40 More Great Flight Simulator Adventures

by Charles Gulick

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North Position: 21416	Rudder: 32767
East Position: 6595	Ailerons: 32767
Altitude: 460	Flaps: 0
Pitch: 0	Elevators: 32767
Bank: 0	Time: 16:00
Heading: 190	Season: 2-Spring
Airspeed: 0	Wind: 0 Kts, 0
Throttle: 0
Add for this mode: Sound 0.

It isn't every day you find yourself in a situation like this. Now, if you could just  figure out what situation you're in....     Take a look out all sides of the airplane.     You're sure inside something. Unless you're looking at the bottoms of some giant mike stands. Maybe you just flew around the world, and there's a crowd here to greet you, and you'll be on the six o'clock news. But there are no cameras out there.     Just water. And ground. And some mountains. And those strange corners of something.     Analyze it-there's a corner ahead of you, where two things, panes of glass or something, come together. Floor seems to be glass, too, or it's matched beautifully to the outside world. So if there's a corner ahead of you and you're in a box, then there should be a corner behind you. Take another look.     Nothing. There's a corner at the right rear, if it is a corner, but that doesn't match the one ahead of you.     Try the left side. Another corner. What kind of shape does that add up to?     Try radar. And zoom in and out a bit. Some kind of big circular thing, like a smoke stack. Or a black hole.     You're sitting there like a bit of fuzz at the bottom of a tall, collapsible cup. And when you zoom around, you can see what kind of shape the section you're sitting in has. That explains the views out the windows.     So it's a roundish thing bottoming out in a triangle. With you in an airplane on the floor of it. And it's transparent from top to bottom. Seems like it must be a package.     And it is. You're a toy pilot in a toy airplane, and you're in a transparent plastic gift wrap. That's why it's so quiet.

Now return to the out-front view, and set your flaps and trim for takeoff. Add full throttle and you'll see yourself be torn excitedly from the package by a happy youngster. Make your normal takeoff, and take a look back. You can still see the tall circular package, standing right up there. Keep looking back. What a tall package! And tied with two bows at the top.     The lucky youngster is pretending to fly you, and you're carried higher and higher until, when your toy altimeter reads 1000 feet, that's as high as the youngster's arm can reach. So cut your power completely, still looking out the rear. Then look out the front. See how smoothly the young pilot brings you back toward earth. Or is it toward that blue pool in the backyard?     Well, either the young hand lost its grip, or you've been deliberately and maliciously set up for a violent argument with gravity.     Which you lose, obviously.     After which, you're placed back in the wrap while other packages get opened. Meanwhile hope the sun will dry you off.

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