767
Altitude: 289	Flaps: 0
Pitch: 0	Elevators: 32767
Bank: 0	Time: 5:00
Heading: 90	Season: 3-Summer
Airspeed: 0	Wind: 6 Kts, 220
Throttle: 0
Add for this mode: Wind Level 1: Knots, 210; Degrees, 280 Shear Zone Altitude 1: 4000

	If turbulence is not implemented in your version of the simulator, set wind to 10 Kts and ignore turbulence commentary. Dawn on William R. Fairchild International Airport, Port Angeles, Washington, finds you pointed down the taxiway for runway 26. Your position and the airport lighting conditions give you a good chance to practice visual taxiing (without reference to radar). The setup is very realistic. Try following the lights on the taxiway down to the far end of the runway, making your turn and getting lined up.
	Start off and steer a bit to the left, using the blue lights as your guide. Stay between the lights, paralleling the runway, and at the far end make a sharp left turn onto the centerline, which is also blue in the simulation. The actual runway heading is 267.
	If you call the tower on 122.8, you'll "hear" a slightly sleepy voice tell you that the active runway is 25. No such animal.     Before you take off, tune Tatoosh OMNI on 112.2, and center the needle to fly to the station. You'll see your initial heading will be 262 degrees, and the distance is about 47 miles.     Go ahead and get airborne, making a slight left turn to your heading as you climb out. Be sure to take a glance behind you, noting the airport outlines and-the green area in the distance-the city of Port Angeles.     For the present, plan on a cruising altitude of 3500 feet (we'll experiment above this altitude a little later on).     You're flying approximately west along the northern coast of the state of Washington, toward the northwesternmost tip of the United States. The Strait of Juan de Fuca, an inlet of the Pacific, is on your right, and across the strait is British Columbia (you have a private grass strip over there, remember?).
	Take a look out the left side. Though you can't see it, there's a giant area off your wing tip called Olympic National Park. It is one of the nation's most scenic, with rain forests, lush vegetation, skyscraper-high spruce and fir trees, and many mountains including a Mount Olympus which rivals that of Greece, dwelling place of the deities.     Stay on the 262-degree radial.     At 5:30 daylight will turn on.     Our intent is to fly to the northwestern tip of the Olympic Peninsula, which is all that area between the Pacific Ocean and Puget Sound. At daylight you'll see the Pacific ahead of you.     If you look at Tatoosh on your Seattle area chart, you'll see that the 262-degree radial is pointing you south of the tip. But to pinpoint the tip (it's called Cape Flattery) exactly, we can fly the 290-degree radial FROM Tatoosh. And that's what we plan to do.
	Thus, when you're over Tatoosh (DME reads 0), turn right to a 290-degree heading. And when the OBI settles down, track the needle on the 290 radial.     For all practical purposes, when your DME shows you're ten miles from the VOR, you're over the Pacific off Cape Flattery, as far northwest as you can fly in the United States. The geography of the simulator isn't at all sharp as regards this landmark, but anyway you did it.
	So now turn left to head approximately 150, and you'll find you're flying down the western edge of the peninsula. Tune your NAV to Hoquiam, 117.7, and keep flying until the station comes into range. Your chart will show you that you're heading in approximately the right direction. You can set the OBI to 150 in anticipation of the station getting active, which it will when your DME starts reading.     Meanwhile, we promised a little experiment above your cruising altitude, and this is a good time for it.     Remember that we set a turbulence factor of 2 for this mode, with our 210 knots at wind level 1. The turbulence factor is multiplied by 100, and the wind (10 knots at 280) is added to that. We set the shear zone altitude at 4000.
	So let's climb through 4000 now to, say, 4500 and see what a turbulence factor of 2 gives us in the way of instability. Use a rate-of-climb of 1000 feet per minute.     Note the turbulence about midway between 4000 and 4500. The airplane just doesn't want to hold that heading, does it? But keep fighting it.     Or should you fight it?     Let's try another experiment.
	Lose some altitude again until you get out of the clear air turbulence. Then reestablish your 150degree heading and climb back up into the turbulence to 4500 feet.     This time don't fight the controls; don't use aileron. Let's see whether the heading averages out in the turbulent air.     Your DME is already, or soon will be, active. It turns on between 69 and 70 miles out.     Well, the heading sure doesn't average out, does it? Very quickly you're way off course.
	Descend below the turbulence again (you've plenty of time-it's a long way to Hoquiam). Set your OBI to fly the 140-degree radial to the station. Then do what you have to do to get on that radial. If you're a fledgling at this, remember that you're on the radial indicated by the OBI when the needle is centered, no matter what heading you may be on. If, in relatively still air, you then turn direct to the heading indicated by the OBI, your compass, directional gyro, and OBI setting are, or soon will be, all in agreement. Then, depending on the wind direction and velocity, your aircraft may head off the radial. So make whatever corrections are needed to keep the needle centered. When it's centered, you're on the desired radial regardless of what compass heading your nose may be following.
	Once you're settled on course, straight and level at 3500, and clearly on the 140-degree radial with the OBI active, climb back up to 4500 at about 500 feet per minute. Remember to level off at your altitude-don't let the turbulence mess you up.     Now fly the OBI needle as well as the directional gyro and compass. Follow the needle; if the needle is to the right of center, use aileron to correct to the right, and vice versa if the needle is left of center. You're always flying toward the needle, trying to keep it centered (without departing so far from your essential heading that you're on the reciprocal).     Since the radial you're on (in this case 140) represents a straight line through the air (and toward the station), your gyro or compass heading assumes less importance. You may be flying sideways, but your path through the air is relatively straight.     Trying to keep your wings level (in the simulator turbulence, at least) requires undue effort and just adds to the confusion. The simulator doesn't really bounce you up and down, as does actual turbulence. It simulates this with wing wagging. Note that there are no significant changes in your rate-of-climb indication, and your altitude remains quite stable.
	Looking from the airplane to the left or right side gives you a more realistic feel of turbulence than does looking straight ahead. The wing wagging then looks more like abrupt altitude changes, as the side horizon pops up and down.
	Stay in the turbulence as long as you like. Personally, I find it the least realistic aspect of the simulator, and a factor of 1 is usually plenty if I feel I want any turbulence at all.     When you've had enough bobbing around, descend to your cruising altitude of 3500 and get clearly back on the 140-degree radial until you're about 30 miles from the Hoquiam VOR. Then turn left to a heading of 90 degrees and tune your NAV to Olympia VORTAC, 113.4. Your DME will show you you're some 60 to 65 miles from that station. Set your OBI and make any corrections necessary to fly the 90-degree radial inbound for Olympia Airport.     The highway you see ahead is U.S. 101, which skirts the whole peninsula.     See if you can raise the Olympia control tower on 124.4. If not, just wait. They may contact you after the disk access; otherwise, contact them. They'll probably advise they're landing on runway 26 since the wind is from 220.
	Elevation at Olympia is 206 feet. As you get closer in, plan a real professional approach, entering the downwind leg (80 degrees) at a 45-degree angle (35-degree heading). After your superb landing, you'll be just in time for breakfast.

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