Flying Flight Simulator

Sky-High Adventure with the Macintosh, Amiga, & Atari ST
by Charles Gulick

INTRODUCTION

NOTE: This book is written for users of SubLOGIC Corporation's Flight Simulator II (for the Commodore Amiga and the Atari ST) and Microsoft Corporation's Flight Simulator (for the Apple Macintosh). Throughout the book, for simplicity, these three products are referred to, as a group, as “Flight Simulator.”

Flying Flight Simulator, the third book in the Microsoft Press Flight Simulator Co-Pilot Series, is specific to the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST versions of Flight Simulator produced by SubLOGIC Corporation and to the Macintosh version of Flight Simulator produced by Microsoft Corp. The book is designed for moment-to-moment use while you fly the itineraries and modes described. All the instruction you need to handle both the Cessna 182 and the Gates Learjet 25G in a professional way and to gain a new appreciation of the beauty and challenge of the simulation is in this book.

This latest in the line of remarkable Flight Simulator programs created by Bruce Artwick beginning in 1981-82 encompasses the same geographic areas as the earlier versions, but a new section—San Francisco—has been added, with the San Francisco Bay Area as a primary feature. Pilots who are familiar with the earlier simulators will recognize the upscale scenic design of the Bay Area as very much like that in the San Francisco STAR Scenery Disk. However, this simulator is quite different from earlier versions. The Cessna 182 handles differently and flies more realistically than in the earlier simulations, and the high-performance Gates Learjet offers a whole new flying challenge. Dramatic new viewing features appear for the first time, and among the most notable of these features is a “spot plane” and a powerful “control tower” view.

Thus, this entirely new book is called for because it was not sufficient simply to rework material from my earlier books, which were specific to the IBM, Apple, C-64, and Atari simulations: Flight Simulator Co-Pilot and Runway USA, published by Microsoft Press; 40 Great Flight Simulator Adventures and 40 More Great Flight Simulator Adventures, published by Compute! Books.

For best results, you should make the flights presented in this book in the order of their appearance. The instruction content is presented progressively, as it is in actual flight instruction. At the outset you will establish some new “default” parameters that enhance realism and speed the updating of the simulation, resulting in a smoother sensation of flight. You will learn how to maneuver the aircraft on the ground, take it off, fly it from point to point, and land it by reference both to your cockpit instruments and your out-the-windshield view. You will learn precision techniques for climbs, turns, descents, and straight and level flight at varying speeds and altitudes. You will learn how to use on-board radio equipment to navigate anywhere in the simulator world. You will become expert at controlling both the Cessna 182 and the Gates Learjet in every flight configuration, and you'll be able to fly them in a professional manner, even in darkness. Your sense of accomplishment will grow with every page of the book that you read.

As your flying capability increases, so will your fun. Early on in the book, you'll be seeing some of the great sights on the ground below you…San Francisco and its hills and waterfront…Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty…the blaze of light that is Seattle at night. You'll fly treacherous mountain passes…make thrilling high-speed approaches in your jet…take off and land breathtakingly close to the Golden Gate Bridge, and much more.

You'll fly from Los Angeles to San Francisco…even make a daring “dead reckoning” flight from Chicago to New York. And you'll fly in the World War I zone in your fully equipped Cessna 182, long after the war is over.

At the last, you'll learn how to simulate the thrills of R/C, or radio-controlled flying. You'll watch your special “182-S” model aloft as you control it from the ground, putting it through stalls, loops, aileron rolls, inverted flight, Immelmans, spins, wingovers, chandelles, Lazy 8s, and the Split-S…all based on the solid flying experience you gain in the earlier chapters.

Flying Flight Simulator promises to enhance your enjoyment of the simulator beyond anything you can imagine so that simulator flying may well become for you—as it is for me and thousands of other enthusiasts—your primary hobby.

So, lay the pressures of the day aside, pack a lunch, climb into the left seat, and let's go flying.

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