VOLUME 12 ISSUE 7

JULY 2008
USA $7.95
CANADA $9.95
AUSTRALIA $9.85 (INC. GST)
A PC AVIATOR PUBLICATION

FSX EASTER EGGS

Strange Sightings in Flight Simulator

MAKING X-PLANES
The How-To on Aircraft Creation
GABRIEL’S FLIGHT LOG
Diary of a Novice Simmer

DANGEROUS & UNUSUAL AIRPORTS

Real Pilot Challenges!

cpm1207a.indd 1 6/23/2008 4:39:44 PM

 2 CPM. V12I7

cpm1207a.indd 2 6/23/2008 4:39:52 PM

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cpm1207a.indd 3 6/23/2008 4:39:56 PM

 Your Flight Simulator Scenery World Is Now

Y FOR MIC ROSOFT

T OSC E N ER
IAL P HO
A L A ER
R -R E
HYPE

MAKE HAWAII YOUR NEXT HOLIDAY DESTINATION NEAR PALM SPRINGS. MT SAN JACINTO RENDERED IN
AND SOAR ABOVE THE ISLAND OF OAHU. “DOWN-TO-THE ROCK” DETAIL.

S
ay goodbye to boring default scenery • Hyper-realistic scenery at 1.19 meters per • Faster Framerates! Yes, your Flight Simulator,
forever! MegaSceneryX transforms your pixel recreated from 1 and 2 feet per pixel with hyper-realistic MegaScenery, will
Microsoft Flight Simulator X Scenery World aerial photos. It’s the real world teleported run smoother and faster than the default
from artificial… to REAL! MegaSceneryX is into Flight Simulator Scenery. 1.19 meters artificial scenery.
created from high resolution aerial photos. What meters per pixel means that you can even
you get is not just a recreation of the real world see the rooftop on your own house and sand • Developed specifically for Microsoft Flight
but instead the actual real world ported into traps on golf courses. Fly VFR like you’ve Simulator X
Microsoft Flight Simulator X for simulated flight never flown it before on a PC simulator.
over a world that’s so real you’ll be amazed! • Printed full color aeronautical charts,
• Day and Night Scenery. Soar and explore the bound printed instrument charts and a
MegaSceneryX lets you experience all the real world - during the day and at night! sizeable manual
landmarks and features of the area covered and
enables you to fly real VFR – Day and Night. • Hi-resolution DEM (mesh). While MegaScenery • A total value packed, realism transforming
is so realistic that you don’t need hi-res mesh scenery product For Microsoft Flight
Here’s what you get when you’re flying - our recent releases incorporate hi-res mesh at Simulator X that you wouldn’t think was
MegaSceneryX…. 10 meters per pixel. possible for such a low price!

COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION AT WWW.MEGASCENERY.COM

4 CPM. V12I7
© 2007 PC Aviator Inc. Aerosoft Australia Pty Ltd. Aerial photography for these products is © AirphotoUSA

cpm1207a.indd 4 6/23/2008 4:39:56 PM

 MEGASCENERY MAIL ORDER FORM
“Hyper-Real”! BILL TO...

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Please Check ( ) Each Title You Wish To Purchase

MEGASCENERY TITLES
OR X
FLIGHT SIMULAT
MEGASCENERYX SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA - $39.95 DVD Media
MEGASCENERYX DALLAS/FORT WORTH - $29.95 DVD Media
MEGASCENERYX PHOENIX - $29.95 DVD Media
MEGASCENERYX HAWAII - $14.95 CD Media
MEGASCENERYX LAS VEGAS - $14.95 DVD Media

MEGASCENERY X CALCULATING SHIPPING CHARGES: For shipping please add $3.95

TITLES AVAILABLE for first title and 50 cents for each additional title.
e.g. 3 titles add $4.95 for shipping. Shipping is by Priority Mail.

SUBTOTAL: Less 5% for Computer Pilot Subscribers: ...........................

SHIPPING: .................... ORDER TOTAL:........................

PAYMENT METHOD: CHECK MONEY ORDER VISA

MASTERCARD AMERICAN EXPRESS DISCOVER
Please note that these prices are in $USD. If you are ordering from our Australian office,
please call for pricing or visit www.pcaviator.com for Australian dollar pricing. If paying by
check or money order please make them payable to PC Aviator Inc

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MEGASCENERYX SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Name On Card: ......................................................................................

18,000 square miles of SoCal including Los Angeles and San Diego and
surrounding area. Includes Color Los Angeles and San Diego Visual Terminal
Charts and 230 Instrument Charts.
$39.95 DVD Media. SENDING YOUR ORDER: If you are ordering by mail,
please mail to... PC Aviator Inc. 839 Surfside Drive,
MEGASCENERYX DALLAS/FORT WORTH Surfside Beach, SC, 29575.
8,000 square miles of Dallas/Fort Worth & Surrounding Area. Includes Dallas/
Fort Worth Visual Terminal Charts and 110 Instrument Charts. TO ORDER BY PHONE:
$29.95 DVD Media. Please have your order details ready and
CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-664-0033
MEGASCENERYX PHOENIX between 9am and 5pm Mon – Fri. Outside North
7,000 square miles of Phoenix Arizona and Surrounding Area. Includes America CALL +1-843-232-1160
Phoenix Visual Terminal Charts and 100 Instrument Charts.
$29.95 DVD Media. TO ORDER BY FAX: Please fax to: 843-232-1166

MEGASCENERYX HAWAII TO ORDER ONLINE: WWW.MEGASCENERY.COM

The Hawaiian island of Oahu, spectacularly recreated.
$14.95 CD Media.

MEGASCENERYX LAS VEGAS

Las Vegas and Surrounding Area.
$14.95 DVD Media.

FS2004 TITLES ARE STILL AVAILABLE.

PLEASE VISIT WWW.MEGASCENERY.COM FOR DETAILS 5

cpm1207a.indd 5 6/23/2008 4:40:03 PM

 NEW RELEASE PRODUCTS
The latest flight simulator products in stock!
X-Plane Version 9 Rescue Pilot
Fly Anything! Ultimate Realism,
Ultimate Versatility... Mission Pack
Now You Can Be The Hero!
X-Plane is the most comprehensive and
powerful flight simulator available for the You are a pilot of an air rescue medical
personal computer. X-Plane simulates anything service based in the UK and have to respond
that flies: from single-engine fixed wing props to to emergency calls to your home base. You
multi-engine jets; gliders to dirigibles; might need to airlift a injured person from a
helicopters to spacecraft to VTOLs such as car accident, pick up a stranded mountaineer,
the V-22 Osprey and AV8-B Harrier. provide a high-speed courier service for a vital organ transplant -
and more besides! Your duties will always be a challenge!
X-Plane includes scenery for the entire continental U.S.* You can land
at any of thousands of airports, as well as test your mettle on aircraft You will be called to display your piloting skills to the maximum in a
carriers, helipads on building tops, frigates that pitch and roll in the variety of fixed wing and rotary aircraft but Rescue Pilot also offers
waves, and oil rigs. Weather is variable from clear skies and high you a choice of settings to match your skill levels.
visibility to thunderstorms with controllable wind, wind shear,
turbulence, and microbursts. Rain, snow and clouds are available for The 12 authentic missions - with realistic ATC and convincing scenarios
an instrument flying challenge, and thermals are available for the - create a great atmosphere to fly in, along with a custom set of rescue
gliders! X-Plane can download real weather data from the internet, aircraft liveries. This title has been delayed for many months but is now
allowing you to fly in actual current conditions! finally available in boxed version through PC Aviator Direct!

CODE: Price: US$49.95 // AUD$64.95 CODE: Price: US$39.95 // AUD$54.95

XPL9 *SUB PRICE: US$47.45 // AUD$61.70 RESCPILMP *SUB PRICE: US$37.95 // AUD$52.20

Mission: WWI Dogfight A400M

10 Missions That Bring Back WWI Flying! The New Generation Airlifter!
Early 2007 Abacus launched the first titles in A400M offers to the air transport world a
their new Mission: Series to take advantage of modern, multi-role airlifter which will replace
many of the new and exciting features of FSX. the ageing fleets of C-130 Hercules and C-160
Now, both Mission: Blackhawk and Mission: Transall in service with the air forces around
Combat Force remain among the most popular the world.
mission add-ons for FSX.
Wilco’s latest boxed version of the A400M is
This new title is Mission: WWI Dogfight and as its name suggests, compatible with both FSX and FS2004 and offers a quality A400M
takes you to a by-gone era of aerial battles. Designers Daniel Dunn model that can be flown by most simmers without the need to study
and David Chester have recreated a set of classic planes from the complex manuals, although the realism factor remains quite high!
early 1900s in which the flyers felt the blast of the air against their Some of the main features of this package include:
faces and smelled the hot engine fumes.
• GMax exterior/interior models
Ron Jeffers, well-known for his special effects, scenery design and • Flight Simulator X Viewpoints : Gear, Wing, Cargo.
audio skills has discovered and implemented new techniques to • Complete and detailed 2D & 3D Interactive Virtual Cockpit
simulate the legendary dogfights that take advantage of FSX’s new • Fully textured 3D Cargo Bay with detailed interior
mission capabilities. While the missions are for FSX users, the aircraft • Frame-rate friendly
are all FS2004 compatible. • Easy-to-use Paint Kit to create your own liveries and paint
schemes (Photoshop required)

CODE: Price: US$29.95 // AUD$42.95 CODE: Price: US$39.95 // AUD$59.95

WWDOGF *SUB PRICE: US$28.45 // AUD$40.80 A400MFSX *SUB PRICE: US$37.95 // AUD$56.95
*Denotes special price for current Computer Pilot Magazine subscribers and reflects a 5% discount off the regular retail price.
 NEW RELEASEThePRODUCTS
latest flight simulator titles in stock!
FS Altitude - MegaSceneryX
Western Europe Cameo: Reno/Tahoe
World Photo Scenery For High Altitude True To Life Detail For FSX
And IFR Flight!
This “cameo” MegaSceneryX title takes you out west to Reno Nevada
and lets you fly VFR, both day and night, Reno/Tahoe, Nevada and
Imagine flying your favorite jetliner at Flight
surrounding area.
Level 350 and seeing the real world as far as
the eye can see.... right to the horizon!
This 1,400 square mile area is designed for light aircraft VFR flying
Well now you can with this groundbreaking
and seeing the sites of the area surrounding Reno including the
scenery title - FSAltitude.
mountainous eastern shores of Lake Tahoe at a high resolution of
1.19 meters per pixel. What you’ll see while flying this scenery is
Now your high altitude flying in your favorite jetliner is no longer over
exactly what you’ll see in real life!
an artificial world... it’s now over a photoreal world recreated from
sateliite imagery.... and it’s photo-real as far as the eye can see!
Airports included in the area:
• Reno/Tahoe International
FSAltitude is fully compatible with FSX default and add-on sceneries.
• Reno/Stead
Due to a multi-resolution display mechanism, as you descend your
• Minden-Tahoe
favorite low altitude scenery (default or photoscenery) automatically
• Carson City
kicks in. Now, thanks to FS Altitude, you truly get the best in low and
• South Lake Tahoe
high altitude flying.

CODE: Price: US$79.95 // AUD$104.95 CODE: Price: US$9.99 // AUD$14.99

FSALTWEUR *SUB PRICE: US$75.95 // AUD$99.70 MSX-RNO *SUB PRICE: US$9.49 // AUD$14.24

Glass Simming: Regional Jet Vol. 1 - CRJ

Garmin 1000 Fly 3 Models Of The Most Successful
Regional Airliner Ever - The CRJ-200,
Learn To use The Garmin 1000 Glass CRJ-700 and CRJ-900.
Cockpit With This Reference Text!
If you’re a frequent traveller and have flown from
Glass Simming tells you everything you need a major hub to a smaller satellite airport, you’ve
for simulating flight with the latest technology. most likely been a passenger in the CRJ. Now
It’s much more expansive and detailed than the here’s your chance to finally get behind the
short guideline included with FSX, and it omits actual controls of this exciting-to-fly regional jet with
information in the real-world Garmin 1000 manual that’s useless Flight Simulator X (and FS2004).
for flight simulation.
General Features:
Learn from: • 3 aircraft: CRJ-200, CRJ-700 and CRJ-900
• Complete explanation of knobs, switches, buttons, and softkeys! • International liveries including Delta Airlines, United & America
• Thorough description of screens, pages, and popup windows West Express
• Step-by-step guide for every function! • Fully featured 2D panels
• Easy-to-follow text. • 3D Virtual cockpit and cabin
• Clear graphical depictions. • Comprehensive manuals, Quick Flight, Check Lists etc
• Focused chapters. • 2 Exclusive Bonus On-Disc videos included of the CRJ!
• Quick-reference tables, and more!

CODE: Price: US$14.95 // AUD$24.95 CODE: Price: US$39.95 // AUD$59.95

BKG1000 *SUB PRICE: US$14.20 // AUD$23.70 CRJX *SUB PRICE: US$37.95 // AUD$56.95
*Denotes special price for current Computer Pilot Magazine subscribers and reflects a 5% discount off the regular retail price.
 SCHEDULED ARRIVALS...
Titles just arrived or due for release shortly!
Just Planes DVD: Tower Simulator
CorsairFly B747-400 Experience The Thrill Of Being An Air
Traffic Controller!
Includes Incredible St. Maarten Approach
Tower Simulator puts you in the controller’s
This program takes you on the airline’s latest chair high atop a major or complex airport to
aircraft in its fleet, the Boeing 747-400 on a flight choreograph the movements of incoming and
from Paris Orly Airport to St Maarten and Fort outgoing air traffic.
De France before returning to Paris.
Tower Sim takes you into a world of authority
You will follow the pilots as they prepare the aircraft for departure and responsibility in which the lives of thousands
including checklists, briefings, walkaround. Once in the air you will see of passengers depend on your ability to make split-second decisions.
how they request their oceanic clearance via computer.
As a tower controller, you handle realistic aircraft take-offs and
Witness the spectacular landing and takeoff at St Maarten airport from landings, as well as aircraft ground movements through breathtaking
two angles and much more... out-the-window and radar views. Runways, taxiways, aprons, flight
paths, obstructions and airport structures are all under your control!
Corsairfly started operations on 17 May 1981. The airline provides
international services to more than 60 destinations around the world on Tower Simulator meets the two most important training criteria for a
a regular basis using a fleet of Airbus A330s and Boeing 747s. high-fidelity ATC tower training environment: Highly realistic scenario
Don’t miss this one! generation; Adjustable time of day, weather and seasonal conditions.

CODE: Price: US$24.95 // AUD$34.95 CODE: Price: US$79.95 // AUD$99.95

DVDCORFLY *SUB PRICE: US$23.70 // AUD$33.20 TWRSIMC *SUB PRICE: US$75.95 // AUD$94.95

PMDG 747-400 & 400F DHC-6 Twin Otter X

Award Winning Jumbo Add-on, Now The Classic Twin Otter -
Available For FSX! Now Available for FSX!
Fly your favorite heavy airliner on the new Flight The high end model presented by Aerosoft
Sim Platform - the PMDG 747-400/747-400F and partly designed by SibWings includes all
Version X for FSX! versions, and advanced avionics set. It will fly
everywhere using wheels, floats or skis.
This add-on package is widely regarded as the It’s a legend!
best jumbo add-on currently available, and is
the ultimate challenge in captaining a classic heavy jet airplane! Aircraft Features:
• Both -100 and -300 models included
Features include: • Wheeled, ski and floater version
• 3D Studio Max 747-400 & 747-400F Models - Accurately modeled • Nine liveries plus simple to use paint kit included
down to the smallest detail complete with high resolution textures • Original panel and updated panel (with high end coms and
and three different engine variants. GPS included)
• Dynamic Virtual Cockpit - Accurate within inches of the real flight • Fully functional VC (no 2d panels provided)
deck, complete with photo-real textures, animated switches and • Extended manual (additional manuals for Bendix King gauges)
knobs and beautiful night lighting. • Accurate flight model with the correct STOL characteristics
• Sound Set - Recorded from the real flight deck. • Full FSX design with bumpmaps, speculars, texture fall
• Interactive FMC operating to real world standards, and more! back structures

CODE: Price: US$59.95 // AUD$89.95 CODE: Price: US$29.95 // AUD$47.95

PMDG747FSX *SUB PRICE: US$56.95 // AUD$85.45 DHC6TOX *SUB PRICE: US$28.45 // AUD$45.55
*Denotes special price for current Computer Pilot Magazine subscribers and reflects a 5% discount off the regular retail price.
 BEST SELLERS
The best selling flight simulation products now available...
The Flight 1 ATR 72-500 Microsoft Flight
Jump Into The Captain’s Seat Of The ATR
72-500 in FSX or FS2004!
Simulator X For Pilots:
Developed with the cooperation of Avions de
Real World Training
Transport Regional (ATR) in Toulouse, France, Master The Skills Of Flight With This
this has been one of Flight One Software’s most “Real World” Training Guide
exhausting development efforts.
Aspiring pilots will learn the skills of flight, how to master Flight
Select to fly from the Captain’s or First Officer’s panel in either
Simulator, and how to utilize the software as a learning tool towards
of the standard brown or newly available blue/grey cockpit
their pilot’s licenses. Those who already have their real-world wings
configuration.Experience the fully functional and highly
will benefit from guidance on how Flight Simulator X can be used as a
detailed virtual cockpit with many never before features, such
continuing learning tool, how to simulate real-world emergencies, and
as truly working windshield wipers that remove the rain from
how to use it for training towards advanced certifications.
the windows.
And those who favor simulation to real-world flying will find tips for
Take a stroll through the virtual cabin, checking out the detailed 3D
making their sim experience as real as possible.
interior including 2 different seating configurations, available in 4
different color schemes. Explore the 3D exterior model and listen to the
These 725 pages are packed with detailed information on using Flight
real cockpit and engine sounds recorded from the real ATR in a runup
Simulator X for training. Written by certified flight instructors Kevin
in Toulouse.
Lane-Cummings and Jeff Van West.

CODE: Price: US$34.95 // AUD$54.95 CODE: Price: US$29.95 // AUD$44.95

ATR72 *SUB PRICE: US$33.20 // AUD$52.20 BKFSXRWT *SUB PRICE: US$28.45 // AUD$42.70

Ultimate Terrain X: USA Microsoft Flight

The Texture Enhancement With A
Whole Lot More!
Simulator X:
Ultimate Terrain X - USA Edition has been
Deluxe Edition
designed from the ground up to take advantage
Latest Generation Flight Simulator
of the new technologies in FSX, and provide With Added Deluxe Edition Bonuses!
you with the most superior and complete large
terrain environment to date. As always, we use
only the highest quality commercial source data “Flight Simulator X” is the culmination of nearly
in our products. 25 years of the landmark “Flight Simulator” franchise and the most
significant addition to date. “Flight Simulator X” presents players with a
Ultimate Terrain X will take your FSX terrain environment to wide array of new aircraft to fly in a beautifully rich and believable world
new levels not seen before in a PC Flight Simulator. Roads, Rivers, which contains greater detail than past entries in the franchise. Players
Streams, Bridges, Landclass, Waterclass, and more is packed into will be able to experience what it is like to be a pilot and have real
Ultimate Terrain X. distractions, to shade their eyes from the glare of reflective paint and
the glint from glass and chrome.
Advanced users will marvel at the fact that they can have different
textures assigned to nearly every Ultimate Terrain feature. For example, Players will enjoy the opportunity to fly their dream aircraft, from
you can change the sizes of things like stream widths, road widths and classic seaplanes like the de Havilland Beaver and Grumman Goose to
coastline widths using the new Ultimate Terrain X Setup Tool. the Cessna 172 there is a plane for every terrain and every player.

CODE: Price: US$39.95 // AUD$54.95 CODE: Price: US$54.95 // AUD$89.95

ULTERUSAX *SUB PRICE: US$37.95 // AUD$52.20 FSXDLX *SUB PRICE: US$52.20 // AUD$85.45
*Denotes special price for current Computer Pilot Magazine subscribers and reflects a 5% discount off the regular retail price.
 NEW AVIATION DVDs!
Quality aviation DVDs that “Take You There!”
Just Planes DVD: Just Planes DVD:
GOL Transporters South African Airways
With the B737-700 and B737-800 Featuring the Airbus A300, B737-800,
Boeing 747SP, and B747-400
NEW PRODUCTION RUN!
GOL Transportes Aereos, launched in January
South African Airways, Africa’s leading airline,
2001 as the first low-fare airline in Brazil, is the
operates a fleet of more than 50 modern
fastest growing airline in South America. GOL
aircraft including the A320, A340, B737 and
is also the largest operator of the Next Generation Boeing 737 in Latin
B747. SAA, created in 1934, operates more than 1000 flights a week
America. The airline operates both the 700 and 800 version of the
around the world has won many awards for its outstanding service!
aircraft on routes across Brazil.
This dvd, previously released on video, features the A300 on a
typical regional African flight to Zimbabwe. This is followed by
After an introduction to the company and a look “behind the scenes”
several domestic flights on its most important route between
we follow a crew on a 4-day trip across Brazil in the cockpit of the
Johannesburg and Cape town. During the arrival into Cape town on
B737-700 including several approaches and landings at the very scenic
the 747SP we are allowed to make a scenic tour of this beautiful city.
Santos Dumont Airport located in Rio de Janeiro. We complete the
Last but not least we fly the 747-400 from Cape town on its busiest
program with a day on the B737-800 from Sao Paulo to Porto Alegre
European route to London.
with stopovers in Florianopolis.
Running Time: 121 Minutes
Running Time: 186 Minutes

CODE: Price: US$29.95 // AUD$49.95 CODE: Price: US$29.95 // AUD$49.95

DVDGOL *SUB PRICE: US$28.45 // AUD$47.45 DVDSAFRICAN *SUB PRICE: US$28.45 // AUD$47.45

Just Planes DVD: Just Planes DVD:

Air Namibia Air Dolomiti
737-200 / 747-400 ATR42 - ATR72 - BAe146
This program was first released on VHS Air Dolomiti, founded in 1989, started
in the year 2000 and now makes its way operations in 1991 and is now part of the
to DVD in 2008! Lufthansa Group. The airline now operates
more than 750 flights a week with a fleet of
First you are in for a bit of history flying the B747-400, which no ATR42s, AT72s and BAe146s.
longer operates with Air Namibia, from WIndhoek to London
Heathrow via Lusaka and back from Frankfurt to Windhoek. The airline’s Head of Flight Operations takes you in the cockpit of
the BAe146 for 3 flights to Milan and Naples from Munich. He
That is followed by a series of flights on the B737-200 from Windhoek introduces Air Dolomiti, explains how pilot duties are and gives a
to Cape Town via Walvis Bay. On the way back the weather into detailed presentation of the 146. Also included is some in the
Windhoek is very bad forcing the aircraft to miss the approach twice cabin action.
and go-around. A diversion is made to Eros where the 737 will make its
first ever landing. You then take a seat in the cockpit of the ATR-72 for 10 flights from
the Munich hub to Basel and 4 destinations in Italy.

Running Time: 122 Minutes Running Time: 186 Minutes

CODE: Price: US$24.95 // AUD$44.95 CODE: Price: US$29.95 // AUD$49.95

DVDNAMIB *SUB PRICE: US$23.70 // AUD$42.70 DVDDOL *SUB PRICE: US$28.45 // AUD$47.45
*Denotes special price for current Computer Pilot Magazine subscribers and reflects a 5% discount off the regular retail price.
 UTILITIES & PERIPHERALS
Get the most from the sim experience with these quality products
CH Products Flight Saitek Pro Flight
Sim Yoke USB Yoke System
Our Best-Selling Flight Flight Yoke And Quadrant Combo
Controller! At A Great Price!
The CH Flight Sim Yoke USB gives The Saitek Pro Flight Yoke System is
you a flight yoke that’s as close as highly engineered to meet the exacting
you can get to the real thing without needs of the true flight simulation enthusiast. Stainless steel shaft,
spending the many hundreds of ergonomic controls, integrated chronograph and separate throttle
dollars that you would on high end quadrant ensure a smooth, accurate and totally realistic flying
yokes. Now you can control your aircraft like a real pilot would with experience.
left hand on the yoke and right hand controlling your throttle, prop and
mixture and managing the rest of your cockpit. Unique, 2-position desk clamp keeps your yoke and quadrant securely
fixed no matter how extreme the flying conditions. Use the integrated
20 function buttons on your yoke support such functions as “electric” USB Hub to easily connect other parts of the Saitek Pro Flight
trim, views, gear, flaps and more! range of products. Saitek’s powerful Saitek Smart Technology (SST)
programming software allows gamers to configure their controls to suit
Fully compatible with Flight Simulator X, Flight Simulator 2004, Flight their preferred gaming style, and to save the configurations as personal
Simulator 2002, X-Plane and other sims that use Windows interface profiles.
control software.

CODE: Price: US$129.95 // AUD$234.95 CODE: Price: US$149.95 // AUD$284.95

CHFSYOKEUSB *SUB PRICE: US$123.45 // AUD$223.20 STKPFYKUSB *SUB PRICE: US$142.45 // AUD$270.70

Matrox TripleHead2Go CH Products Pro

Digital Edition Pedals USB
Experience Surround Graphics! Complete Your Flight Control
Setup And Master Those
Bridge the gap between virtual reality and reality. Crosswind Landings!
Matrox TripleHead2Go is a small, black box that adds three monitors
to your system and delivers the most immersive
flight sim experience ever by Your ailerons are only half of the
offering a wider field of picture. Complete your authentic
view. This panoramic view flight control set-up with CH
of the sim fully engages Pro Pedals USB, the ultimate choice in realistic rudder pedals! CH
your peripheral vision on the ProPedals give you realistic fully articulating (back/forth) rudder motion
side displays with the main and also pivot on the toes for differential toe brakes (just like a real
point of focus on the center aircraft) where supported by the simulator and hardware interface.
display for a more realistic
flight experience. CH ProPedals USB also feature smooth gliding motion for precision
rudder control input. With your feet sitting on a set of CH Pro Pedals
TripleHead2Go Digital Edition delivers the ultimate surround you’ll be able to master crosswind landings, make properly balanced
graphics experience! turns and control your aircraft during taxiing, the way it is done in
real life…

CODE: Price: US$329.00 // AUD$499.00 CODE: Price: US$129.95 // AUD$204.95

MTH2DG *SUB PRICE: US$312.55 // AUD$474.50 CHPROPEDUSB *SUB PRICE: US$123.45 // AUD$194.70
*Denotes special price for current Computer Pilot Magazine subscribers and reflects a 5% discount off the regular retail price.
 PC AVIATOR’SInstant
DOWNLOAD STORE
access to quality flight sim downloads!
Welcome to... Lord Howe Island X
PC Aviator’s Download Out Here, There Is No Alternate!
Store! Take off from the local airport and enjoy
this beautiful Island in the Tasman Sea
Buy... Download... Fly! close to Australia. Recreated with the latest FSX technologies and done
right to the smallest detail (you will learn how to read a newspaper in
FSX!) it is just a stunning place to fly to.
Our download store is now
open and was established to
Lord How Island is a small bit of paradise on earth and its only problem
provide you with the option
is that it is incredibly far from where most people live. The Australians
to download a number of
are lucky to be able to spend time there without having to fly half the
software titles and electronic
globe! For Aerosoft it was easy to decide to do this project when Mat
products. Products are
Dalton proposed it to us. His work is excellent quality and fits perfectly
available by instant download
in our idea to cover the more special airports with dense scenery.
upon successful completion of
your credit card, debit card or
Although far from our main customer base this was a scenery project
Paypal payment.
we really liked as it is a prime example of what we like in FSX, a high
detail environment, difficult short runway and with an additional danger
Plus, we offer an exclusive CD-backup service, so if the product
as there is no alternate airport in the region!
download you want is not available in a boxed version, we will put it on
a CD for you (at a small additional charge) to save you the download!
This is a great little scenery package for the pilot that likes a challenge!

SKU: Price: US$19.75

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Fokker 50 The Unofficial A320

Fly The Reliable Fokker 50 In FSX/FS2004 Simulator Manual
Virtualcol presents this model of the FOKKER Essential Reading For Any Virtual Airbus Pilot
50. This airplane still flies in Europe and some
countries of Latin America, with a high record of Mike Ray has written another wonderful book, this
air safety. Available for FS2004 and FSX. Both time about the fabulous Airbus A320 airplane. He is
installers included with this package! releasing this download version for those who
prefer the electronic images.
It includes 8 airline liveries:
• AIR BALTIC While the material is specifically intended for the professional Airbus
• ALBANIAN AIRLINES pilot community, it is something that should be in every serious
• AVIANCA Airbus Flight Simmers library.
• ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES
• KLM CITYHOPPER It is fascinating to read, and written in a style that can be characterized
• SCANDINAVIAN COMMUTER as humorous and yet technically challenging. The document is filled
• OCEANAIR with hundreds of pages in glorious color, each choked with a treasure
• VLM trove of information.

It also includes 3 versions of the model, adaptable to the taste and The beautiful document has been called a work of art by those
to the performance of the user’s computer: Full virtual cockpit, virtual professional pilots that have read it.
cockpit lite, and model without virtual cockpit for best performance.

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*Denotes special price for current Computer Pilot Magazine subscribers and reflects a 5% discount off the regular retail price.
 PC AVIATOR’SInstant
DOWNLOAD STORE
access to quality flight sim downloads!
Wings of Power II: Waco F / F-2 Package
The P-40 For Flight Simulator 9 And FSX
The Legendary Warbird Is Now Yours! Golden Age Simulations is proud to present
the WACO F and F-2 for FS9 and FSX*.
Wings of Power sets new standards in many Our simulations brings to the simulator
areas, probably the most notable are the 3D community three distinct models representing one of the most popular
cockpit environments. While they are beautiful to look at, they aircraft designs of the Golden Age: the Kinner B-5 powered INF, the
represent the top layer of an amazing world that lies beneath. sporty Warner Scarab RNF and the
The more you fly these aircraft, the more you discover! Continental powered GCF-2.

• Unsurpassed attention to detail Our package although designed

• Can be flown “by the book” for FS9 is fully compatible with
• Gorgeously constructed, inside and out, down to the last rivet! FSX* and has been extensively
• Fully clickable cockpits with authentic working gauges tested in both FSX SP1 and SP2
• The latest wind-tunnel technology helps to create the most Acceleration. Installers for both FS9
authentic, fluid flying qualities, including complex spins and stalls and FSX are included.
• NEW! 3D Lighting System built in
• Bent-prop damage This model is not intended for use DirectX 10 The model is designed to
• Finest engine sound recordings available flown from the VC Cockpit. Exploring the VC with the mouse will reveal
• Realistic startup procedures the various hot points. All controls are animated, including toe brakes.

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DL-SWP40 FILESIZE: 79Mb FILESIZE: 30Mb
DL-WACO

Sydney International Computer Pilot Mag -

Airport - YSSY Special 100th Issue!
Charles Kingsford Smith In High Detail! January 2008 - Volume 12 Issue 1
Sydney (Kingsford Smith) International Airport, or Sydney, is located Grab this special celebratory issue at the
in the Sydney suburb of Mascot. It is the major airport serving Sydney, special price of just US$2.49!
and is a major hub for Qantas. Sydney Airport is the world’s oldest
continually operated commercial airport, and the busiest commercial Issue contents include: Computer Pilot
airport in Australia, handling in excess of 30 million passengers per year Magazine – A “Century” of Flight Sim Coverage; Flight Terrain X
(2006). It was the 28th busiest airport in the world in 2003. Preview; Flight Sim Affairs and Crimes of Passion – Part 1;
OzFlightSim Expo 2007 Report; Meet Your Makers – Laurent Dupoeuy;
Commercial Level Simulations is proud to present Sydney Professional Operation Sinterklaas; Flying Green with Farmboyzim – Bolivia; Round
for both FS2004 and FSX. The project has been more than 2 years in Robin Adventures – QantasLink Scheduled Route.
the making, made from extensive amounts of photographs taken on
multiple visits to the airport. Sydney Professional has been made as We have full product reviews of: Flight Simulator X: Acceleration;
accurate as possible to the real airport. IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946; MegaAirport Brussels and the Sim Cockpit Seat.

Sydney Airport is currently undergoing some significant changes; the Plus! An interesting lesson on great circle navigation, as well as the
scenery will be updated as these features are finished in real life. latest news fromt he flight sim world, regular columns, pullout poster,
Check it out today! freeware reviews, hints, tips, tricks and much more!

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*Denotes special price for current Computer Pilot Magazine subscribers and reflects a 5% discount off the regular retail price.
 C
From the EDITOR

Welcome to this month’s issue! Firstly, more aviation humor sent in by our readers:

“At the airport for a business trip, I settled down to wait for the boarding announcement at
Gate 35. Then I heard the voice on the public address system saying, “We apologize for the
inconvenience, but Delta Flight 570 will board from Gate 41.”So my family picked up our
luggage and carried it over to Gate 41. Not ten minutes later the public address voice told us
that Flight 570 would in fact be boarding from Gate 35. So, again, we gathered our carry-on
luggage and returned to the original gate. Just as we were settling down, the public address
voice spoke again: “Thank you for participating in Delta’s physical fitness program.”

This month’s issue sees more airports uncovered in our “Dangerous and Unusual Airports”
series. This series always proves popular and we encourage readers to submit us the name of
airports you have found to be a real challenge in the Flight Simulator world. Often, some of the
toughest approaches are at those airports most may not even be familiar with, so let us know!

For the jet fans we have another Mike Ray special. This time out Mike explores the world
of Discontinuities. If you ever wondered what that is in terms of aviation or your FMC, this
article will definitely solve the mystery. So get your disco dance shoes on and don’t miss this Publisher: Robert Ferraro
special content.
Editor: Dean Bielanowski
As always there is plenty more content in the pages to read through and we trust you continue
to enjoy the magazine. Ideas and suggestions for content are always welcome. Email me at Layout & Design: Tony Liatos
[email protected] Contributors In This Issue: Dean Bielanowski, John
Shankland, John Achor, David Wilson-Okamura, Gene Davis,
Over and Out! Rob Scott, Chuck Bodeen, Bill Stack, Bill Smith, Mike Ray,
Francois Dumas, Doug Horton, Gabe Logan, Al Pelletier.
Subscription Managers: Australia: Adrian Lazzarotto
USA: Mark Jakubowski
Dean Bielanowski Editorial Submissions: Please address editorial matter
Editor to The Editor at [email protected] or to the office
closest to you listed at the bottom of this page.
Advertising Inquiries: PC Aviator Inc.
Phone: 843-232-1160. Email: [email protected]
Website: www.computerpilot.com
General E-Mail: [email protected]

Supplement
your reading in Computer Pilot Magazine
US Distribution: Ingram Periodicals, International
Periodical Distributors, Media Solutions
by visiting the Computer Pilot web site at www.computerpilot.com Printed By: The RL Bryan Company (USA).

As well as features for first time visitors, the web site is Disclaimer: Any information, advice, maps, charts, tables
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Computer Pilot is an international magazine, proudly
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POSTMASTER: Send address changes to P.O. Box 15907, Surfside Beach, SC 29587.

cpm1207a.indd 6 6/23/2008 4:40:52 PM

C 8 NEWS AND NEW RELEASES
All the latest news and new releases since our last issue.

REVIEWS
12
22
30
45
DHC-6 Twin Otter
Jog and Shuttle Pro Keyboard
MegaScenery Reno/Tahoe
Space Shuttle Missions 2007

16 DANGEROUS AND UNUSUAL AIRPORTS

There is nothing like the thrill and anticipation you get from edge of the seat
flying into unusual or dangerous airports and airfields. It makes GPS flying
seem as interesting as watching grass grow! There are many airports around
the world that test the nerve and skills of the pilot in command. Here are a few
dangerous and unusual airfields you can test your skills at!

25 FSX EASTER EGGS

In software development, undocumented features are often referred to as
Easter Eggs. Programmers “hid” them inside the application software and left
these “signatures” behind for posterity. Apparently, Microsoft has threatened
programmers with dismissal if they include a personal Easter Egg — reason:
unknown program code isn’t tested and might provide a hole allowing hackers
to attack software, computers or the internet. That said, there are dozens of
unique places, items and surprises we can call Easter Eggs in FSX.

33 REGINALD’S SECRET FS ADVENTURES – PART II

“In the six years since the raid at her premises, I had often reflected on my first
clandestine FS experience with Betzy Wong. British Immigration officials had
interviewed her about her working contrary to the conditions of her visa and
she was soon sent packing…”

36 CHECKING OUT AIRPORTS

Most of MSFS’s airports lack appropriately depicted structures such as
terminals and hangars, and quite a few lack taxiways and signage. Some have
incorrect representations of various features, including basics such as runway
headings and lengths. To pick up where Microsoft leaves off, home flight-sim
developers have created hundreds of airport sceneries for free downloading
from the internet.

42 FREEWARE FRENZY
This month we have a range of new and quality freeware we have reviewed
including a Savoia Marchetti S.81 Pipistrello, Junkers W 33b, a FSX Logbook
Viewer, airport scenery and more!

cpm1207a.indd 7
54 MAKING X-PLANES
How many times have you wished you had some special plane for your
flight simulator only to find that it was unavailable from the many Internet
download sources – or that the price was a bit high? You can’t learn all there
is about building custom models for X-Plane in a short time, but we can get
you started…

59 MIKE RAY - DISCONTINUITIES

Mike is back with another great article. This month he looks at the topic of
Discontinuities and how to set and use them in your Flight Management Computer.

64 GABRIEL’S FLIGHT LOG:

do you do next?
A NOVICE SIMMER’S DIARY
So you’ve dropped a couple of hundred dollars on the latest incarnation of
Microsoft’s Flight Simulator and acquired a few fancy third party add-ons, and
somehow managed a non-lethal maiden flight to your home airport... but what

70 WHAT’S WITH WINGLETS?

On May 19, 2008, Dassault introduced the new Falcon 900LX which has
composite winglets that reduce drag by as much as 7%, allow climb to 39,000
feet in just 20 minutes, and increase the range to 4,800 nm. There must be
something to this rush to winglets, but how can a simple addition to an
airplane wing be responsible for such improved performance?

76 ROUND ROBIN ADVENTURES

This month we are flying a regular scheduled flight for Italy’s premier
airline, Alitalia.

REGULAR COLUMNS:
38 PULLOUT POSTER
“Lufthansa Boeing 737”

50 HORTON’S HINTS FOR FSX

More hints for FSX fans

69 SUBSCRIBE & WIN

Cool prizes up for grabs!

6/23/2008 4:40:59 PM
 8 NEWS & NEW FLIGHT SIM RELEASES
MAAM-SIM Offer Classic WWII Aircraft
YOU MAY RECALL the folks over at in today’s ATC environment. It features You know when MAAM-SIM releases an
MAAM-SIM (the sim team at the Mid MAAM-SIM’s signature photo-real textures, add-on package that the quality is going to
Atlantic Air Museum) for their wonderful inside and out... be virtually second to none. The Avenger
creation of the R4D/DC-3 and B-25J package, which also includes a model of
packages for past versions of Flight In addition to the MAAM TBM, we have the USS Langley to land your Avenger on is
Simulator. Well the team has unveiled their included four other, different Avenger available for US$35 from the team’s website
latest quality creation, this time bringing models in this package with a total of sixteen at http://www.maam.org/maam_sim.html
the TBF/TBM “Avenger” out of the virtual liveries. These models include:
hangar for Flight Simulator 2004 users. • The TBF-1/TBM-1, the first production
model of the Avenger, differs from the
The TBM in this FS aircraft add-on later TBM-3 in engine, control panel,
package has been designed to duplicate, and some structural details in the cowl
in appearance, sound, and performance, flaps, oil cooler flaps, arresting hook,
the TBM-3 Avenger, tail number N109K, and ventral gun position structure.
owned and operated by the Mid Atlantic • The TBF-1C/TBM-1C replaced
Air Museum. It was designed by Grumman, the single .30 caliber nose gun with
but built by the Eastern Aircraft Division two wing-mounted .50 calibers and
of General Motors. (If the plane was built increased the fuel capacity...
by Grumman it was designated TBF. If it • The Tarpon Mk I, later called the
was assembled by Eastern, it was a TBM. Avenger I, was the British Royal
Other than the change in nomenclature, Navy version of the TBF-1. It had
the TBF and TBM of the same model were distinctive domed observation ports
identical). Our version is equipped with the in the rear compartment (instead of
necessary modern radios and the associated the flat, oval American windows) to
instruments that allow her to be flown facilitate U-boat spotting...

Mega Airport Frankfurt X Now Available

THE NEXT EUROPEAN AIRPORT • Frankfurt City (Skyscrapers). • New Cargo-Park positions at the south
enhancement to be offered by Aerosoft • Automatic docking system (AGNIS). end of the airport.
Germany for European-based virtual pilots • All navigation systems (ILS, VOR/DME, • New maintenance hangar at the former
is Frankfurt. NDB, ATIS). military section.
• Astounding night-time effects. • New Civil Service Center.
“Fly to Germany’s busiest airport. This is • Hundreds of taxiway- and runway signs . • New power units for the simulation center .
the award-winning scenery Mega Airport • Numerous static and dynamic objects. • Danzas-Nippon-Express.
Frankfurt developed by the German Airports • Different AI Traffic Files. • More general purpose buildings.
Team for Microsoft Flight Simulator X • Compatible with VFR Germany 1 - West. • ASMR - Ground radar.
and FS2004. This updated version includes • FS2004 version compatible with AES. • Intercity Hotel.
all the new buildings and includes the • Extensive description of the airport. • ASR8 South.
A380 gates and the massive new A380 • DFS airport charts. • New buildings of LSK Skychefs at the
maintenance hangar in the South East corner former Gateway Gardens Areal.
of the airport. The scenery is fully updated to
the current actual state of the airport. Many New objects added with help from The scenery add-on is available in both
buildings have been added and others have Fraport AG: download and boxed versions with the boxed
been removed. • A380 Hangar. version retailing for around US$39.95. Check
• New park positions for the A380. www.aerosoft.com for more details or your
Developed by using the most advanced • Lufthansa Aviation Center. favorite sim retailer for availability.
technology this add-on is a stepping stone
in scenery design and simulation. It shows
the up-to date Frankfurt airport with all
its buildings, exact runway layouts on a
photographic ground texture, complete
lighting systems, and navigation system, all
in the highest level of detail.

Features:
• Detailed airport and their surroundings.
• Photo-realistic ground texture.
• All airport institutions and buildings.

cpm1207a.indd 8 6/23/2008 4:41:07 PM

 NEWS & NEW FLIGHT SIM RELEASES 9

More Missions for Acceleration Users

FLIGHT SIMULATOR X PILOTS who Reno Sport Class Course If you like air racing in Acceleration, you’ll
own the official “Acceleration” add-on from • The Sport Class at Reno was invented love these new multiplayer races. If you’ve
Microsoft can now download extra missions to allow high performance kitplanes never tried air racing, there’s no better time
free of charge developed by the Microsoft to compete in air racing. Sport Class to start!”
Flight Simulator team and released on the racers may be less expensive to own and
official FSInsider.com website. operate than rare or exotic warbirds, but The team have also supplied a full manual
“We’re pleased to announce the release of these days they are actually faster than for these missions with lots of information
three new multiplayer missions for Flight stock warbirds. In some cases they’re and tips on how to maximize aircraft
Simulator X: Acceleration: as fast as some modified warbirds! performance or insert your own aircraft
Typically, races are run at speeds over models to use in the races!
Reno T-6 Class Course 300 mph.
• The 5.0646-mile T-6 course at Reno The Bonus Acceleration Racing Missions can
is much smaller than the 8.4803-mile Alpine Sailplane Hoop Course be download from http://www.fsinsider.com/
Unlimited course. This is because the T-6 • Brandon enjoyed flying the one sailplane Download them now and start racing!
Class aircraft (WWII trainers including the race mission in Flight Simulator X:
T-6 “Texan,” the Canadian-built “Harvard,” Acceleration so much that he decided
and the U.S. Navy “SNJ”) fly slower than to build a different type of sailplane
the highly-modified WWII fighters of the mission to challenge you. “Running this
Unlimited Class. A racing T-6 typically tops course is kind of like downhill skiing,”
out at an average course speed of around he explains. “To succeed, you’ll have
240 mph. This is about half the speed of a to fly as fast as possible through the
Mustang but much faster than a “normal” hoops. The challenge is deciding when
T-6. Most of the speed gains realized on a to circle in thermals for more altitude,
racing T-6 are from weight reduction and and when to just go for it and hope you
from using aluminum tape to cover panel have enough altitude to make it through
line gaps and improve aerodynamics. the course and still win.

CLS Release B747-200

COMMERCIAL LEVEL SIMULATIONS cockpit (VC). • High quality sound sets.
have recently released the Boeing 747-200 • 2D panel with custom gauges. • Rolls Royce, Pratt and Whitney and
for both the Flight Simulator X and Flight • 65 highly detailed liveries! General Electric engines modeled.
Simulator 2004 platforms. • Detailed manual.
“The Commercial Level Simulations Boeing • Option for showing the wings from the Detailed features:
747-200 includes a free bonus, the Boeing 747- interior view (wing view). • Highly detailed 747-200 models:
300. Looking for the ultimate 747 experience? • Pushback truck (can be switched on/off Passenger, Combi (Cargo and Passenger)
The CLS 747-200 includes 65 liveries, for FSX). and Cargo.
extremely detailed exterior model and realistic • Air stairs (for passenger models). • Highly detailed 747-300 models:
Virtual Cockpit (photo-real parts). The panel is • Dynamic wing-flex. Passenger, Combi (Cargo and Passenger).
equally good and has many functions.” • Detailed flight deck when seen from the • Dynamic shine.
exterior. • Operating passenger and cargo doors.
General features: • Animations abound; Passenger doors, • XML coded landing gear for better visual
• For both FSX and FS2004! cargo doors, flaps, rudder, elevators, performance.
• Highly detailed exterior models. undercarriage, engine fans, thrust • Full flyable photorealistic virtual cockpit.
• High quality interactive 3D Virtual reversers and spoilers. • Engine fans.

cpm1207a.indd 9 6/23/2008 4:41:07 PM

 10 NEWS & NEW FLIGHT SIM RELEASES

Latest GPUs Come With New Name

WHAT’S IN A NAME? Not a lot really to Company’s previous NVIDIA GeForce • 3-way NVIDIA SLI® Technology: Industry
the average simmer, where performance is the 8800 Ultra GPU through 240 enhanced leading 3-way NVIDIA SLI technology
number one priority, so it may not concern processor cores that provide incredible offers amazing performance scaling by
simmers that the latest Nvidia GPUs have a shading horsepower at resolutions as implementing 3-way alternate frame
new series name when the performance on high as 2560 x 1600. rendering (AFR) for the world’s fastest
offer is maxed out! The GTX 200 series of gaming solution under Windows Vista.
GPUs from Nvidia offer the fastest graphics • NVIDIA PureVideo® HD Technology:
processing yet under the GeForce label. The combination of HD video decode
acceleration and post-processing delivers
“NVIDIA has introduced its new family of unprecedented picture clarity, smooth
GeForce® GTX 200 graphics processors video, accurate color, and precise image
(GPUs)—which includes the GeForce GTX scaling for movies and video.
280 and GeForce GTX 260 GPUs—taking • NVIDIA CUDA Technology: With the
graphics beyond gaming and gaming beyond power of NVIDIA CUDA™ technology
anything that’s ever been possible before on and the new CUDA runtime for
a consumer computing platform.” Windows Vista, programmers can now
offload the most intensive processing
The primary features of these new chips tasks from the CPU to the NVIDIA
are outlined in the company’s press release GPUs, putting the power of up to 240
regarding the GTX 200 series chips: multi-threaded processor cores to work.

• 2nd Generation NVIDIA Unified Be on the lookout for these ultra fast GPUs
Architecture: Delivers 50% more on graphics cards shortly. Heck, even FSX
gaming performance over the may not be able to slow these cards down!

Aerosoft Premieres Hughes H-1B

FANS of the Hollywood blockbuster “The can fly this highly realistic aircraft in FSX and • Detailed and beautifully designed
Aviator” will instantly recognize Aerosoft’s see if you can break your own records. manual.
latest aircraft offering, the Hughes H-1B. It • Low impact on frame rate.
was Howard Hughes’ entry into the record Features: • Special sound module to include full
books and brought many new technologies to • Superbly researched project, almost a cockpit sounds (so you hear the wobble
the flying forefront. historical document in FS. pump etc).
• Both models (short wing and long wing) • Engine model unprecedented in detail,
“From now on flight sim pilots will know versions included. including newly developed failure models
it as the hardest plane they have ever • Flight model based on the actual 1930’s for shock cooling, fuel pressure, oil
flown. Because it is designed with just one wind tunnel test and NACA airfoil data pressure, hydraulic leaks and carburetor
purpose in mind, to break records, it is (we are sure Howard Hughes would icing. All of these are unlike anything you
uncomfortable, hardly stable and the engine appreciate that). have seen on other aircraft.
always seems to be waiting for the worst • Extensive modeling of the exterior
time to go up in smoke. and interior of the aircraft in full FSX The H-1B package is available now (via
standards. download purchase only at this stage) from
The original aircraft is now one of the main • Very highly detailed Virtual Cockpit all good flight sim download stores online, or
exhibits in the Smithsonian institute. Now you with all parts fully animated. direct from Aerosoft, and retails for €25.95.

cpm1207a.indd 10 6/23/2008 4:41:09 PM

 NEWS & NEW FLIGHT SIM RELEASES 11

cpm1207a.indd 11 6/23/2008 4:41:11 PM

 DHC-6 Twin Otter X
BY ROB SCOTT
4

T
he DHC-6 Twin Otter is a 20 passenger short
take off and landing (STOL) aircraft, and has
often been said to be Canada’s most successful
aircraft program in history. It’s ability to handle
The aircraft was available straight from the factory with floats,
the most extreme weather conditions and land and skis or wheels as the customer desired, and it is this versatility and
take off on almost any runway have made her a firm adaptability that has made her such a successful bush aircraft. Powered
favourite with pilots of all generations. by two Pratt and Whitney PT6A-27 Turboprop engines, she can achieve
a maximum speed of 183 kts and cruise at 143 kts for 920 nautical
The Twotter has seen action with civilian airlines and the military miles; more than enough range to get to grips with this aircraft.
as a cargo, passenger and MEDEVAC aircraft, as well as being
popular with skydiving operations. The first flight of the Twotter was Look and Feel
over 40 years ago, and it is still going strong in the most remote parts This offering from Aerosoft has been partly developed by SibWings
of the world and is one of the very few aircraft capable of landing and and comes with 5 models (-100 floats/wheels/skis and -300 wheel/
departing at Lukla (see Vol 11 Issue 11 Nov-2007 for a tutorial) as ski), has 3 different interiors; passenger, cargo and sky diver, and
well as being able to handle the extreme weather of the Antarctic. comes with 14 liveries as well as a paint kit for registered users.
Each offers a high definition flight model which flies exactly by the
The aircraft has been produced in 3 variants; -100, -200 and -300 numbers and gives great feedback during each phase of flight. When
and is currently being upgraded to a -400 version by Viking Air. This you open the throttles for take-off the aircraft accelerates down the
package, however, focuses on the -100 and -300 variants rather than all runway and you are airborne in no time at all. Just remember to keep
three because the -200 model wasn’t built in great numbers. Aerosoft an eye on the speed as you climb out so that you don’t damage the
have opted not to include an amphibian model because these are very flaps. After setting the aircraft to climb to your cruise altitude she
heavy and cause a lot of drag which severely limits the range of the settles down into a nice and steady climb. Set the trim, sit back and
aircraft. The tundra model has not been included because Aerosoft were enjoy the ride. There is very little pilot input needed once she is set up
unable to find enough information on construction and flight behavior. correctly. The main problem with this aircraft, which I have also seen

12 CPM. V12I7

cpm1207a.indd 12 6/23/2008 4:41:13 PM

 REVIEW

noted on several forums, is that the cruise setting for the prop (75%) is
sometimes a bit tricky to achieve. This is because once you pass 75%
the props will feather and cause a violent jerking motion of the aircraft,
especially when you un-feather them. My advice would be to bring the
prop RPM back slowly and allow it to settle down before moving it
back any further.

The Twotter comes with seven view modes including a view from the
passenger cabin so you can watch the world go by from a passengers’
perspective. There is no 2D cockpit included, but trust me when I say
you won’t miss it! The VC is fantastic and very easy to fly from. You AWAY WE GO!
have a good field of view making it easy to pick out that reference point
as you follow your route. All the gauges are super smooth and update
instantly, giving you the peace of mind that your aircraft is in the actual
state that the gauges are telling you it really is in (unless they have
failed of course!). What I don’t like about the view modes is that there
aren’t any icons on the panel to click so that you can select which one
you want. You need to press the ‘A’ key to cycle through the views.
It is a bit annoying at first when you realize that you have cycled past
the view you wanted, but over time you will get used to it. It’s a small
inconvenience to put up with, but the rest of the aircraft will more than
make up for it.

Bits and Pieces

BEST WORKPLACE IN THE WORLD!
The Twotter comes with a standard set of avionics, or a far
more advanced set in the form of Dual Bendix/King KX 165A
Transceiver and a Bendix/King KLN 90B GPS Navigation System.
In fact, nearly the entire manual is dedicated to explaining, in great
depth, how to use these systems to their full capacity. Aerosoft
boast that this is the most advanced simulation of these transceiver
and GPS navigation systems currently available. I flew the
majority of my flights using the standard avionics set, but using
the advanced avionics puts a great mass of information in the
cockpit for you to analyze your flight. For example, you can find
out how much longer you can fly for based on the current fuel you
have left, enabling you to make the decision to stay up in the air
that bit longer and explore the next mountain, or play it safe and
land ready for tomorrow’s flight. The system can also calculate
the correct climb/descent angle required so that you arrive at a
specific point at a desired altitude along with a mass of other
flight-related calculations.

The hardest part of operating the advanced avionics are the

click spots. Because they have so much functionality there are END OF A LONG DAY…
lots of click spots needed to get you to the information you are
after. Careful reading of the manual is definitely needed before
you attempt to use these advanced avionics to their full capacity
so that you click on exactly the right knob for what you need.
Even though the manual devotes most of itself to these avionics,
around 90 pages, most of it is done with an image of the system
and a short explanation of how to use it, which makes it a lot
easier than just reading through 90 pages of pure text!

The manual covers all aspects of flying this aircraft from

explaining what each system is and how to get it working to
the various taxiing techniques on water. It’s well worth a read
as it will make the flight experience that much better, and is
a definite read if you want to get the most from the advanced
avionics. The Twotter comes with its own load module, which
is explained in the manual, but is just as easy to use without
reading that section. Basically you select the aircraft model you
are going to fly, and then select where the passengers are going
to sit and if they are a child, small person, or large person. Click
save and you’re ready to go.

GREAT NIGHT LIGHTING 13

cpm1207a.indd 13 6/23/2008 4:41:14 PM

 GREAT VIEW FROM THE COCKPIT GREAT WING VIEW AGAIN

I LOVE THIS WING VIEW I’M LOST, BUT WHO CARES!

MY OFFICE FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS OFF FOR ANOTHER SHORT TRIP

14 CPM. V12I7
OVERHEAD PANEL SKYDIVER VARIANT

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 REVIEW

STEEP APPROACH

THERE IS A RUNWAY OUT THERE SOMEWHERE

Even though it may seem a complex aircraft to fly, it’s

remarkably easy. I have flown many hours around Alaska with the
Twotter, and about 75% of these were flown by hand despite the
bad weather conditions. That’s how easy she is to fly. On finals
though watch the speed as you deploy the flaps, it bleeds off very
fast and could easily catch you out causing you to stall and crash!
Not the way the passengers would want to start their holiday.

The Verdict?
So is this aircraft worth the purchase price? With out any doubt
yes! Aerosoft have a reputation of selling and developing some
of the best add-ons around, and this one just reinforces that. The
download size is relatively small at 192 Mb if you opt for that, or
it is also available boxed on CD-ROM if you prefer hard media.
WHO NEEDS A 2D COCKPIT!
It takes up approximately 600 Mb of disc space when you’ve
installed the package fully. If your system can run FSX with
smooth frame rates, then you won’t have any trouble at all using
the Twotter. On my system I didn’t notice any frame rate hit at all.

Aerosoft’s DHC-6 Twin Otter X has been receiving rave

reviews since its release. Surely all those reviewers can’t be
wrong? If you love bush flying and trying your hand at tough
landings in remote areas, then buy this add-on straight away
as you will love it. If you prefer normal airline flying at FL350
in the heavies, then still buy this add-on. You will very soon
be loving every minute you spend exploring the world in this
fantastic aircraft flying in and out of airports and airstrips that you
wouldn’t have dared to go near in a commercial jet.

The DHC-6 Twin Otter package retails for US$34.95 for the
boxed version. Check your favourite sim retailer for availability. 4

FLOATPLANE VERSION 15

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 4

Dangerous And Unusual Airports

BY JOHN ACHOR

T
here is nothing like the thrill and anticipation
you get from edge of the seat flying into unusual
or dangerous airports and airfields. It makes
GPS flying seem as interesting as watching grass grow!
One bad move and you could end up wrecking into
a mountainside, trimming tops of trees or ditching
into a lake or ocean. There are many airports around
the world that test the nerve and skills of the pilot in
FIGURE 1
command. Here are a few dangerous and unusual
airfields you can test your skills at!
The Airports Of Nepal
Most will agree that Lukla Airport (VNLK) is among the most
dangerous airports anywhere around the globe. I first became familiar
with this particular airfield when two old and dear online friends
developed a Charter flight in FS2002 for DC-3 Airways (virtual
airline). It departed Kathmandu, Nepal and ended at the Everest glacier
base camp with Lukla as an intermediate stop. I don’t plan to go into
detail about landing at Lukla; Rob Scott did an excellent story about
that in the November 2007 issue of Computer Pilot magazine.

I thought I would explore the evolution of scenery in the Mt. Everest

area from FS2002 to the present. The scenery containing the airport
FIGURE 2
didn’t change much from FS2002 (Figure 1) to FS2004 (Figure 2).

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 While the scenery is better in FSX, it is not as accurate. From a sheer Most of the following landing fields are from FSX. I’ll let you know
drop off at the end of the runway, the designers tossed in a hill at that where I used FS2004 (FS9). I’ll pick another airfield from that charter
same end of the runway (Figure 3). I mentioned earlier. This is Lamidada (VNLD) Nepal. The 1700 foot
runway sits on a high bluff or mesa at an elevation of 4097 feet. That’s
The most accurate scenery is seen in Figure 4. I installed a the runway just above the right wing of the Caravan in Figure 6. I
commercial package for Lukla in FS2004. This screen capture is managed to get stopped before running over the cliff.
true to life.

FIGURE 6

FIGURE 3

FIGURE 7

South America
FIGURE 4
On a good weather day, Alberto Carnevalli, Venezuela (SVMD)
would be an easy flight. I lowered the weather and gave it a shot — all
you have to do is follow two valleys. I departed Santa Barbara Del
Take a close look at the people standing on the hill just past the Zulia (SVSZ) and tracked outbound on the 150 degree radial from the
runway in Figure 5. I don’t know who they are, but if I had to guess, I’d STB VOR (114.9) to the EVG NDB (393.0) at 4000 feet MSL. You
say it was a programmer and some relatives… but who knows? Is this reach EVG at the 37 nm DME. Continue tracking the 140 degree radial
an Easter Egg? and aim for the gap in the mountains (Figure 8).

FIGURE 5 FIGURE 8

17

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 At the 44 nm DME, turn left to 080 and follow the next valley. Climb
to 4700 feet MSL. If you can’t maintain VFR (Visual Flight Rules),
make a 180 degree turn and let discretion be the better part of valor.
Keep an eye on the DME and when it reads 47, climb to 5500. This will
give you only 500 feet clearance since the runway elevation is 5007
feet. Another three miles on the DME and you should be able to pick up
buildings. Keep a sharp look out for the runway.

FIGURE 11

FIGURE 9

The Frozen North

Narsarsauq, Greenland (BGBW) is easy — if you follow the fjord
and don’t mind a 60 degree turn to final. Orient yourself at the Simiutaq FIGURE 12
NDB (SI, 279.0) and go direct to the Narsaq NDB (NS, 404.0) at 2000
feet MSL. When you pass NS NDB, head about 040 degrees to follow
the fjord to the runway. Tune Narsarsauq DME only (NQ, 111.85), and
Narsarsauq NDB (NA, 359.0) and fly until the ADF needle reads 45
I’ve flown into Sondre Stromfjord in KC-97s, and as I recall the
degrees left of the nose and the DME is 5 to 6, turn left up this fjord,
minimum altitude for a precision radar approach was about 2000 feet. No
heading about 010 degrees. Stay to the left in the fjord, descend to 1000
one wanted to get down inside that fjord unless the runway was in sight.
feet MSL and watch for Runway 07 on the right side.
Warmer Climates
Enough of this cold weather, we’ll head for islands much further south.
Since we want to put a big airplane on a small island, grab your Boeing
777 (FS9) and takeoff from anywhere in south Florida, USA. Al Pelletier
featured this airport in his round-robin adventure in the March 2008 issue
of this magazine. The VOR for Princess Juliana International Airport
(TNCM) is PJM VOR (113.0) and there is no ILS available. This 7550
foot runway is in the Netherlands Antilles, coordinates: N18° 02.5’ W063°
05.9’ with an elevation of 13 feet.

Note the sign at the threshold (Figure 13), which reads: WARNING Low
flying and departing aircraft blast can cause physical injury. Full thrust
reversers with heavy braking and I was able to turn off at the first taxiway.
FIGURE 10

A bit further north along the west coast of Greenland, let’s give
Sondre Stromfjord (BGSF, Kangerlussuaq) a try. Start at Maniitsoq
(BGMQ) and depart Runway 34. Track outbound on the
360 degree radial of MA NDB (391.0) and tune MS DME (110.55)
for a cross check. When you reach the 38 nm DME turn right to 080
– 090 degrees and aim for the fjord. Tune SF NDB (382.0). Settle in for
a long ride, since it’s about 98 nm from the coast to Runway 10.

Land to the east; takeoff to the west. The FSX scenery doesn’t do the
terrain justice; there is little or no room down in the fjord to make a 180
to escape a bad approach and there are no low go-arounds — put it on FIGURE 13
the runway or run into the mountain at the end of the fjord.

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 FIGURE 14 FIGURE 16

Better swap airplanes to fly this next leg. I picked the Cessna Barra International Airport (EGPR) is just west of the Scottish coast.
Caravan for the hop to St. Barthelemy (TFFJ). Runway 10/28 sits in a Twice a day, at high tide, the runways are under water. In Figure 17, my
basin, is 2100 feet long by 48 feet wide at an elevation of 49 feet — its trusty DC-3 is ready for departure and the drifting sand is obscuring the
coordinates are: N17° 54.3’ W 62° 50.6’. Take off from Princess Juliana end of the runway.
International and track outbound from PJM VOR (113.0) on the 130
degree radial for 18 nm. Take a sightseeing tour around the island and I checked tide tables for the area and reset the times in the flight
pick a runway. I chose Runway 28 (Figure 15). simulator and was not able to put the runways under water. The scenery
gurus didn’t go all the way for this one. The island runways are located
at: N57° 02.39’ W7° 26.32’. For better pictures, check the Explore
Scotland site at: http://www.explore-isle-of-barra.co.uk/airport.htm

FIGURE 15

FIGURE 17
Other Islands
This one belongs to Portugal and the airport (LPMA) is called both
Madeira and Funchal. The runway has been expanded twice and now is
a bit over 9100 feet in length. Runway 05/23 parallels the coast and is
Short Runway With Obstacles
Get in a bossa nova mood and play “The Girl from Ipanema”
plagued by ocean and mountain winds — heads up for bumpy air over
because we’re headed to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The airport
the thresholds. An ADF and VOR service the airport, but there is no
identifier for Santos Dumont is SBRJ, located at S22° 54.95’ W43°
straight-in approach. The closest is for 05 but Runway 23 uses a big 180
09.8’ and consists of parallel runways 02 and 20. Runway 20L has
degree turn to final — VFR only. For a look at the approach chart, go to:
an ILS approach, but let’s go for 02R — it’s far sportier. With a
http://www.fsstation.com/customimages/bestapp/madchartfull.jpg
length of 4353 feet, we should have some fun. Did I mention, you
will have to dodge the cables for the aerial tramway cars coming
The most interesting part of the runway expansion is the northeast
down from Sugar Loaf Mountain?
portion of the runway. It is built on top of nearly 200 piers (each around
10 feet in diameter), many over 200 feet tall. Unfortunately, the default
flight simulator scenery doesn’t show the piers. For good pictures of
this feature, try: http://coolstuff.floristone.com/madeira-airport.html

Aerosoft Germany have published a Madeira airport scenery which

does show a lot more details called “Wonderful Madeira”.

In FS9 the field elevation is 150 to 190 feet. Watch out flying this one
in FSX; there the elevation is 711 feet — quite a difference. Best I can tell
from internet information, the actual elevation is 190 feet. Looks like the
FSX scenery masters need to be more careful. I used FS9 for the screen
shot. I set up the approach to Runway 05 in daylight, and then tried it
at night. It’s tougher than it looks. The coast line lights are minimal and FIGURE 18
“lead-in-lighting,” which shows on the approach plate, is not apparent.

19

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 Fly south of the airport area and use Sugar Loaf for a landmark. Line
up for the approach to Runway 02R and stay just left of the mountain.
In Figure 18, I’ve made it past the cables and am dropping down to
intersect the visual glide slope.

In Figure 19, I’m slightly high on short final for Runway 02R, but I’ll
make it.

FIGURE 21

Keep an eye on the localizer needle (set OBS to 068) and use it to
help line up for the final phase of the flight. Maybe the weather will be
better this winter.

FIGURE 19

Get Ready For A Ski Trip

It’s summer, but you decide to check out the approach to Innsbruck
(LOWI) for a winter skiing trip you are planning here in Tyrol, Austria. FIGURE 22
There is a Localizer DME approach to the airport (OEJ, 109.7),
which is a weird one. The descent is based on distances from OEJ
and following the DME descent profile it takes you across the airport
What’s So Tough About This Runway?
at about 5000 ft AGL. You can check out this one in the “Missions”
This one has a Class 1 runway 13,000 feet long and is located 10
section of FSX; the full diagram is included on the Briefing pages.
miles west of the largest city in the country. With an elevation of
Rather than this approach, we’ll try a VFR run up the valley. Locate
113 feet and terrain features nearly flat as a pancake, how come it’s
yourself near KTI NDB (413.0) at 12,000 MSL and at station passage
a challenge? The political turmoil in the country of Iraq makes an
turn to a heading of 330 degrees.
approach to the Baghdad International Airport (ORBI) a scare and a
half. I used the Boeing 737 for this one.

Follow along … as we go on a wild ride from 20,000 feet to

touchdown in five minutes. Inbound from the south tracking in on the
runway heading of 330 degrees, we drop to 20,000 feet MSL about 30
miles out. Tune the BGD VOR (110.6) and BAP DME (116.1) with the
ILS frequency for Runway 33R (110.1) as a backup and 326 degrees
set in the OBS. Many on the internet refer to a “corkscrew” approach
to Baghdad and I found little in the way of descriptions. This is the one
I used: hold runway heading at 20,000 feet MSL and about 200 knots
until 6 miles from the runway, then lower full flaps and the gear. You
will also need speedbrakes to hold the speed down.

FIGURE 20

When you can see the river, drop down into the valley to an altitude
of 3500 feet MSL. Turn to the east and follow the river. If you can’t
maintain VFR, turn around. For this one, I set the ceiling to 5/8 overcast
with a visibility of 5 miles.

The runway headings are 08/26 at an elevation of 1900 feet and the
runway is 6550 feet long. If you look closely (Figure 21), the runway is FIGURE 23
barely visible.

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cpm1207a.indd 20 6/23/2008 4:41:38 PM

 FIGURE 28

FIGURE 24

FIGURE 29

FIGURE 25

FIGURE 30

At 4 miles from the runway, start a descent with 20 to 25 degrees

nose down. Hold this attitude until reaching 10,000 MSL. At this point,
we’re dropping like a rock, 12,800 feet per minute (fpm) rate of descent
with an airspeed of 230 knots.

Use 10,000 feet as the point to start your left turn to downwind leg
using a 25 degree bank angle. Roll out on a heading of 150 degrees and
continue the descent. Figure 24 shows me on downwind at 180 knots
and rate of descent of 3,600 fpm.
FIGURE 26
Fly downwind for 30 to 45 seconds and crank her around for the
turn to final. Line up on final around 1,200 MSL holding 180 knots.
Remember you still have speedbrakes up, so easy on the throttles. I left
them extended to force me to hold a higher power setting and allow
faster acceleration in case I need to go-around.

Wow, that was fun! I’ll have to try this one at night as well …

Did Everyone Out There Survive?

We hit eleven airfields on several continents and on islands belonging
to Portugal, Scotland, Denmark and Polynesia as well as a runway in
the Middle East. Looks like there is a place to make a bad landing all
over the earth. The one saving grace we have is the “Reset” command
in the flight simulator.

FIGURE 27 Long, flat runways with no nearby terrain are not much of a
challenge, so get out there and experiment with the tough ones! 4

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 4

Xkeys Jog and Shuttle Pro

BY JOHN SHANKLAND

S
liced bread... move over. I have found your
replacement! Oh sure, saying “This is the I went. Now, I like to plan my routes, start at the terminal or even
start in a “cold and dark” cockpit. The last part of that became quite
greatest thing since P.I. Engineering’s Xkeys laborious with all the keystrokes needed to get going. My mind
Jog and Shuttle Pro!” doesn’t roll off the tongue quite went back to the keypad I saw years ago. After a quick internet
as smoothly, but still… search I was on the path of enlightenment.

I have to say that I have been very excited to write this review. What is it?
Before I get too far let me start from the beginning. Several years ago The Xkeys Jog and Shuttle Pro is a programmable device designed
I was thumbing through a computer mail order catalog and I had seen for use in audio/video editing according to P.I. Engineering’s website,
an ad for a programmable keypad. Whenever I see anything computer www.piengineering.com. This is just one of the many X-keys
related I ask myself how it could enhance my flight simming products available from P.I. Engineering, some of which have already
experience. After reading about the keypad’s features I thought it been reviewed by this magazine.
would be nice to be able to hit one key instead of three to activate
some of Microsoft Flight Simulators various functions. The Xkeys Jog and Shuttle Pro has 46 keys plus the jog and shuttle
feature which gives you a total of 50 programmable controls. There
Within the last three years or so I have been getting more and is also the ability to create two different layers which would give you
more into the intricacies of flight. I used to begin by lining up at a total of 99 different functions (one button would be used to switch
the end of the active runway, pushing the throttle forward, and off between the layers).

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 REVIEW

As many of you know there are many functions in FS2004 and How it works
FSX that use multiple keystrokes, sometimes as many as three. I originally wanted the middle knob in the Jog and Shuttle feature
Imagine that all the cockpit controls utilized three keystrokes each. to change the radio frequencies instead of using my mouse to do it,
This small 46 key keypad has the ability to replace almost three but what I found is that the center knob controls so much more! Here
hundred keystrokes! As far as I can tell you could program any key on is how I currently have the J&S Pro set up:
the J&S Pro with as many keystrokes as you like.
Panels and autopilot across the top, radios on the right side, lights
The unit itself is only 8”x 9”, so it has a pretty small footprint on and simulator events on the left and engine functions above the jog
your desk. As a matter of fact you could push your other keyboard knob control.
to the back, as it will become almost redundant. Each key has
backlighting for low light environments and a clear plastic cover for The outside knob is my aileron trim (fits well because the knob
the labels to show through. does not spin all the way around) and the inside knob (does spin all
the way around) is set to “increase selection slightly” or “decrease
What it does selection slightly” depending on which way you turn it.
This is where it gets really interesting! When I first looked at
the J&S Pro on P.I. Engineering’s website I thought to myself, This is where the unexpected benefits happened. When I’m flying
“Wouldn’t it be cool to use the knob in the middle to tune my and I hit the autopilot master key, I can make changes to my heading
Com and Nav radios. It might add another level of immersion to or altitude by hitting the heading or altitude bug keys and by turning
my flight simming.” It would do that and a WHOLE lot more as I the center knob to the new heading or altitude I desire, the plane
soon discovered. responds and does the rest!

After I received the J&S Pro I proceeded to hook it up. I plugged Of course I can tune Com1 and Nav1 radios as well as the
it into one of my available USB ports and loaded the accompanying Transponder code and ADF frequencies by hitting the corresponding
software. It took all of about one minute to get the whole thing set keys then turning the middle knob. It’s very nice because I can
up. Well at least in Windows... FSX would be another story. I set it up keep my hands off the keyboard which tends to enhance the overall
on both Windows XP Professional and Vista Home Premium and it immersion factor.
works flawlessly on both.
The Drawbacks
Programming the J&S Pro could not be any easier! I have to give Overall I’d give the performance of the Xkeys Jog and Shuttle Pro
P.I. Engineering a great big thumbs up in this area. There is a switch the highest rating, but there are just a couple of things that detract
located on the right side of the keypad near the top that you flip up so from it being the perfect add-on to your flight sim hardware.
red shows and bingo... you are ready to start programming the keys.

Before I started programming keys I went into FSX to the Settings/

Controls menu to determine which keys I wanted to program into the
keypad. This process took some time because (a) I wasn’t sure what I
did want to program, and (b) some of the things I wanted to program
did not have keystrokes assigned to them. After I decided what to
program I wrote down the cockpit function and the corresponding
keystroke/s, then I set about programming the keypad.

Now when I flipped the programming switch that I mentioned

earlier the Xkeys Editor popped up with a layout of the J&S Pro. This
window made it extremely easy to program what I wanted and where
I wanted it.

There were two ways to program a key. I could put my mouse

pointer over the key I wanted to program or simply press that key on
the keypad. Either way, the result was the same- another window pops
up. This new window was the actual programming window. All that I
had to do now is input the keystrokes into this second window. I did
this by pressing the keys as I would in FS2004 or FSX or any flight
sim for that matter.

As I said earlier, I could have created layers so each key can serve
a dual purpose. I would have pulled down the Layer Menu to select
the red or green layer and repeat the programming process. I have not
added any layers so far, but it’s not far off.

Once I had all the keys programmed I went into the View Menu
and selected the Legend Maker. This nifty little feature let me print
a label for each key I programmed with the name of the cockpit
function/action. It makes for a very neat and tidy appearance.

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 Although FS2004 and FSX have a great many cockpit and
simulator functions already in the keyboard commands section of
their simulation there are some functions or actions that are only
selectable via the mouse in either the 2D or virtual cockpit mode.
For example, on the lights there is currently no way to select the
anti-collision, taxi, beacons, or navigation lights through keyboard
commands. They can only be selected by turning all the lights on
or by clicking on them via the mouse in cockpit. I’d like to turn the
lights on individually without using my mouse, but that’s just me.
This is a shortcoming of FS2004/FSX and not Xkeys.

The only other drawback for flight simmers might be the price. The
Xkeys Jog and Shuttle Pro retails for around US$250.00. This might
be a little prohibitive for the beginning or fair weather flight simmer.

Final Thoughts
I have had this wonderful little keypad for a few months now and
have fallen in love with all that it can do. I have become a better
pilot by using it. Several of my flight sim buddies have been to my
house and seen it in action. I usually see a small puddle of drool
after they leave!

In short, if you are a flight sim enthusiast and would like a way to
enhance your simming experience without building your own sim
cockpit in the garage and without breaking the bank, this would be a
great addition to your hardware setup. Once you use it you will see
what I am talking about!

As always, if you have any questions or comments please contact

me. My email address is [email protected]. 4

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 REVIEW

FSX EASTER EGGS

BY JOHN ACHOR 4

Y
ears ago, when something went wrong with
Many times these undocumented features were referred to
a software application, the term “bug” was as Easter Eggs. Programmers “hid” them inside the application
applied to the situation. How many of you software and left these “signatures” behind for posterity. I’ve found
know the origin of that term? If you do, fine; if internet forum comments indicating there are no hidden Easter Eggs
not I’ll share the answer at the end of this article. inside Microsoft programs. Apparently, Microsoft has threatened
programmers with dismissal if they include a personal Easter Egg
Software errors occurred due to glitches in the — reason: unknown program code isn’t tested and might provide a
programming. If by chance they were helpful, we hole allowing hackers to attack software, computers or the internet.
referred to them as “undocumented features.” When That said, there are dozens of unique places, items and surprises we
the glitch caused problems, it was a bug. can call Easter Eggs in FSX.

I discovered an undocumented feature in a DOS (Disk Operating

System) version of the Lotus spreadsheet. On old 84-key keyboards,
the function keys, there were only ten of them back then, were
located in two vertical rows of five each at the left side of the normal
typing area (Figure 1). My job was to create Lotus spreadsheets with
dozens and dozens of formulas, and each formula begins with the
“@” symbol. I don’t recall how I stumbled on this one, but using
F6 + CONTROL translated into an @ sign — not nearly the stretch
required to use the SHIFT + 2 keys. I never found any documentation FIGURE 1 - 84-KEY KEYBOARD
to back this up, but it was a big time saver.

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 This will not be simply an exercise in displaying screen shots;
I’ve designed it so you can follow along. Hop in one of your favorite
planes, go to the Create a Flight page and dial in the airport I mention
and go for it. I used default FSX scenery all the way through and
there is a great deal inside FSX beyond what I cover.

Here is the first one: on the Free Flight page in FSX we see
something similar to the “Create a Flight” screen in FS2004. The
default aircraft is rotating around its vertical axis. In FSX, the attitude
of the plane can be changed using the mouse pointer to grab it.

FIGURE 4 - DC-3 AND A MOAI HEAD ON EASTER ISLAND

FIGURE 2 - FSX FREE FLIGHT PAGE FIGURE 5 - MILLENNIUM DOME

GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONS From here, I jumped back to the mainland and then over the
I suppose the first geographic Easter Eggs we should explore are the Atlantic to England and Europe. In the UK, take off from runway
Moai “heads” found on Easter Island, a Polynesian Island about 2200 28 at London City Airport (EGLC). Level off at 500 feet MSL and
miles west of Chile, South America. Land (or position the plane) on follow the river westward. Very shortly after takeoff, you’ll see the
the only airport, Mataveri International (SCIP) at approximately S27° Millennium Dome on your left.
09.88’ W109° 26.30’ – on runway 10/28. In Figure 3, I highlighted
some of the roads (red) and pointed out a few Moai heads (yellow
dots). Follow the road from the east end of the runway.

My passengers were afraid to walk — don’t know why — so I

taxied into the jungle near the control tower and gave them a close-
up view of one of the heads. There are other heads beyond the ones I
pointed out, if you want to do more exploring.

FIGURE 6 - THE LONDON EYE

A couple of twists of the river later, Tower Bridge will be in sight.

Something strange here; the bridge is sitting in a dry pit — don’t
know what the Thames River is up to. After the next left bend in the
river, you come upon two major sights — the London Eye (a huge
Ferris Wheel) on the left and the Houses of Parliament with the clock
tower on the right. Big Ben is nowhere in sight because it’s inside the
FIGURE 3 - EASTER ISLAND tower — Big Ben is the bell that tolls the hours.

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 When you pass the Houses of Parliament, take up a heading of
about 260 degrees and Heathrow Airport (LON VOR, 113.6) should
be on your nose. Watch out for traffic, this is a busy, busy airport.

FIGURE 9 - EIFFEL TOWER IN PARIS, FRANCE

If you’re real gutsy, try flying between the legs of the tower. Keep
FIGURE 7 - HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT
your speed up, you don’t want anyone to identify and report you.
Bug out on a heading of about 045 degrees and head for Le Bourget
Airport (LFPB). Use BT VOR (108.8) to help you locate it. Take a
JUMP OVER THE CHANNEL look around this airport where Charles Lindbergh landed after his
We arrived in Italy and proceeded to Ciampino Airport (LIRA), solo, trans-Atlantic flight.
south of Rome. Set up your VOR to track outbound on the 320 degree
radial of the Rome VOR (ROM, 110.8) and fly to 6.6 nm on the Speaking of old Charlie, let’s take a look at his burial place. We
DME (Distance Measuring Equipment). Here we go departing from need to go to the middle of the Pacific, Maui, Hawaii, USA. I landed at
Runway 33; stay alert, the Coliseum isn’t far. Level off at 800 feet Kahului Airport (PHOG) and traded the Mooney for a Bell helicopter.
MSL and watch the scenery. Set the radio to Maui VOR (115.1) and take off tracking out the 125
degree radial to 25.7 DME. The marker, the coordinates are: N20°
39.16’ W156° 03.19’, is located at the Palapala Hoomau Church. In
Figure 10, it’s just in front of the helicopter’s nose. Look for the church,
which is small, but the grave marker is even harder to spot.

FIGURE 8 - COLISEUM IN ROME, ITALY

FIGURE 10 - LINDBERGH GRAVE ON MAUI, HAWAII

Passing over the Coliseum, the Pantheon is very close and at 11
o’clock to you. Turn to a heading of 280 degrees and you will see
St. Peters Cathedral to the right of your nose. There are plenty of MORE HAWAIIAN SIGHTS
landmarks here, so spend a little time sightseeing. When ever you’re As long as we’re here in Hawaii, let’s check out an erupting
ready, head back to Ciampino for a landing. volcano. Get your helo back to Kahului, swap it for the Mooney and
head southeast for the big island of Hawaii. Depart Runway 05, clear
Near Gay Paree, you’ll find a small airport, Velizy (LFPV). Use the island and follow the coast while climbing to 4000 feet MSL.
Runway 27 for takeoff and climb to 500 feet MSL. Take a heading Tune Kona VOR (IAI, 115.7) and track to the
of 060 degrees, locate the river, turn left and follow the River Seine.
Look for a split in the river to locate Notre Dame Cathedral on the VOR on a heading of about 165 degrees. Passing IAI VOR, track
island in the middle of the river. A bit further on, the Eiffel Tower outbound on the 100 degree radial for 44.4 nm. Climb to 14,000
looms on the left bank. feet MSL to clear the mountains. If you’re flying a conventionally
powered plane like the Mooney, better lean the mixture to make that
Set up FSX for 14 July (Bastille Day) and you should see a altitude. Once clear of terrain, descend to 6500 feet MSL and check
fireworks demonstration beginning at 2200 hours (10 p.m.) local near for the Kilauea volcano (N19° 24.23’ W155° 16.98’) 44 miles from
the Eiffel Tower. IAI. Return to Kona (PHKO) airport for a landing.

27

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 FIGURE 11 - KILAUEA VOLCANO

FIGURE 14 - EXTRA 300 FLYING THROUGH FIRE

A JUMP TO JETS
This one only applies to FSX if you have the Acceleration Pack
installed. Go to “Missions” and select “Carrier Practice.” Line up on
the catapult and launch. Gear and flaps up, then make a burner climb
straight ahead to 17,000 feet MSL, level off and hold around 280 knots.
FIGURE 12 - NIGHT VIEW OF KILAUEA VOLCANO The Mission Compass (top left, Figure 15) should point to a “Fuel
Tanker.” Close on the tanker, which turns out to be a Boeing 737 (no
If you change the time to read: night e.g., 2100 hours (9 p.m.) refueling boom or hose). The tanker is holding about 265 knots and flies
local, 1983 — you can see the original eruption as shown in Figure an orbit so you can chase him for quite a time. Online forums indicate
12. Look closely, you can see the cabin lights of the Mooney in the fuel will transfer. I got as close as this (Figure 15) and a bit closer but
center foreground. didn’t see any fuel loading — better steady the hands and try again.

Now that we’ve seen a fiery volcano, how are you at flying
through rings of fire? Let’s head for North Dakota, USA and see how
your aviating skills stack up. Look for Devils Lake Municipal Airport
(KDVL) and line up for Runway 13. Tune DVL VOR (111.0) and set
the OBS for 355 degrees. After takeoff, level off at 1,800 feet MSL
(300 Above Ground Level, AGL) and make a 180 degree turn to the
right to cross the VOR. Track outbound on the 355 degree radial for 8
nm and you should see the flaming rings (N48° 14.57’ W98° 54.38’).

In Figure 13, my Mooney is just above the first one, the second is left
of the nose and I’ve indicated the third with the yellow arrow. I traded the
Mooney for the Extra 300S — a little wing-walking and I did a mid-air
swap then tried my hand at flying through the loops (Figure 14).

FIGURE 15 - F/A-18 CLOSING BEHIND BOEING 737

Next, I took a Lear 45 to Iqaluit Airport (Frobisher, Northwest

Territories, Canada - CYFB) and departed Runway 35 for 20,000 feet
MSL heading 360 degrees looking for the Northern Lights (Aurora
Borealis). Set the time to 2100 hours local or later and the season to
winter. Best I can tell, Figure 16 shows them. Tough to see —
I played with the color in the screen shot and the Northern Lights stand
out better in the image. In the original image, and in the plane, they
were not nearly as clear. To return to CYFB, use YFB VOR (117.4).

I’ve seen much brighter examples in real life. On a pitch dark night
way up north, I took an RC-135 in behind a tanker (KC-135) for
FIGURE 13 - RINGS OF FIRE IN NORTH DAKOTA, USA some fuel. As I closed on the tanker, a wide sliver of Northern Lights,

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 FIGURE 16 - NORTHERN LIGHTS

cocked about 20 degrees from the horizon, was visible in front of the
KC-135 and gave the impression of a horizon. Vertigo big time — I
had a tough job ignoring what appeared to be a horizon (the Northern
Lights) and concentrating on the tanker for wings level.

WHAT ELSE IS OUT THERE?

More than we can get around to. Example, I mentioned the
fireworks in Paris; set the time for the 4th of July and fly around
Washington D.C., Las Vegas and New York (all in the USA) for more
fireworks beginning at 2200 hours local.

We could try to land in Red Square (Moscow), buzz the Taj Mahal in
Agra, India, look for the U.S. Space Shuttle, or one of its landing sites at
Edwards AFB, California, USA. How about runways that sit in holes like
Armando Schwarck, Venezuela (SVAS) or a runway that sits on a plateau,
which sits in a hole (Figure 17) like: Dagali Airport (ENDI) in Geilo,
Norway — this was caused by a glitch in the scenery terrain mesh.

ONE FINAL WEIRDO

Here’s a control tower sitting in the middle of the runway at
Wattisham Army (EGUW), UK. Better use a helicopter as I did in
Figure 18, or sharpen your short field landing techniques.
FIGURE 17 - HOLE IN THE GROUND - SCENERY GLITCH
ANSWER TO THE “BUG” QUESTION
In the mid 1940s, Grace Hopper was working on the Mark II
computer — one of those “room” size computers — when it creaked
to a stop. She searched the programming boards and located a moth
in one of the panels. She taped the insect into the computer log book
and said it was responsible for the down time. She later indicated the
term bug was used earlier, but most give her credit for the term. As
an officer in the U.S. Navy, she developed the programming language
COBOL (COmmon Business-Oriented Language), was promoted to
Rear Admiral and the ship, DDG-70 was named in her honor.

If we had more time, there’s a ton more out there. We could have visited
Victoria Falls (on the Zambezi River between Zimbabwe and Zambia,
Africa – the widest curtain of water in the world) or Niagara Falls (which
also spans two countries – New York, USA and Ontario, Canada) or the
Opera House in Sydney, Australia — but that’s about it from here.

Get out there and visit the Eggs I described — see if you can find
FIGURE 18 – WATCH OUT FOR THE CONTROL TOWER! some of your own. 4

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 MEGASCENERY X
Reno/Tahoe
BY GENE DAVIS 4

I
think it is safe to say that Megascenery products
have always had a place in my heart and on my
hard drive as their detail and price have always
made them a must have. Even back in the early days What You Get!
of flight simming I remember flying over Seattle This product sells for an amazing price of US$9.99 and it is
with scenery that came with Flight Unlimited and available via download from the PCAVIATOR/ MEGASCENERY
website, making it one of the most reasonably priced titles on the
I remember watching as relatives stood watchfully market today. The download itself weighs in at just over a gigabyte
behind me in awe as they tried to find their house in and comes packed with all of the necessary documentation and
this virtual world. required charts for that area to get you up and flying in no time.

So much has changed since those days; heck so much has changed The scenery itself covers an area of roughly 1400 square miles of
with just the release of FSX it is almost scary! There is just something the Reno/Tahoe area and is presented via aerial photos created at 1
to be said about flying over areas like the Pacific Northwest in FS9 foot per pixel and then displayed at 1.19 meters per pixel that is all
or Southern California in FSX that just makes the entire flying derived from high resolution aerial photography taken of that area.
experience so much better and much more realistic. Mountains, The end result is a highly detailed city with lots to see.
valleys and cities all stand out more and really do bring the flying
experience to life in Flight Simulator. As with all Megascenery titles the night lighting is spectacular and
this title also uses the now famed Night Scene technology used in
Now, with the release of Reno/ Tahoe we are once again thrown previous titles to enhance this portion of the product. City life now
into a world that offers an almost true-to-life appeal giving the flight takes on a different meaning as well as a life of its own as you fly
sim user an ultra-realistic representation of the Reno and Tahoe area high above. Roads are alive with vehicles and cities stand out more
within the Flight Simulator X environment. giving it a real vibrant feel.

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 REVIEW

What impressed me the most was the level of detail that each part
of the city and its surrounding areas offer the virtual pilot to explore.
Although this is nothing new with the FSX featured Megascenery it
just seems like it gets better and better with every release. Take the
surrounding mountains for instance; they are presented in greater detail
and the valleys, roads and rivers stand out more given the depth of detail
within the mountain ranges.

Included in the package are 5 local airports. These are Reno/Tahoe

International, Reno/Stead, Minden-Tahoe, Carson City, and South Lake
Tahoe. Each airport has been enhanced and represents itself accurately
over the new photo scenery and in some cases have been revised to give
them a more realistic placement within the Flight Simulator engine so
that it fits correctly within the surrounding scenery. OVER RENO IN THE A-6 FROM RAZBAM

This product does incorporate its own autogen scenery mod and
it is well placed throughout the covered area that is the Reno/Tahoe
region. To my surprise none of the autogen objects overlay roads,
rivers or otherwise and it is all placed convincingly throughout. As
you near downtown Reno you will also see accurately placed scenery
objects throughout the city and the surrounding areas. These buildings
accurately reflect the location and placement of the real world.

I have one major complaint with the Reno/Tahoe scenery and that
is that only part of the lake was covered in this package. Why they
decided not do the whole area around Lake Tahoe is beyond me but
given the product cost I am not complaining too loudly, but in the end
it would have just been nice to have had the entire lake covered.

As with all photo type scenery it does come to an end and usually
where photo meets default it can get rather ugly and misaligned HEADING FOR THE HILLS!
looking. Not this time, if you have Ground Environment X installed
on your computer you will find that the photo scenery actually blends
in quite well with the Ground Environment X scenery textures
making a fluid transition from one type of scenery to another. At one
point during my test flying, and I am somewhat afraid to admit this,
I was flying over what I thought was photo scenery and it was not.
Granted I was over the desert, but the GEX textures were all the
more convincing and made me look twice!

Flying Over Reno/Tahoe

With a slow moving airplane you can have a lot of fun with this
particular scenery, but I did find that with a little creative flying
and the Razbam A-6 Intruder one can have a ton of fun flying
through the hills and valleys of the surrounding mountains at very
low altitudes and at very fast speeds. This is where I got confused
though and lost track of where I was, so in the end I think I was
better off with a smaller plane.
DETAILED RESIDENTIAL AND CITY AREAS
Realistically the best way to see this scenery is from a slow flying
GA aircraft to get the most enjoyment out of it. For most of my flight’s
I usually skip over Reno International and start at Reno-Stead as to
avoid the crowded taxiways of an international airport. After takeoff
I like to fly towards Reno International and then onto Lake Tahoe and
back to Stead. This makes for a good sightseeing trip and allows you
to get a good idea of what the city of Reno is all about. This also gives
you the opportunity to see where all the major landmarks are and at the
end of the flight it brings you back to a less crowded airport.

Reno also makes for a great stopover and if you have Vegas X
installed on your computer. Reno is 440 miles from Vegas and a flight
either to or from there makes for some interesting flying between the
two cities, especially when you consider Reno’s altitude to that of Las
Vegas. What is also interesting is the transition of the different types of

INTERESTING APPROACH INTO RENO INT. 31

cpm1207a.indd 31 6/23/2008 4:42:05 PM

 terrain from one city to another. You really get to see how different
Reno is from Vegas.

Taking the whole altitude thing into mind also creates an exciting
environment to fly in, especially when you are flying GA aircraft as some
of the airstrips will really test your flying skills, particularly on takeoff.

For instance there is a little airfield just outside of Stead that sits off
in its own little gully in the mountains. In one direction you have to
deal with hills, and in the other direction you have to deal with trees.
My first few flights out of this little airfield ended in wrecked airplanes
because I did not have the plane set up correctly for the altitude I was
at. In one instance I was flying the Carenado Cherokee and was only
LAKE TAHOE able to get the plane up to about 70 MPH on takeoff; even with the
flaps set it was still a bear to keep in the air and I ended up setting
it back down at Stead before falling out of the sky. At one point I
was in the Ballanca Viking from Lionheart and things got a little
interesting. When I was trying to climb out of this little airfield I ended
up wrecking my landing gear. Both the front wheel and the right
retracted, but the left remained out. Recognizing the problem I went to
extend the gear but nothing happened. I immediately diverted to Stead
for an emergency landing!

For me the most interesting part of this scenery is probably the

Lake Tahoe area as it awakens the seaplane pilot in all of us, in fact I
think that was one of the first things I did after I installed the scenery.
The Aerosoft Beaver X works well for this region and if you choose
the amphibious version you can ferry people to and from Stead as I
did. Build yourself an FBO at Stead and a seaplane dock on the lake
and you have your very own virtual business tucked away neatly in
NICE DAY FOR A HIKE! the Flight Simulator world.

Performance and Scenery Settings

The performance level with this type of scenery is impressive and I
have to tell you that I have never enjoyed photo-real scenery as much
as I have enjoyed it with FSX. In fact, I sometimes wish the whole
virtual world could be covered with this type of scenery but I know
that space requirements, time and money are an issue so in the end
we have to take what we can get. The other interesting aspect of
using Megascenery over, say, default scenery is that the performance
is often increased with Megascenery, particularly when it comes
to autogen rendering. In some cases you can even turn settings up
instead of down!

As with all sceneries of this type that offer to reconfigure

your Flight Simulator upon installation I would definitely
recommend that you not allow these changes until you see
how the product actually performs and then, if necessary, go
DETAILED ROAD NETWORKS back and make the changes yourself. The installation software
changes all of your existing settings in Flight Simulator X,
basically watering it down so the sim will handle the scenery
much better. What I have found is that Megascenery titles in
FSX run really well and actually allow the user to increase the
scenery settings from within the sim allowing for a more robust
and active scenery environment.

In The End
With a US$9.99 price tag this product offers a nice taste of
things to come for Flight Simulator X and if you have never tried
this type of scenery before this is a good start. Photo scenery in
FSX is a whole other animal. Gone are the long loading times and
blurry textures that plagued FS9 and the earlier Megascenery titles
and what you get with FSX is an almost picture perfect world to fly
over and explore. Order at www.megascenery.com 4

32 RENO AT NIGHT
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 4

Reginald’s Secret FS Adventures:

Chapter 2
SIM FICTION BY BILL SMITH

I
n the six years since the raid at her premises, He only visited a few times, after which I only ever met him and his
I had often reflected on my first clandestine dad during my plane-spotting weekends at Heathrow. Those meetings
FS experience with Betzy Wong. British became less frequent as John spent more and more time with his new
girlfriend, Louise. He was keen to teach her all about flight sim, but
Immigration officials had interviewed her about she had to return home to Canada, and soon after he followed her
her working contrary to the conditions of her visa over there. They married in November 1998.
and she was soon sent packing. Indeed, within 48
hours of her detainment she was on her way back Six years later, when John returned to London (without Louise) to
to Hong Kong and I had not heard anything of her assist in the arrangements for his mother’s funeral he was a very
different person to when he departed for a new life in Vancouver. At
since then. I was lucky because even though I was first I assumed that his solemn, pensive countenance was because of
one of her customers, I was free to go after a brief the sadness surrounding his mother’s death. But it was more than that.
interview and my mother never found out about my He confided that after six years of marriage, his wife had declared
flight sim sessions with her. But I took what I had that she had lost all interest in FS. Which was a great pity because
I knew that initially it had been an activity that they both enjoyed
learned during my time with Betzy, built on it and immensely. It was at a small get-together after the funeral service that
my enthusiasm for FS soon blossomed into a full- he revealed how things had started to go wrong back in August, when
blown obsession. he accompanied his wife to a Disability Services Conference.

By mid- 1998 I thought I was ready to invite my friend John ‘Her presentation on training “Hearing Parrots for the Deaf” didn’t go
around to show him how FS98 operated and he obviously found so well’ he said. ‘She was in a pretty foul mood for a while after that.
my enthusiasm quite infectious. He decided that he had to acquire The truth is Reg, I only went to Osaka with her because there was
his own PC, just for flight sim. His FS visits always coincided with supposed to be a presentation by a Dr Wong on “Weight Loss through
my mum’s bingo night because, as I explained to him, she was old Flight Simulation”. But they cancelled it when they found out she
fashioned and would not appreciate a young man’s passion for FS. wasn’t really a Doctor.

33

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 He looked at me intently for a moment before adding ‘She was just ‘There’ll be a series of clocks mounted above that big map of the
plain old Betzy Wong.’ world over there that will display the time in different parts of the
world.
I nearly choked on my cucumber sandwich at the mention of her name.
‘Brilliant!’
‘Not my Betzy surely?’ I spluttered.
I ushered him through the security gate into the carpeted open
‘Well, we’ll never know will we? lounge area.

We both agreed that it was exactly the kind of stunt she would try to ‘As you can see, we’ve got the modular style seating already in place,
pull. She was a working girl through and through, always looking for just like a real airport lounge, but we are still waiting for some of the
a way to make a dollar any way she could. ornamentation. You know; large-scale model jet airliners mounted on
podiums… that sort of thing….’ My voice trailed off as I could see
‘But what about you Reg? Still working at the Post office? that John was no longer really listening. I watched as his eyes were
drawn up across the sloping ceiling to the high center wall with the
‘Yes, but not for much longer I hope…it’s a long story John, and this life size front-end view poster of an Airbus A320.
is hardly the time or place to tell you about it.’
‘Reg, that’s outstanding! It looks just like there’s a real aircraft parked
I invited him to come and view progress on my new business at the gate, behind that huge glass wall.’
venture before he flew back to Canada. John was kept busy over I had to agree with him that the illusion was very realistic. I led him
the following week making sure that his dad would cope OK with across the lounge area up the broad steps to the raised gallery that
the loss of his wife. It was not until Saturday, the day before he ran along and in front of the glass wall. Above us was the suspended
was due to fly out that he borrowed his dad’s old Jaguar Mk2 to canopy on which the gate numbers were marked. I opened the door
come and pick me up from home so that I could take him out to my to gate 1, and gestured for John to step onto the sloping floor of the
special “work in progress”. My mum was curious to know where enclosed jetway.
we were both going, and I watched her face light up when I told
her that John was taking me to a strip joint. It was a prospect that ‘Just walk to the end of the jetway and turn left into the simulator’
made her very happy indeed. But instead of driving out to Soho we
headed in the direction of a nearby industrial estate. I showed him John chuckled as he stepped from the jetway into the main doorway
where to park and then we walked to a refurbished warehouse. of the waiting “aircraft”. He was admiring the mannequin that greeted
him, dressed as a flight attendant and gesturing towards the cockpit
‘It doesn’t look much from the outside John, but come in and take door.
a look’.
‘You like that John? She was actually my idea. Go through into the
There were no tradesmen working on that weekend, but my business cockpit and take a seat.’
partner Sarah had given me a key. I turned on the lights in the main
waiting area and I could tell that John was very impressed. I switched on the overhead map lights so that John could see his
way past the center pedestal and squeeze into the captain’s seat.
‘Wow! Over there…it looks just like an airport lounge’ Without the computer screens turned on, the cockpit interior
looked a bit lifeless.
‘Well, it will do when it’s finished, John. We’re still a few weeks
away from completion’ ‘When the computer is booted up, the whole thing comes to life’ I
assured him.
I started to give him a tour of the partly completed project by taking
him first across the tiled floor of the foyer to the glass door of the ‘Are all these switches functional?’ he asked.
Flight Briefing Office.
I explained that most of the gauges and switches were just
‘In here we will keep all the Jeppesen Sim Charts, which the flight dummies. After much debate with my business partner Sarah,
simmers will need for their sim sessions. We will run through the we had decided to minimize the complexity of the simulator’s
printout of their route with them and give them current weather operation. Earlier experimentation with a fully functioning
conditions for their departure point and their destination’ I explained cockpit was abandoned because of the inherent unreliability.
to John.
‘It needed so much continual maintenance, we realized we would lose
‘Just like the real thing?’ too much money in “down-time” and our customers might be asking
for their money back if their sim time was re-scheduled too often’.
‘Pretty much, yes. We’ll also have closed circuit TV screens in
here so that we can monitor their activity when they are flying the I explained how we had re-designed it to function with a triple head
simulator. Anyway, when they have all the information they need, graphics card that hooked up to three monitors.
we’ll take them back out to the foyer for check-in. They will sign
in for the flight here at the check-in desk and we’ll start the clock ‘The big concave screen is positioned out beyond the cockpit window
running. They’ll be paying for sim time by the minute from this and that displays the outside view. Directly in front of you is the
point on.’ second screen that displays the primary instruments and the third,
smallest screen is mounted in the pedestal, in front of the throttles.
John’s eyes were scanning the empty foyer space and I said, That one is just for radios and the FMGC.’

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 ‘No yoke?’ asked John.

I explained that the A320 had two joysticks, one on each side of the
cockpit and that only one could operate at any one time.

‘But the two pairs of rudder pedals are coordinated’ I said. The
mouse operates on the slide-out table in front of you and you
still need to use the keyboard, but we’ve mounted that up in the
overhead panel up here’

‘Very neat’, said John, ‘and I like the all-over gray interior panels. I
guess that with the sound of the engines running, you feel like you’re
really flying an airliner’.

I started up the computer to give John a demonstration and while we

waited for the program to open up he asked me

‘Reg, I don’t mean to be rude, but on your wages from your post
office job, how did you fund all this?

‘John, everything you see here is the culmination of my registration

with “Flight Sim Addicts Anonymous”. It’s a long story.’

To be continued… 4

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 Checking Out
Airports
Airport sceneries are more real than it gets
BY BILL STACK

I
s your favorite airport bland
in Microsoft Flight Simulator Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. The new
Terminal 2 building at Alicante El Altet Airport in
(MSFS)? Do you arrive at Spain sports a new-terminal construction
airports that look as though a area replete with construction cranes. There’s a
cyclone wiped out everything? scenery that will need updating in a year or so!

Making a flight simulator “as real as it gets,” Gates and jetways have been added to
as Microsoft boasts, is a daunting task even Chicago’s Midway International airport,
for the mighty Microsoft. Of Microsoft Flight New Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International
Simulator’s thousands of airports, only a small Airport, Spain’s Alicante El Altet Airport,
portion have detailed scenery. among others. Airline codes are added to
many airports to accurately assign airlines
Most of MSFS’s airports lack appropriately to respective gates. Airlines “accurately park
depicted structures such as terminals and at their assigned terminals” at Detroit Metro
hangars, and quite a few lack taxiways and Wayne County Airport according to this
signage. Some have incorrect representations scenery’s developer.
of various features, including basics such as
runway headings and lengths. Ramps and parking areas are added
or corrected “to closer match reality” at
To pick up where Microsoft leaves off, home several airports such as Des Moines, Iowa;
flight-sim developers have created hundreds New Orleans, Louisiana; and Ontario,
of airport sceneries for free downloading from California, where “numerous fuel truck
the internet. spots have been added.”

A few sceneries are comprehensive such as Taxiways are reworked at Alicante El Altet
the “complete makeover” of the Charleston Airport in Spain, as are airport signs and lights.
International Airport and Air Force Base. All hold shorts at Prestwick, Scotland, are
Passenger and cargo terminals have been added included along with taxiway signs.
along with jetways, parking areas for general
aviation and military aircraft, taxiway signs and Crosswind runways are activated at many
runway markings. airports, such as Chicago’s Midway and New
Orleans’ Louis Armstrong International. As a
Scenery for the Long Island Mac Arthur result, aircraft can land in crosswind conditions,
Airport in Islip, New York, includes terminal which is rare in the default MSFS. Two
replacement, parking spots, vehicles, general- versions are available for the Buffalo Niagara
aviation hangars, and more. Lots of sceneries International Airport in New York State. One
include “and more.” has crosswind runways and the other doesn’t.

Scenery for the Mineta San Jose Support vehicle roads, extra fuel trucks,
International Airport in San Jose, California, a helipad, assigned parking, “and more” are
updates the default scenery with assigned available for the Dubai International Airport in
parking, corrected taxiways, added taxiway the United Arab Emirates.
signs, support-vehicle roads, helipad, extra
fuel trucks, and other improvements. A lot of To relieve aircraft traffic delays, scripts that
sceneries have “other improvements.” route airport vehicles such as fuel trucks through
movement areas in several airports are rewritten
Terminals have been added or improved at to redirect these vehicles from taxiways. If
many airports such as Bradley International you’ve had airport vehicles in your way as you

36 CPM. V12I7

cpm1207a.indd 36 6/23/2008 4:42:14 PM

 BILL STACK
taxi to or from a runway, you can have this 6 ILS alignment and more. Taxiway names A few scenery updates are downgrades instead
fixed at Chicago Midway, New Orleans Louis are corrected at Germany’s Dusseldorf of the usual upgrades. The Gold Coast Airport
Armstrong, and Detroit Metro Wayne County. International Airport. The taxiway system at in Australia has been reduced in complexity “to
Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, attempt to be reasonably frame-rate friendly.” The
Ancillary buildings are added at some Wisconsin, is “more accurately modeled.” Gatwick International Airport in London, England,
airports: The Marriott Hotel and a parking Runway lengths at Des Moines, Iowa, are was designed as basic scenery for users with
garage have been added to Bradley International corrected. Various unspecified small bugs are slower computers.
Airport in Windsor Locks, Connecticut. corrected at Copenhagen.
The developer of the Chicago Meigs Field
Navaids are corrected at some airports, such Trees too close to runway approaches are scenery explains that this former airport was
as distance measuring equipment added to the a common problem at many MSFS airports, built on a man-made island originally created for
instrument landing system for Runway 13 at the especially small, remote ones. A diligent the 1933-1934 Century of Progress exposition.
Des Moines Iowa International Airport. developer removed trees near runways for Opening on December 10, 1948, it became the
“every airport supplied as standard with FSX.” country’s busiest single-strip airport by 1955.
Vegetation has been changed at Copenhagen It was closed as a terrorism risk by the City of
Airport to reflect season changes and to Some airport improvements and corrections Chicago in 2003 because of its proximity to
brighten dull grass textures. We’ll need to are based on actual aviation charts and downtown Chicago.
download and install this scenery to find out directories, photographs of the airports, and
how bright the dull grass has become. satellite photos. Scenery for North Carolina’s Raleigh-Durham
International Airport represents this airport as it
The Freiburg Airport in Germany features Photorealistic scenery is popular. A typical might exist around 2010. “The scenery includes
“sheep, birds, a balloon and a theme park, as example is the Lismore Regional Airport custom Gmax models of terminals, hangars, and
well as people and buildings.” A theme park is in New South Wales, Australia, where “all the FAA tower as well as plenty of eye candy.”
a good excuse for visiting this airport. Thanks buildings are modeled with photo textures
for the people and buildings, too. taken at the airport and accurate to real life The Frank Lenihan Municipal Airport is an
measurement and placement.” entirely fictitious airport, near Lustre, Montana,
Areas outside airports are modified at other U.S.A., replete with a fictitious airport code
airports, too, such as the “accurate coastlines, The Copenhagen Airport Roskilde update “KPFL.” Fictitious airports have also been
accurate placement of settlements, and new used “satellite pictures making the aerodrome made for San Francisco and Dubai, replete
terrain mesh” as well as boat traffic at Lord layout very precise and blending beautifully with phony airport codes, structures, and
Howe Island (approximately 370 nautical miles into the landscape.” The U.K. Airfields Volume navigation aids.
east of Australia). Updates to the airport are 2 upgrade is based on “Google Earth and
mentioned but not described. airport guides.” While most sceneries focus on providing
much at single airports, some sceneries
New terrain mesh such as mentioned for The most extensive of these photorealistic offer multiple airports. The “U.K. Airfields
Lord Howe Island is found in a few airport sceneries seems to be a collection for the Volume 2” upgrades many small U.K.
sceneries such as the Courchevel Airport in northern Kentucky U.S.A. area, particularly airfields whose default versions have little
France. This scenery is touted as “very highly Lexington and Louisville airports and or no detail. Similarly, the Victorian Airport
detailed” and appears to be a comprehensive surrounding areas. Terrains and structures on Pack One updates several airports in
remake, literally from the ground up. In and around the airports have been remodeled Victoria, Australia.
addition to new terrain mesh, it has a new based on photographs.
runway angle, custom buildings, and more See airports that are more real than
trees around the airport. It also features One developer says he spent “four or five Microsoft makes them by checking out
animations that include people walking months” on his photorealistic depiction of custom-made airport sceneries. They’re
around the airport, smoke coming from downtown Nashville, Tennessee. available from websites devoted to flight
chimneys, artificial-intelligence aircraft with simulation and scenery design.
flight plans specially made for the scenery, Some sceneries are updates of earlier
and car crashes on the roads. An in-depth versions. The Copenhagen Airport Roskilde Notes about my columns are
manual explains the scenery’s features and update updates prior versions “completely,” welcomed. Please e-mail your comments
installation instructions. Be careful not to corrects some items in connection with FSX or questions to the magazine editor at
crash your airplane while looking at the car Service Pack 2 and adds the new Royal Danish [email protected].
crashes on the roads! Airforce terminal and two new hangars recently
opened at the real airport. As an update, it
Many airports require corrections to requires the first scenery upgrade.
glitches and flaws. The Charlotte, North
Carolina, International Airport scenery fixes A few updates are updates of updates, such as
the numbering as well as artificial-intelligence the Liverpool John Lennon Airport version 5.0 Bill Stack is an expert flight simmer, a
parking codes. The Johannesburg, South update, which fixes bugs and adds some extra management consultant and a professional
Africa, International Airport Features detail to versions 1 through 4. writer, speaker and trainer based in Knoxville,
corrected gates, redone apron and correct Tennessee, USA. He has authored several
parking codes. The Prestwick, Scotland, The scenery update for Alicante El Altet books and numerous articles about flight
International Airport has been redrawn to Airport in Spain is the developer’s “final simming. His books are available from quality
accurately place runways, taxiways and edition.” Isn’t this the same scenery with the flight sim suppliers such as PC Aviator at
www.pcaviator.com, and he can be
aprons. The Jean Lesage International “under construction” terminal? This will require a
contacted at [email protected] 4
Airport in Quebec, Canada, corrects runway final, final update once construction is complete.

37

cpm1207a.indd 37 6/23/2008 4:42:15 PM

 38 CPM. V12I7

cpm1207a.indd 38 6/23/2008 4:42:15 PM

 REVIEW

Lufthansa Boeing 737

Photograph by Glenn Alderton

39

cpm1207a.indd 39 6/23/2008 4:42:20 PM

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cpm1207a.indd 41 6/23/2008 4:48:49 PM

 FREEWAREFRENZY
Top Downloads at a Price that is Hard To Beat!
FREEWARE EXPLORERS THIS ISSUE: DAVID WILSON-OKAMURA

B y popular demand, Freeware Frenzy has returned to Computer Pilot magazine!

Every 2nd issue, we will track down the best freeware downloads available for a wide
variety of civilian and combat simulators. Every add-on mentioned in this column
can be yours for FREE (Internet connection required) thanks to the great community of
freeware developers devoting their time to creating awesome simulation masterpieces.
We salute you!

Savoia Marchetti S.81 Pipistrello FS2004, FSX Aircraft

Author: Stefano Meneghini, Manuele Villa, FSAviator Filename: s81_v10.zip
Filesize: 25 mb Available from: avsim.com, flightsim.com

In February, we called your attention to the Savoia Marchetti S.73,

an Italian airliner from the 1930s. Now the same team has produced a
military version, the S.81 Pipistrello (‘bat’ in Italian). As before, this is a
total package, with custom sounds, custom gauges, four visual models,
and seven liveries. Documentation is extensive, and provides notes on
the history of the airplane as well as how to operate its various systems.
The usual animations are here, plus a rotating anemometer on the side of
the airplane (to measure true airspeed), and a gun turret to defend against
fighters. Flight dynamics are similar to the Douglas DC-3, with lots of
rudder for turns, but ground handling is much easier. The vintage gauges
display information in sometimes unfamiliar ways. When in doubt, place
the mouse cursor over the gauge and a tool tip will appear, displaying the
gauge’s function and converting metric units to KIAS (for airspeed) and
feet (for altitude). Why bother learning a new cockpit? Part of the attraction
is novelty: it’s interesting to see how cockpits might have looked if the
Italian style had caught on. But the gauges are also just good-looking. If
you haven’t already installed the authors’ first package (s73_v20.zip), get
that while you are downloading this one; among other things, it contains
detailed instructions for using the navigational equipment. SAVOIA MARCHETTI S.81

VFR Objects for Italy FS2004, FSX Scenery

Author: Claudio Nicolotti Filename: vfr_objects_italia_v2.zip Filesize: 204 kb Available from: avsim.com, flightsim.com

Let’s stay in Italy for a while. This tiny file will populate the Boot
with 1400 plus objects from the AIP database. This is a list of
real-world obstacles that aviators need to know about, and that are
normally marked on charts for VFR pilots. Using this database,
Claudio Nicolotti has planted Italy with 910 wind generators,
141 oil rigs (which helicopters can land on), 162 lattice towers, 6
cranes, 42 lighthouses, 151 chimneys (with animated smoke), and 4
astronomical telescopes. Except for the chimney smoke, all of these
are default objects, which keeps the download size tiny, and also
makes for high framerates. If you fly in Italy, this is a cheap, quick,
and easy way to add hundreds of real-world landmarks and, if you
like helicopters, a gross of offshore landing sites. Although listed
under scenery for FS2004, it works in FSX and is compatible with VFR OBJECTS FOR ITALY
Ultimate Terrain.
42 CPM. V12I7

cpm1207a.indd 42 6/23/2008 4:48:57 PM

 Junkers W 33b FS2004 Aircraft (works in FSX too)
Authors: Hauke Keitel, Rolf-Uwe Hochmuth Filename: juw33fs9.zip
Filesize: 2 mb Available from: flightsim.com

Here’s another vintage aircraft with interesting gauges. It’s been around for a few
years, but it’s still fun to fly (and works in FSX with no modifications). The Junkers
W 33 was designed in the 1920s to carry passengers and cargo. With only one engine,
it couldn’t go very far (430 nm) or fly very high (11,000 feet). But it was seemingly
indestructible; according to the modeler, Hauke Keitel, “The Junkers W 33 was built
like a coal-shovel…It could be repaired in every blacksmith’s shop.” Keitel’s model,
though, is anything but rough. The lines are simple, but the virtual cockpit (VC) has a
wide array of custom gauges from the late 1920s and early 30s. There’s a ski version
and, when you call for pushback, an animated groundcrew will appear to walk the
airplane backwards.

Over the years, Keitel has modeled quite a number of vintage airplanes, and in the
process he has produced quite a few custom gauges. These have been compiled now
by Michael Vader in one download and updated by Dwight Furleigh; as of this writing,
the latest package is kedigau_ud2.zip at avsim.com. (A similar package, kedigaup.zip,
is available at flightsim.com, but does not include Furleigh’s updates). If you know
how to edit a panel, you can add these gauges to any plane in your hangar. All of the
gauges are metric, labeled in German, and at least payware quality. I’ve used them in
several payware aircraft, because the original payware gauges weren’t as good; they’re
JUNKERS W 33B
especially useful for modifying World War II-era panels and virtual cockpits.

Freiburg FSX Scenery

Author: Konrad Ellsässer Filename: edtf+readmea.zip (avsim), edtf_rea.zip (flightsim)
Filesize: 7 kb Available from: avsim.com, flightsim.com

Now that we’re in Germany, let’s visit a bit. Freiburg is a university town in the
Black Forest, near the French border. The default airport (EDTF) isn’t much to speak
of, but the surrounding terrain is lovely to fly over, especially in the evenings. This
miniscule download completes the effect by building up the airport and surrounding
town. In town now, there are office high-rises, a sports stadium, even a theme park.
At the airport, there are swirling birds (which can be a hazard when you are landing),
more buildings, all manner of airport props, and people, some of them animated.
There’s a balloon in the air and animals on the ground. Like Nicolotti’s project,
described earlier, this package uses objects from the default scenery library, and
should not be a burden on framerates. The whole installation is only one file, but
produces a rich effect that you can enjoy right away, and makes a homey place to
FREIBURG (EDTF)
come back to when you’re exploring the Black Forest.

Europe and USA Forests X-Plane Scenery

Author: Albert Laubi Filenames: various Filesizes: various Available from: alpilotx.de

In many areas, X-Plane has an advantage over Microsoft Flight Simulator. But for
global scenery, X-Plane is still playing catch-up. It’s only recently, for example,
that the default scenery in X-Plane included 3D forests. On the other hand, X-Plane
is an open platform that can be modified in any number of ways. Albert Laubi, the
author of this project, has taken advantage of that openness to create a vast and
detailed rendition of forests in Europe and the United States. This project improves
on X-Plane’s default forests in two ways. First, the borders of each forest are more
precisely defined, and less blockish-looking. Second, there is much more precision
in the types of trees and shrubs that each forest is home to. These vary from region
to region quite a bit, so that for his most recent project, “USA Forests,” Laubi had
to use a total of 193 different trees and shrubs, each of which is represented in the
sim with custom textures. The result is an astonishing degree, not just of real-world
accuracy, but variety. There are separate versions of each project, Europe and
USA, for X-Plane 8 and X-Plane 9. All files are available from Laubi’s website,
alpilotx.de, which includes screenshots and movies (in case you wonder if it’s worth
installing) and detailed records of how Laubi went about making the scenery in the
first place: what tools he used, what methods, and what data sources. This makes the EUROPE AND USA FORESTS
site useful, not just for X-Plane pilots, but also designers.
43

cpm1207a.indd 43 6/23/2008 4:48:58 PM

 FSX Logbook Viewer FSX Utility
Author: Jean-Christophe Arnulfo Filename: fsxlogbook_235895.zip Filesize: 120 kb Available from: avsim.com, flightsim.com

Last winter we wrote about FSX Logbook Recovery by Dan van Os and
Logbook Editor by Lamont Clark. These two are useful if you need to repair
your logbook, edit entries, or import your old logbook from FS2004. This new
utility, FSX Logbook Viewer, is for analyzing your logbook. Why would you
want to do that? As a reviewer, I sometimes need to know how many hours
I have spent testing a given product. With this utility, it’s easy to find out: I
select the entries from my logbook, export them to Excel, and total the hours.
What else can you find out? How many flights you’ve made, how many planes
you’ve used, how many airports, how many takeoffs and landings, how many
total flight hours, how many night hours, how many IFR hours, how many
multi-engine hours, and your average flight time. If you were working on a
certificate, this would be vital information. You can also use Logbook Viewer
to find out which airplanes you fly the most (or least), and which airports have
the most takeoffs and landings. If that’s not enough, there’s also a feature to
export your logbook as a CSV file, in which form it can be analyzed by any FSX LOGBOOK VIEWER
spreadsheet program. You might be surprised by what you learn.

Airport Chart Gauge FSX Gauge

Author: Holger Maass Filename: apchart.zip Filesize: 6 mb Available from: avsim.com, flightsim.com

Whereas a logbook is something you consult between flights, Airport Chart

Gauge is something to consult in-flight or during flight planning. Some of the
information it provides is available from the default GPS, but this gauge offers
a lot more. The first thing it displays is the airport layout, including aprons,
parking spaces, taxiways, and (this is important) taxiway labels, so that you
can follow directions from ground control. When you’re on the ground, the
gauge can also display your current location, in case you get lost. An info bar
displays airport name, city, location, altitude, magnetic deviation, and ICAO
abbreviation. Radio and navaid frequencies are readily available, and if you
have a flight plan loaded, the gauge can call up charts for both your departure
and arrival airports with the touch of a button. Charts for other airports can
be called up in-flight by entering their ICAO codes. The setup for this gauge
has two steps. First, you install the gauge; you will be asked to select which
airplanes you want to use the gauge in, and the installer program will add the
necessary items to each of their panels (making a back-up in case you change
your mind). Step two, which the installer program walks you through, is to
build the gauge’s airport database. This is necessary, because Airport Chart
Gauge derives its information directly from FSX; if you have add-on scenery, it
will include this automatically. Later, if you add more airports or make changes
to your existing ones, you’ll need to rerun the program that builds the database,
but this is easy. The only potential for trouble is the installation program, which
labels some of its buttons in German. Don’t let this get in your way: click on AIRPORT CHART GAUGE
the default buttons and you’ll be airborne in no time.

De Havilland DH-89a Dragon Rapide FS2004 and FSX Aircraft

Authors: Dave Garwood and Classic British Aircraft Design Team Filenames: fs9_dh89.zip (for FS2004), dh89fsx.zip (for FSX)
Filesize: 8 mb, 35 mb Available from: avsim.com, flightsim.com

This issue’s Frenzy has mainly featured add-ons from continental Europe.
Let’s end, though, with a British aircraft from the Golden Age of aviation:
the De Havilland DH-89 Dragon Rapide, which carried passengers in the
mid-1930s. A biplane with dual engines, this stylish bird had elegant lines
inside and out. Dave Garwood and his team of designers have been rendering
the Dragon through at least three versions of Microsoft Flight Simulator; the
latest rendition, for FSX, makes use of several new features, including bump
mapping and 3D gauges in the virtual cockpit (VC). There are custom sounds,
by Mike Hambly, and quite a few custom gauges, by the main modeler and
Rick Piper. The whole model is highly configurable: you can choose between
float and wheeled versions, add a radio loop, or a wind generator, or extra
windows, or larger intake funnels. In the VC and cabin, you remove the yoke
for better viewing in the VC, substitute a modern GPS for the vintage P8
compass, and add or remove passengers. Numerous repaints are available for DRAGON RAPIDE
the FS2004 version, most of which should also work in FSX. 4
44 CPM. V12I7

cpm1207a.indd 44 6/23/2008 4:49:00 PM

 4

Space Shuttle Missions 2007

BY FRANCOIS DUMAS

SSM2007, or Space Shuttle Missions 2007, is such a different

O
ur regular contributor François A. ‘Navman’ product. When I first read about it I quickly brushed it aside. ‘Not
Dumas puts himself at the controls of the new my thing’. I fly GA aircraft in Alaska and the Alps, so what the heck
am I going to do with a Space Shuttle that doesn’t even ‘fly’ in MS
Space Shuttle Simulator 2007 by Exciting Flight Simulator?
Simulations and blasts away into space. Will he ever
come back or be lost in space forever? Let’s find out! My ‘bad vibes’ were also reinforced by an earlier experience,
looking at the Captain Sim Space Shuttle for FSX. That was a
Every once in a while one stumbles onto something refreshingly wonderfully crafted model indeed and quite a lot of work went into it.
different. That can be a new piece of hardware to add to the flight sim But it was totally boring to use in FS, because you could only ‘slew’ it
or cockpit, a never-thought-of new tool, some nifty PC software that into space and float around there or perform the last bit of the landing.
helps increase the enjoyment of the trusted flight simulator, or, as in Now, since these ‘things’ have no more engines once they’ve hurled
this case, something pretty much outside of the classic FS hobby… themselves into orbit, you only have one shot at landing them and to
well, it still simulates flight I guess! be frank, I am not a good Shuttle pilot, well, not in FSX at least.

45

cpm1207a.indd 45 6/23/2008 4:49:02 PM

 HA, I HAVE A CO-PILOT AT LEAST MISSION CONTROL WITH ORBIT PATH AND CLOSE UP OF THE SHUTTLE

MISSON CONTROL SCREEN AND LAUNCH TOWER CLOSE-UP LOOKING TOWARDS MIAMI, FLORIDA BELOW

WAITING FOR LIFT-OFF... IN THE BACK SEAT ONE OF THE MANY PANELS AND HUNDREDS OF BUTTONS

46 CPM. V12I7
LIFT-OFF VIEWD FROM THE VIP BUNKER ! STILL ON THE MAIN TANK FLYING INTO THE SUN

cpm1207a.indd 46 6/23/2008 4:49:03 PM

 REVIEW

Read it!
Ah yes, the manual. Now, as you know, I am a writer myself,
and I even do the manuals for various products. So I know you
should read them, and I know how frustrating it is for writers and
developers when people don’t. But hey, I am just as humanoid as
you are, so I don’t.

Needless to say, therefore, that yes, I did get the Shuttle launched
via one of the many missions that are delivered with the package but
after we ‘lost’ the two rocket boosters and the main tank somehow,
not much more happened.
I’M GETTING DIZZY FLYING UPSIDE DOWN SO MUCH

Now here’s some important knowledge for you aspiring

astronauts; you do not go aimlessly pushing buttons and flipping
switches in a Space Shuttle in orbit. No Sir. After all, no matter
how gallant the scientific experiments or military hardware in the
cargo bay, the MAIN purpose of you as astronaut floating around
in that black universe is to get back to earth safely! The manual
is large and will take time to get through it, but you really can’t
appreciate the full scope of this package and being an astronaut
and flying a shuttle without it.

You can download and read the manual without purchasing

the product, so you’ll have a pretty good idea of what to
expect! Download it here: http://www.excitingsimulations.
com/FTP/vmwoe487g0mnw9485fw/SSM2007-Quick-Start-
Manual-Rev23.zip

HEY, THE CREW WENT AWOL!

Design background
I asked one of the developers to provide me with some
background, notably on how this thing got started… and got
out of hand! Why would one want to make a stand-alone Space
Shuttle sim?

“…SSM2007 is the result of years of research and

development performed by a team of simulation geeks who
got together to create a Shuttle Simulation to replace Virgin’s
“Shuttle” game from the ‘90s.

The team started as a one-man-show by a programmer in

his attic and that modest beginning was joined by Simsquared
Ltd., a simulation company which has been developing
serious naval simulations. What does naval simulations
have to do with it? Nothing… and everything: one of the
company partners is a Shuttle freak and the other is an
aeronautical engineer.
COURSE CORRECTION WITH THE SMALL TAIL ROCKETS
The original idea was to release the game as freeware.
As the team got larger however, and more and more ideas
got implemented into the game, things became very costly
– graphic artists, music, media, licensing information and data,
travels to location, marketing etc., not to mention the actual
R&D and programming time. SSM2007 became a commercial
venture that the developers hope to transform into a modest
franchise by adding many cool features: more simulated
systems, more ISS operations, better graphics overall, more
game-play, active MCC, maybe a multi-player option and,
of course, many more historical missions. The list of future
enhancements is long and in part still confidential.

The declared goal of the team is to popularize the knowledge

and understanding of the Space Shuttle missions and hopefully
make this aspect of Space Exploration more enjoyable….”

47
I LOVE THE CLOSE-UPS

cpm1207a.indd 47 6/23/2008 4:49:10 PM

 THERE ARE OTHER THINGS FLOATING AROUND ART IN MOTION

PANORAMA, EARTH BELOW TURNING ONTO SHORT FINALS FOR LANDING

LOOKING INTO THE CARGO BAY FROM THE CRANE OPERATOR POSITION RUNWAY AHEAD, FLOAT HER DOWN

48 CPM. V12I7
FLORIDA BELOW SAFE LANDING AND BRAKE CHUTE DEPLOYED

cpm1207a.indd 48 6/23/2008 4:49:14 PM

 REVIEW

So did they succeed? underneath is breathtaking. I can only imagine the same
YES! experience in the real world!

I must admit I got pretty involved when I finally got it running The Panels option is the most important while in orbit. It is here
(probably because I always seem to find ways to do things wrong that you can pick and choose where to look at the ‘2D’ panels.
somehow). There is a special anti-piracy scheme implemented, Everything works in ‘3D’ as well (known as ‘virtual cockpit’ in MS
i.e. you will need to enter TWO keys and they are checked Flight Simulator terminology).
against their database. That means you’ll have to be online when
installing the software. All these buttons..
You can actually purchase a nice big poster at their site, showing
Oh, before I forget, news just in: there now is a free demo all of the control panels in one large print. Within the game you can
available too from their website (see end of the article). use your mouse to push towards the edges of your monitor to slide
the panels in all directions. The only way to see them ‘in total’ is by
Anyway, installation. It really looks very professional and using the virtual cockpit (3D view). I preferred the ‘classic’ view and
very nice. Great graphics and sound. And once you’ve installed shove them back and forth. This of course was made a lot easier by
it, you’ll have a menu top left to choose from; ‘Action’, my triple-monitor setup.
‘Missions’ and ‘Credits’.
During testing I also ‘complained’ about not being able to find the
‘Action’ is where you want to go first, since it is there that correct button to push in the long sequences of commands necessary
you can enter your name, arrange your graphics, sound and to activate all sorts of activities. I was promptly rewarded by an
simulator settings. Later on in the process you can also check added feature: you can have the system help you by showing a yellow
your achievements from the Action menu. Once you have it all flashing background to the next button, switch or dial you need to
set up to your liking (and according to the capabilities of your activate! That really helped.
PC), you can go to ‘Missions’. There are 11 listed there with
new ones coming out regularly. When you click on any of them Of course all panels are numbered and extensively explained (and
you are presented with a screen full of information. Who were shown) in the manual, but who has patience for all that, eh?
the crew, what was the goal (important), a flight summary and
the ‘payload’, i.e. the cargo that the Shuttle took into space. Houston
During all phases of the flight you’ll be in touch with Mission
For each mission you can then select where to begin. The most Control (and you can even switch to the large screen we know so well
realistic of course is two hours before launch, but do you have that from the TV, sitting in the chair of the mission controller). The actual
much patience? The designers thought not, and they were right. So sounds (and voice) are excellent and you really get immersed when
you can also select twelve seconds before launch. That’s more like sitting in a dimmed room for some time.
it… BLAST OFF!
You can also view all commands, both received and given and pull
Other options are ‘in orbit’, ‘de-orbit’ (preparing for landing up the mission overview and objectives in case you’ve forgotten what
through the atmosphere) and ‘landing’, putting you in the pilot’s seat it was you are out there for.
for the long glide home.
Oh and another thing… you are not alone! No, I don’t mean the
What is there to do? other astronauts who (seemingly occasionally) are accompanying
Sure, blasting off is fun to see, but there is nothing to do but sit you, but rather the other ‘things in space’. The entire ISS space station
and wait until you lose your power. Landing is very tricky unless is there for you to dock onto, floating in the black universe over our
you read the manual, but once you do, it is easy and takes only a wonderful blue earth. And there are other satellites floating around
couple minutes. De-orbiting again is awesome to see, but not a very too. Depending on the mission you can place them into orbit yourself,
active way of using your computer. or pick them up. Just press F1 and see what pops up. And last but not
least, you can do space walks!
No, the activity is in the ‘orbit’ phase. That’s when you get to
‘do stuff’; push innumerable buttons, work the pre-programmed Back on earth
computers and, most fun of all, handle the shuttle’s arm to unload To get there you will have to put yourself in the pilot seat of the
and load the cargo bay! world’s largest glider plane and keep a close watch on the automatic
‘spiral-down’ indicator, guiding you from the darkness of deep space
Once in a mission and inside the ship you will find there are many back to the steaming green swamps of Florida. Once you get the hang
hundreds of switches spread out over panels all around you. Sure, of it this is the easiest part of the missions, believe it or not.
there’s the main panel that looks much like the cockpit of an airliner,
but in addition there are many others. Left, right, above you, and Looking back after many hours ‘in space’ this is not only a very
behind you. Moving around and finding the proper switch can be a realistic simulation (as opposed to a ‘game’), but it’s enjoyable as
daunting task at first. well. You really do need to read much of the manual, you do need
some patience and perseverance in getting control of certain aspects
In-flight you have new drop down menus: Action, Views (like the arm), and you do need some interest in space flight as a
and Panels. Action gives you various options like skipping whole. With those bases covered SSM2007 is a wonderful addition to
time (these missions usually take many DAYS), saving, our PCs and a welcome change from all the ‘regular’ flight sim stuff.
loading etc. The Views menu lets you switch to the various
views. The outside view is my favorite. Seeing the shuttle SSM2007 is available from their website: http://www.space-
float almost motionless and our mother earth gliding along shuttle-mission.com and costs US$49.95. 4

49

cpm1207a.indd 49 6/23/2008 4:49:22 PM

 HORTON’S HINTS for FLIGHTsimX
BY DOUG HORTON

H
ere’s another collection of hints for FSX,
gathered from various sources, including
my own trials and discoveries in “flying”
the program. For real pilots or FS users who
work toward “getting real,” I’ve found links for
downloading several free aviation reference books.
I’ll describe a simple but meaningful benchmarking
procedure for FSX, as well as how to activate a neat
undocumented scenery feature. Whatever your
level of experience, I offer these hints for your flight
simming enjoyment.
Kneeboard Aircraft References
Real pilots use kneeboards on which they keep various references.
Pop up the kneeboard in any aircraft with keystroke Shift+F10, then is available on the Briefing and Mission pages, which incidentally
cycle through its pages with repeated Shift+F10 keystrokes or by are blank if you’re not flying a mission. On the Checklist page,
clicking any of the logos shown on every page. There are several there’s a variety of information, such as what subpanels and related
new kneeboard pages in FSX; for example, if you can’t remember operating keystrokes are available, in the image shown for the default
the briefing or objectives while flying a mission, the information Bombardier CRJ700.

50 CPM. V12I7

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 HORTON’S HINTS FOR FSX

Free Aviation Handbooks

Several aviation handbooks are available free at various U.S.
government websites, including three below that are very well illustrated
in color. Alternatively for those who wish to have bound books, they can
be purchased from many pilot shops and other suppliers.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Airplane Flying

Handbook, published in 2004, is designed as a technical manual
to introduce basic pilot skills and knowledge that are essential for
piloting airplanes. It provides information on transition to other
airplanes and the operation of various airplane systems. It’s available
in seven PDF files from this webpage: http://www.faa.gov/library/
manuals/aircraft/airplane_handbook/

SAMPLE KNEEBOARD CHECKLIST PAGE SHOWING AVAILABLE SUBPANELS

AND KEYSTROKES

Can’t remember what ATC said a few minutes ago? Select the
Messages page and scroll to find the information. Another page
contains a complete listing of References for default aircraft, including
weights, V-speeds, and maximum speeds for extending flaps, for
example. For add-on aircraft, the reference page will display whatever
the developer has included in the (aircraft name)_ref.htm file. See the
example Reference page for the default Beechcraft Baron 58.

COVER PAGE OF FAA AIRPLANE FLYING HANDBOOK

The FAA Instrument Flying Handbook (2007) provides a

comprehensive guide to instrument flying, and it’s designed for
both pilots and instructors in preparation for the instrument rating
knowledge test. It’s available in three PDF files, from this webpage:
http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/aviation/instrument_flying_
handbook/

SAMPLE KNEEBOARD REFERENCE PAGE FOR DEFAULT BEECHCRAFT

BARON 58 COVER PAGE OF FAA INSTRUMENT FLYING HANDBOOK

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cpm1207a.indd 51 6/23/2008 4:49:26 PM

 The FAA Instrument Procedures Handbook (2007) complements First, install the benchmarking files, by extracting from the
the Instrument Flying Handbook with an extensive and detailed guide fsxmark07.zip the two configuration files and the four flight
to procedures. It’s available in several PDF files by chapter, or by (scenario) files to your the same folder in which your saved FSX
downloading one large PDF file, from webpage: http://www.faa.gov/ flights are located; by default, C:\My Documents or C:\Documents\
library/manuals/aviation/instrument_procedures_handbook/ Flight Simulator X Files folder.

Next, install FRAPS to a convenient folder, then open it to reveal

its main screen. FRAPS software includes features for benchmarking,
screen capture, and video capture. It’s free for basic features, with a
few restrictions shown on its General Tab. All features are available
if FRAPS is purchased and registered. On the General Tab, I’ve made
one checkmark.

Next, click the FPS tab and indicate “None” for Overlay Display
Hotkey, keystroke “P” for Benchmarking Hotkey, click on upper right
for Overlay Corner, check the checkboxes as shown, and finally, type
in 300 seconds in the Seconds box.

COVER PAGE OF FAA INSTRUMENT PROCEDURES HANDBOOK

Benchmarking FSX
In the last Hints installment, in the May 2008 issue, I mentioned
the use of the freeware FRAPS tool as a convenient means of tracking
frame rates for FSX. One reader suggested that I write about a
procedure for benchmarking FSX using FRAPS.

The benchmarking I’ve been doing in FSX comes from Gary

Dunne of Australia, who has uploaded a set of configuration files,
benchmarking flight files, and description of how to benchmark FSX SET UP FRAPS FPS TAB AS SHOWN
with FRAPS. I’ve used Gary’s files repeatedly as I experiment with
computer and FSX settings, including after video driver updates. To
begin, download Gary’s files in fsxmark07.zip from www.avsim.com Next, remember that you can save and load unique FSX
or other FS file library sites, and then download the latest version of configurations, which include 38 parameters of the total number of
FRAPS from www.fraps.com/download.php. FRAPS will run on parameters in the FSX.cfg file. Start FSX, and on the main menu,
Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista and x64 editions. select Options, Settings, Save to pop up a dialog box for saving your
current configuration, perhaps with a name indicating the date. After
saving your current configuration, select Options, Settings, then Load
either FSXMark07 Global High.CFG (Standard Test) or FSXMark07
Max.CFG, to load one of the provided benchmarking configurations.
Alternatively, you can specify your own configuration, but it’s best to
use one of the standard configurations so you can easily compare your
own runs or compare with others.

To try your first benchmarking run, start FSX and load the
benchmarking flight file, FSXMark07.FLT, which will place you
in the default Bombardier CRJ700 just north of downtown Seattle,
headed southeastward. You’ll be paused in virtual cockpit mode, with
autopilot active, with some nice 3D scattered clouds in the area, as
shown in the accompanying image.

Open and minimize FRAPS, and note the framerate display in the
upper right-hand corner of the screen. Next, press the “P” keystroke
to simultaneously start the benchmark flight and start FRAPS
FRAPS PROVIDES FRAMERATE BENCHMARKING IN FSX
counting frames for the next 300 seconds. The FRAPS framerate
AND OTHER PROGRAMS display will disappear within a few seconds.

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 HORTON’S HINTS FOR FSX

1. With FSX not running, go to your C:\Documents and Settings\

(username)\Application Data\Microsoft\FSX\Controls folder, and
make a backup copy of your Standard.XML file, with a name such
as Standard.XML.default.
2. Right-click Standard.XML and click Edit in the menu.
3. Near the beginning of the file, in the first simcontrols.map section,
add an <Entry> block to the existing list. Indent to match existing
blocks if you wish, though indentation is not necessary:

<Entry>
<Key>SHIFT+N</Key>
<Down>TOGGLE_AIRPORT_NAME_DISPLAY</Down>
</Entry>

4. Save the modified Standard.XML file.

5. Start FSX and try out the new feature by pressing Shift+N (or other
VIEW AT BEGINNING OF BENCHMARKING RUN designated keystroke) to toggle the label display.

Enjoy the scenery for the 5-minute recording period until you see
the framerate display reappear, then pause or otherwise end the flight,
and then close FRAPS. If you don’t, every successive time you pause
and un-pause the flight, FRAPS will count frames and place another
set of data in its \Benchmarks subfolder.

LABELS FOR BOEING FIELD, AUBURN MUNI, AND SEATTLE – TACOMA

INTERNATIONAL

Why did I say the labels apply to “terminal facilities” in addition

to airports? Because if you slew around Seattle, for example, you’ll
see labels such as Seattle Cruise Ship Terminal, Kenmore Air
Harbor, and Seattle Seaplanes, facilities that serve as terminals for
all types of AI traffic.
AFTER END OF BENCHMARKING RUN, WITH MT. RAINIER AT 11 O’CLOCK
Incompatible Scenery and AI Traffic
This just happened to me. I downloaded new add-on scenery for
Finally, go to your FRAPS\benchmarks folder, where you will an airport, and though I operate lots of AI aircraft traffic, I didn’t
find files with results. The accompanying image shows results from see any AI aircraft at this airport. What was wrong? I checked two
one run, from my file FSX (date and time stamp) minmaxavg.csv. possible causes:
Optionally, you can copy these and other benchmarking results to a
spreadsheet and plot results in relation to computer and FSX settings. • The new airport has only the default FSX airport and facilities data
with very few parking spots. No, it has a new custom FSX AFCAD
file with lots of parking.

• Another reason? Yes, new scenery elements and/or AI traffic were

compiled with the FSX BGL compiler, but my AI traffic was
compiled with the FS2004 (or earlier) BGL compiler.
SAMPLE FRAPS RESULTS FROM ONE FSX BENCHMARKING RUN
When I saw the missing aircraft, I was running Ultimate Traffic
X, which was working at many other airports. But this traffic is
Displaying Airport Names compiled with the FS2004 BGL compiler. When I used the Scenery
Courtesy of “lc0277,” here’s a hint about a useful but Library interface to deactivate Ultimate Traffic X and activated traffic
undocumented feature in FSX. Airport labels can be displayed in the from My Traffic X, which is compiled with the FSX BGL compiler,
air above airports and other terminal facilities. This feature cannot be the airport with new scenery was full of traffic. Because Ultimate
configured through the key controls menu, so you need to manually Traffic X still works fine at most airports I try in FSX, there must be a
edit your Standard.XML file by hand, as follows: distance parameter involved in whether interference occurs or not. 4

53

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 4
Make Your Own Planes for X-Plane
BY CHUCK BODEEN
The first thing you will need to model for either sim is to know

H
how the real plane performs and some drawings. The best thing to do
ow many times have you wished you had is to Google search on “airplane three view drawings” and “airplane
some special plane for your flight simulator performance specs”. Sometimes you can find both sets of information
only to find that it was unavailable from the at the same place.
many Internet download sources – or that the price
was a bit high? You can’t learn all there is about
building custom models for X-Plane in a short time,
but I can get you started.
The difference between X-Plane and FSX
Although the final result may seem to be about the same, there is an
important difference between the way models are created and flown
for FSX and for X-Plane. With X-Plane, the included program, Plane-
Maker, is used to manufacture, animate, and paint the model. X-Plane
uses the shape of the model and its airfoils to determine how the ship
will fly. With FSX, a three-dimensional graphics program is used to
make the image of the plane and do the animation. Then the flight THREE VIEWS AND THE SPECS FOR THE C-119G WERE FOUND AT THE
SAME WEB SITE. THE BASIC DIMENSIONS ARE GIVEN AS PART OF THE
characteristics are determined by separate means – by using a third
SPECIFICATIONS. WHEN USING DOWNLOADED THREE VIEW PICTURES, BE
party programs to edit existing files. X-Plane tells us how the plane SURE TO CHECK TO SEE THAT THE SCALE HAS NOT BEEN DISTORTED FROM
flies, whereas FSX must be told. ONE VIEW TO EACH OF THE OTHERS

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 To make things a bit easier than the C-119, let’s use a very simple Plane-Maker is a 3D design program that is included in the X-Plane
light sport airplane as an example. I created the drawing using package. Opening Plane-Maker and selecting “File / New” gives you
techniques I learned in high school to be sure the scale of each view is a default open cylinder for the fuselage. You will want to modify it
the same. Each view was then used as background in the actual process immediately by selecting “Standard / Fuselage”. This little ship has
of building the plane. cylindrical symmetry which means that the top, side, and bottom
views of the body are identical.

Set the cross section scale by dialing in a value of “Body Radius”.

This is not really the body radius, but rather it is the width of the
working space. You could say it is the maximum body radius.
The next step is to decide how many cross sections to use and the
longitudinal location of each. Plane-Maker assumes that the fuselage
is symmetrical about the vertical plane through the longitudinal axis,
so only half of each section needs to be defined.

You can use up to 22 cross sections, but remember that if the ends
are closed, each end requires a single point and there are only 20
sections useable. Each section can have up to nine points used to
define half of the shape. That means that there would actually be 16
point all together since the two points on the axis plane are not double
A GRAPHICS PROGRAM AND HIGH SCHOOL DRAFTING TECHNIQUES counted. Note that if the shape of the section changes abruptly at one
WERE USED TO MAKE THREE VIEWS OF THIS SIMPLE AIRPLANE. THE 45 location, two cross sections are required at that point.
DEGREE LINE ALLOWS THE CRITICAL POINTS ON THE SIDE VIEW TO BE
TRANSFERRED TO THE TOP VIEW. TO MAKE THE SCALING EASY, I USED 2
PIXELS PER INCH, OR 24 PER FOOT IN THE RULERS WHICH MAKE IT EASY
TO ENTER NUMBERS INTO THE PLANE DESIGN PROGRAMS

The Fuselage

BACK FROM THE “FUSELAGE” PAGES, I HAVE ADDED THE VERTICAL

STABILIZER AND LOWERED THE “WIRE FRAME” SO THAT YOU CAN SEE
HOW IT RELATES TO THE BACKGROUND IMAGE. THE BLACK DOT ON THE
LEFT LOCATES THE ENGINE (MAKE THAT PROP) AND THE OTHER DOT
SHOWS WHERE I HAVE PLACED THE CENTER OF GRAVITY

Wings

PLANE-MAKER ALLOWS YOU TO WORK WITH BOTH THE CROSS

SECTIONS AND THE TOP-SIDE-BOTTOM VIEWS. IN THE CROSS SECTION
MODE, POINTS CAN BE MOVED WITH THE MOUSE OR WITH THE HERE IS THE PLANE-MAKER SCREEN FOR ADDING WINGS AND
NUMBER DIALS FOR EACH POINT SELECTED WITH THE MOUSE. THAT STABILIZERS. I HAVE HIGHLIGHTED THE IMPORTANT PARTS. X-PLANE
EXTRA POINT AT STATION “0.0” IS NOT REALLY NEEDED. I JUST PUT MODELS CAN HAVE UP TO FOUR “WINGS” WHICH CAN BE ATTACHED TO
IT THERE TO REMIND ME TO PUT THE ENGINE AND PROPELLER THERE. EACH OTHER OR SEPARATELY LOCATED. EACH WING CAN HAVE UP TO 10
I USED ONLY SEVEN SECTIONS, EACH WITH ONLY FIVE POINTS. MORE CROSS SECTIONS. AILERON, FLAPS, AND OTHER CONTROL SURFACES CAN
SECTIONS AND MORE POINTS CAN CREATE SHAPES THAT ARE MORE BE PLACED ANYWHERE ON THE WINGS. ONLY ONE HALF OF THE WING
SMOOTH OR COMPLEX NEEDS TO BE DEFINED SINCE SYMMETRY IS ASSUMED

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 The wings and tail parts are added using a screen that is reached by
“Standard / Wings” where the longitudinal position of the 25% chord
line, the root and tip chords, the sweep, and the dihedral are set. Span-
wise dimensions of the control surfaces are determined on this screen
also. As you can see from the illustration, there are many types of
control surfaces available. Painting each of these wing and tail parts
can be done by specifying regions of a graphic file, but this method
is tedious and has been replaced by a GUI (Graphical User Interface)
which is discussed below in the section on Painting the Plane.

Control Surfaces
The specifications for the control surfaces are set using “Standard
/ Controls”. Here there is a selection of ways the ailerons, etc. are
attached as well as a wide variety of flap designs. The detailed effect
of the flaps on the lift and drag of the wings can be designated, but
this requires considerable knowledge of the aerodynamics so I have
chosen to use the default numbers.
UNDER THE “STANDARD / PANEL” OPTION YOU CAN SELECT FROM
LITERALLY HUNDREDS OF INSTRUMENT, HANDLES, BUTTONS, RADIOS, …
FOR YOUR PANEL. JUST SELECT ONE FROM THE LISTS AND DRAG IT TO
THE PLACE YOU WANT IT TO BE. ANY ITEM ALREADY ON THE PANEL MAY
BE MOVED AND SIZED AT WILL UNTIL YOU GET THEM ALL JUST RIGHT

The Engine
The engine is defined by power, speeds, and location. The propeller
design involves the chord at root and tip as well as the design speeds
of the airplane and the prop tip. X-Plane does the rest.

THE CHORD-WISE EXTENT AND THE MOVEMENT OF CONTROL SURFACES

ARE SET ON THIS SCREEN. THE AILERONS HAVE BEEN SET TO BE 20% OF
THE CHORD AND TO MOVE 15 DEGREES UP AND 10 DEGREES DOWN.
THE ELEVATOR IS 40% OF THE CHORD WIDE AND MOVES 15 DEGREES
BOTH UP AND DOWN. THE RUDDER OCCUPIES 50% OF THE VERTICAL
STABILIZER AND MOVES 10 DEGREES RIGHT OR LEFT. “PLAIN FLAPS”
THAT USE 30% OF THE WING CHORD HAVE BEEN SELECTED AND THEY
HAVE STOPS AT 0, 5, 15, AND 25 DEGREES

The Panel
Under “Standard / Viewpoint” you can select from a list of several
blank panels. Since this is a single place ship, I chose a panel which
puts the pilot in the center. Once you get involved in making models
for X-Plane you will learn that you can create your own blank panel
as well as custom instrument faces, but let’s continue to keep things
simple for now.

THIS IS A COMPOSITE OF PARTS OF THREE SCREENS THAT ARE

USED TO DESCRIBE THE ENGINE AND PROP. BOXED AREAS ARE THE
IMPORTANT ONES FOR THIS MODEL. THE LOWER LEFT CORNER
SHOWS HOW THE SPECIFIC FUEL CONSUMPTION (POUNDS PER
HOUR PER HORSEPOWER) IS SET

Landing Gear
A plane without wheels wouldn’t be much good, and Plane-Maker
has a special page devoted to making them exactly as you want
them to be. Since this is a Light Sport plane, it can’t have retractable
WHEN YOU RUN X-PLANE THE ITEMS ON THE PANEL COME ALIVE gear and we won’t add fairings so that simplifies things a bit.

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 The “Gear Loc” tab is really all you need for easy planes like this.
The other tabs allow for setting spring constants and designing gear
doors. Remember that X-Plane is used to drive some FAA approved
simulators – even the big full motion machines. That’s why there is
all this attention to things like gear spring and damping constants.

SO HERE’S WHAT OUR PLANE LOOKED LIKE BEFORE IT WAS TEST FLOWN
AND PAINTED

Moment of Truth - The Test Flight

Now we come to the real advantage of X-Plane. If the model
will not perform well, then a real airplane of the same design
would have the same defects. I took our as yet unpainted plane
out to KHND (Henderson Executive) where I take my real flying
lessons, got it going over 100 knots and ran out of runway before
THE FIRST TAB ON THE LANDING GEAR SET IS WHERE YOU LOCATE AND it lifted off. I placed it in the air and it flew for a while at full
SIZE THE GEAR. AT THE TOP THE DEFAULT IS “SINGLE” WHEEL, BUT IF
YOU ARE MAKING AN AIRLINER YOU WILL FIND A WIDE VARIETY OF power but required a lot of elevator trim to fly straight and level.
“TRUCKS”. THE NEXT THREE LINES TELL WHERE THE GEAR STRUTS ARE “Back to the drawing board!”
ATTACHED TO THE FUSELAGE. LONGITUDINAL AND LATERAL ANGLES OF
THE STRUTS ARE FIXED NEXT, FOLLOWED BY LEG LENGTH, TIRE RADIUS,
AND TIRE WIDTH
I went to the Internet and gathered information about similar
planes, particularly the Flight Design CT2K – something I should
have done in the first place. The CT2K has a wing loading of
The Windscreen 12 lb/sq ft, whereas my original design was 22 lb/sq ft – way
There are two ways to make the windscreen. The first is by using too high. And, of course, I found there was not enough lift. I
Plane-Maker to construct a “Misc (miscellaneous) Body” in the same fixed this by changing to a higher lift airfoil and increasing both
way the fuselage is built. The windshield could have been part of the the wing area and incidence. Open Airfoil-Maker and you can
fuselage, but it is easier to manufacture some details as special parts. Of examine the lift and drag characteristics of a library of more
course, like the fuselage, if I had used more points on the sections the than 20 foils. You can even create your own – if you can find the
windshield would have been smoother. But if you want to see through data. The trim problem was fixed by increasing the size and the
the windscreen there is a better way which is described below. incidence on the horizontal stabilizer.

Painting the Plane

The easiest way to texture the model is to use “Expert / Visual
Texture Regions”. For this you need to create a bitmap which
will be used in the process. I selected a picture of an aerobatic
plane from the Internet from which to borrow the colors and the
general scheme. I put a few color swatches in the corner to use
for the prop and landing gear – I did not use all of them. Both
sides of the fuselage were textured from the same area, but there
are two vertical stabilizers since the tail number reads differently
on opposite sides. It’s a good idea to make the painted areas a
little larger than the actual parts to be sure none of the white
background shows in the final work.

You can make the windscreen gray or light blue opaque, or

you can try a semi-transparent texture. The latter option is good
in theory, but the combinations of OPENGL and the way X-
Plane renders the plane lead to some difficulties. Unless they are
applied in the correct order, transparent or semi-transparent areas
THE THING TO NOTICE HERE IS THAT THE CROSS SECTION LOCATION
SEQUENCE IS 0.00, 0.04, 0.40, 0.80 FOLLOWED BY 0.41, 0.05, AND 0.01. can act like X-rays, letting you see right through objects and parts
THIS TECHNIQUE MAKES THE BODY TWO SIDED AND “HOLLOW” of the plane that should be solid.

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 WHEN YOU SELECT “WINGS” YOU CAN APPLY TEXTURE TO THE FOUR HERE’S THE LSA AS IT APPEARS IN PLANE-MAKER
POSSIBLE WINGS, THE HORIZONTAL STABILIZER, AND TWO OPTIONAL
PARTS OF A VERTICAL STABILIZER. THE PARTICULAR AREAS ON THE
BITMAP ARE SELECTED BY DRAGGING THEM FROM DEFAULT POSITIONS
TO WHERE THEY NEED TO BE. IN THIS EXAMPLE, THE RED OUTLINE
SHOWS HOW THE TOP AND BOTTOM OF THE WINGS WERE PAINTED.
THE GREEN OUTLINE SHOWS THAT THE HORIZONTAL STABILIZER WAS
PAINTED USING PART OF THE PICTURE OF THE WING

WITH A SEMI-TRANSPARENT “MISC BODY” WINDSHIELD YOU CAN

SEE RIGHT THROUGH THE PILOT OBJECT AND THE FUSELAGE,
BUT THE REST OF THE PLANE AND THE BACKGROUND ARE STILL
RENDERED AS SOLID. THE BETTER METHOD IS TO USE AN “OBJECT”.
MY CRUDE PILOT AND THE IMPROVED WINDSCREEN WERE MADE
USING THE AC3D GRAPHICS PROGRAM WHICH CAN EXPORT IT’S NOT A REAL BEAUTY, BUT IT FLIES WELL OVER THE GRAND
OBJECTS IN THE X-PLANE “.OBJ” FORMAT CANYON (USA)

The second option for building the windshield is to make an X- Parting Words
Plane “object” using a 3-D graphics program like AC3D or Blender in This article by no means covered everything you can do with X-
the same way the pilot was made. The semitransparent glass behaves Plane models. Although they were written for previous versions of X-
as it should with this method. Plane, the techniques of creating virtual cockpits, moving elements, and
custom instruments were covered in COMPUTER PILOT issues for
The Final Design July, August, and September, 2005. Details about using AC3D to create
After a few simple adjustments, the plane was able to fly X-Plane objects can be found in the issues March. May, and July, 2007.
much better. You can order back issues from www.computerpilot.com 4

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 4

Gabriel’s Flight Log:

A Novice Simmer’s Diary
4
BY GABE LOGAN

S
o you’ve dropped a couple of hundred dollars
on the latest incarnation of Microsoft’s Flight
Simulator and acquired a few fancy 3rd party
add-ons, and somehow managed a non-lethal maiden
flight to your home airport... but what do you do next?
After all, a flight simulator is just that: a simulator. It’s
not a game that you work through in a pre-determined
fashion picking up the requisite points, coins or kills
until the final cut-scene declares: “that’s all folks!” and
you now have to start saving those pennies until the
sequel arrives in 12 months time…
For certain people who are actual pilots – both qualified and
student – it has a very immediate and identifiable use: practice. For
many though, it may well be the nearest they ever get to flying – and
why not ?

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 Being a relatively new arrival on the flight simulation scene, I’m
planning to document and share my journey, hopefully giving other
people a few ideas to make life in the virtual skies a little more
interesting and structured. Writing this from my own perspective (on-
the-fly as it were), I hope that my experiences can be shared at a level
that other ‘student-pilots’ can appreciate.

I often feel that many writers, occasionally forget just what it’s
like to be a newcomer and certainly how ‘lost’ a beginner can
feel when opening such huge hangar doors exposing what is a
massive arena, where life can be made as simple or as complex as
you wish. Yes, many excellent articles are written and published
by experts in their area and I would never imagine that I could
describe the intricacies of a CAT III approach in a 747 as well as
they do! But, sometimes a beginner needs to know where to start
– after all, they may be a long way from programming an FMC in
a 3rd party jet to fly a holding pattern and auto-land perfectly on
the numbers at Heathrow; but there are other challenges out there
that are just as entertaining, as well as being invaluable to the
very learning process that will, at some point, allow them to nail
that heavy-iron landing.

Of course flying the big jets may not be one’s ultimate goal and
as such, exploring the expanse of flight simulation will serve as an
enlightening insight into the various opportunities available.

Take Your Time

My first mistake was to succumb to the temptation of wanting to
get involved in everything. You can ‘over-face’ yourself; try not to
– relax, take your time and take things at a sensible pace. VATSIM
isn’t going anywhere soon, Virtual Airlines probably won’t go into
bankruptcy in the next 12 months and that complex 747 simulation
will still be available in your hangar long after you’ve retired to the
Bahamas with your… ahem… latest companion.

So, Day One: get hold of a decent guide to sim-flying. Although

there is a huge inbuilt collection of tutorials and lessons in the
FSX ‘Learning Center’, there is little in the way of structure or
guidance provided.

Now, searching around for good guides to flight simming

should bring up a few choices. The book I eventually settled
on – coincidentally reviewed in the September 2007 issue – is:
“Microsoft Flight Simulator X for Pilots: Real-World Training”
(Wiley Publishing, 2007). For US$30 you are presented with a 700-
page tome, packed with invaluable information, advice, tuition and
links which will keep you going for a long time to come. Although it
begins with simple takeoffs in the default Piper Cub, it continues right
through to the ‘instrument’ and ‘ATP’ license material – plenty to
interest even the most experienced simmer.

I must admit, I spend a lot of time peeking ahead at what’s to come.

And that’s fine; the beauty of flight simulation is that there are no
hard and fast rules as to how you approach your hobby. Go where
your interests take you, but not so fast as to miss important issues.
This book is a very good starting point which I use – together with the
FSX lessons – as a guide to my learning process, but a guide that is
not necessarily written in stone!

As an example, at the end of each chapter the authors offer

suggestions for follow-up activities which will usually give you the
opportunity to practice and fine-tune what you’ve just learned. Often
these are specific lessons or missions within the FSX Learning
Center. I like to complete these but will often choose a different

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 aircraft selected from my virtual hangar. As long as it shares similar
flight characteristics, there should be no major problems and if the
lesson is about navigation for example, your choice of plane may
well be irrelevant. By adopting a flexible approach things remain
fresh and interesting.

Have Fun!
Any guide you choose is just that, a guide. Nothing needs to be
followed verbatim if it interferes with the “fun” element. Follow the
tutorials, then try them out using something different; you will learn
more and the variety will be welcome.

Now, before you start thinking that this sounds more like a college
course than a hobby, once the basics have been mastered you can
turn your attention to ‘Missions’ – and, if you like, helicopters. Huh?
Helicopters? Well, missions and helicopters do tend to go hand-in-
hand, certainly if the packs I’ve acquired recently are anything to go
by! Also, choppers are pretty easy to fly – at least on low realism
settings – and make a pleasant change from traditional aircraft, as
well as being great vehicles with which to explore scenery or that new
3rd party airport.

Both the default offerings and those available from third-party

developers provide a welcome break from studying approach plates
and runway lighting, and will test both beginners and experts alike.
With many of these offering imaginative scenarios, audio-visual treats
and new scenery, missions provide a useful ‘next step’ after getting to
grips with any particular class of aircraft. But, more importantly, they
serve as a great distraction from the more serious side to simming – in
other words: FUN!

Many types of missions are available, from the default freebies

through the mass of ‘freeware’ that appears every day on the large
flight sim sites such as AVSIM and FLIGHTSIM, through to the
commercial ‘payware’ packs such as Aerosoft’s “Flight Tales”, “WWI
Dogfights” from Abacus and Just Flight’s “Rescue Pilot” – the latter
being based around my home area of Snowdonia, in the UK.

Do your research on the net and you will find something to suit
your interests and pocket. For me, exploring the ‘mission’ element
of FSX (or indeed ‘Adventures’ if you are using FS9 or earlier) is
well worth the effort. The emphasis on helicopter flying provides an
additional challenge but one which can easily be explored in parallel
to the more traditional fixed-wing flying. I tend to split my time
between general aircraft flying lessons, flying theory (meteorology,
ATC/airport procedures, navigation etc.) and flying helicopter
missions, albeit with low realism settings!

Now, if you do decide to systematically progress through the

lessons, moving sequentially from single-props to twins and then
on to heavy props and small jets (and so on), you will be probably
find yourself limited as to which missions you will be able to
successfully complete or at least score well in. However, the upside
of this is that it does extend the shelf-life of the addon, which, if you
have purchased from a third-party, ensures that at least you will be
enjoying the product for some time to come. Clearly these missions
can be revisited later and either completed or your earlier ‘scores’
improved upon. Interestingly, some missions allow you to change
the aircraft and weather you use (once loaded, hit ‘Alt’ and change
settings in the usual way), although you will not be awarded the
medal upon completion! This is clearly useful if you like the idea of a
certain mission but don’t feel confident enough to complete it with the
designated aircraft.

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 Educate Yourself
In addition to the helicopter flying and missions, I quickly found
myself drawn to fighter planes both modern and historical. Now this ‘Starfighter 104’ and later planes such as the ‘F117 Stealth Fighter’
surprisingly opened up another entire area of aviation to explore: are all worth taking a look at. Many of these planes’ gauges ‘run on
history. Not only did I find the ‘story’ behind the aircraft I was flying steam’ and as such, are extremely kind to frame-rates (oops! there
fascinating, but also that of the men that flew those planes. goes another dollar into the ‘swear jar’) as well as being surprisingly
easy to fly by hand. And again, the history surrounding them is
Determined to try out a WWII plane, I ensconced myself firmly remarkable. Indeed, if you take out Bear Studio’s Mig 15 for a spin,
into the upholstery of Aeroplane Heaven’s Lancaster bomber. Having you may even pick up some Russian!
parted company with the tarmac at Caernarfon airport (there’s a
first!), it was impossible not to be seduced by its history. Having And then there are the ‘unusuals’: the ‘Rutan 61 Long-EZ’
recently watched a documentary on Discovery Channel about the (Alphasim’s first commercial plane – and it rocks!), the ‘Extreme
role these planes played in the war, I found myself wanting to fly the Prototype X-15A’ and the ‘Space Shuttle’, are all worth a peek and
actual routes they flew, in real time. I drew a line at squeezing into a may well widen your horizons.
drafty box – with barely enough room to swing an operations manual
– for 8 hours, as the temperature fell to 40 degrees below. But, the Realism is the Key
gunners in these planes did so – often! To do full justice to a simulation, realism is paramount and to
this end there are many avenues the newcomer can explore which,
My favourite training plane soon became the Beechcraft ‘Mentor’ from the off, will immerse them in what can become an addictive
from Carenado, an aircraft perfect for learning navigation ‘the pursuit. Realistic air traffic control, flight planning, virtual airlines
old-fashioned way’: it carries only a ‘radio compass’ (a basic ADF (and indeed, virtual cash) are all available from the get-go and will
device) and that’s your lot! The plane requires that you actually ‘fly’ certainly help to stimulate and maintain interest in those, often
her rather than relying on the all too common creature-comforts. I intimidating, early days.
really have a soft spot for this unusual and utterly gorgeous plane and
it too boasts a fascinating history. With this in mind, a brief look at the range of software types may
be useful. Although hardware is vitally important, this has been
Numerous aircraft are available representing the ‘50’s and ‘60’s covered recently in a 3-part series in this very magazine, so I don’t
where jet technology earned its wings. The ‘SR71 Blackbird’, the intend to cover it here.

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 A plethora of utilities (some of which are free) are available to
enhance this realism as well as make learning more enjoyable and
effective. These are by no means exhaustive but do provide a good
starting point for your research. Developers and retailers can easily be
found using your favourite search engine.

Arguably, the major areas where 3rd party software is

important are:

• Flight Planning (eg. ‘AC Loader’, ‘FlightSim Commander’,

‘FsNav’, ‘FsBuild’, ‘Dispatch Planner’)
• Weather and Air Traffic Control (eg. ‘Active Sky’, ‘Radar
Contact’, ‘Pro Flight Emulator’)
• Role-Playing Environments (eg. ‘FS Passengers’ , ‘Cargo’ (&
Airliner) Pilot’, ‘FS Economy’ (online and Cargo only), Virtual
Airlines)
• Cockpit Procedures (eg. ‘FS2 Crew’, ‘FDC Live Cockpit’)
• Flight Environment - AI Traffic Software (eg. ‘Traffic’, ‘My
Traffic’)
• Scenery Modification/Creation (eg. ‘Airport Facilitator X’,
‘Airport Builder’)
• Panel Design, Repainting and Aircraft Design (eg. ‘EZ Scenery
Shortcut’, ‘FS Repaint’, ‘FS Panel Studio’)

The default installation of your flight simulator addresses some of

these areas and will serve you reasonably well – at least for a while.
However, as your interest grows and you advance, at some point it
will be worth taking a look at some of these more advanced offerings.

Clearly, all this software is expensive – and it mounts up – so don’t

try to run before you can walk. Concentrate on the basics, using
simple planes and gradually build up in complexity (and possibly,
price) depending on how your interests develop. Try to get hold of
a general guide – along with aircraft-specific guides depending on
your current ‘ride’ – and don’t be afraid to experiment with missions,
choppers and fighter planes: they offer a welcome break and you
may find a niche that you wish to explore some more. So… practice,
explore, learn… but above all – enjoy.

Putting it all Together

Okay, so you’ve completed the first section of lessons in both
your chosen guidebook and the built-in FSX lessons, and have
performed a few random circuits of your local airport, together
with one or two simple missions using single-prop trainers. You’ve
possibly even completed a few circuits of Helgoland in a chopper
and learned how the lives of pilots and their crews in the ’40’s and
‘50’s differed to those of today’s ‘button-pushers’. Now it’s time
to start being a ‘real pilot’ and complete some full-blown flights to
start filling-up that log book.

So, next time, we’ll look at how to put everything together: we’ll
register our commercial transport business (using ‘Cargo Pilot’
from Just Flight) and undertake a contract to deliver a crate of live
chipmunks to a zoo, some 300 miles from our base. We’ll create a
flightplan, acquire a METAR report and fill out our dispatch record,
before climbing aboard our Beaver, obtaining clearance from ATC
and taking-off into the virtual skies. Everything will be logged and
our performance will be monitored. We may get paid. Did someone
say this was a game ?

See you soon! 4

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 GROUNDSCHOOL... Skill Level: All Levels Instructor...Tom Kurtz

What’s With Winglets?

BY CHUCK BODEEN

O
n May 19, 2008, Dassault introduced the new
Falcon 900LX which has composite winglets
that reduce drag by as much as 7%, allow
climb to 39,000 feet in just 20 minutes, and increase
the range to 4,800 nm. Along with other advantages,
the 900LX has 55 to 70% better efficiency than other
airplanes in its large business jet class. A fuel saving
of 7% for $5 per gallon jet fuel is one thing, but with
the price edging toward $10 in some parts of the
world it becomes very significant. 1. THE NEW DESAULT FALCON 900LX FEATURES FUEL SAVING WINGLETS.

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 GROUND SCHOOL
continue clear back to the point on the ground where the flight began
making what would look very much like a long smoke ring. In reality,
the trailing vortices are strong for at least 20 wing spans behind the
plane and it is said that it would be a good idea to stay 10 to 15 miles
behind an Airbus 380.

2. ASIDE FROM THE USE ON HEAVY METAL JETS, WINGLETS ARE USED
ON A WIDE VARIETY OF SMALLER SHIPS. CLOCKWISE FROM THE UPPER
LEFT: BEECHCRAFT KING AIR, CESSNA CITATION X, PILATUS 1201, RUTAN 4. JOHN DECKER GRACIOUSLY SUPPLIED THIS PICTURE WHICH SHOWS
VARIEZE, PIPER CHEROKEE, AND HAWKER 900 XP. THAT THE CIRCULATION ON A WING IS PART OF A RING THAT INCLUDES
THE “BOUND” VORTEX ON THE WING, THE TRAILING VORTICES, AND A
“STARTING” VORTEX.
Circulation
There must be something to this rush to winglets, but how can
a simple addition to an airplane wing be responsible for such
improved performance?

Lift is explained by two ideas which some say are contradictory but
in fact are just two ways of looking at the same physical phenomenon.
On the one hand, the air going over the top of a wing moves faster
than that over the bottom. According to Bernoulli’s Principle, the
pressure on the bottom is higher than the pressure on the top, so the
wing gets pushed up. On the other hand, Newton’s Third Law states
that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If the air
pushes the wing up, the wing must push the air down. Both points of
view are equally true.

In 1904, Nikolai Zhukovsky established the world’s first

aerodynamic institute in Russia. He was the first to explain the origin
of aerodynamic lift through the concept of circulation which is a
closed velocity vector field that, when added to uniform flow, yields
the flow pattern over a wing.

3. “CIRCULATION” ADDED TO UNIFORM FLOW RESULTS IN THE NET

FLOW OVER A WING.
5. ON A NORMAL WING, THE LIFT NEAR THE TIP IS SERIOUSLY REDUCED
BECAUSE OF FLOW COMING FROM THE HIGHER PRESSURE ON THE
It turns out that the circulation on the wing is part of a much larger BOTTOM TO THE LOWER PRESSURE ON THE TOP. A GLIDER HAS A MORE
scheme of things. The circular part of the air flow is shed from the USABLE FRACTION OF THE WING AND THUS HAS A HIGHER LIFT TO
DRAG RATIO. A WINGLET EXTENDS THE WING AND THE FLOW FROM
wings – mostly at the tips – to become the “trailing” vortices. If BOTTOM TO TOP (ACTUALLY OUTBOARD TO INBOARD) HAS LITTLE OR
it were not for the viscosity of the air, the trailing vortices would NO ADVERSE EFFECT ON THE LIFT AT THE TIP.

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 6. INDUCED DRAG RESULTS DIRECTLY FROM THE PRODUCTION OF LIFT.

Induced drag depends upon the reciprocal of the wing aspect ratio,
which is roughly, the span divided by the average chord. The higher
the aspect ratio, the lower the induced drag. Since lift and circulation
9. NASA FLEW A CROP DUSTER THROUGH A RED SMOKE CLOUD TO
are so intimately connected, it follows that if lift changes over the ILLUSTRATE THE GREAT SIZE OF TIP VORTICES.
span, circulation must also change. This results in a real-world
situation where small filaments of circulation or “vorticity” are shed
along the span, creating a “vortex sheet.”

10. WING TIP FENCES ARE USED ON MANY AIRBUS PLANES (LEFT). NASA
7. CIRCULATION IS ACTUALLY SHED ALL ALONG THE WING SPAN, STUDIED WINGLETS ON THE KC-135 TANKER (RIGHT) AND FOUND A
REFLECTING THE CHANGES IN LOCAL LIFT. THE LARGEST CHANGE IS AT 6.5% INCREASE IN FUEL EFFICIENCY.
THE WING TIP.

How X-Plane Handles Winglets

Each time an airplane model is loaded, X-Plane performs a
rather exhaustive analysis of all of the parts and modifies their
characteristics to take them from a two-dimensional into a more
realistic 3D world approximation. In particular, the various sections of
a wing (and even “miscellaneous wings”) are joined together and the
aerodynamic coefficients are modified to reflect the fact that the wing
is, in fact, of finite length and of a particular shape. The lift and drag
coefficients found in the files use by Airfoil-Maker are based upon
experimental and theoretical data that assumes the wing is infinitely
long. The results of this analysis are found in the file “Cycle Dump.
txt” where aspect ratio, taper, and net twist (“washout”) are used to
determine Oswald’s efficiency.

In applying Oswald’s number to lift, the 2D characteristics are

8. THIS PHOTO FROM A SMOKE TUNNEL SHOWS THE VORTEX STREET
modified by reducing both the airfoil lift coefficients and the angle
AND THE MUCH STONGER TIP VORTICES. of attack, so lift gets hit in two ways. Typical values are an 83%
reduction in the lift-slope which X-Plane accomplished by reducing
the lift coefficients by 94% and the angle of attack by 88%. Let’s say
Of course, longer wing spans are desirable and are needed for CL = 1.0 at AoA = 9 degrees. Then CL = 0.94 after applying the 94%
gliders and planes like the U2 and “Voyager” which fly extremely factor. Then the AoA that is used is 88% of 9, or about 8 degrees.
long distances without refueling. But for most airplanes the increased Assume the slope is 0.11. Then the final CL is 0.82 [that’s 0.94 - .11 *
stress at the wing root and space requirements on the ground give (1-.88)* 9 degrees] or an 18% loss from the 2D value due to the shape
winglets an edge. of the finite wing.

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 GROUND SCHOOL
I added winglets of the same size and shape but at different
dihedrals to the King Air 200 and compared the resultant coefficients
of lift and induced drag as given in “Cycle Dump.txt”.

Reduction Reduction Net CL

in CL curve in AoA

no winglets 0.943 0.887 0.831

flat winglets 0.947 0.895 0.843
winglets 60 deg 0.941 0.882 0.824
winglets 90 deg 0.937 0.875 0.813

LIFT COEFFICIENT FOR DIFFERENT KING AIR WINGLET CONFIGURATIONS

e AR e*AR

no winglets 0.987 9.46 9.34

flat winglets 0.952 10.66 10.14
winglets 60 deg 0.956 9.35 8.94
winglets 90 deg 0.959 8.66 8.30

KING AIR FIGURES OF MERIT FOR INDUCED DRAG

From these results, we can see that the only winglet that enhances lift
and decreases induced drag is the one with no dihedral. This amounts to
11. IT CAN BE SHOWN THAT LIFT DISTRIBUTION FOR AN ELLIPTICAL making the wing a little longer just as you would expect a sail plane to
WING PLAN FORM, SUCH AS WAS USED ON THE WWII SPITFIRE, have better results than an otherwise “normal” airplane. Austin Meyer
MINIMIZES INDUCED DRAG. EXCEPT FOR DETAILS OF PARTS ATTACHED
TO THE WING, OSWALDS EFFICIENCY IS 1.00, THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE. admits that X-Plane probably does not do a very good job of modeling
winglets. He says, “The physics out there is just too complicated.”

If you examine the few planes that have that come with X-Plane,
you will find that the “winglets” are just parts of “objects” that do not
take part in the aerodynamic calculations.

12. THE 2D LIFT COEFFICENT IS SHOWN IN BLUE. APPYING OSWALD’S

EFFICIENCY THEORY REDUCES THE COEFFICENTS (A) PRODUCING THE
RED LINE, AND REDUCING THE ANGLE OF ATTACK (B) FURTHER LOWERS
THE VALUE OF CL (C).

Oswald’s efficiency factor, e, is also used in determining the

coefficient of induced drag, given by CDi = CL2 / π e AR, where CL
is the lift coefficient and AR is the wing aspect ratio. Aspect ratio is
defined as span squared divided by wing area, which turns out to be
the same as span divided by the average chord. For elliptical wings,
such as found in the WW II Spitfire, e = 1.00, whereas for all other
shapes, e is less than 1.00. Thus, the smaller the product of efficiency
factor and aspect ratio, the higher the induced drag. In comparing
different winglet arrangements, we will assume that CL is the same 13. THE WINGLETS ON THE X-PLANE CIRRUS “THE JET” AND THE UNITED
for all examples. The figure of merit, then, for induced drag is just e * 747-400 ARE CREATED WITH ‘OBJECTS’ AND DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN
AR. The larger this number, the smaller the induced drag. THE FLIGHT MODEL CALCULATIONS.

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 Other Methods of Improving Lift We have all seen those short and stubby airfoils sticking up near
Winglets are not necessarily the best way to mitigate the loss of lift. the leading edges of airliner wings. They look as if they would really
While the vertical winglets help block the unwanted flow of air from mess up the air flow. What they actually do is create tiny vortices in
bottom to top, raked (scimitar) wing tips are said to be more efficient the otherwise slow moving air in the “boundary layer”. As a wing
and require fewer structural changes. These do increase the length of nears stall conditions, the boundary layer increases in thickness
the wing more, however. The Boeing 787 has scimitar wingtips while and decreases in average speed – even to the point of reversed – or
the Diamond small planes use variants of scimitars and winglets. “separated” flow. This makes control surfaces less effective.
From the X-Plane point of view, the only “winglet” that showed
improved performance for the King Air was the flat one – which is the There is a rule in fluid flow that the speed of the air and the speed
equivalent of a scimitar. of a neighboring solid object must be the same at the point where they
meet. This means that the air over the wing comes to a stop at the
surface. Vortex generators do not prevent this from happening, but the
vortices they shed pump energy into the boundary layer and reduce its
thickness allowing better control, especially at low speeds.

14. LOOK CLOSELY AND YOU CAN SEE THE SCIMITAR TIPS ON THE NEW
BOEING 787. THEY ARE TURNED UP SLIGHTLY, BUT NOT NEARLY AS 17. VORTEX GENERATORS MAKE THE BOUNDARY LAYER THINNER AND
MUCH AS TRUE WINGLETS. MORE ENERGETIC.

15. THE ENGINEERS AT DIAMOND AIRCRAFT HAVE BEEN USING JUST

ABOUT EVERYTHING FROM SHALLOW DIHEDRAL SCIMITARS TO
BLENDED WINGLETS.

Most wings begin to stall near the root so that the ailerons will
still be functioning. A stall cell near the trailing edge tends to divert
flow laterally out toward the tip, reducing circulation and lift. Wing
fences partially block this effect by reducing the spanwise flow. As
far as we know, the first wing fence was patented by Wolfgang Liebe
while he was working on the Me. 109B in 1938. In 2007, a computer
simulation compared two proposed fences for the T-38 jet trainer. The
first “simple” fence just ran chord-wise on the upper surface and was
found not to contribute much to the lift. A second wrapped around the
leading edge of the wing and improved lift by almost 5% at an angle
of attack of 15 degrees.

18. THIS CHART FROM MICO AERODYNAMICS, INC. SHOWS THE

BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF USING EVEN VERY SMALL VORTEX GENERATORS.

Skinning the Cat

So, there are several ways besides the airfoil shape to get more lift
and control from a given wing design. Unfortunately, the principles
16. THESE RUSSIAN BUILT FIGHTERS WERE KNOWN FOR THEIR USE OF involved are so subtle that it is impossible for a home flight simulator
WING FENCES. MIG-15 ON THE LEFT AND SU-20 ON THE RIGHT. to handle them well. 4

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 GROUND SCHOOL

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 ROUNDROBIN ADVENTURE ALITALIA SCHEDULED ROUTE

BY AL PELLETIER

R
ound Robin adventure
Alitalia: This month
If you have undertaken previous Round we are flying a regular
Robins, skip the next paragraph, jump
scheduled flight for Italy’s premier
right in, and have fun. For those who
are new to this, Round Robins are airline, Alitalia. I flew the Level-D
published with the intent of having Boeing 767 in Alitalia livery for With years of development and research,
Flight-Simmers fly, look at the scenery, this one. Today’s flight will take us the Level-D Boeing 767 project is one of
refresh our geography, practice our cross from Milan’s Malpensa to Malta’s the most amazing products released for
country navigation, perform approaches the Microsoft Flight Simulator platform.
at different airports all over the world,
Luqa airport, Napoli’s (Naples) Designed by the same development team
and have some FUN. In the message, Capodichino Mil airport and back that worked on the famous 767 “Pilot in
you will be receiving info like: airport to Malpensa. Command”, Level-D released this version of
departure and runway number, VORs the 767 for FS2004, and now also for FSX.
and NDBs enroute, two or three middle Regarding the Level D Boeing 767: I It includes many new features, systems, and
airport destinations, for VFR or INST found it to be just amazing! I had no idea extras to make this a quite remarkable and
approach, and back to your point of how excellent of a platform it was until I accurate product. It is not just a simple drop-
departure (Round Robin). You will also started training on it. I want to thank Daryl in aircraft, but an entire suite of components
be given ILS and LOM freq., minimums, Shuttleworth of the Level-D team for his that function together in order to give you
procedures etc. and a little background patience in helping me with a fast training on the most accurate simulation experience
on the geography of the area. After you this aircraft. Having been in the cockpit of an possible, and as close to the real airplane as
fly a few of these, you will have a much Air Canada Boeing 767-300 from Vancouver is possible today.
better command and understanding to Seoul and back, in 2000, I was amazed
of the different types of published to see how accurate the Level D 767 is and You have to train on this airplane and expect
procedures. You will learn to handle a lot so was my skipper of the time, Capt Perry it to run like the real airplane. Kudos’ all
of information in a very short time, while Walker (now retired), who was a qualified around to the Level-D team! http://www.
still maintaining control of your aircraft. Captain for many years on the 767-300. leveldsim.com/sevensix_home.asp

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 ROUND ROBIN ADVENTURE
I have uploaded some great charts at the More Aircraft and panels: Round Robin Adventure:
Computer Pilot’s web site, so don’t miss out There are more aircraft at Milan’s Malpensa Intl Airport
and download them. “Again, some very rare www.avsim.com and www.flightsim.com (LIMC) > Malta Luqa Intl Airport
and special charts are included for this one. (LMML) > Napoli’s Capodichino
Don’t miss them” (A lot of notes regarding ATC will pertain MIL airport (LIRN) > Malpensa
only to FS2002\FS2004\FSX users) Intl (LIMC).
Great add-ons for this flight: Approx total distance 1400nm.
(Most freeware files can be found at May I suggest, that you READ the route a
www.flightsim.com or www.avsim.com) couple of times before starting out, so that NOTE: For the purpose of these exercises,
you’ll have the flight plan fairly clear in your we will assume that we are receiving Radar
Aircraft and Panel (Payware): mind. Especially in a fast medium or large vectors to different VORs or ILS interception
I used the Level-D B767 kindly donated by jet aircraft, there isn’t much time to spare and points. In the “Real” world of today, aircraft
the Level D team - http://www.leveldsim. definitely no room for errors. usually receive vectors to the interception
com/sevensix_home.asp points to ensure proper separation. I’m also
The scenario and tasking for this exercise: assuming that you will have a good look at the
SCENERY (Freeware): We are flying a regular scheduled route Approach plates for each segment.
I found some Milan and Malta freeware for Alitalia and using a Boeing 767 as
scenery at Avsim and Flightsim.com. equipment. Alitalia also operates Airbus One more note. If you are using ATC for take
A320 and Boeing 777’s (I also used the off, taxi and landings, you might be given a
Malta by Daniel Chircop. File: malta_intl_ PSS B-777 version for part of this exercise). different RWY or taxiway, depending on the
airport.zip Any other Jet passenger airplane would do weather. You might even input the whole trip
the job. This route can be flown in FS2002/ in a FS flight plan and fly it that way.
Milan’s Malpensa by ISDproject. File: FS2004/FSX or any other flight simulator
isd_limc2005.zip with the necessary NAVAIDS and scenery. BEGIN

77

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 First leg: right hand turn to HDG 115 and track the (PAL) VOR frequency 112.30 to on top.
SARONNO VOR to on top and continue • Over the PALERMO VOR turn right HDG
Malpensa (LIMC) climbing to 35,000. 157 and begin descent to 4000 (I used
> Luqa Intl Airport (LMML) • On top the SARONNO VOR, turn right 1700fpm descent and it worked just right).
Approx 670nm. and track the VOGHERA VOR to on top. Dial in and track the GOZO (MALTA)(GZO)
• On top VOGHERA turn left HDG 172. VOR frequency 115.70 to on top.
• Select Malpensa airport under Airport/ Dial in and track the GENOA (GEN) VOR • Enroute, dial in the LOC-LQ frequency
Italy. Ramp large or cargo. frequency 112.80 to on top. (We are on 109.7 and set course 135 on your NAV
• Month of June, 0700L. Weather at your Airways UM858) 1 OBI in preparation for an ILS/DME to
discretion. I used real weather and took off • On top the GENOA VOR turn left RWY 14 at LUQA (LMML) airport (actual
in low visibility. HDG 151. Dial in and track the ELBA RWY course 135, RWY length 11,600,
• Dial in the SARONNO (SRN) VOR (ELB) VOR frequency 114.70 to on top elevation 300).
frequency 113.70 on NAV 2 and the (Airway UM729). • Over GOZO turn left HDG 115 to intercept
VOGHERA (VOG) VOR frequency • On top the ELBA VOR turn right HDG the LOC.(almost straight in)
115.50. At this point I urge you to have 158 and remain on the ELBA 158 radial • Continue with the approach.
a good look at the flight plan. You can to pass over the RONAB ISEC (184nm • 5nm back, you are cleared for a full stop to
download a high res version of it at the ahead) and then on to the GIANO ISEC RWY 14. Check gear down.
Computer Pilot web site. (65.4nm past RONAB).
• Taxi to and T/O (Take Off) RWY 35L. • Over the GIANO ISEC, turn left HDG Land at Malta’s Luqa airport and take first
Climb RWY HDG to 4000 followed by a 145. Dial in and track the PALERMO left to terminal.

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 ROUND ROBIN ADVENTURE
Second leg: to track the GZO VOR to on top and • Over the SORENTO VOR, turn left HDG
continue climbing to 32,000. 005. Dial in and track the POMIGLIANO
LUQA (LMML) > Napoli’s • On top the GOZO VOR turn right HDG (POM) VOR frequency 117.85 to on top and
Capodichino Mil Airport (LIRN) 338. Dial in and track the PALERMO (PAL) reduce to approach speed.
Approx 385nm. VOR/DME frequency 112.30 to on top. • On top the POM VOR turn right HDG 041 and
• Over the PALERMO VOR turn right HDG descend to 7000. Prepare for a final approach.
• Clock to 1400L. Weather at your 018. Dial in and track the SORRENTO • Maintain 041/7000 until POM15 (15nm out
discretion. Again, I used real weather and (SOR) VOR frequency 112.20 to on top. of the POM VOR). Then turn right arc to
was treated to some rain and fog. • Enroute, dial in the LOC-INP frequency HDG 237 to intercept the LOC.
• Dial in the GOZO (GZO) VOR frequency 109.5 and set course 237 on the ILS • Intercept the LOC and continue with the
115.70 on NAV 2 and tune in the LUQA receiver (separate from NAV 1 on the approach
(LQA) NDB frequency 416 on the ADF. Boeing 767) in preparation for an ILS/ • 5nm back, you are cleared for a full stop to
• Taxi to and T/O RWY 14. Climb RWY DME to RWY 24 at Napoli’s Capodichino RWY 24 at Napoli’s Capodichino. Check
HDG to 4000 followed by a left turn to Mil (actual course 237, elevation 298, gear down and locked.
home the LQA NDB (approx HDG 330 RWY length 8694).
depending on your rate of turn). • 100nm out of (before) the SORENTO Land at Napoli and take first available left
• Over the LQA NDB turn left HDG 298 VOR begin descent to 8000. taxi to main terminal.

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 Third leg: 313. Dial in and track the BOLSENA frequency 292 to intercept the LOC.
(BOL) VOR frequency 114.40 to on top. • Continue with the final approach.
Napoli’s Capodichino (LIRN) • Over BOLSENA, turn right HDG 332. • 5nm back, you are cleared for a full stop to
> Malpensa (LIMC) Dial in and track the FLORENCE (FRZ) RWY 35R at Malpensa. Check gear down
Approx 385nm. VOR frequency 115.20 to on top. and locked.
• Over FLORENCE turn left HDG 320
• Clock to 2030L. Weather at your discretion. and begin descent to 7000. Tune in the Land at Malpensa and take first left to
• Dial in the TEANO (TEA) VOR frequency CODOGNO (COD) NDB frequency 400.5 terminal located on the north side of the
112.90 on NAV 1 and set course 313 and home to on top upon reception, which airport, in between the two runways.
on the NAV 1 OBI. Also dial in the will happen about 45nm past the FLZ
POMIGLIANO (POM) VOR frequency VOR. (see enclosed STAR) Good Job!
117.85 on NAV 2 (we will need this for • Enroute, dial in the LOC-MLP frequency
DME info on departure) 109.9 and set course 349 on NAV 1 in End
• Taxi to and T/O RWY 24. Climb RWY preparation for an ILS to RWY 35R
HDG until 10nm out to the POM VOR at Malpensa (actual RWY course 349, NOTE: I am still using FS2004 to write
(POM10) followed by a right hand turn to elevation 76, RWY length 12,844). my articles. The route was checked with
HDG 339 and track the TEA VOR to on • Over the CODOGNO NDB turn left Abacus’s Co-Pilot 3.5 for accuracy in FSX.
top and continue climbing to 34,000. HDG 392, and descend to 4000. Tune in Many thanks to the Abacus team for this
• On top of the TEANO VOR turn left HDG and home the NOVARA (NOV) NDB great flight planner!

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 ROUND ROBIN ADVENTURE

Al’s thank you box:

Without the help and generosity from the people below and our payware/freeware
designers, I couldn’t write these articles. So my sincere thanks to all those and to
flightsim.com and avsim.com

1. Quotes and photos from Airways magazine are courtesy of and with permission
of the Editor. Many thanks!
2. To Chris Squire for test flying the route. Chris is a retired military pilot with
over 12,000 hours of flying time.
3. I use FSNavigator and Abacus Co-Pilot for all by flight planning, a courtesy of
the FS Navigator team, and Abacus.
4. To Justin Tyme (fsgenesis.net) and to Ruud Faber (www.fscene.com) for the
great terrain textures, that make my writing so much more enjoyable.
5. to Miguel Blaufuks of simmarket.com for the great addons..
(www.simmarket.com) Thanks Miguel!
6. Level-D team for the great LVD767
7. To AVSIM and FLIGHTSIM.com for being there!
8. To PCAviator for the great selection of Flight Sim software add-ons. (www.
pcaviator.com)
9. Again to my good friend Robert Randazzo at PMDG for the finest B747-400
and 737 simulators (www.precisionmanuals.com)

Cheers and keep on reading Computer Pilot!

Al 4

81

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 COMING UP ...
...in the August 2008 Issue FlightSim Manager Version 2.8.0
FS2002/FS2004 Utility
Filename: fsm280.zip
Author: Rana Hossain
Available From: www.ranainside.com or www.flightsim.com

WIN!
FlightSim Manager is a tool that provides many housekeeping features
for your flight simulator installations. It will work with both FS2002 and
FS2004. The feature set in this software provides important tools for both
new and experienced flight simulator pilots. For those new to the hobby,
this utility can help you to add new aircraft and scenery files to your
simulation, without the need to manually edit configuration files. More
experienced pilots may wish to take advantage of the interface to per-
form tweaks to some of the basic WIN flight simulator parameters. In addition
A SUBSCRIPTION
to these features, the programtoprovides several diagnostic
Computer Pilot Magazine tools to check
More from Madagascar the status of yourHave installed aircraft
something and
to say scenery
about files,simulation
the flight and makehobby?
repairs The flight
There was simply too much to see and do flying around Madagascar if necessary. These are only
simulation a few of the
community, many
or just available
a rant features
or rave about in this
anything simulation
utility. FlightSim Manager is the winnerorofaviation
for just one issue, so next month we continue to the journey around a FlightSim.com
related? Developer’s
the island whose wildlife inspired an animated Hollywood movie! Award - check it out and you’ll see why!
Send your letters of 400 words or less to [email protected]
for your chance to win a free 12 month (12 issue) subscription – or
Flight Adventure Across the Pacific extension if you already subscribe – to Computer Pilot. Each month, we
John Shankland takes you on the more unusual route of crossing the
Stearman Kaydet will choose the best letters with the best angle/take on a flight simula-
Pacific. Forget Midway and the Hawaiian Islands. We are headingFS2002/FS2004 Aircraft/Panel/Scenery
tion topic and publish them in our Inbox column.
south and crisscrossing our way across the greater span of the vast
Pacific Ocean. This is Island Hopping at its finest! Filenames: davstea1.zip (FS2002), stear04.zip Have Your (FS2004)
Say!
Authors: David Eckert, Mark Smith, Dennis Seeley, Louis Sinclair
Many articles appearing in Computer Pilot magazine are a direct result
Available From: www.flightsim.com
Peru By Air of your emails and feedback. If you have a topic you would like us to
Peru is perhaps not the number one holiday destination around the cover, or just have some general constructive magazine feedback, let us
The next time you feel like flying low and slow with reference to the bare
world, but for pilots it offers a flying experience like no other!minimum
Check know and we will do our best to address your request/feedback. Send
of flight instruments, I highly recommend you consider David
in with David Smith as he recreates his real world trip to Peru in Flight your comments, article ideas or suggestions to...
Eckert’s Stearman Kaydet. I am showing the Kaydet in Army Air Corp
Simulator. colors, and there are five other liveries [email protected]
included in the FS2004 version.
The military trainer versions include little in the way of avionics - true to
Making X-Plane Seaplanes and Sea Bases the era, while theWhile we may
civilian not be
version able tomodern
includes personally answer
radios andthem all, we
a GPS. Thedo read
Stearman for everyisemail
FS2004 and take
packaged your
with feedback
Mark Smith’sonboard for for
scenery planning
Eagle of future
Chuck Bodeen explores the world of seaplanes and sea bases in X-Plane
issues. It’sKansas.
Field (7KS9) in Bentley, your way to make
The an impact
old hangars andongrass
the content
strip fiand direction of
t the
and shows how you can make your own, then enjoy flying them.
Stearman nicely. Flight dynamics for the Kaydet the magazine!
are by Dennis Seeley.
Since I’ve never flown a real Stearman, I can’t say if the dynamics are
Panel Mod 101 like the real aircraft or not - but I can tell you the airplane is well-man-
Ever wished you could move a gauge of your flight sim panelnered over a and a lot of fun to fly, even with a yoke. Flown with a joystick, I’m
little, add a new gauge or remove one that shouldn’t be theresure in the
you could perform some of the same maneuvers taught to aspiring
first place? Next month we will show you how to do all of theWWII above!pilots. There is a FS2002 version available as well - it comes with a
Reviews single livery and does not include the scenery for Eagle Field. David and
We have planned reviews of these great new his team have created a very high quality freeware package - if you’re
flight simulation products: looking for an airplane to fly just for the joy of flying, please consider the
• Wilco’s Tower Simulator • Just Flight’s Rescue Pilot MissionStearman.
Pack
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Trident 2 and 3 CPM. V12I7
FS2004 Aircraft/Panel

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 83

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 84 CPM. V12I7

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