40 More Great Flight Simulator Adventures
by Charles Gulick
Admire the
Scenery
Scenery
This final adventure in the present group introduces a new and breathtaking concept in simulator flying: Scenery Disks from SubLogic, which ultimately will cover the entire continental United States. The following flight requires you to have Scenery Disk 1, which should be readily available by the time you read this. The narrative is based on the Commodore 64 version only, since other versions were not available at this writing. However, experience assures that they will be substantially the same. If there are loading differences in the IBM Scenery Disk, substitute its instructions for the loading instructions below.
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Boot your Flight Simulator disk in the usual
way and enter the editor. With the Flight
Simulator disk still in the drive, type in the following
parameters:
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Exit the editor. Replace the Flight Simulator disk with Scenery Disk 1.
Hold down CTRL and press E. You'll get a Current Databases listing.
Press any key. There'll be a disk access and you'll find yourself just
off runway 6 at East Texas Regional Airport, Nacogdoches, Texas. Get
out your Houston sectional chart (the one that came with Scenery Disk 1) and locate airport
4 near the center. That's where you are. Nacogdoches is a historic town, home in the 1800s to the Indian tribe of the same name. The first oil well drilled in Texas was drilled here in 1866. Go into radar and zoom up until the runways disappear, and you see two towns connected by a highway and a bit of water that looks like the front end of a goose on the run. The town to the south is Lufkin, Texas, and the one ahead of you is Nacogdoches. The highway is U.S. 59. The body of water is Sam Rayburn Reservoir, named for the onetime Speaker of the House who represented Texas for 48 years. |
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Return to the out-the-windshield
view and ready your aircraft for
takeoff. We'll fly contact this afternoon-in other words, purely with
reference to our sectional chart and the scenery below. Our cruise
altitude will be 2300 feet. Take off when you're ready, and maneuver to get over the reservoir on a heading of about 130, or whatever keeps the broadest expanse of water directly ahead of you. |
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After your flight has settled
down, check radar and zoom to the view
which shows you three large bodies of water. The one to your left is
Toledo Bend Reservoir, on the Texas-Louisiana border. The one to the
right is Lake Livingston, about 25 miles from Huntsville, Texas. |
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Correct your course as needed to
follow the reservoir proper. Let the
tranquility of earth, sky, and water, and the lazy drone of the engine,
relax you. This is a very pretty vista. To confirm that you're really a part of civilization, you might want to tune Lufkin VOR on 112.1. At least it'll put a reading on your DME, which reading, however, has little to do with the flight we're making. Our destination, in case you were wondering, is a little strip a bit south of the southern end of the reservoir-Bell Field in Jasper County. It's airport 17 on your Houston sectional chart. You might as well start staring hard at that chart. Because I'll have no further tips. I'm just along for the ride. You're certainly skilled enough, after all the flying we've done together, to put yourself down at Bell Field handily. And with bells on. I'll expect a beautiful landing from you. The whole bit. Approach at approach speed and altitude. Forty-five degree entry into the pattern. Carburetor heat. Full flaps at the right time. Nice steady final. And grease it on. As for me, I'll just sit back and admire the scenery. This is the end now of 80 adventures in Flight Simulator. We've come a long way and been many places together. I've enjoyed every moment and every mile, and hope you have too. Now I'm waiting anxiously for more of the Scenery Disks, particularly the Star Scenery Disks, which will feature smaller areas but significantly more detail. And in particular, I'm anxiously watching for the new, upscale simulator Bruce Artwick is reportedly designing for the new Commodore Amiga computer. The job couldn't be in better hands. And with the Amiga's speed, color, and graphic prowess, that simulator should be something else. When any or all of these developments are available, I'll be off, I'm sure, on more journeys. Maybe we can get together again then. Meanwhile, thanks for your company. Enjoyed flying with you. |
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