40 More Great Flight Simulator Adventures

by Charles Gulick

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North Position: 17418	Rudder: 32767
East Position: 7448	Ailerons: 32767
Altitude: 410	Flaps: 0
Pitch: 0	Elevators: 32767
Bank: 0	Time: 5:30
Heading: 180	Season: 3-Summer
Airspeed: 0	Wind: 6 Kts, 267
Throttle: 0

No library of tie-downs would be complete without one at the wartime base in Europe, now an up-to-date airport where you can fly your modern Cessna or Piper.     I tried to put you right in the hangar, but it can't be done. Remember, there's a significant distance between position parameters. You can taxi to an exact position. But that doesn't mean you can fix that position exactly, once and for all, in the editor. It takes some experimenting with North and East parameters to pick an optimum position on any airport.     But this one in Europe is probably better than a spot right in the hangar. Because you're ready to go at a moment's notice, parked just off the threshold of runway 27. The hour-5:30 a.m.gets you in the cockpit before daylight. You can hear the birds chirping as your engine warms up.     I regard this airport, accessed this way with all your equipment functioning, as the one airport in the simulator where anything goes. In fact, the whole Europe 1917 setting is such an area, but this is your base.     There are distinct advantages to runway 27. You have a scenic takeoff over the river and toward the mountains. But more important, you have a three-dimensional reference-the hangar-when you're shooting landings. The lack of such references at simulator airports is one of the reasons landings are so difficult. Almost anything vertical-a tree, telephone pole, car, or person standing near the runway, or better yet, a couple of airplanes on the ground-would help us visualize our relationship to the airport area and the runway in particular. Maybe future versions of the simulator will provide some of these.     Meanwhile, the runway you're looking out at makes for great approaches from both directions. And it's plenty long enough for touch and go.     I talked about anything goes just a moment ago. By that, I mean doing any and all the things you might hesitate to do at a busier and more formal airport. Buzzing the hangar or flying a few feet above the strip at high speed or stunting at low altitudes, doing rolls on takeoff, or whatever comes to mind.     Further, you have other great airstrips to fly to in the area, with a variety of runways and plenty of challenges-approaches to the runways of what was Enemy Base 1 in WWI, where you have mountains to contend with, for instance.

Take off and fly the pattern here a few times, practicing touch and go, and getting familiar with all the visual references on each leg. The next adventure will provide you with essential data for all the airports in the area, so you can expand your horizons and fly with fine precision.

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