Runway USA

A pilot's guide to destination cities in Flight Simulator

by Charles Gulick

Table of Contents

Title Page
Foreword by Bruce Artwick
Preface
Introduction
Tale of Two Cities
Oklahoma!
How's Bayou?
Track of the Cavemen
Instrumental Interlude
On the Misleading Edge
Out of the Dark
The Right Stuff
A Water Idyll
A Bridge Very Far
Dust Devils
High Drama
Study in Brown
The Farside Gambit
Halfway to the Stars
Can't Get There From Here
The Devil You Say
East Side Story
On the Glide Path
Out of the Night
Snow Job
The Lowdown
The Griddle Riddle
Time and the River
Panning
Pocketful of Stunts
One Small Step
Climb Every Mountain
Detour Ahead
Opportunity Knocks
The Big Muddy
Husking Corn
Enigma at Dusk
That Was Too Easy
Git Along
In a Spin
Truman Country
Sunday Flyer
Appendix A: Flight Instruction Summary
Appendix B
Aircraft Controls for the Apple II
Aircraft Controls for the Atari
Aircraft Controls for the Commodore 64
Aircraft Controls for the IBM PC
Aircraft Controls for the IBM PCjr
Glossary
Back Matter

PUBLISHED BY
Microsoft Press
A Division of Microsoft Corporation
16011 N.E. 36th Way, Box 97017, Redmond, Washington 98073-9717
Copyright 1987 by Charles Gulick
All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Gulick, Charles.
Runway USA
1. Flight Simulators. 2. AirplanesPilotingData processing.
I. Title.
TL712.5.G857 1987 269.132'52'078 86-31101
ISBN 1-55615-002-4
Printed and bound in the United States of America.
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Distributed to the book trade in the United States by Harper & Row.
Distributed to the book trade in Canada by General Publishing Company, Ltd.
Distributed to the book trade outside the United States and Canada by Penguin Books Ltd.
Penguin Books Ltd., Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England
Penguin Books Australia Ltd., Ringwood, Victoria, Australia
Penguin Books N.Z. Ltd., 182190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand
British Cataloging in Publication Data available
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of Microsoft Corporation. Flight Simulator is produced by Microsoft Corporation; copyright
1984 by Bruce Artwick. Flight Simulator II is produced by SubLOGIC Corporation; copyright
1984 by Bruce Artwick.

Foreword
It's 1987, and it's hard to believe that Flight Simulator has been airborne for five years already. I
remember as though it were yesterday getting a phone call in the summer of 1981 from a small
100-employee company in Bellevue, Washington, called Microsoft. They wondered if I would
consider converting my primitive Apple II Flight Simulator 1 to an obscure new machine that
nobody had heard of called the IBM Personal Computer. They thought it would make a good
demo for the machine's color graphics card. Well, the rest is history. Five years, twenty-four
versions, and nine scenery disks later, the project continues.
Instead of getting stale over the years, however, the whole Flight Simulator project keeps getting
more interesting. Features based on improved computer capabilities and user feedback are
constantly being added, and whole new versions for new machines are being written. Add-ons
such as scenery disks and explorer flight guides like Charles Gulick's excellent series (from the
early 40 Great Flight Simulator Adventures up to Flight Simulator Co-Pilot and his most
ambitious guide yet, Runway USA) continually add to the depth of Flight Simulator and what you
can do with it.
I look on the first three years of Flight Simulator's development as years of building toward my
original idea of what version 1.00 should have been. Three years is a long time, but my original
ideas were quite ambitious. Most of the features on version 2.13 of Microsoft Flight Simulator
(including scenery disk overlays, hidden surface removal, and a good shading system) were
items intended for release in 1982 but not well-developed yet. Many of the systems in the latest
version are total rewrites of original systems. A few curves were thrown my way over the early
years. The PCjr, Hercules Graphics Adapter, PC AT with its 80286 processor, EGA card, RGB
monitor, and, last but not least, all the clones had to be compensated for. I was luckier than
many programmers, however, because most graphics cards and clone manufacturers used Flight
Simulator to verify the compatibility of their machines, thus saving me the trouble of having to
make it work on their hardware.
The years from then to the present were conversion years. Coverage spread from the IBM and
Apple II to the Commodore 64/128, Atari 800/130XE, NEC 9801E Texas Instrument PC, and
Tandy 1000/2000. A few new features were added along the way, but these were basically
conversions of my original version 1.00 ideas to new machines.
Scenery disks were also developed over this period as a separate project. Just as it took Flight
Simulator a few years to evolve, scenery disks are taking time to evolve. The correct balance
among graphics complexity, coverage density, navigation-aids-to-scenery ratio, and frame rate is
hard to reach. I must say, though, that I have learned a lot about mapmaking and it is now very
clear to me that the USA is a big, big place, and the world is bigger yet!
That brings us to the future. As I see it, Flight Simulator-Phase One is now complete. It's time to
implement a whole new set of ideas. Over the next few years you will see these unfold one-by-
one. The new Macintosh, Atari ST, and Amiga versions provide a glimpse of the future. Some
new features include multiple 3-D views from inside and outside the plane, multi-machine/multi-
player modes, smooth zoom, and digitized sound. Atari 520 ST Flight Simulator II rolls down
the runway at 15 frames per second compared to the original 2 frames per second of IBM version
1.00, and this is just the beginning. New computer graphics software techniques and high
performance hardware make this possible. High speed 68000, 80386, and 68020 microprocessors
will make future versions even faster.
As for future scenery, Mike Woodley and his scenery design team at SubLOGIC have finally
achieved a good balance. Future scenery disks will feature wide coverage with detailed
corridors of interest. The addition of Loren Kirk-wood, an artist, to the design team promises
to bring interesting touches to everything from swamp areas to buildings.
And, finally, the future also holds some Flight Simulator hardware. A control yoke setup is in the
works. The future for Flight Simulator definitely looks bright.
Runway USA is an excellent guide for exploring the scenery and capabilities of the latest
versions of Flight Simulator. I've always seen Charles Gulick's books as much more than the
dull, step-by-step procedure manuals that other guidebooks all too easily turn into. They offer a
sense of adventure. They give procedures and point out real-world features, but they go a step
beyond by telling interesting tales along the way.
Good luck on your adventures with Flight Simulator and Runway USA. Sit back in your pilot's
seat and enjoy the flight and scenery of the completed Phase I Flight Simulator system. And stay
tuned for Phase II.
Bruce Artwick
January 1987

Preface
Let's go flying againthis time across the mighty skies and multi-colored earth of the entire
western United States. All you need is your computer, your Microsoft Flight Simulator or
SubLOGIC FSII, the western set of SubLOGIC Scenery Disks, and, for a group of very special
chapters, the SubLOGIC San Francisco STAR Scenery Diskplus, of course, this book.
Unlike the first book in this series, Flight Simulator Co-Pilot, Runway USA's instruction content
is minimal (although you will learn some neat new stunts, such as loops, Immelmans, and spins).
We're out to have some fun, and we'll concentrate on enjoying the scenerywestern America's
lakes, rivers, giant reservoirs, roads, hills, and cities. Alone in our airplanes, we'll discover the
mystery of night and early dawn aloft, and view the vast landscapes of prairie and desert (you'll
even learn how to make New Mexico look like desert).
Andwould you believe it? we'll make a flight over a quiet earth blanketed in snow.
So make yourself a thermos of coffeepack a few sandwiches in your flight bagand grab your
sectional charts. We're Westward, Ho!
Charles Gulick
Lake Park, Florida
January 1987

Introduction
Runway USA is the second book in the Microsoft Press Flight Simulator Co-Pilot Series. To fly
all of the itineraries described in Runway USA, you need the SubLOGIC Scenery Disks (Western
set: 16), and either the Microsoft Flight Simulator for the IBM PC, PCjr, and compatible
computers, or the SubLOGIC FSII Flight Simulator for the Commodore 64, Apple II series, and
Atari 800, XL, and XE computers.
In addition to the foregoing Scenery Disks, Runway USA covers the San Francisco STAR
Scenery Disk in detail, devoting fully nine chapters to this significant Flight Simulator upgrade.
So you'll want this disk also. Due to the comprehensive coverage of the STAR disk, Scenery
Disk 3 (which includes the San Francisco area) is given just one chapter. Though the parameters
listed for the San Francisco STAR area will work with Scenery Disk 3, the latter is, of course,
missing many airports and scenic features described in the text.
Co-Pilot Basic Training Assumed
Runway USA assumes you know how to fly your airplane. However, if your skills are a bit rusty,
you can brush up on some of the basic techniques by using Appendix A: Flight Instruction
Summary, and Appendix B: Aircraft Controls. There you will find a synopsis of the most
important flight procedures, along with ready references to command and control keys. If you're
a novice, then you need Flight Simulator Co-Pilot, the introductory book in this series. It
embodies comprehensive ground-school and in-flight instruction, teaches you correct taxi and
takeoff procedures, how to fly straight and level, how to perform standard climbs and descents,
how to reach and maintain specific altitudes, how to slowfly the airplane, fly airport patterns, and
make precision landings. Co-Pilot also introduces you to your NAV and COM radios, your
OMNI equipment for flight via VOR (Visual Omni-Range) stations, IFR (Instrument Flight
Rules) flight in weather, night flights and blind ILS (Instrument Landing System) approaches,
and more, acquainting you in detail with almost every aspect of your aircraft's performance.
Without that depth of flying know-how and experience behind you, the present book cannot be
fully appreciated.
Flight Plan
Runway USA follows Scenery Disks 1 through 6 in order, except that the San Francisco STAR
disk is substituted (in all but one flight) for Scenery Disk 3. Within each area, the sectional charts
involved also appear in the order in which they are found in the set. However, it is not necessary
(though it may be desirable and more satisfying) to fly the flights in any particular order. You
may select any flight and fly as you please.
The airports and itineraries chosen are designed to encompass the best scenes and/or operational
interest provided by the simulation. As readers of my earlier books know, I orient you to the
geography of the areas you flynaming cities, highways, mountains, bodies of water, and other
points of interest as you go, and often weaving in some history, personality, or local color.
Runway USA was written using the first version of both the western Scenery Disk set and the San
Francisco STAR Scenery Disk. Later versions may include features not described in the text, or
may have corrected or cancelled phenomena encountered in the early versions.
Setting Parameters
In this book, the parameters given at the start of each chapter are truncated for simplicity. For all
the parameters not listed, you are to use the power-up values (unless shear altitudes in your
version of the simulator are zero, in which case set them to 9000, 6000, and 3000 feet,
respectively). Note that while airport elevations (altitudes) are provided for your information, it
is best to set altitude to 0 in all cases when beginning a Scenery Disk flight on the ground.
Otherwise, a spurious dive and crash may result when you exit the Editor. All flights in Runway
USA begin on the ground.
New Stunts
While you tour the western U.S. in Runway USA, you'll learn some exciting new maneuvers
how to do power-on as well as power-off stalls, inside loops, steep climbs and fast descents,
Immelman turns, and even a tailspin.

Tale of Two Cities

Why are we starting a tour of the western U.S. from Hudson, Texas?
Back in the days before the word hippie meant anything, there was a musician and philosopher
named Moon Dog who used to be seen on the streets of New York City. Clad usually in a sheet,
wrapped about him like a Roman toga, he had a classic air. He invented his own instruments, and
was also a pianist of sorts. One night, while playing flute on the shore of the Hudson River, he
recorded a duet with the Queen Mary's haunting whistle as it plowed its way upstream. On the
same disk he recorded a soliloquy while improvising at the piano.
Two of the thoughts in the soliloquy were memorable. One went something like people ask me
if I dress the way I do to attract attention. (Pause, with piano filigree.) I attract attention
because I dress the way I do. The other was, To square a circle, start anywhere.
I'm not sure the last quote was original with Moon Dog. But it explains why we're starting a tour
of the western U.S. from Hudson, Texas, doesn't it?

I must say that of the hundreds of places I've flown to and from in the simulator, Hudson is the
only town I am unable to locate in any of eight atlases, an almanac, and six or seven other place
references I use. Some of the atlases list towns with populations as low as 50 people, but no
Hudson. Yet this town is big enough to have an airport of its own, and even an NDB (Non-
Directional Radio Beacon). Perhaps it isn't a town at all, but simply an airport location.
Anyway, this is what Runway 35 at Hudson Airport looks like at dawn. Daylight will come at
5:30 a.m., so don't take off until then, because I would like to show you a couple of lakes on our
way to McKinney Airport, and the simulator doesn't depict misty lakes at dawn very well.
Switch on radar and zoom up until you see five lakes, two cities, and some highways. The cities
are Dallas (to your immediate left) and Ft. Worth, Texas, which we'll fly by on the second leg of
this morning's triangular flight. The lakes just ahead of you are named Lake Ray Hubbard and
Lavon Lake. The one to the north of Dallas is Lake Dallas.
Return to your out-the-windshield view.
We want to fly a heading which will take us directly over Lakes Hubbard and Lavon, and if you
look at your sectional you'll see that we can track a Blue Ridge VOR (Very High Frequency
Omnidirectional Range) radial to do just that.
Tune Blue Ridge on 114.9 and center your OBI (Omni-Bearing Indicator) needle.
Okay. So we want radial 8, and unless or until the wind tells us differently, 8 degrees will be our
heading. Plan a cruise altitude of 2000 feet, and take off when you're ready.
Climb out to about 900 feet, then make a shallow turn to the right to intercept the OMNI spoke.
The highway you see crossing Lake Ray Hubbard, or trying to, is Interstate 30. Whoever
digitized the highways and lakes in this Scenery Disk apparently first laid down the highways,
and then put the lakes on top of them. In real life, of course, it's the other way around.
Since the wind is from your left, you'll no doubt wind up crabbing to the left to keep the needle
centered.
By the time you reach Lake Lavon, you'll be flying along its eastern shore. Take a left front view
and you'll see McKinney Airport. But stay on your heading.
When you reach the northern tip of the lake, turn left to a heading of 260 degrees. Then you
should see McKinney Airport ahead of you. Correct your heading as needed to keep the runway
well to your left, and again get on a heading of 260 degrees. You'll be flying an extended
crosswind leg for Runway 35, but above pattern altitude. We're going to fly beyond the runway,
then enter the downwind leg at a 45-degree angle.
As you approach the airport, transition to slowflight. After you pass the end of the runway, begin
a gradual letdown to pattern altitude. Since the elevation at McKinney Airport is 581 feet, figure
a pattern altitude of 1500 feet.
Seeing that the downwind leg heads 170 degrees, you know your entry heading should be 170
minus 45, or 125 degrees. Based on your relationship to the strip, decide whether circling to the
left or right will put you in optimum entry position. The exact heading on entering downwind is
not the critical thing. The reason for entering a pattern at a 45-degree angle is so you can see
other aircraft which might be flying the pattern, and they can see you.
Take any views you need to stay aware of the runway position in relation to your position.
Remember you'll have to fly far enough beyond the runway to turn back and approach it
properly. If you miss, keep flying and repositioning yourself until you get it right.
Once downwind, go ahead with your approach (base leg heads 80 degrees) and use full flaps for
your landing. But wait! We're going to touch and go. Here's how.
Once in the landing roll:
1. Take off carburetor heat. (I hope, you had it on!)
2. Trim your elevator to its usual takeoff position. (Approximate it as best you can.)
3. Change your flap setting to 10 degrees (takeoff setting).
4. Add full power.
5. Proceed with your normal takeoff.
That's called touch and go. It's like a kiss and a promise. We landed at McKinney Airport and
took off again, all in one smooth operation. Right?
If by any chance you failed, don't worry; I won't leave you behind. Go into the Editor, press
Recall to return to the Hudson mode, and set the standard North and East parameters for
McKinney Airport given in your manual (13616N, 13419E), and you'll be at McKinney Airport
with no change in weather or wind. Then just taxi to Runway 35 and rejoin the group.
If you touched and went okay, you can fine-tune your elevator setting as you climb out, checking
for operational neutral at your usual climbout RPM (2105 in Cessna, 2250 in Piper, unless
altitude dictates otherwise). You should be climbing, eventually, at 500 FPM.
Our destination now is Dallas Meacham Airport. We'll use the same cruise altitude of 2000 feet.
As you climb, make a left turn to head approximately 185 degrees. This should point you toward
the approximate center of the city of Dallas. Use radar to check on your position and direction.
We'll fly contact from this point on, the idea being to follow the northern outskirts of Dallas and
Ft. Worth so we can view them out the left side.
Your standard cruise RPM for this altitude (1905 in Cessna, 1950 in Piper) should get you
straight and level at 2000 feet without any further elevator adjustment (given, again, that you're
at operational neutral).
Dallas, which Texans call Big D, is a giant stage-set for a popular television series. When and
if the series is ended, Dallas will be taken down and stored in a warehouse somewhere.
Kidding aside, it's been said that Dallas grows so fast that the skyline changes every week.
Three-quarters of all known U.S. oil reserves are within 500 miles of here, and it was oilalong
with cotton and cattlethat nurtured the city's growth.
Dallas was also the scene of one of the unhappiest days in modern American historyNovember
22, 1963when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a motorcade
through the city. The youngest president we've had, he was at the peak of his popularity. No one
who experienced that day can forget where he or she was when the news broke. I was entering an
office building on Fifth Avenue in New York, with a party that included a U.S. Army officer in
uniform. We were returning from lunch, and were just about to enter the building when a woman
confronted our military friend with the words, Your commanding officer has been shot.
Dallas is much more than oil fields and farms. The second largest city in Texas, it's the
Southwest's major commercial, financial, and transportation hub, and is a key center for research,
space technology, and fashion.
Out the right front you should be able to spot the runway at Addison Airport. Directly ahead of
you is the site of the University of Texas at Dallas. In the heart of town, a bit left of your course,
is the Cotton Bowl, just south of Interstate 30. As you get closer, an airport will come into view
on the right side of your screen. It's Love Field, nestled right inside the metropolitan area.
When there's no more earth, but only city, at the bottom of your windshield, turn right to a
heading of 240. You'll have Addison Airport on the right and Love Field on the left of your
windshield, and you'll be approximately parallel with Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway.
The highway you see just beyond Addison Airport is Interstate 35 East, which with its
counterpart 35 West forms an ellipse linking the metropolitan centers of Dallas and Ft. Worth.
When you're about opposite the end of Runway 15/33 at Addison Airport you'll see Dallas Love
Field and Addison Airport on radar. Note Love's parallel strips, and take a look out the left front,
too, as you fly.
Then watch ahead, because the biggest airport in the United States is about to rear upDallas-
Ft. Worth Regional. Where but in Texas would you expect to find the biggest anything? The
airport was opened in 1974, and lies halfway between its namesake cities.
Point to fly straight over the center of this massive facility, with its five strips, all of them except
Runway 13/31 well over two miles long. As you approach Dallas-Ft. Worth Regional, look off
your right wingtip and you'll see Lake Dallas, just east of Interstate 35 East.
The first runway you'll cross is the little oneshort by Texas standards, but wide enough to
accommodate even the wildest student pilot. The remaining runways are parallel pairs, 0/18 and
then 17/35. Try a straight-down view as you cross all these strips.
Although they are often thought of together, as DallasFt. Worth, these two cities are by no
means twins. It's a classical maxim that Dallas is the place where the East ends. Ft. Worth is the
place where the West begins. Ft. Worth also used to be known as Cowtown, U.S.A., when it
was a large cattle-trading center. The smaller communities between these two large cities are
referred to locally as the Mid-Cities.
As for style, Dallas is the dude; Ft. Worth is the ranch. Where the Ft. Worth stockyards used to
be, you'll now find cowboy bars andthe largest in the world, naturallythe nightclub called
Billy Bob's Texas, comprising more than three dozen bars, an honest-to-goodness rodeo, and
entertainment by country stars such as Willie Nelson.
Go into radar and adjust to the view which shows you a good portion of the Interstate 35 East
and Interstate 35 West ellipse. At about 11 O'clock from your position, Interstate 35 West cuts
into the northern edge of Ft. Worth, and you'll see another highway, Interstate 45, just beyond.
Our destination airport, Dallas Meacham, is on the edge of Interstate 45 just north of the
metropolitan area.
Our landing will be on Runway 34 Left, and elevation is 708 feet. Airport traffic necessitates a
left-hand pattern, so you'll fly beyond the field and negotiate a downwind entry, just as you did at
McKinney Airport.

Oklahoma!

Runway 35 at Wichita Falls is just ahead. If your panel is blacked out, turn on your lights.
We'll be flying a bit more than a hundred miles this morning, and I want us to be about halfway
to Durant before daylight. So let's take off immediately.
Climb out to 1500 feet. Then turn right, heading 85 degrees.
Level off at 2500 feet.

That's some town, Wichita Falls, loaded with memories for me. I was stationed there for a while
in the Army, at what's now Sheppard Air Force Base. I drank my first boilermaker there, in a
place that looked like a huge barn and old mill, somewhere near the river, at the tender age of 18.
And a few hours later I drank my last boilermaker, forever.

That line below the horizon is the Red River. Rising in New Mexico and flowing over 1200
miles into the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico, it forms a natural boundary between
Texas and Oklahoma.
Take a good look back at Wichita Falls, out the right rear window.
Radar will show you your relationship to the river as you fly. You'll be flying over Texas and,
sometimes, over Oklahoma. The highway bending south is U.S. 287.
Just about everybody on earth is asleep down there below usin the small towns of Dean,
Petrolia, Riverland, Henrietta, Ringgold, Rowland, and Nocona.
Soon you'll see a highway on the horizon. It's Interstate 35the same one that forms an ellipse
south of here to link Dallas and Ft. Worth, remember? You'll probably be able to pick out the
ellipse on high-altitude radar, and, presently, the cities themselves. Interstate 35 also delineates,
approximately, the Old Chisholm Trail.
When the sun rises, you'll see you're headed for a good-sized body of water. It's Lake Texoma
and guess where it got its name.
You're probably pointed for the approximate center of the lake, which is fine. Until its full
dimensions are revealed, however, it'll look like you're headed along the southern shore. Check
radar.
As you cross Interstate 35, take right front and right side views. You will be just able to make out
the edges of the Dallas-Ft. Worth metropolitan areas. And that's some visibility. They're about 65
miles south of you. You should be able to spot, much closer by, the runway at Gainesville,
Texas, too.
Check Lake Texoma on radar, and correct if necessary to point for the approximate center of the
eastern shoreline, which looks like a wave swell or sine wave.
Check your sectional chart to see how and why I'm pointing you over the lake this way.
Start a 500 FPM letdown to about 1700 feet when you're over the lake. We're still quite a
distance from Durant, but you might as well take in the lake scenery from a lower altitude. Also,
that will put us at pattern altitude when we get where we're going. The field elevation at Eaker
Field is 699 feet MSL.
Keep checking your radar and make further heading corrections as needed to point where you
want to go.
Now just keep a lookout for the airport ahead. We'll land on Runway 35. Your downwind leg
entry heading is 125. Get into slowflight as soon as the strip is in sight.

How's Bayou?

Lake Charles, Louisiana, has a population of more than 75,000 today and is a major port of entry
and shipping center for oil, lumber, cotton, and particularly rice. This port city is also the site of
McNeese State University and Sowela Technical Institute.
But in 1781 it had a population of one, a Spaniard named Carlos Salis who came from New
Orleans, built a house, and changed his name to Charles Sallier. Travelers named the little town
that grew around him Charlie's Lake. So you can see how the present name evolved.
We're going to skim low over the Louisiana marshlands and bayou country, then make a landing
approach over Galveston Bay to Scholes Airport. The whole flight will be at an altitude of about
900 feet.
You're in position to taxi ahead and depart via Runway 23. But before you go, tune your NAV to
Sabine Pass VOR, 115.4. The station is just across the TexasLouisiana border, and on the Gulf
of Mexico. Set your OBS for a bearing to fly when you leave the airport pattern. You'll see that
the runway heading puts you almost exactly on course.
Once you're on your heading at 900 feet, look out the left front window. The big lake (shaped
like a hang glider when you look at it on radar, or like a square edge if you're viewing from the
windshield) is Calcasieu Lake. You'll be crossing the Creole Nature Trail after you pass
Calcasieu, and then the Sabine National Wildlife Refuge. There are lakes and bayous out there
you don't see, and in fact anything that isn't a lake or bayou is at least pretty marshy and muddy.
When you have mostly green, or land, in front of you, take some rear views. It just looks
soggy, doesn't it?
Louisiana is the country's major producer of rice and sweet potatoes, and one of the leaders in
petroleum. The people of Louisiana are largely descended from French and Spanish settlers, who
controlled the territory until the U.S. bought it in 1803 as part of the Louisiana Purchase. By the
time of the Civil War, half of the population was slaves.
The big lake you'll fly over before you get to the Gulf is Sabine Lake. Northwest of the lake is
Beaumont, Texas, intersected by Interstate 10.
When you're a few miles from Sabine Pass VOR, switch to Scholes VOR, 112.8, and get a new
bearing to fly.
You'll be able to see the Gulf of Mexico off to your left, and if you look at your chart and/or
radar you'll see you're flying toward the southern portion of Galveston Bay. Before long, the bay
will begin to appear ahead of you.
On high altitude radar, you'll be able to see Houston, Texas. The highway leading to it is
Interstate 10, which you'll probably be able to see out the right side.
Also, in front of you and on radar, you'll begin to make out a narrow peninsula, surrounded by
the Gulf of Mexico and Galveston Bay. It's named Bolivar Peninsula, and you areor should
betracking up the right side of it.
Forget the OMNI now. You'll fly contact from here on in.
It's almost impossible to determine where the airport at Galveston lies from your chart. If you
believe the symbol, it's right out in the Gulf of Mexico with no land under it. It's also virtually, if
not literally, invisible using your out-the-windshield view. So I'll have to guide you in.
Notice, on your screen and on your radar, that Bolivar Peninsula turns sharply south and points a
finger out into the Gulf of Mexico. Actually, it points to another strip of land, which only shows
up when you're close to it. That land is Galveston Island.
So when you pass the edge of Bolivar Peninsula, and no longer can see any of it out front, turn
left to a heading of 216. This will point you toward Scholes Airport, which will show up in a
minute or so.
If you're in good position, a left turn directly to final for Runway 17 will probably be approved
by the tower. Use radar to keep a check on your relationship to the strip.
And what a beautiful approach this is, isn't it?
Pure storybook.

Track of the Cavemen

Here we begin the longest contiguous series of flights you'll encounter in Runway USA, because
I felt Texas should be honored with the longest something, and also because I thought you
should get some feeling of what an actual point-to-point tour in an airplane might be like. As in
real life, there are stretches in this flight when you see virtually nothing and virtually nothing
happens. But I promise you, on the last leg, you'll enjoy one of the most beautiful waterscapes
and landscapes the Scenery Disks have to offer.

This is Waterloo, but one Napoleon never saw. Waterloo is what Austin, Texas, was called when
it was founded in 1838. O. Henry called it City of the Violet Crown, with its high towers of
mercury-vapor lights flooding the downtown area. It became the capital of the Republic of Texas
in 1839 and was renamed for Stephen Austin, a leader in the fight for independence from
Mexico. He was jailed in Mexico City in the 1830s, where he went to argue for a colony of 300
families his father had established in Texas. The Mexican Republic opposed such colonization,
and all the encroachments of the U.S. on its land, which then included most of what is now
Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, and more than half of Colorado. The
argument led to settler rebellions, the Mexican capture of the Alamo, and eventually the war in
1846.
In more recent and pleasanter times, Austin was the home of storyteller O. Henry (18621910),
master of the twist ending. His real name was William Sydney Porter, his own private twist
being that he was sent to prison for embezzlement, and that's where he wrote his first published
story. Before that he was editor of a humor magazine, The Rolling Stone (yes, there was one way
back then).
Austin is a city with high-tech industries and the richest of public universities, the University of
Texas. Look at the city on radar and eyeball the line of Interstate 35. The campus is about as far
due west from the highway as you are due east from it. The University of Texas has an
endowment of over $1 billion and also holds deeds to millions of acres of oil fields.
Our takeoff to the northwest will point us in the general direction of the Colorado River. Off
your left wingtip, in the real world, you could spot the giant Lyndon Baines Johnson Library &
School of Public Affairs. Exactly big enough to be pure Texan.
Let's go when you're ready.
When your altimeter indicates 1500 feet, turn left toward the water. You'll probably be heading
between 290 and 295 degrees.
Level off at 2800 feet. (Above 3000 feet, but not below, we'd need to fly regulation altitudes,
which means even numbers plus 500 feet if you're heading west, odd numbers plus 500 if flying
east.)
LBJ's famous ranch is well to the southwest. We won't be flying over it on our present route, but
at least you now have some idea of where it is.
While the Colorado zigzags along, keep pointing toward the middle of it. Our reward will be to
overfly a neat little body of water named Lake Buchanan.
All along this stretch of the Coloradowhich begins northwest of Boulder and flows nearly
1500 miles to empty into the Gulf of Californiaare little towns with such names as Marshall
Ford, Lakeway, Jonestown, Spicewood, Lago Vista, Smithwick, and Marble Falls.
Check radar once in a while, until you pick out Lake Buchanan distinctly. Then point your nose
toward the left edge of it.
As you come closer you'll overfly Longhorn Cavern State Park. Genuine cavemen crouched
inside the caverns down there once. The river flowing by the park is Lake Lyndon B. Johnson,
with the towns of Kingsland and Sunrise Beach Village on its shores. At the southern tip of Lake
Buchanan is Buchanan Dam.
Fly out over the center of the lake, then turn right between its banks. You'll fly by the towns of
Bluffton and Tow, both west of your course.
As you reach the northern limits of the lake, tune your NAV to Lampasas VOR, 112.5, and
center your OBI to get a heading. We'll land at Lampasas on Runway 34, punctuating the first
and shortest leg of our journey.
(Just keep looking. The airport will show up.)

Instrumental Interlude

Well, we have some weather, don't we? Guess what? I ordered this up special for you so that you
wouldn't get too sluggish. Flying in nothing but sunshine can give you bad habits.
We have some slightly tricky winds aloft, too. But the good news is that we have San Angelo
VOR right at our destination. If you trust your OBI needle and keep your nose on it, we'll be in
San Angelo in time for lunch. I'll even buy.
Tune your NAV to San Angelo OMNI (check your sectional) and see if you can pick up a
heading.
You say we're out of range of the station? Well then, we have to use our chart. It shows us where
we are in relation to San Angelo, and where north is.
The best thing to do is to get up there and fly in the general direction until we're in range of the
station. I'll leave it to you to decide what heading you'll take up, but our cruising altitude will be
8500 feet. That will put us nicely above the clouds.
Runway 34's ahead and to your left. Take her off.
Climb straight out to at least 2000 feet.
After you've dumped your flaps, work with power and trim as usual to climb 500 FPM. Get it on
the button, at least by the time we get to 2000 feet.
Make a standard rate (two-minute) left turn to your heading. Everything precise. Everything
under control. You should be on your course long before we ever get into the weather.
It's so much easier if things aren't piled up, isn't it? Out of your turnon your headingnice
standard climb with everything smoothtuned for the VOR when it wants to turn onisn't it
fine?
And once you get into the gray stuff, everything's just as easyno sweat. If you're in control,
you've nothing to do but wait for the blue. It's just a poem.
You'll be on top at 7000 feet. While you're climbing is a good time to practice your instrument
scan, the way you learned it in Co-Pilot. Remember how the instruments confirm one another.
They also confirm that you're in control, whether or not you can see anything of the outside
world. Except for the missing scenery, you'll soon feel as satisfied and confident in weather as
out of it. If the airspeed looks right and the artificial horizon looks right and the altimeter looks
right, then the turn coordinator, heading indicator, and rate-of-climb indicator will look right.
And vice versa. In all directions.
If you were making an instrument approach, the OBI and its glide slope references would be
added to the primary instruments you'd scanin fact, they would become the primary
instruments. But all other instruments will confirm what you see on the glide slope, and it will
confirm them.
Back to what we're doing now: Your DME will get active when you're about 60 to 70 miles out.
Then you can crank your OBI around to find out what radial you're on. As soon as the OBI
needle is centered, see how close your estimate was when you eyeballed your heading west.
Keep the needle centered, mile by mile. Don't let it go astray more than a degree or two before
you make a correction. And don't expect the heading on your directional gyro necessarily to
agree. The OBI needle is your primary directional instrument when you're flying a VOR course.
If, in the present case, it's centered, then you're headed straight for Mathis Airport, in San
Angelo.
While you have some time en route, let's have some fun:
You've probably noticed that with the wind at your back, and at this higher-than-usual altitude,
your airspeed is pretty good. Let's do a check on ground speed.
If you happen to have a stopwatch handy, perfect. If not, use the sweep-second hand on your
watch. You also need a pen or pencil. Starting anytime, jot down your DME reading, and at the
same time start timing for one minute. At the end of the minute, jot down the new DME reading.
Subtract the second DME reading from the first. The difference is your approximate ground
speed in nautical-miles-per-minute. Multiply that by 60 and you have your approximate ground
speed in nautical-miles-per-hour.
Both figures are useful, but the per-minute value is the most useful when you're working with
short distances. With it, you can figure your ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival). Divide the
distance to go by the speed per minute. Add the result to the current time, and you have your
ETA. Note that this result, however, assumes no change in ground speed from here to the
threshold of the runway, which is unrealistic. The formula is more exact when figuring elapsed
time between OMNI stations or other points of reference.
The speed-per-minute figure is also useful for figuring when to start your letdown. Supposing a
ground speed of 2.3 NM per minute, or 138 NM per hour (thanks to our tailwind), and the
correct descent rate, 500 feet per minute, your aircraft will cover 4.6 nautical miles while it
descends 1000 feet. If, as in the present case, you're at 8500 feet and the ceiling of the cloud
cover below you is at 3500 feet, you have 5000 feet of altitude to lose before you see the ground
again. And because, theoretically at least, you'll cover 4.6 NM for each thousand feet of altitude
you lose, you'll need 4.6 5 or 23 nautical miles to get from where you are to where you want to
be, out of the overcast and in visual reference to the ground again.
So go ahead and plan your letdown for San Angelo, remembering that you'll need time and
distance to get into approach configuration for your landing. When you break out of the overcast,
it'll be more comforting to see Mathis Field out there ahead of you than to wonder where it went.
Just before you start to descend, see how closely you can estimate what time it'll be when you get
out of the clouds, and what the DME will read at that point.
Don't be surprised if you're off a few miles or minutes. An error of 1/10 nautical-mile-per-minute
in your calculation with the stopwatch or sweep-second hand adds up to an error of six miles
over the course of an hour. And, precise as you try to be, you really won't maintain constant
airspeed or ground speed, particularly in climbing or descending flight. Add the difference in
actual over-the-ground speed when you're climbing or descending, ground lost while you're
correcting to keep the OBI needle centered, instrument error and other vagaries, and you'll see
that all of our formulas are just aids, not solutions.
The key thing is to allow plenty of margin for error. In short, start early.
As a very general rule of thumb, I use formulas requiring no major in-flight calculations, based
on an average speed of 120 knots (a convenience figure, but not too far off), which when
rounded off indicates I'll fly two nautical miles while I lose or gain a thousand feet. And at a
vertical speed of 500 feet per minute it'll take me about two clock minutes to lose or gain that
thousand feet. The same data tells me that for every nautical mile my DME says I have to go, I'll
consume a half-minute of flying time.
Thus I can look at my DME anytime I'm tuned to a VOR, divide what it says by two, and have
my approximate flying time in minutes to that VOR. I can also decide how much altitude I need
to lose (or gain) in thousands of feet, multiply by four, and the result is the approximate nautical
mileage I'll use up making the altitude change. I can then start my descent (or climb) when the
DME reads that many miles.
But again, I must start early. Like ten miles or five minutes early. So when I get out of overcasts
I can see airports out the windshield, ahead of me, not right under my wing, or worse yet,
somewhere in the past tense.
The surface wind being from the north quadrant, our landing at Mathis Field will be on Runway
36. The ground elevation is 1916 feet.
My earlier offer to buy lunch is contingent on whether, after your landing, I still feel like eating
lunch.

On the Misleading Edge

The sky's still overcast, but we'll fly under it. The wind's shifted around to the west, so we'll take
off over Twin Buttes Reservoir.
This is sheep-raising and goat-raising country we're sitting on here. Our destination is Hurd
Memorial Airport, Monahans, Texas, but we'll take a little detour so you can see some Great
Plains country, and two real lone-prairie cities. There isn't much else to see out there, where
people mostly grow wheat and cotton and cattle, and eat a lot of dust. We're lucky we're going in
the spring, because in winter the blue norther winds might pick this airplane off the ground and
end-over-end it right down to Mexico.
Taxi ahead and get lined up, but put your brakes on and hold at the end of the runway. Go into
radar and zoom so that you see the whole reservoir ahead of you. Notice the sharp finger
pointing to one o'clock. We're going to take off and fly right along the finger, in the direction it
points. Our cruising altitude will be 2900 feet. It'll be straight climbout, then a slight right turn to
follow the finger, which you'll see distinctly when you're out over the water. Check your
progress on radar, and get the pointed tip of the finger like an arrowhead right in the center of
your windshield.
That's San Angelo off to your right, sitting beside O.C. Fisher Lake. The lake is fed by the North
Concho River.
Once you're level, tune your NAV to Midland, 114.8. Set the OBI to the heading you're on. You
won't be in range of the station yet, but stay on your course. When it does get active, you'll find
you're on or close to the 288 radial. That finger we followed points almost straight to Midland.
There isn't much to see way out here. If you fiddle around with radar, you'll see a highway well
south of your course, Interstate 10 to El Paso.
There are fewer than a handful of towns all along our route. Off to the north, on U.S. 87, are the
towns of Carlsbad and Water Valley. To your left, about 40 miles from Midland, is St.
Lawrence. A bit further on, Garden City is off your right wingtip, followed by Glasscock. Then,
about 15 miles from the OMNI station, we will fly almost directly over Spraberry, Texas.
Don't let your altitude slip away around here. Keep it between 2900 and 3000 feet, or you may
thresh some wheat.
Eventually you'll see a highway, Interstate 20, appear on the horizon.
The city that appears ahead of you when your DME reads about 51 is Midland, Texas, a hair to
the right of the radial. Twenty miles later you'll see another city, named Odessa, on the horizon.
Admire them now, from a distance, because you won't see them up close. Like other features on
the edges of the sectional charts, Midland and Odessa evaporate before our very eyes. Ghost
towns. Wraiths of the Great Plains. And the OMNIs just turn off, as if they were never there.
Stay on your heading until it happens (after the disk access).
So what do we do now?
First of all, let's see if we can escape no-person's-land. Turn left to a heading of 210 degrees and
fly for a minute or so. There'll be another disk access. Then look out the right side, and on radar.
Presto! Midland and Odessa again. And we're headed down Interstate 20.
Turn to the right now, using radar as a guide, until you're paralleling the highway, heading about
234 degrees.
We're going to sneak along Interstate 20, trying to avoid the wipeout that results if we get too
close. Monahans is this side of it, and just below the point where the highway bends to the right.
You can see the bend on radar.
The elevation at Monahans is 2614 feet, so we'd better climb. Take her to 3400 feet, so the
clouds are sitting right on your shoulders.
If Hurd Memorial Airport, Monahans, is on this sectional, we certainly should be able to land
there, even if we couldn't fly over Midland and Odessa. Possibly Midland is blacked out for
some sinister reason by the oil cartel. It's the center of the Permian oil basin, and a hideout for
hundreds of big oil companies. Odessa (rhymes with don't messa), on the other hand, is a rough-
and-tough town where all the oil is in the engines of pickup trucks.
Nothing seems to move at all on the landscape for quite a while. But keep a lookout to your
right. And keep correcting to the right to stay as close to the highway as you dare.
As the wind indicates, land on Runway 30 at Hurd Memorial Airport. I don't care what kind of
pattern you fly. Just don't miss, whatever you do or you will have to refly the approach. We're at
the very edge here. Of everything.

Out of the Dark

I know it's early in the morning, but it'll be daylight when we get to where we're going.
I'm sure this airport is very nice in the real world. But in the world we're flying in I think it's
jinxed, and so are all the airports on the edges of the sectional charts.
Nonetheless, we'll fly into and out of them and take our chances. Why take chances? For the
same reason people climb mountains.
We're pointed right up Runway 19. But if you check radar you'll see that we're already halfway
up the runway. And as oldtime pilots say, there's nothing as useless as used-up runway.
The situation calls for a short takeoffreally short. We'll have to be airborne with a run of about
1200 feet. The sooner we're up the better.
Be sure you remember your takeoff procedure, the trim, the flaps, when to rotate, and all that
good stuff. If not, tell me and I'll take us off.
Now let's move and as soon as you get some altitude, turn left to a heading of 130 degrees.
Then just keep climbing, leveling off at 5500 feet (from where we were, that's not very high up).
For your last glimpse, for a while, of civilization, be sure and look back at Hurd Memorial
Airport. The runways form a pretty crisscross. Or is it double cross?
The line slicing your view is a highway, not a horizon. It's our old friend Interstate 10.
Tune your NAV to Laughlin VOR, 114.4, to be ready when it comes within range.
It may not look it, but you are gaining on the highway. And don't worry that you're missing
anything on the ground. There's nothing to see down there. Three unsimulated mountains
Castle, King, and Tabletopto the left of your course, each around 3000 feet high. A few small
townsRoyalty, Grandfalls, Imperial, Girvin, Rio Pecos, and, directly on Interstate 10,
Bakersfield. Then just prairie.
Watch for the dawn's early light at six o'clock.
Isn't that beautiful?
As you leave Interstate 10 behind, it continues on to San Antonio, where we'll head later in this
extended flight.
Check your DME regularly. When it turns on, center your OBI needle and fly the indicated
radial. If you've stayed on course so far, this will happen about 76 miles out, and your new
heading will be between 140 and 145 degrees.
You'll have daylight at precisely 6:30 a.m.

And at daylight, lo and behold! There's what we've been flying toward in these wee hours.
Directly ahead of you is the big Amistad Reservoir, just a few miles northwest of Del Rio, Texas,
situated directly on the Mexican border.
The river off to your right is the Rio Grande, born in the San Juan Mountains of southwest
Colorado and flowing nearly 2000 miles to the Gulf of Mexico at Brownsville, the southernmost
city in Texas.
If you look at the reservoir on radar, you'll see another river, left of your course, which also
flows into the Amistad Reservoir. That's the Pecos. You'll see it out your windshield, too, if you
take a left front view.
Turn to head about 150 degrees, so you're approximately midway between the rivers. Use radar
for reference. You'll be aiming at the center of the reservoir.
Just above where the Rio Grande flows into the Amistad Reservoir is the town of Langtry,
Texas. It wasn't always called Langtry. It was originally named Vinegaroon, for a large scorpion-
like spider, native to the area, which emits a vinegarish stench when upset. It was renamed in
1882 by Judge Roy Bean for the British actress, Lily Langtry, mistress of King Edward VII.
Bean, who was once chased out of Mexico for cattle rustling, appointed himself justice of the
peace in a saloon in Langtry and kept order in the court with six-guns. He was known as the
only law west of the Pecos. You can still visit Judge Roy Bean Saloon & Museum down there
in Langtry, courtesy of the Texas Highway Department.
About where you're pointed, on this side of Amistad Reservoir, is Seminole Canyon State Park,
and reaching out in all directions is the Amistad National Recreation Area.
As soon as you can see the city of Del Rio on the landscape out front, head to fly straight over it.
You'll also fly over a big portion of the reservoir. Be sure to take views to all sides to get an idea
of its size.
Just the other side of the city is Laughlin Air Force Base, whose OMNI we've been borrowing.
When the city of Del Rio is about at the center of your windshield, turn left, heading 80 degrees.
If you're flying Piper, you may need to switch fuel tanks, since we're flying right on to San
Antonio International Airport. (Cessna feeds from both wing tanks.)
Tune San Antonio VOR on 116.8. Nothing will happen to your DME or your OBI yet.
By my calculations (hunches), we have more than enough fuel to make it to San Antonio. We
could make a stop at Garner Airport in Uvalde, but we'd lose time.
You seem to be pretty sharp this morning, so I'll get a little shut-eye. Hold your altitude, 5500
feet. Watch your DME for contact with San Antonio OMNI. And fly the OBI needle when it
happens. You'll see some highways pretty soon: Interstate 10 from the north and Interstate 35
from the south. They converge at San Antonio. Wake me when you're about 30 miles out.

Now we have some work to do. San Antonio tower says the wind is from 280 degrees at 5 knots.
Go into the Editor and make the adjustment to: Surface Wind: 5 knots, 280 degrees. The
windshift means we'll land on Runway 30R.
Now if you look at your sectional, you will see that Randolph OMNI is somewhat more in line
with San Antonio International than San Antonio OMNI, which is well north of the airport.
So tune to Randolph, 112.3, and get a new bearing.
And what do you know! Look at your fuel gauges. That's called in-flight refueling. And you
thought only the Air Force did it. The great Editor in the sky must've thought you were starting
all over again.
Anyway, I'm convinced we would have made it even if the winds hadn't shifted.
Nextthe elevation at San Antonio is 810 feet. Figure pattern altitude at 1800 feet. We're at
5500 feet. (You are, aren't you?) So we have to lose 5500 minus 1800, or 3700 feet, before we
enter the pattern. Round it up to 4000 feet.
Our rule-of-thumb start-descent-distance formula is SD = A 4, where A is altitude in thousands
of feet. But the OMNI is beyond the airport by 8 or 10 miles, so let's give ourselves plenty of
time and distance: Start your descent when the DME reads 30 miles.
Our target altitude for the approach, remember, is 1800 feet.
Reduce power for a 500-FPM descent. When you can't hit that rate exactly, err on the high
side600 rather than 400, for example.
Keep the OBI needle centered as you descend. The airport will show up almost directly ahead.
Don't change trim until you're at 2800 feet. Then start trading trim and RPM to slow the airplane
to pattern airspeed. Keep reducing throttle and applying up elevator or trim, slowing the airplane
while you maintain your 500-FPM descent rate.
Turn left, heading 65 degrees to enter the downwind leg. Check your position on radar, as well as
out the windshield.
Downwind heading for Runway 30, left-hand pattern, is 120 degrees. Turn right to that heading
when the runway is about in the center of your windshield.
Now take a look out your left side and see Runways 12/30 big as life and straight as a die. The
far one, of course, is 30 Right.
Put on carburetor heat when you're opposite the end of the runway, and go ahead with your
approach. Your base heading is downwind minus 90 degrees.
Use full flaps. Use your turn coordinator and artificial horizon to make your turns, so you keep
the end of the runway in sight all the time and just switch views to match your relationship to the
strip.
Now, don't forget to take your carburetor heat off after your landing.

The Right Stuff

You're looking north.
If you could see 700 miles, you could see the town of Abilene, Kansas, way up there. There are
highways, of courseInterstate 35 through Oklahoma, then Highway 135 out of Wichita to
Salina, with Abilene a bit to the east of Salina on Interstate 70.
Try to imagine, though, that there are no roads or routes from here to Abilene. No paths or signs.
No markings of any kind. Instead, just 700 miles of woods, hills, valleys, brush, grass, and earth;
or, if it rains, mud, followed by dust. No bridges. No cities. No towns. No habitation. No stores.
No Coke machines. No lights at night.
Further, imagine you're 60 years old, and you're sitting here, not in this airplane, but on a horse-
drawn wagon. And you have just made the decision to make your way from San Antonio to
Abilene. For the first time ever. Not the first time just for you, but for anybody.
You know you'll have to get across rivers and creeks, and down and up ravines, and your wheels
will get stuck, and the sun will get hot and the nights will be dark, and you'll wish you never
started. You know you'll look ahead and wonder which way to go on, or whether to go on.
But you made the decision and it's time. So you spit at the wind, pick up the reins, and begin.

In 1866, a year after the Civil War, Jesse Chisholm drove a wagon from San Antonio, Texas
(where you're sitting now) 700 miles north to Abilene, Kansas. He went through the heart of
Texas and on through what was then Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. He was the first. A year
later, Abilene became a railroad shipping center, and the cattle drovers followed Chisholm's trail
to Abilene and other Kansas shipping points. His wheel ruts showed them the way, so they
named it for him: The Chisholm Trail. At its peak in 1871, more than a half-million cattle were
stretched along the route, raising dust that hasn't settled yet.
The trail pretty much parallels Interstate 35 through Austin, Temple, Waco, Dallas-Ft. Worth,
Gainesville, and across the Red River to Ardmore, Oklahoma; then on to Oklahoma City and
hundreds of miles more, across the Arkansas River at Wichita, and continuing north.
However, this morning we're going the other way, to Laredo, Texas. We'll go about a hundred
miles an hour. On the way, think how long it took Jesse to go that many yards, and the courage it
took to begin.

Take a 45-degree left view and there's your active runway, 30 Right.
Fire up your NAV and tune to Cotulla, 115.8. Don't set your OBI yet. We will pick up a heading
after we fly over San Antonio.
Take off and climb straight out to 1500 feet. The campus of the University of Texas at San
Antonio is ahead, just off your nose.
Plan to cruise at 2500 feet, but as you climb, make a wide turn to the right so that you fly back
across the airport and head south over the center of San Antonioabout 180 degrees should do
it.
The outskirts of the city bristle with military bases. Off to your left is Randolph Air Force Base,
then Fort Sam Houston, a big Army complex. Martindale Army Airfield is just the other side of
Interstate 10. Ahead to the right are two Air Force bases, Kelly and then Lackland; nothing but a
little road (named Military Drive, logically enough) separates them.
At the center of the city, just north of HemisFair Plaza, is the main attraction of San Antonio: the
remains of the Alamo. There, on March 6, 1836, after a long siege, 188 Texas defenders
including Davy Crockett, James Bowie, and other Americans, many blacks and Latins among
themdied at the hands of several thousand Mexican troops led by General Santa Anna, with
the final gasp coming in the chapel of the fort. Three weeks later in Goliad, 75 miles to the
southeast, twice as many Texans surrendered on a promise of safe conduct, following a battle on
Coleto Creek. The promise was not kept, and they were massacred. Three weeks later, shouting
not just Remember the Alamo! but Remember the Alamo! Remember Goliad!, a Texas army
under General Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto, and independence from Mexico
was won. If Americans remember the Alamo, then they should remember Goliad, too; and, along
with famous names like Crockett and Bowie, the unnamed and unknown black and white
Americans martyred in both these Texas tragedies.

The airport you'll spot on the southern outskirts of town is Stinson Field.
Center your OBI and get a heading to Cotulla OMNI.
The highway out your windshield is Interstate 35. The one going east, visible out the left front
window, is the continuation of Interstate 10, on its way to Houston.
You might tune your NAV2 to Laredo VOR, 117.4, somewhere along here, and set its OBI to the
heading you're flying. Then, when you're in range, OBI2 will stop reading Off and you can
tune NAV1 to Laredo for a DME reading. Cotulla VOR is just a stepping stone.
Your aircraft probably won't stick all that well to its altitude on this flight. Just use power and
keep adjusting, or trim your elevator a notch, to hold as close to 2500 feet as you can. Down
elevator trim is best in such cases, as you've already learned, since it yields an increase in
airspeed.
Some of the towns you'll pass are Von Ormy, Somerset, Natalia, Rossville, Devine, Kyote, Big
Foot, Moore, Pearsalll, Derby, Divot, Dilley, Millett, and Gardendale. From Cotulla to Laredo
the towns thin out considerably, but right on the highway are the towns Artesia Wells and
Encinal.
Once you're in range of Laredo OMNI, you'll probably be altering your heading slightly to the
south.
Laredo International is this side of the OMNI station and this side of Laredo, on the northeast
edge of the city. As chief port of entry from Mexico, one of Laredo's primary businesses these
days is likely to be arresting illegal aliens.
We'll set down on Runway 32, using a right-hand pattern. Elevation is 508 feet. You're cleared
for direct entry onto base leg, heading 230 degrees. Be sure you're at pattern airspeed and altitude
when you enter.
And don't accidentally cross the Rio Grande. You may never get back.

A Water Idyll

Shades of Monahans! We're in for another fringe trip; this one right along the shores of the Rio
Grande to the southernmost city in TexasBrownsville. These shores are not just those of the
Rio Grande, but those of the chart we're flying, as you'll see if you look at it.
Anyway, we have to fly these razor edges, because that's where much of the scenic interest is,
because that's where much of the water is.
Go into radar and zoom out until you see the entire shape of Laredo, and the Rio Grande
chopping off its lower half. Actually, you're looking at a pair of cities hereLaredo, Texas, and
Nuevo (New) Laredo, Mexico.
Now go back to out-the-windshield and get ready for your takeoff.
My idea is to fly on the U.S. side of the river, in a generally southeasterly direction, but keeping
the river readily visible all the way so that we don't inadvertently cross it and end up in no-man's
land.
The Rio Grande isn't all that spectacular in the simulation, but it will lead us down to that
double-headed arrow on your chart, which does look interesting. Beyond that, the river will take
us to Brownsville and the Gulf of Mexico, where this long, contiguous trek in and around Texas
will terminate, and we'll head for new horizons.

Take off and climb straight out until you have reached 1000 feet. (Yes, that little strip of blue on
the horizon, as you climb to the east, is the Gulf of Mexico, believe it or not.) As you gain
altitude (plan to level off at 2000 feet), turn right and parallel the river, keeping it at the center of
your field of view when looking out the right side. Use radar to check where you're going until
the lie of the river is apparent.
When you're at cruising altitude, you'll find that the body of water we're headed for can be seen
on radar. Head for the center of it, always staying left of the river as cautioned above. Note that
on high-altitude radar, the river will look closer than it really is.
When things settle down, your heading should be in the general vicinity of 160 degrees.
The water we're headed for is Falcon Lake. As it comes closer you can get a better view of it on
radar, and before long it will take shape out your windshield, too.
As you near the point where the river flows into the lake, check your position on radar, and, if
needed, make a course correction to aim over the lake proper. You'll probably be heading about
150 degrees.
As far as I know, there's only one town all along this stretch, and it's called San Ygnacio. On the
northern tip is another town called Zapata, which is also the name of the county we're flying
over. I can find no references to the town, but, to be on the safe side as we fly by, yell Viva,
Zapata! out the left side and Viva, Villa! out the right side.
The contours of this lake are a real feast for the eyes, aren't they? Be sure to fly right toward the
lake and then down the center of it. Really beautiful, isn't it? Wouldn't it be a shame to have
missed it?
I'm really tempted to land right along that point. Once we're over the shaft of the arrow, it seems
to stretch ahead forever. I definitely plan to make this trip from Laredo again some day, and land
down along the point. It just looks magical, somehow.
While you're cruising along, tune to McAllen VOR, 109.8, but don't set your OBI or change your
heading yet. Enjoy Falcon Lake until it slips away under your nose.
Meanwhile, zoom way out on radar, and you'll see another lake ahead, where the river bends to
the left and flows toward the Gulf. That lake lies in Mexico and is called Presa M.R. Gomez.
At about the center of Falcon Lake, correct your course (if needed, and probably to the left) to
stay on this side of the Rio Grande.
Another beautiful vista lies ahead, composed of the southern tip of Falcon Lake, the resumption
of the Rio Grande, and Presa M.R. Gomez in the distance. I really hope you're enjoying this
flight half as much as I am. I am totally charmed by the gray sky, the deep green and blue, and
the edges of the shore which seem to glitter like diamonds.
As the last point of Falcon Lake works its way off your windshield, it's time to get on the OBI
needle for McAllen. You'll probably find the 110-degree radial is the one.
As you bank to get on the heading, you may see some brilliant white bars flash on and off.
They'll look, momentarily, like runways or highways as they come on the scene and then vanish.
Try some wing-wagging to view them again.
Well, true, we are heading for a highway (and some more neat water scenics, too). Presently, a
few bars of white will link arms on the horizon, stretch halfway across your windshield, and then
unlink again.
The highway is one of the few non-interstate routes we find in the simulator: U.S. 77, going
north from Brownsville through Harlingen and joining Interstate 37 just west of Corpus Christi.
The city directly ahead, now or shortly, is McAllen.
When your DME reads about 28, retune your NAV, this time to Brownsville OMNI on 116.3,
and get a new bearing on your OBI. It'll probably be 102 degrees, but regardless of what it is, fly
it.
Now if you access and adjust your radar so that you see the Gulf of Mexico ahead, you'll also see
McAllen and a short strip of highway which forms a T with U.S. 77. You'll also see the Rio
Grande south of the highway and, over in Mexico, a lake named Presa del Azucar. Further, you'll
be able to trace U.S. 77 all the way up to Corpus Christi.
Out the windshield again, before long you'll see another great vista ahead. The flat shape of
McAllen, Texas, with Miller International Airport on its southern outskirtsthe little strip of
highway (U.S. 83) from McAllen to Harlingen peeling off to the left and eventually linking with
U.S. 77and beyond Miller International Airport, Presa del Azucar, with the Gulf of Mexico on
the far horizon.
You'll fly directly over the city of McAllen. Take a look at Miller International Airport out the
right front and side windows. The runways certainly look inviting, but we have promises to keep.
The city of McAllen almost looks like the deck of a carrier out front, doesn't it? One no Navy
pilot could miss.
And very soon, there's the city of Brownsville ahead, sitting like a jewel surrounded by blue
velvet. Sort of twinkling on and off, pulsing like something alive.
The Rio Grande curls right around Brownsville and into the Gulf of Mexico, through a bay
called Port Isabel.
The airport at Brownsville (Brownsville/South Padre Island International) is at an elevation of
only 23 feet. We'll land on Runway 13 Left, which is slightly less than 3000 feet long. Just glue
your OBI needle to center, and you will be in fine shape.
The tower couldn't do anything but approve a straight-in approach after a beautiful flight like
this, could they?

A Bridge Very Far

Here's a short flight we just have to makefor two reasons. The first is that, according to the
Phoenix sectional chart, the runway at Lake Havasu Airport goes right across the lake like a
bridge, and I would like to check it out. The second is that just north of the airport in Lake
Havasu City lies an unusual entity, which also crosses the lake. I'll bet ten dollars we won't see
this amazing object, but at least we'll see where it is, which is better than nothing at all. Maybe
you know what I'm talking about, but if not, come on along and find out.
As I write this, I assure you that I'm making my first trip ever to Lake Havasu City. If the entity
is simulated, we'll discover that fact together, and I'll be out ten dollars.
I've lined us up precisely on Runway 20. So all you have to do is take off.
Climb to 1500 feet, turn left to a heading of 130 degrees, and level off at 2000 feet.
The body of water materializing ahead of you is, of course, Lake Havasu. The highway on the
horizonquite a way offis Interstate 10, which goes east to Phoenix and west to Los Angeles.
The Colorado River, presently on your left, forms a natural border between Arizona and
California.
Looking on radar, the highway behind you is Interstate 40, and between that highway and the
Colorado River is the Fort Mohave Indian Reservation. Though unsimulated, there are mountains
on both sides of your course, the Sacramento Mountains to your right side and the Mohave
Mountains to your left.
Lake Havasu is not simply a wider segment of the Colorado River. It was created by Parker
Dam, about 15 miles south of our destination. Lake Havasu City is a relative newcomer among
Arizona communities, and a favorite recreation spot.
The runway at Lake Havasu Airport appears quite suddenly and certainly seems to be as wide as
the lake, doesn't it?
Let's cross the river and make our approach to Runway 23 from the Arizona side of the lake.
You're on your own now, so fly it as you see it from here on in. The field elevation is 482 feet.
Your heading for a right base leg would be 140 degrees, and in the absence of traffic you can
enter that leg directly. Also, as you fly, don't forget to keep a lookout for an unusual entity this
side of the airport.
When you're close, look on radar and you'll see the basis of the illusion, in the chart, that the
runway crosses the lake. The runway extends right up to the edge of the lake, to a point where
the land reaches out like a bullethead. So don't use up too much runway in your landing, or you
may get wet.

When you're on the ground, taxi off the runway and point your nose about 300 degrees.
Out there in front of you is supposed to beand is, except that it's not simulatedan unusual
entity. Something which, unlike the runway, does cross the lake. It's a very special bridge. A
bridge which put Lake Havasu City on the map: London Bridge.
In the late twelfth century a priest named Peter of Colechurch designed and built a unique stone
bridge across the Thames River in London. It took 30 years to construct and was finally opened
in 1209.
One would have to see at least a picture of the original London Bridge to believe it. For it looked
more like the architecture on the edge of a fabled city than a bridge. Supported by 20 pointed
arches, on piers locked into the river bed by closely-spaced, hard-driven pilings, London Bridge
consisted of multi-storied houses and shops soaring toward the sky, all enclosing a wide corridor,
which formed the roadway. It had a great stone gate, atop which the heads of both martyrs and
traitors were displayed on poles. Smaller boats had a choice of arches under which to pass, and
for tall ships there was a timber span that could be opened. The buildings with their chimneys,
spires, and weather vanes towered over the highest masts. In its time, which lasted more than six
centuries, the bridge was the only dry way across the Thames River.
So how did London Bridgenot the original one, but its genuine descendantget to Lake
Havasu City, Arizona?
Piece by piece, reverently and painstakingly, over the seas from London, after which it was put
back togetherstone by stone and timber by timberto span this little lake and form one of
America's most unusual tourist attractions.
For Lake Havasu City, Arizona, applause and accoladesthat's what I call enterprise.

Dust Devils

In the Phoenix metropolitan area, there are some of the longest, straightest roads you'll ever see.
And one of the very longest, flattest, and straightestScottsdale Roadleads to this airport.
This will be like old home week to me, because when I was in the advertising business, I had a
client out here, practically across the road from the airport you're sitting on. I have actually flown
around the area we're going to be flying over this afternoon.
I have to tell you another story about another long road that leads outside Phoenix and into the
desert. The road was like a miniature roller coasterup and down, up and down, over endless
dry gulches. We drove it at breakneck speed and in darkness, until it led to a unique dining
establishmenta restaurant named Pinnacle Pete's.
Pinnacle Pete's had only one choice on its menu: steak, and it came only with pinto beans and
salad. So all the person doing the serving had to ask was how you wanted your steak.
I ate there twice with my hosts. The first time, I sat outside on a bench at a long redwood table
and ate by the light of the fire where the steaks were cooked. They were delicious. But while I
was wolfing mine down, I felt a gentle nudge on my arm; I turnedto look into the friendly but
hungry eyes of a goat.
The second time, our party ate indoors. Same redwood benches. Of course, I placed the same
ordermedium rare. But before the steak came, the waiterwho reminded me of a lumberjack
or ranch hand more than a waitercame up to me carrying a big pair of shears and swiftly cut
off my tie, just below the knot. It was only then I noticed that the big barnlike restaurant was
festooned with the remains of ties, snipped from other city dudes like me who didn't know how
to dress for the desert.
If you ever go to Phoenix, don't miss Pinnacle Pete's. And just for kicks, wear a tiebut a cheap
one.

Let's go ahead and get airborne via Runway 3. At 2000 feet turn left to a heading of 265 degrees,
and get straight and level at 2500 feet.
For everything that looks green below, substitute a desert sand color in your mind. Imagine that
you can see, in almost any direction, little dust devilsthe miniature tornadoes of sand and
debris that whirl dizzily along the ground, just a few feet highchanging direction at the whim
of the wind.
People do a lot of private flying here in Arizona, partly because the whole desert is a runway;
you can set an airplane down almost anywhere. There are also many official airports, and one is
visible out of your windshield just to the right: Deer Valley Airport. If I'm recalling the airport
correctly, it's a neat little fixed-base operation.
Turn right a bit, and let's circle Deer Valley for old time's sake. Circle around, keeping the
airport to your left. When I flew into it, there was just one strip, so it must have grown
considerably. I wonder if the same fine husband-and-wife team still runs it.
Fly wide of the traffic pattern and parallel the runways, on a heading of about 250 degrees.
You'll be flying at a right angle to Interstate 17, also known around here as Black Canyon
Freeway.
Off your left wingtip, if you could see it, is Taliesin West, designed byand once the home of
Frank Lloyd Wright, and now a school for architects. When I visited the school, there were
numerous students who lived right on campusin tents pitched in the sand around the building.
Taliesin West was also badly in need of a paint job at that time. In Arizona, everything seems to
deteriorate, although in authentic desert colors.
Check radar as you cross the highway, and you'll see the city of Glendale, just a bit west of
Phoenix. West of Glendale is Luke Air Force Base. The east/west highway is Interstate 10.
Turn left midway between Phoenix and Glendale, taking up a heading of 160 degrees. You'll
have a good view of Phoenix out the left front window. You'll also be on a long base leg for
Runway 7 Left at Phoenix International, also called Sky Harbor Airport. The runway you want is
just beyond the point where Interstate 10 meets the city. Radar will give you a clear idea of your
present position in relation to the airport, before you see it out the left front window.
When you do see it, get into slowflight, but continue on your present heading until you can spot
it out the left side window, and it's about a third of the way across your screen. Time then to turn
left, heading 70 degrees, and set up a nice long final approach. The field elevation is 1132 feet.
Caution: If you see a dust devil on the runway, you would be wise to go around (abort your
landing, fly the entire pattern, and make a new final approach)those little characters can spoil
your afternoon.

High Drama

NOTE: The mountains described in this and the following chapter are not, unfortunately, in the
Scenery Disks for all computers. If you see no mountains, you'll just have to make the flights as
described and try to imagine them.
Talk about beautiful! This has to be (if you have mountains) one of the most inviting runway
scenes in the simulator world. Spend a minute just looking at it. You and I may be the only ones
who ever see it just this way.
Those are the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, with peaks such as Thompson (10,546 feet) and
Baldy (12,623 feet). You'll see them up closer, because Santa Fe is on the other side of them.
The whole area between here and there is Santa Fe National Forest.
This is Runway 32 at Las Vegas, New Mexicoa Las Vegas for those who choose mountains,
streams, and wilderness over slot machines, smoke, and gambling tables.
Let's go flying!
Tune your NAV to Santa Fe, 110.6, and crank in a course on your OBSmy readout is 252
degrees.
We're already at high altitude, nearly 7000 feet, so your takeoff run will be long. Rotate as usual,
but after rotating, don't trim elevator at all. Dump your flaps when you're climbing better than
500 FPM, but still don't trim at all, and stay at full power until I tell you otherwise. We have a
big mountain to clear.
When you've climbed to 7500 feet, make a standard-rate left turn to the heading on your OBS.
You'll find that the OBI needle has moved a few degrees to the left, but in this case, reset the
OBS to center the needle and then fly it, rather than correcting to get on the original radial. The
radial I'm flying now, as a result of the foregoing adjustment, is 248 degrees.
Remember, don't change your power setting. Keep climbing, and now use gradual up-elevator
trim as needed to keep your rate as close to 1000 FPM as you can. You'll find you're trimming
constantly, which is what you should be doing. But notice how your airspeed drops very slowly.
Soon you'll see some signs of civilization over on the other side of the mountain. The highway
that you see is Interstate 25.
At some point, you're likely to get a stall warning. Respond with one stroke (or two if necessary)
of down elevator, and let the climb rate slowly settle lower. By now you should have sufficient
altitude to clear the mountain.
When you're over the top, slowly adjust trim and reduce your power for straight-and-level flight.
To achieve this, primarily use trim, together with a power reduction of perhaps 100 RPM. Your
elevator-position indicator should be at the three-quarter mark by the time you're level.
Ahead are the foothills of another mountain range and another beautiful scene, composed of
Interstate 25, the Santa Fe National Forest, and the Rio Grande River. The river and the highway
are headed for Albuquerque, but we're traveling to Santa Fe.
If you've let the OBI needle stray, don't worry; it hasn't moved very far. If you keep a lookout to
the right, using a 45-degree view, you'll soon see the city of Santa Fe, north of the highway.
Santa Fe County Airport, however, is south and west of the city.
You climbed to a pretty high altitude, didn't you? And now you have to shed all those thousands
of feet. Here's an exciting, but completely safe, way to do it:
(Just before you do this, you may want to go briefly into the Editor, save the mode exactly as it
is, and exit again. Then, if you misjudge your approach, you can return to this moment of the
flight and try the procedure again.)
Leave your elevator where it is.
Notch by notch, take off all your power. The aircraft will, of course, pitch down.
Again notch by notch, extend your flaps fully.
You'll start a descent at better than 1500 FPM. Take a look out the side of the aircraft, to get an
idea of your attitude in relation to the horizon.
Note your airspeed, and realize that you are not diving out of control toward the ground. If you
were, your airspeed would be redlining, but we're approaching this maneuver very
conservatively.
Observe your altimeter carefully. When it reads 8000 feet (remember that you're above 10,000
feet as long as the thousands indicator is on 1; you'll be at 8000 when the short hand is on 8 and
the long hand on 0), take up your flaps, a notch at a time, then gradually add power to achieve
your normal slowflight airspeed (which is approximately 70 KIAS in Cessna, and 84 KIAS in
Piper).
Try to achieve a straight-and-level slowflight condition by the time your altimeter reads 7500
feet. Your throttle (RPM) setting to achieve slowflight at this altitude will be higher than at, say,
2000 feet.
Now, wasn't that delightful? From the ground, it might look as if you were doing something
dangerous; but you were in precise control all the way. (At least I hope so; and if you weren't,
press Recall and try it again.)
This hurry-up descent demonstrates one of the great things about flaps: They let you descend
more steeply without excess increase in airspeed. In fact, although you seemed to be diving,
your airspeed throughout was in the slowflight range. Isn't that a neat maneuver?
But now we have a landing to make.
Continue on your present heading until, out the right front window, you see Santa Fe County
Airportjust across the highway. A heading of 240 degrees will put you on a course paralleling
the right base leg for Runway 33. The field elevation is 6344 feet. Take over visually and when
you're ready, turn right for a long final approach.
In Cessna, if your altimeter is like mine, it may read deceptively at this altitude. In my version,
the thousands hand is definitely below the 6 on the ground at Santa Fe, so the altitude looks like
five thousand something, even though the hundreds hand indicates correctly at about 344 feet. A
check of the Editor, however, will show the actual elevation to be 6344 feet at this airport.

Study in Brown

Over there is the mountain range we crossed earlier this morning, to get here to Santa Fe.
Not only is this city the capital of New Mexico, it's the oldest capital in the country. This is also
where the Santa Fe Traila wagon trail out of Independence, Missouriended. The Santa Fe
Trail was a major trail in the settling of the West and an overland trade route from 1821 until the
coming of the Santa Fe Railroad in 1880.
Some great painters lived in this area of New Mexico, including Indians whose sand paintings
you can see in the Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art, here in Santa Fe. It is here, too, that
Georgia O'Keeffe, the wonderful southwest artist who was married to photographer Alfred
Stieglitz, died on March 6, 1986, at age 98. For years she lived on the New Mexican desert,
painting what she felt and saw. The colors out here are clear and pure, different from the colors
anywhere else, and Georgia O'Keeffe understood them.
If you're using a composite monitor, try adjusting your tint control to remove the green and get
the earthtones as close as you can to dark sand, or adobe. Let's fly this flight to Albuquerque
using those desert colors. It will be a whole new experience.
We'll take off on Runway 33, climb above pattern altitude, then do the better part of a 180-
degree turn and track along the Rio Grande and Interstate 25, on a heading of about 210 degrees.
Plan on a cruising altitude of 7600 feet.
You can see one mountain ahead of you, to the left of your course, and there's another you can
see by taking a left front view.
The first airport you'll spot is Albuquerque Coronado. Then, Albuquerque Alameda Airport will
appear very soon thereafter, to the right of Coronado. As soon as you see Alameda, turn right,
heading 290 degrees, and fly to the Rio Grande. Then turn left and track the river toward
Coronado Airport, until you see Double Eagle II Airport well over to your right. (Be sure and
take a view out the left side window as you fly toward the Rio Grande. If you were able to adjust
for a brownish tint to the earth, it really could be New Mexico, couldn't it?)
When you see Double Eagle II Airport, turn right to a heading of 310 degrees, which parallels
base leg for Runway 22. This should position you nicely to request a left turn to final and a
straight-in approach.
When you're on the ground, readjust the colors of your worldchange your sunglasses. I'm
going to meet you where it's very green, very blue, very real, and very new.
Wear your most impressive flying togs, because we're going to STAR!

The Farside Gambit

After you exit the Editor, make sure your heading is within a degree or so of 124. Then press the
Pause key.

If you are using the STAR Disk, what you're about to do and see, in this and the following
flights, dramatizes just how far Bruce Artwick's concept of flight simulation has come since its
origination in 1979. If you are using Scenery Disk 3 in place of the STAR Disk, the following
information on the evolution of flight simulation may still be of interest to you.
The first time I flew a SubLOGIC simulator was in 1980; it loaded from a tape cassette, and was
called the T80-FS1. It was designed for the black-and-white TRS-80 Model I and, later, the
Model III, and required only 16K of memory. It had a 10-mile-square grid, one paper-thin
mountain range, one east/west home runway, and a couple of enemy runways and factories as
total scenery. I soon learned that if I took off on Runway 27 and flew straight to and beyond the
west end of the grid, I'd find myself on a straight-in approach to the same Runway 27 I'd left a
few minutes before. That made landing practice very easy.
In 1983, FS2 came on the market, and I flew the Commodore 64 version, CM-FS2, first. I'm still
flying it, but the fact that an MS-DOS version was also available, through Microsoft, led me to
buy an IBM-compatible computer, purely to fly the most sophisticated configuration possible. I
was stunned by the color, the beauty, and the scope of these second-generation simulators: 80
airports in four major geographical areas, navigation and communication aids, a full panel of
instruments, real time and real distances, weather, windtruly a world full of wonder.
Now you're looking at the latest development in the second generation of Flight Simulator: the
first STAR Scenery Disk. Out your windshield is part of the new phenomenamore buildings
right here in San Jose than in virtually all the regular flight simulators put together. There are
mountains visible on all sides, and over the horizon there are even more mountains, lakes,
waterways, great bridges, city parks, and more!
In between T80-FS1 and this STAR Scenery Disk there are, of course, the Scenery Disks
themselves (the western group of which is the primary subject of this book).
What kind of imagination does it take to even think of simulating the whole United States on
twelve little 5 disks, priced at $19.95 each? And then, beyond just thinking of it, going ahead
and doing it?
By no means have we seen the end. The third generation of Flight Simulator is coming. The
present San Francisco STAR disk gives us a little preview of what that new simulator will be
like, because the San Francisco Bay area is the home area for Flight Simulator III. But with the
power, speed, and resolution of third-generation computers such as the Macintosh, the Atari ST
series, and the Amiga, the whole world of simulator flying will be upgraded.
You'll see what limitations our present computers impose on highly detailed scenery as we fly
here in the Bay area. Your airplane will be slower to respond, so you'll have to compensate. The
simulator is busier than ever, trying to show you all there is out there to see. The scenery jerks a
bit more, but all that will pass when the new computers take over. Meanwhile, think of yourself
as something of a pioneer in this remarkably pictorial world of the STARs.

I'm recommending that we fly this present flight with a different concept than we've flown in our
previous flights: the concept of a home airport.
One breach of realism that occurs in simulator flying, and is based not on a fault but on a virtue
of the simulators, is the plethora of choices. With so many hundreds of airports to fly to and
from, and so many geographical areas, we tend never to get really familiar with any single area.
This is counter to actual flight experience. Almost invariably, students learn to fly at one home
airport and practice takeoffs and landings from there. Then they fly cross-country to nearby
airports, land and get their log books signed saying the flight was made, and take off again and
fly back to the home airport. The students become intimately familiar with their base of
operations, the landmarks that surround it, the highways and bodies of water that point to it.
Also, there is a certain emotional satisfaction in going somewhereand then going home.
There's a relaxation of tension after a long (or, in an airplane, even a short) trip, as we at last
head back to the familiar and, in our minds, the friendly and secure home base.
I have explored the airports in the San Francisco area at some length, and I recommend San Jose
for your consideration as an ideal home airport. Further, I suggest your present position on San
Jose Municipal as an ideal tiedown, the place your airplane will always be when you're ready
to fly, and where you'll always park it when you come home. By the time we finish the flights in
this and the next several chapters, you'll know this airport and its environs like the back of your
hand, and how to get to it from anywhere you fly in the San Francisco area. That's the whole idea
of using a home airport.
If you prefer another home location, I urge you to explore and create just that. But for the
present, bear with me and you'll come to see why I chose San Jose.

Press the Pause key again, and let's get flying.
The prevailing wind here is from the east quadrant. From where you're parked, you have easy
access to all three runways. They exactly parallel one another, although two are numbered 12-30
and onethe short one, for daytime light-plane operationis numbered 1129. You're parked
just to the right of 12R, which is the longest and widest, and the one from which we'll make our
first departure.
Ready your aircraft, taxi into position, and take off.
The highway you'll cross at the end of the runway is State Highway 17, here called the Nimitz
Freeway.
Climb out on the runway heading (also known as the upwind heading). Plan to level off at 2000
feet.
Take a look behind you as you go, and you'll see the complete layout of San Jose Municipal
Airport, with San Francisco Bay in the background.
Out front again, the highway beyond the metropolitan area buildings is Interstate 280, which
over to your left bends almost immediately north and merges with Interstate 680. The whole
stretch is known as the Sinclair Freeway. The mountain to your left is Mt. Hamilton, and is part
of the Diablo Range. The famous Lick Observatory, where the second-largest refracting
telescope in the world has been operating for well over a century, sits on a 4213-foot peak there.
The University of California has directed the observatory since 1888.
The weaving highway stretching ahead of you, almost to the horizon, is U.S. 101. The highway
traces the Pacific coastline all the way to Los Angeles, where it splits to merge with Interstate
210 and then Interstate 10.
Directly out the right side window you can see two mountains, the Sierra Morena and then Loma
Prieta, and even a glimpse of the Pacific Ocean. The highway cutting between the mountains is
State Highway 17.
The redwood patch you'll fly directly over is the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds. When you can
no longer see the fairgrounds out front, and there's nothing there but U.S. 101 and a little strip of
water, turn right to a heading of about 170 degrees, or whatever will point you a little to the left
of the eastern base of Loma Prieta. The mountain should end about halfway across your screen.
Don't get too close or you'll fly into it. It's as broad as it is tall. You can watch the peak approach
out the right front window, but when you get close, take a forward view, or the simulator will
think you're about to hit it (which, if the side were the front view, you would). Correct as needed
to keep the point of the base of the mountain at about center screen.

After the disk access, look right, left, and behind you. What happened to Loma Prieta?
Well, that'll teach you to toy around on the leading edge of things. But it's my fault, since I
brought you here, so it's up to me to get you back to civilization.
Fly straight ahead while you count off or clock off a minimum of a full 30 seconds, then turn
right until the tip of a metropolitan area appears on the right side of your screen. Your heading
will be in the vicinity of 270 degrees.
Very shortly there'll be another disk access, Sierra Morena will appear where the edge of a
metropolitan area was, and Highway 17 will slice across the terrain.
Don't take any side views yet! If you can see any of Loma Prieta in your front view, bank to the
left and get away from it. Take my word for it, this is an extremely treacherous and unforgiving
mountain.
Take a look on radar, and you'll see you did indeed get to the other side of Loma Prieta.
Turn right to a heading of 310 degrees, tune San Francisco VOR on 115.8, and set the OBS to
the 310 radial.
You should find that the needle settles on or close to center, but, if not, keep the 310 setting and
fly to center the OBI needle on that radial.
You can take looks out the right side and rear windows now and see the mountain you flew
around. The simulator temporarily got lost, but you never did because you knew the mountain
was there all the time, right?
Keep a regular check on your altitude. (You should be doing that as a matter of course, anyway.)
There actually seem to be mountain effects in the skies around here, and perhaps there are.
Out the right front and side windows now you'll see San Jose from another angle. Try to spot the
fairgrounds way over there, this side of Mt. Hamilton, and north of them the buildings of
downtown San Jose.
I hope you begin to see the importance of familiarity with the area you're flying. From here,
using just your eyes and what you already know, you could certainly fly in the general direction
of San Jose Municipal Airport, couldn't you? If not, you'll soon be able to, from anywhere in the
San Francisco Bay area.
It takes only a few landmarks to give you your relative bearings, but you have to know what and
where those landmarks are. One reason STAR disks such as this one will be so great is that they
give you the landmarks you need. In a regular Scenery Disk, you might see the metropolitan
area, but without mountains, buildings, and county fairgrounds you'd be hard-pressed to know
for sure if it was San Jose, let alone pinpoint a course to the airport.
Watch the massive Sierra Morena Mountain pass by on your left.
When your DME reads 20 nautical miles from San Francisco, subtract just 10 degrees from your
heading and fly a 300-degree course toward the Pacific.
The highway stretching ahead of you is Interstate 280, and the otheron the San Francisco Bay
sideis U.S. 101, which, as you know, leads to San Jose. Take some radar views to get an idea
of your position in relation to Sierra Morena, Loma Prieta, San Francisco Bay, and Oakland.
Out the right side, see if you can pick out Palo Alto Airport and/or Dumbarton Bridge, which is
just north of it. About five miles north of the bridge is San Carlos Airport, which should show up
if you take a 45-degree view out the right side of the aircraft.

As you approach the Pacific, there'll be a disk access. Immediately take a view out the right front
window and you'll see our destination airport, Half Moon Bay. Turn left to 255 degrees and
you'll be on a downwind leg entry heading for Runway 12, on a left-hand pattern.
So far, so good. However I'm always suspicious of the geography on the fringe of these
simulator sectional charts. Particularly where a liquid is involved, as, in this case, the Pacific
Ocean. It remains to be seen whether we can fly our customary pattern and approach Runway 12
from the ocean side, which, of course, is the only possible way to approach it. However, the only
way to find out is to do it.
The downwind number is, of course, 300 degrees, and our base leg will be 210 degrees, as I'm
sure you've already figured. Continue to follow me as closely as you can. The following
explanation is to give you a general idea of what I'm doing in the prototype.
I've put my carburetor heat on, and am transitioning into slowflight while descending at about
750 FPM. Elevation at Half Moon Bay is 67 feet, so I'm figuring a pattern altitude of about 1000
feet.
I'm getting level at 1000 feet, at pattern airspeed, and am now turning downwind, heading 300
degrees. I've got a 90-degree left view of the runway, and I'm a little closer than I'd like to be, but
still I can see the strip. Opposite the threshold of Runway 12 I'm putting on 10 degrees of flaps.
As the runway leaves my view, I'm banking about 35 degrees left and also turning to the base
leg, heading 210 degrees. Altitude as I'm turning is about 800 feet.
When the end of the runway (still using left side view) is just about to disappear offscreen, I'm
switching to a 45-degree left view and there it is again, almost immediately, because I was in
quite close on downwind. I'm banking and turning final.
I steepen my bank because I can see from the runway angle that I'm going beyond my optimum
position. That's confirmed when I switch to an out-front view, so I continue my turn to improve
my position.
My airspeed is good, and while I'm turning I put on all my flaps so I can steepen my descent. I
steepen it with a couple of strokes of down elevator, and reduce my power with a couple of
strokes, too.
The runway at Half Moon Bay is straight ahead, and my VSI reads 1000 FPM.
It's time to flatten my descent, using two quick notches of up elevator. My altitude is 100 feetI
quickly apply two more notches of up elevator. Now feeling her backbackback, and finally,
touchdown!
I never even saw the Pacific Ocean. You shouldn't have, either, because you should have been
(as I'm sure you were) watching by turns your instruments and the threshold of Runway 12.
I wonder whether, if we'd been watching out front, the simulator would have done a mountain
number on us again.

Halfway to the Stars

Now that you've had your maiden flight aboard the STAR disk, let's head back to our home
airport, San Jose. As I said in the last chapter, we'll always go back to where we came from when
flying the San Francisco Bay area. That way you'll get very familiar with all the geography and
scenery that's out here, and still have a place to stay for the night. Sometimes we'll fly a triangle
and make an extra landing or so, but our ultimate destination will invariably be that neat little
airport at the junction of U.S. 101 (also known as the Bayshore Freeway) and U.S. 17 (also
known as the Nimitz Freeway).
Speaking of triangles, we'll take a roundabout route back to San Jose this morning, first flying
northeast to look at some features of the shoreline on this side of the bay. You can see one of
them now, San Bruno Mountain.
The runway numbers here at Half Moon International (actually, this airport is northwest of the
town of Half Moon Bay, on a little stretch of land called Pillar Point) are the same as at San Jose
Airport. The wind hasn't shifted, so our takeoff is on Runway 12.
Taxi over to the threshold, turn upwind, and take off.
As soon as you have 500 feet of altitude, execute a left turn to head approximately due north, or
toward the center portion of San Bruno Mountain.
In this case, we want to cruise over the top of the mountain, so continue climbing at about 500
FPM. The highway cutting across your course and skirting San Bruno is Interstate 280. On the
other side of the mountain it joins up with the Bayshore Freeway, U.S. 101.
You will be about over Pacifica now, which is off to your left, approximately opposite San
Francisco International Airport. You'll be able to see the airport out the right side window
immediately after the disk access.
You're also flying over the San Andreas rift zone.
Level off at 2500 feet. You're well clear of the summit of San Bruno. And now you can see U.S.
101 running along the bayshore and begin to make out the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
As you come up on the mountain, look out the right side window for an excellent view of San
Francisco International Airport's runways, and of the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge.
But speaking of views, be ready for a breathtaker, signalled by another disk access.
Now the heart of San Francisco lies spread before you, from the foot of San Bruno Mountain to
the Golden Gate.
There's no way you can take in all of this scene, which stretches left and right as well as ahead of
you, on a single fly-over. We'll do some more, but now pay attention to the downtown area,
which lies north of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The main street, beyond which the
buildings are clustered, is Market Street. You're aimed over Union Square, north of which is
Chinatown, and then Nob Hill and its famous hotels. The colorful, clanging cable cars operate in
the general area you're flying toward, with one of the terminals at the foot of Market Street.
The patch of green in the bay north of the Bay Bridge (short for the San Francisco-Oakland Bay
Bridge) is Treasure Island, a naval station. Just opposite Treasure Island is Fisherman's Wharf,
the base for San Francisco's commercial fishing fleet, and famous too for its seafood restaurants.
We'll see more of the wharf as we get closer.
Just before the Bay Bridge disappears off the right side of your screen, turn and fly toward it.
You'll see that there's another island below Treasure Island and under the bridge. This is Yerba
Buena Island, and Yerba Buena is what San Francisco was called when it was founded in 1776.
The city originally consisted of a Spanish presidio, or fort, and a mission, both of which still
stand today.
You can see the slips of Fisherman's Wharf beginning at the foot of Market Street.
Turn to fly a bit to the right of the bridge now, and back off your power to lose some altitude.
Watch for Treasure Island to pass by out the left side window, then circle around to head over it
and toward Fisherman's Wharf. Use radar to keep a check on your position and progress, and line
up with the foot of Market Street.
Level off at 1000 feet. Be sure to take a look at the downtown buildings off to your right as you
pass them. (Just lookdon't touch.)
At some point you'll see the beautiful Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. When you're beyond
the immediate building cluster, turn right and aim toward the far side of the bridge.
That's Mt. Tamalpais in the background, and just across the bridge is the continuation of the
Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which begins on the San Francisco side.
When the bridge disappears off the bottom of your windshield, circle right and roll out on a
heading of about 90 degrees, or whatever heading puts a little island in the center of your
windshield. It's a famous little islandAlcatrazonce one of the most notorious of U.S. prisons,
and home sweet home for Al Capone, Machine Gun Kelly, and Burt Lancaster, when he starred
as Robert Stroud, the Birdman of Alcatraz. The prison is abandoned now, and tours of it depart
by ferry near Fisherman's Wharf.
Now point for the San Francisco side of the Bay Bridge, and make one more pass of Fisherman's
Wharf.
Meanwhile, tune your NAV to San Jose VOR, 114.1, and after you pass over the bridge, start a
climb to 2000 feet and take up the heading indicated by your OBI needle, which likely is within
a degree or so of 124 degrees.
Take a look at the runways of Nimitz Field out the left side window as you go.
After the disk access, you'll see Metropolitan Oakland International Airport out the same side,
with one of its strips (11/29) looking as if it's floating in the bay; of course, it isn't, as another
disk access in a moment will show you. That's a pretty airport, and we'll fly there one day soon.
Out front now is the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge, and as you get close to it, you'll probably spot
Hayward Air Terminal out your left window.
The next airstrip checkpoint is San Carlos, to your right. Just this side of it is Marine World
Africa U.S.A., on the edge of the water.
There'll likely be two disk accesses in a row, then Dumbarton Bridge materializes off to the right
of your windshield, with Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct nicely simulated just south of it (the black
line). You will always be able to identify Dumbarton Bridge, thanks to the companion aqueduct,
which reaches east all the way to Yosemite National Park and the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
Just south of Hetch Hetchy, and visible out the right side window, is Palo Alto Airport. Then, the
last airport checkpoint as you head home is Moffett Field Naval Air Station, with its parallel
runways, off to your right.
However, you can already make out San Jose Municipal Airport ahead and even the county
fairgrounds beyond it. The ease of distinguishing your home airport so far out is one more reason
I think you'll want to adopt it as your own.
The two streams you see are Coyote Creek (on the left) and the Guadalupe River. The
metropolitan area to your right is Santa Clara, and the highway is U.S. 101. Remember that U.S.
101 tracks the western shoreline of San Francisco Bay and leads directlyif you were to follow
it northto four major area airports. In order, the airports are Moffett NAS, Palo Alto, San
Carlos, and San Francisco International. When you really get to know this area, you will rarely
unfold your chart.
Just before the Guadalupe slips away under your nose, you'll pass over the outer marker of the
San Jose ILS. You'll know when, because it'll beep away at you even though you're not tuned to
the ILS frequency (which can be kind of annoying, but you have no way to shut it off). Your
engine soundbut not, fortunately, your enginestops, and you might think you're in a Pause
configuration. But you're not, and your airplane is still flying, so you keep flying, too.
This is a good point to make the transition to slowflight for your approach, which will be straight
in for Runway 12L. Remember, that's the second-largest runway, and the left-most of the three
parallel strips. The middle and largest, 12R, is used by the big planes and also for ILS
approaches by all planes. The smallest strip (the farthest right when approaching from this
direction) is Runway 11, unlighted at night and thus just for small planes operating in daylight
hours. We'll land on both Runways 11 and 12R before we're finished with our Bay Area
overview.
There'll be a disk access as you approach, and the runways will look like buildings until they
take on some specific dimension. But they're all there is on this side of the highway, U.S.17,
which stretches across your windshield.
The first approach one makes to any strip, particularly in the simulator, is unlikely to be the best.
Distances are difficult to judge, and the chances of overshootingor undershooting and having
to drag it inare high. When you've made a number of approaches and landings, under differing
conditions, you'll know more precisely how to line up, and when and how fast to let down. That's
another beautiful aspect of having a specific airport to come back to.
The middle marker squawker will further rouse you from your somnolence. Just for reference,
right at this moment my altitude is 500 feet, my heading is 122 degrees, andvisually, at least
I'm lined up on the money.
I'm extending all my flaps.

Here on the ground, I was a bit to the right of Runway 11 and had to correct rather abruptly to
the left. But that's the kind of illusions simulator runways give you. When I said I was on the
money a couple of paragraphs ago, that was the truth, as far as I could see. But when I got a bit
closer, the perspective shifted to the left. One thing, however, is for sure: Runway 11 bears
exactly 122 degrees. You can always check things like this by reference to radar: Taxi to the
center of the strip in question, then seesaw if you have to until the runway and its centerline form
perfectly straight lines. The heading you read out then is the true compass heading of the runway.

Can't Get There From Here

I imagine that, without my advising it, you parked the airplane at your regular tiedown spot after
the prior flight. After all, leaving an airplane in the middle of a runway can be dangerous and
disconcerting to the next pilot who's trying to land.
Now that you're parked where you're supposed to be, take a moment to check your heading
against what was called for in the parameters; it's likely to be at least 40 degrees off. Look at
your relationship to 12R and at its relationship to the buildings of downtown San Jose. The
squarish building out there is just about at the center of your windshield.
Go into radar, and zoom up until you see the threshold of 12R behind you. You're about even
with the top of the second centerline stripe. This puts you in good position for any of the three
runways, as long as the wind is easterly. You could ease onto 12R, but in fact we'll only use that
for ILS landings. If it were night, you could taxi readily to 12L, which would be logical for night
operation. However, while there's daylight, as there is now, Runway 11 is the one to use for your
takeoffs.
The next time we land here at San Jose, this is the spot you'll taxi to before you shut down the
engine, so keep its visual clues in mind.
We're going over the hills, but not too far away this early summer evening.
If you look out the left front window, you'll see that there are actually two mountains visible.
We're familiar with the near one, Mt. Hamilton, with Lick Observatory on its southeastern peak.
The mountain alongside it is Eylar Mountain, which reaches over 4000 feet at its highest point.
Our first destination is the municipal airport at Tracy, California, which lies to the northeast.
Get out your Bay Area sectional chart. Then take a straightedge and place it so that it intersects
the center of the San Jose VOR compass rose and the western end of the Tracy runways.
Although the VOR I.D. box hides the number, you can tell from the reciprocal that a reasonable
heading for us to take up to reach the city of Tracy is 30 degrees. So that's what we'll do.
Get ready for takeoff, then taxi over to your right, to Runway 11.
I really like this little runway, partly because it's only 40 feet wide, which is more like the
runways of my student days. You really have to steer to stay on it, and take off smartly or you'll
run out of pavement. If you don't taxi and line up well, go back and try it over again. This is
good ground practice for you. When you have it grooved, go ahead and get airborne. Before you
turn to your 30-degree heading, climb straight out to 1000 feet, or until the San Jose buildings
disappear under your nose.
You should be tracking so that the lowest point of Mt. Hamilton is about in the center of your
windshield, and you're aimed at the approximate center of the western slope of Eylar Mountain.
Keep climbing, at 500 FPM.
Shortly, a little strip of water will peek into the scene to your leftCalaveras Reservoir.
When Mt. Hamilton has disappeared, take a right front view and a little later a right side view up
the valley. Then watch out front again.
You should have about 3000 feet of altitude by the time you reach Eylar Mountain, and that will
take you comfortably over the ridge.
Now you're looking at one of the emptiest vistas in the San Francisco Bay area, but it won't last, I
assure you. Keep climbing, and be sure to take a quick right rear view of the mountains you've
crossed. They're very dramatic, but don't keep the rear view longer than a few seconds, and then
look ahead again.
A whir of the disk drive andhow do you like that?
Add full power immediately! Apply up elevator to get your maximum rate of climb, and keep
trimming up until your airspeed is in the slowflight range. In a moment you'll see that you're
going to clear those ridges.

Well, we tried. Only you know whether you flew this strenuous exercise wellwhether your
reactions were quick enoughwhether you would have cleared all the ridges in fine shape. One
thing is sure. If you didn't hit a mountain, then you did not crash.
But something sure crashed. Somebody accidentally lowered the curtainright in the middle of
the scene, too.
But while it lasted, wasn't that beautiful?

The Devil You Say

Here's where we'd be if it weren't for the malevolence of those mountains. After crossing the last
two ridges we'd have seen this pretty little Tracy Municipal Airport lying here. Well, the scene
may have been ruined, but the play isn't over yet.
Take a right rear view. You see the same two mountains we made a heroic effort to cross, and on
the other side of them are still two more, which we did cross. On the other side of all four
mountains is San Jose Municipal Airport.
Now, here's a curious thing. Take a radar view, and zoom to high altitude. Keep zooming and
you'll see all four mountains behind you and to the right. Two that shall be nameless, then Eylar
Mountain, and then Mt. Hamilton. The curious thing is that radar views from San Joseno
matter how high one zoomsshow only Eylar Mountain and Mt. Hamilton. Yet from Tracy we
can see all four mountains.
This leads me to a prediction, and a proposition. The prediction is that because all four of the
mountains are acknowledged by radar, we can fly over them without incident and will be able to
view them allahead of us, and then behind usbefore we get to San Jose. Since they're
already part of the stage set, there should be no sudden curtain fall as in our last flight. In short, I
predict that there is a way over the mountains, but only one waythis way.
The proposition is that we follow our original flight plan, but in reversefrom here at Tracy
Airport to our destination at San Jose International Airport. I think you'll agree that it's worth
finding out whether it can be done. The prospect of seeing more mountain scenes such as we saw
on the earlier flight, though only briefly, is itself exciting. What's more, we'll discover
somethingthough I'm not sure whatabout the way the simulator behaves.
I anticipate disk accesses along the way, and possibly a sudden mountain appearance or
disappearance, although I think that less likely. What I do not anticipate, based on the radar clue
mentioned above, isyou knowcurtains.
This could be one of our most scenic flights, or one of our most catastrophic. But surely, it will
be one of our most suspenseful.
If our heading to get here from San Jose last evening was 30 degrees, then we'll fly the
reciprocal, 210 degrees, to go the other way this morning.
The same rules apply. We'll take off, climb to 1000 feet before turning to our 120-degree
heading, and then keep climbing, 500 FPM all the way, unless something dictates that we do
otherwise.
If you're ready, let's go.
When you have reached 1000 feet, make a right turn toward your course, with a bank of about 25
degrees. That's the shorter way around, considering the runway heading is 70 degrees.
Looks like we're headed close to the peak of Nameless One, doesn't it? But we should have the
altitude we need when we get there.
Not a great deal to spare, though. Wow!
Beautiful valley when you see it, hmm? Keep climbing. Hopefully we're going to top the next
ridge in the same way.

Did you know that this whole string of mountains is part of the Diablo Range?
I wonder why.

East Side Story

On this perfect fall morning we're going to fly north to Buchanan Field, in Concord, California.
We'll take off from Runway 13L, which is about 45 degrees to your left across Runway 13R, and
then you'll have tried all the runways here at San Jose. Line up right behind the numbers, so that
they're visible over your nose, and then hold for a minute.

Since you may opt to adopt San Jose as your home airport in the San Francisco Bay area, I want
to tell you a couple of other things about this city.
Zoom up to the highest radar view that still provides some representation of San Jose's runways.
You'll see just a piece of Mt. Hamilton over to the left, a cluster of buildings straight ahead, and
the network of highways leading into and out of the city.
The highway right off your nose, you'll remember, is Highway 17, or the Nimitz Freeway. It's
intersected just to your left by U.S. 101. If U.S. 101 were continuous in the display, it would
draw a diagonal straight through your position. The highway to the far left is Interstate 680, or
the Sinclair Freeway, which turns sharply right and links with Interstate 280 to skirt the San Jose
business district. It then connects with Highway 17 at about 2 o'clock in relation to your position.
Just this side of that Interstate 280/Highway 17 intersection is a house called the Winchester
Mystery House.
Do you remember reading or seeing a TV feature about a wealthy Mrs. Winchester who was told
by a medium that she'd never die as long as she kept adding to her mansion? So for 38 years she
had carpenters build rooms upon rooms and stairways leading nowhere, and then, as you might
expect, she died anyway. The carpenters no doubt got rich; and one wonders about the medium
who gave Mrs. Winchester the sage advice. The house is a tourist attraction in San Jose, on
Winchester Road.
Another feature of San Jose is the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum located in Rosicrucian Park, to
your right across Highway 17.
There are also numerous wineries in the area that offer free tastings (to those who are not going
flying, of course).
Tune your NAV to Concord VOR, 117.0, and center your OBI needle for a heading that we'll fly
to Buchanan Field. Then take off and climb to 1000 feet before you turn left to get on course,
continuing your climb to our cruise altitude of 4000 feet.
The airport you'll see along the way, left of Highway 17, is Fremont. Off to your left, though it's
not visible in the simulation, is Marriott's Great America Theme Park. The whole area of Santa
Clara County, to your left and behind you, and including San Jose, is famed as Silicon Valley
for its pre-eminence in the high-technology industries. Silicon Valley's brain trust is Stanford
University, in Palo Alto. It has one of the highest academic standings in the United States.
Somewhere out the left side you should be able to spot Dumbarton Bridge and its companion, the
Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, and out the right side the Calaveras Reservoir.
Across Highway 17 from Fremont Airport is something reminiscent of the Santa Clara County
Fairgrounds, but I'm not sure what it is. You may pass directly over it, in which case take a down
view.
If you've been climbing all this while at about 500 FPM, you're probably just reaching your
cruise altitude (3500 feet) as you approach the mountain that intersects your course. I don't know
about you, but I've come to suspect every mountain in the San Francisco area, almost to the point
of paranoia. However, this one looks civilized, by which I mean you can see highways and parts
of metropolitan areas on the other side of it. Not to mention still another shape like a county
fairground in the distance.
Whew!we made it over the mountain! When you can no longer see any of it, you can ease
back your power and descend to 1000 feet. Buchanan Field's elevation is only 23 feet. The
airport is about four nautical miles this side of the Concord OMNI, so you can deduct that many
miles from your DME reading in judging your descent.
After the disk access, you'll see the namesake of the Diablo Range, Mt. Diablo itself, out the
windshield to your right. The highway going through the Concord metropolitan area (you've
paralleled it all the way from San Jose) is Interstate 680.
Contact the Buchanan ATIS on 124.7 and see what runway is in use. If Runway 14 is in use, then
we'll use 14R, which is the strip for small private aircraft. Whatever the runway, follow a left-
hand traffic pattern.
Referring to your sectional chart, where in general do you expect to see Buchanan Field as you
approach the Concord OMNI? You should have it in view when your DME reads 10 NM, which
would put you about six miles out.
This is a sizable major airport, so enter the pattern in a regulation manner.
After you land, steer over onto the grass to your right, turn 180 degrees, and taxi back to take off
again on Runway 14R. We'll fly right on to Nimitz Field, which is in the shadow of the eastern
end of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. Don't change anything. Just line up for 14R,
make your takeoff check (carb heat off, flaps 10 degrees, elevators trimmed up two notches), and
depart.
As you reach 500 feet, turn right and take up a heading of 210 degrees.
Well, looks like we've some more mountains to cross. But actually, they're just hillscalled the
Briones Hills. Plan to cruise at 2500 feet.
A panoramic landscape unfolds as you approach the hills, and you begin to see the world on the
other side. There's another disk access, and then you can see the city of Berkeley ahead, San
Francisco's downtown buildings far off to the right, and all the way to the Pacific Ocean.
A right front view shortly will show you the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito, with the San
Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in the foreground. Nimitz Field is on the edge of the bay, but fly
on out over the water, transition to slowflight as you go, and prepare to descend to 1000 feet.
Your reveries will likely be disturbed by an ILS marker signal, but ignore it; it isn't for you.
As you near the bay shore on the San Francisco side, turn right to a heading of 40 degrees, or
whatever aims you over the approximate center of Nimitz Field. You'll be more or less at right
angles to the runway on which you're going to land, Runway 13. When you can see the runway
behind you, set up a 90-degree view to your left, and at the same time turn left, heading 310
degrees. You should wind up just about opposite, and downwind from, the business end of
Runway 13, so proceed with your landing. Your heading for base leg is, of course, 220 degrees.
After we land, I'll show you around Alameda Naval Air Station. And we'll be back in San Jose in
time for lunch.

On the Glide Path

Well, this day started out beautifully, but the east wind brought in some heavy weather in the last
hour. Consider yourself lucky, because this will give you a chance to make an ILS (Instrument
Landing System) approach to San Jose. The existence of an ILS on the airport is another reason I
chose San Jose as the optimum home airport in the area.
You'll need the ILS this morning. Contact Oakland ATIS on 128.5 and see what the ceiling is.
(Nimitz has no tower, and Oakland is only about six miles southeast of us. San Jose, as of this
writing, has a tower, but the frequency listed on the chart and in the manual is incorrect. After a
search of the frequencies, I have a feeling the tower is not currently operating.)
Ceiling 200 feet, it says here. Now that will call for all your expertise!
First, let's assess the situation and plan what we're going to do.
Since the cloud tops are at 6000 feet, it doesn't make sense to fly over the weather. San Jose is
only about 31 NM from here. We'd have to start letdown before we even got on top, plus we'd be
in poor configuration to lock onto the ILS.
Further, we have no mountains to be concerned with, since our course will essentially be over the
bay and a little bit of the eastern shore.
So we'll fly in, rather than over, the weather.
The optimum altitude for interception of the ILS is 1800 feet. So we'll fly at 1800 feet all the
way to intercept.
The ILS at San Jose operates on Runway 12R, and the heading is 123 degrees. So we'll use
NAV2 to track the San Jose 123 radial and keep NAV1 tuned to the ILS frequency all the way.
(The ILS is bundled with NAV1 only.) It doesn't matter what radial we set on the NAV1 OBS;
since we're not tuned to any OMNI station, but rather to the San Jose ILS, NAV1 is now an ILS
instrument only.
We're set for departure on Runway 13 here at Nimitz Field, which means, of course, that the
runway bears approximately 130 degrees. Our takeoff heading puts us in the desired general
direction, but we want to be absolutely precise. This is no time for hunches of any kind.
Set NAV1 to the San Jose ILS frequency, 111.1. It'll continue to read OFF until we're in range of
the ILS, and you'll get no DME indication.
Set NAV2 to the San Jose VOR frequency, 114.1. Then center its needle to see what radial we're
currently onit's the 128th.
Now set the NAV2 OBS to 122 degreesagain, as close as we can get to 123 degrees, but as
you do, note carefully how the OBI needle moves. It moves a full mark for each two degrees of
change. This means that the odd radials, like 123, lie between any two of the needle markings.
So to fly precisely on the 123 radial, we'll want to keep the OBI needle exactly a half-mark to the
right of center when set to 122 degrees. Experiment with the settings a bit until this is absolutely
clear to you. A degree does make a difference when you're flying an ILS approachparticularly
with a ceiling such as we have today.
So our initial flight plan is this:
With NAV1 dedicated to the San Jose ILS on a frequency of 111. 1, and NAV2 set to the San
Jose VOR on a frequency of 114.1, we'll take off and climb to 500 feet. That puts us above
pattern altitude. (Some other pilot may be flying in these same weather conditions.) Planning on
a cruise altitude of 1800 feet, optimum for the ILS interception, we'll fly the OBI2 needle to get
and keep itnot centered, but a half-mark right of center. That's where we'll keep it until the ILS
comes into play; then the ILS indications on NAV1 will be our directional reference. Remember,
for maximum efficiency, take a healthy cut toward the radial you want when you turn (about 60
degrees). You'll see OBI2 respond smartly.
Go ahead and take off now, executing the initial plan just described. Then come back to this text
when you're straight and level, on the 123 radial for San Jose, at 1800 feet.

Okay? So now transition to slowflight, holding your altitude and keeping the OBI needle where
you want it. When you've slowed down, put on 10 degrees of flaps. (That's all the flaps we'll use,
from here all the way to touchdown.)
Once you're straight and level in slowflight, use powerand power onlyto make any desired
changes in altitude, until you've completed the ILS approach and have the runway in sight.
When NAV1 and its ILS needles become active (there'll be an initial deflection, which you
should ignore, when the DME turns on about 17 miles out), give them a chance to settle down
and then regard them as your sole directional reference, for both right/left and up/down. The
vertical needle will come into play first, and the FROM reading will switch to TO. From that
point on, keep it centered; it's reading your relationship to the glide path, not your heading. When
the horizontal needle comes into play, don't chase it until it moves to the center position, at
which point put on carburetor heat and reduce power to start a 500-FPM descent. Then fly both
needles as you would normally fly the OBI needle, turning toward and climbing or descending
toward them, respectively. Correct constantly to keep both needles centered, using small
amounts of aileron for directional control, and small power changes for vertical control. Ignore
any other heading references.
Follow every movement of the needles with immediate corresponding control changes. There's
no time available for daydreaming when you're flying an ILS approach.
Toward the very end, your ILS needles may cavort wildly, but within seconds you'll break out of
the overcast. When that happens, of course, take over visually and complete your landing.

Out of the Night

Let's find out what night looks like in the San Francisco Bay area. And from where else but in
the air?
You're looking at the numbers for Runway 7, at Livermore Airport. That white structure on the
other side of the airport isbelieve it or notan actual control tower; the building itself is very
unusual in the simulator. Even more unusual, for a tower, is that it's permanently empty; you
couldn't contact anyone up there if your life depended on it. However, there is an ILS on this
field, and you'll hear its middle marker signal as you depart.
Without further ado, let's get up in the air. I want you to get a good idea of nightflying around
here. Dawn will break at 6 a.m. sharp, and by then we should be over the San Francisco area.
Take off, climb straight out to 900 feet, then do a 180-degree turn to the left and get on a heading
of 260 degrees. Continue your climb to a cruise altitude of 2500 feet.
Take a look back at that beautiful field and the tower as you climb out.
Once you're on your heading, the highway you're paralleling is Interstate 580. It goes the way
you're going to San Leandro, then turns north through Oakland, and eventually crosses the water
into the city of San Rafael, forming the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. The bridge divides the
water into two bays, San Francisco Bay to the south and San Pablo Bay to the north.
Just below you, on this side of Interstate 680, is a U.S. Army Reserve Center.
Tune your NAV to Oakland VORTAC, 116.8, crank the OBS around to center the needle, and
take up the indicated heading. The radial I'm turning for is 254 degrees.
When your DME reads about 5 NM from the Oakland station, change your NAV frequency to
116.2, reset your OBS, and get on an inbound radial for the Sausalito OMNI. I'm doing this so
that we can see the Golden Gate Bridge at night. Oakland International will show some of its
blue-lit taxiways as you start your turn toward Sausalito. The radial I'm turning to is 278 degrees.
Hold your altitude within 100 feet of 2500. Your instrument scan should remind you of this
regularlyand that's another reason why you should scan regularly. In today's busy skies, the
ability to manage altitude is mandatory, and you should be conscious of it all the time.
The first bridge that comes up on the horizon is the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. After a
disk access, you'll get a riot of color out your windshieldNimitz Field right off your nose, the
Bay Bridge on your right, San Francisco in the distance, and the Golden Gate Bridge beyond it. I
hope you're seeing this at night; and if you got off from Livermore promptly you should be,
though with only seconds to spare. My clock reads 5:59:50.
Tell you what. If dawn has come already for you, you can go into the Editor and change just the
time, to 5:58. That way, when you exit, you'll get the night view.
And be ready for the dawn, which turns on at 6 a.m. And that's another grabber, isn't it? Much of
San Francisco is just beginning to stir at this hour, but the crab fishers of Fisherman's Wharf
started their day about four hours ago, in hundreds of little one-man boats. By now they're 15
miles out on the ocean you see lying there so mutely, beyond the Golden Gate Bridge. Ernie
Pyle, the great newsman, describes their 14-hour day memorably in his book, Home Country.
When you can no longer see Alcatraz beneath your nose, reduce your power a couple of notches
and start a 500-FPM descent to 1000 feet.
When you can no longer see the north end of Golden Gate Bridge, make a standard-rate turn to
the left, to a heading of 190 degrees. You'll get a panoramic view of the bridge as you turn and
then a great view of the western shore of San Francisco at dawn.
Furthermore, you'll be on an extended base leg for a landing on Runway 10R at San Francisco
International Airport. Retune your NAV to San Francisco VOR, 115.8, so you can check your
distance on the DME. You're probably 10 to 12 miles away from the airport.
Your best checkpoint here is San Bruno Mountain, because the airport is south of it. You'll see
the mountain over to your left. But also observe it carefully on radar. When you're past the near
corner of the rectangle symbolizing the mountain, and about opposite the southern tip of the
small body of water (Lake Merced) which appears on the display, you should be able to spot the
near end of the parallel east/west runways at San Francisco International.
You'll see that you should turn final just a short distance beyond the southern edge of San Bruno
Mountain. It'll be a long finalan airline approachperfectly acceptable at a major airport like
this. In fact, you may want to try a slightly different kind of landing here.
Don't transition to slowflight and don't use any flaps. Put on carb heat, and make a long, flat
approach like the airlines fly. Try to judge your approach to descend right to the threshold at a
VSI rate of about 200 to 250 FPM, and at or near your cruising speed. Make your flare gently
and cut your power just before you touch down. You have over two miles of runway, so with a
little care you should come in fine, and you'll have a new experience as well as a new skill in
your repertoire. Further, the tower will appreciate how you expedited your landing. A KIAS of
70-odd knots is not a favorite pastime at big airports like this.
If you miss the airport entirely, don't be dismayed. You won't be the first. The disk access
changes the perspective of things, and it's easy to get disoriented. Just add power, go around, and
try the approach again.

Snow Job

Did you think it didn't snow in the simulator? Well, surprise, surprise. The whole San Francisco
Bay area is blanketed in a couple of feet of white snow. Fortunately, though, it has a good hard
crust on which we can readily take off and land.
You are precisely lined up on Hamilton Army's Runway 12, with about 4000 feet of strip down
there under the snow. So far everything is official, so make your regular takeoff, and let's see
what this white world looks like.

Whole new sensation, isn't it?
Level off at 1500 feet and tune to San Francisco VOR, 115.8. When you set the OBS you'll
probably find yourself on or close to the 160-degree radial. Leave the setting at 160 degrees,
move to that heading, and fly the needle.
Over to your right you'll see Mt. Tamalpais and the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. The whole
bay must be iced over, because it's covered with snow. Imagine that!
Pretty soon the buildings on this side of Market Street will start to pop into view. The snowplows
must be very busy down there.
And there's the Bay Bridge, too. Talk about a strange landscape!
Look at Berkeley and Oakland, off to your left. There is at least one patch of green over there.
Believe it or not, you can see one of the Nimitz Field runwaysalready cleared off.
Maintenance down there is really on the ball.
Isn't the world beautiful covered with snow! And isn't it funny that San Bruno Mountain has no
snow on top, or on its slopes? The wind must have blown it away.
Tell you what. Tune San Jose VOR on 114.1 and get inbound on radial 116. We'll check on the
runway condition at our home airport.
This is like flying in the Arctic regions. Mush!
I wonder if San Jose looks just like this. If it does, we'll go back and land at Nimitz Field. No,
better yet, let's make an ILS approach. Then, even if we can't see the runway, we'll surely land
somewhere near the airport. And with the snow, it really doesn't matter all that much precisely
where.
Set NAV2 to the San Jose VOR frequency, 114.1, and NAV1 to the ILS frequency, 111.1. Set
the NAV2 OBS to 122 degrees. Then head about 80 degrees for a few minutes and get inbound
on the 123 radial as we did on our last ILS approach. As soon as the ILS vertical needle centers,
fly to keep it in the center.
Meanwhile, climb to 1800 feet to be ready for the glide slope intercept, and about 10 miles out
get into slowflight configuration. Also, extend your flaps 10 degrees.
Remember that the radial number or OMNI bearing appearing on your OBS for NAV1 has no
significance when you're tuned to the ILS. It can be any number at all, so pay no attention to it.
The bearing on NAV2 can be used as a casual check to see if you're on the correct radial of 123.
But, as I've said before, the ILS needlesalong with your directional gyro or the heading
indicatortake over as your major directional references from here on. The ILS vertical needle
is much more significant than the directional gyro reading, because it tells you precisely where
the centerline of the runway lies. Notice that the needle will move in tiny increments to the left
and right, without any change being indicated on your directional gyro. It's these tiny moves you
want to react to, with very brief aileron controloften not enough to change the heading that
shows on your directional gyro. These are the moves that make the difference in lining up
precisely.
About seven miles out, the glide slope or horizontal needle begins to get active. Again, give it
time to settle to the center position before you start reacting. Remember that field elevation at
San Jose is 56 feet.
Don't mistake those buildings that appear on your windshield for the runways at San Jose. You
know there are buildings out there, but the runways at San Jose have not been cleared, so fly the
ILS all the way down.
When the ILS begins to go haywire, make no further directional corrections. Just feel the
elevator back gradually, maintaining a descent rate of about 100 to 150 FPM, then gradually
reduce your power as your altimeter shows you're close to touchdown. You'll know when
touchdown happens even if you don't hear a tire squeal, because your VSI will abruptly go to
zero. At that point, cut all your power and apply your brakes.
Now it's time to see how you did. Go into radar mode and check out your position with respect to
the runways. The ILS runway is the center one, remember?
How'd you do?
And now I have another question for you: Why do you suppose the Nimitz Field runway was
cleared, and none of the others were?

The Lowdown

In the early days of flying there weren't many airports, so pilots got used to setting their airplanes
down wherever there was a stretch of grass, or beach, or any other clearing.
I've set the plane down on this stretch of grass to show you southeastern California's Salton Sea
and tell you about its unusual history. But before I begin, let's take off. Don't fly very far upwind.
As you can tell from your chart and a study of your location on radar, we're very close to the
trailing edge of the Los Angeles sectional, and, for that matter, of Scenery Disk 3 itself. So forget
formalities, and as soon as you settle into your 500-FPM climbout, turn left out over the lake and
get on a heading of about 315 degrees.
Go ahead when you're ready.
This is a short trip, so we'll fly under the weather. Plan to level off at 1000 feet. Then, when you
have reached your desired altitude and you are on heading, tune your NAV to Thermal VOR on
116.2, center the OBI, and fly the needle.

This whole area used to be a desert called Salton Sink, with some depressed sections as low as
280 feet below sea level. Your altimeter read 0 feet on the ground because that's as low as it can
read, but you were actually below sea level.
The Colorado River, about 70 miles east of here, flooded its banks in 1905 through 1907,
causing 300 square miles of Salton Sink to become a shallow salt lakenow called the Salton
Sea. Today's residents in the area don't mind the incursion of the water at all, for they've created
beaches and marinas here and prize it as a recreational area.
Over to your right is the Chocolate Mountains Aerial Gunnery Range, so if you see any
explosions you'll know what's happening.
About halfway up the western seashore is Salton City, and a few miles further is the town of
Salton Sea Beach, and above that Desert Shores. On the eastern banks lie the small towns of
Niland Marina, Bombay Beach, and, up near the northern tip, North Shore.
The highway that enters the scene as you get closer to Thermal Airport is Interstate 10; it goes to
Santa Monica. Your destination airport and the Torres Martinez and Santa Rosa Indian
Reservations are all on this side of the highway. Northwest of the airport is the Agua Caliente
Reservation.
We'll land on Runway 12. And guess what the field elevation is?
How about below zero for starters?

The Griddle Riddle

There's something strange sitting on the landscape. To all appearances, it's just beyond the
runway. But, as we know, appearances in the simulator can sometimes be deceiving, and
sometimes things disappear, too.
I move we take off and see what's out there. We're in the middle of Runway 32, but the strip is
nearly two miles long, so even at this altitude we'll have plenty of time to get ourselves airborne.
Climbing, we can see that whatever the shape is, it isn't right off the end of the runway. It looks
as though it's on the other side of the lakeor make that the other end of the lake, since Upper
Klamath Lake is a long body of water lying north and south. (Lower Klamath Lake, by the way,
is about 20 miles south of here, over the border in California.)
Upper Klamath Lake is approximately 40 miles long, so whatever that shape is, it's not only a
good distance away, it's also good-sized.
Stay on your upwind heading, and climb to a cruise altitude of 5500 feet. Whether or not we see
something unusual on this flight, we still have beautiful views of the lake, ahead and out the left
side of the aircraft.
When I try to figure out what that shape is, the first thing that comes to mind is a mountain. But
in the Cessna I'm flying, whatever it is, it's flashing around, and mountains don't usually flash
around like that, even in the simulator. From here it looks more like a hundred-mile-wide neon
sign. One interesting question is, will it still be flashing when we get to it?given, of course,
that we do get to it. In my Piper, there's no flashing, and it looks like a mountain with a very flat
top. In fact, we seem to be flying toward a huge griddle in the middle of the Oregon mountains.
I assure you, I don't know what that peculiar shape is out there. Here in the prototypes, I am
making my first flight toward it, just as you are. Therefore, I'm just as curious as you are. What
will we find?
The lake begins to take on the shape of a bull's head once we've reached our altitude. Is he
looking south, at us, or looking north?
While you're flying, tune to Klamath Falls OMNI on 115.9, just to give us a distance FROM
reference.
When you consider how flat the top of the object is, it seems unlikely that it's a mountain
unless it's one with an unusually broad plateau. Mountains tend to peak, not flatten out like
pancakes.
When you're well out over the lake, with your DME reading 15 or 16 nautical miles, you'll spot
Chiloquin State Airport's runway on the right side of your windshield. However, we won't land
there until we've examined this object more closely.
Now that the distances involved are becoming obvious, we might be headed for Crater Lake, in
the southern heart of Oregon's Cascade Mountain Range. My various maps show many mountain
peaks in the area, but I think what we're flying toward is the rim of Crater Lake. The whole area
surrounding it is Crater Lake National Park, and up there inside the crater should be the lake
itself.
The elevation of the crater rim is supposed to be 6176 feet, and a high-altitude aerial photo
would show it looking just like a crater on the moon, although actually it's of volcanic origin.
Crater Lake is the deepest lake in the United States and the second deepest in North America
nearly 2000 feet deep. Can you imagine that much water sitting in the middle of Oregon?
The question now is, when we fly over the crater, what will we see down inside it? Water? Just a
big gouge? Or what? The lake water is said to be intensely blue, and to exist solely as the result
of rain and melted snow; there's no inlet or outlet. It's like a giant cup of water.
To fly over it and avoid any peaks in the area, we need more altitude. So climb immediately to
7600 feet and point yourself directly at the center of the griddle. The center keeps shifting in the
Cessna, but you'll get the idea.
The things that are flashing around (again, only as seen from the Cessna) look like they might be
roads up to the rim of the crater. There are such roads, but I wonder what makes them so
agitated?
Watch your altitude carefully, and maintain an altitude of at least 7600 feet.
If, as in Cessna, your crater rim is green, go into the Editor and add a layer of clouds, with the
tops set at 10,000 and the bottoms set at 9000. (Make no other changes; just exit.) That'll give
you better definition of the shape.
In Piper, the crater slopeif that's what it islooks like the world's widest runway, a landing
place for behemoths of antiquity.
In any case, the crater doesn't appear to be greatly elevated in relation to the geography around it,
which makes sense because the general elevation in the area is well over 4000 feet.
Again, keep a watch over your altitude. You don't want to make another crater on the slope of
the big one.
Make sure you know your key combination for looking straight down, because that's what we'll
do when we're over the inside of the crater. In fact, I plan to take all my views out all sides of the
aircraft.
When your DME reads about 43 miles, you begin to get an idea of the vastness of this geology.
The landscape takes on a strange abstract quality, and if you were suddenly placed here, without
any bearings, you'd be hard-pressed to figure out where you are or what you're looking at,
wouldn't you?
How will we know when we're over the crater itself? Somehow, I think we'll know.
I won't try to describe the sequence of sights and surprises that will take place now. Experience
them for yourself. Take all your views as you fly, in all directions, but do not take a radar view!
I'll tell you why in a moment.
Fly across and beyond the northern rim of the crater, and when you're beyond the point where
the slope is still visible out front, do a 180 to the right and make a pass in the opposite direction,
heading about 150 degrees (be sure to use some back pressure and/or power to hold altitude in
your turn; your altitude is critical). The little lake beyond Crater Lake National Park,
incidentally, is Diamond Lake, and the one to the northeast is Miller Lake.
You should be pointed roughly toward the center of Upper Klamath Lake, and your destination
now is Chiloquin State Airport, east of the northern tip of the water.
Take a look back at the crater once you're beyond it. Awesome, isn't it?
The strip at Chiloquin State Airport will materialize when you're about 36 NM from the Klamath
Falls VOR; at that time start your letdown. Our landing will be on Runway 35, the downwind leg
for which bears 170 degrees, so you know how to fly it. The airport elevation is 4218 feet. Come
back when you've landed.

I have a confession to makeindeed, a couple of them.
A few paragraphs back, you read a line, Somehow, I think we'll know, referring to whether
we'd know when we were over the rim of Crater Lake and out over the water itself. At that
moment, my Piper was about 46 miles and my Cessna was about 45 miles from the Klamath
Falls OMNI. I was pondering events and my next communication to you, when without any
warning whatsoever my Piper crashed. The windshield splintered into a hundred fragments. I
immediately paused the Cessna flight, so I could consider the predicament: My Piper had
crashed at exactly 46.6 NM on the DME.
Now, to understand this fully, you have to know that I first called for a climb to 6500 feet, in
order to clear obstructions in the area. That's the altitude I had when my Piper windshield
shattered.
In order not to fly the entire trip all over again, I exited to the Cessna Editor and saved the mode
exactly as it was (at that point, about 47.5 NM out). Then I exited and continued the flight,
waiting to see if Cessna cracked up at the same point as Piper. Sure enough, Cessna crashed at
46.6 NM, but the message was not just a simple Crash! It was Building Crash! Now,
wouldn't that jar you?
So I went into the Editor again, reset to my midflight mode, and changed the altitude to 7000
feet.
Then I crashed again, into the building, at 46.6 NM.
I went into the Editor again, and set the altitude to 7500 feet. This time, I didn't crash at 46.6
NM. But all this time, it didn't look like I'd crash at any of these altitudes.
Anyway, I continued my flight and the writing. Then came surprise number two. I decided it
would be a good idea to look at the situation on radar while I was over Crater Lake. As usual, I
executed this action before I wrote it. But I never wrote it, because I got another excruciating
Building Crash! the instant that I switched on radar. This was inexplicable because I was over
the water! I tried it again, and it wasand isstill inexplicable.
So that's how I came to advise you not to use radar in the flight above.
See how I work to keep you safe?
In return, how about buying bacon and eggs here at Chiloquin? As a matter of fact, I could go for
a couple of pancakes, too.
You knowhot off the griddle.

Time and the River

For me, the most memorable flight in my early simulator experience wasn't flying over
Manhattan, or buzzing the great landmarks there and elsewhere in the Flight Simulator disk, but
meandering along the Kankakee River in Illinois. There's something about riverswhether
you're tracking them in a boat, or cruising above them in a light airplane.
Furthermore, only a few rivers in the simulator or the Scenery Disks are truly dimensionalthat
is, consist of more than just a thin blue linebecause they're simply not wide enough to digitize
realistically. A bit later in this book, we're going to travel down one of the widest. But this
afternoon we'll track the beautiful Columbia, from here at Astoria, where it empties into the
Pacific Ocean, to its nearly southernmost point in Portland. We'll be flying along one of the
river's widest stretches.
I've chosen a short takeoff (as you can see on radar, you're just above the intersection of the three
strips) because it affords the most satisfying and realistic feeling as you climb out low over the
water. Cruise at low altitude1500 feetto keep everything intimate.
Take off, and stay on your upwind heading until you're beyond that promontory you'll see ahead.
Then use radar and your out-the-windshield views to line up toward the point where the river
takes its first sharp bend south-eastward. Take a look behind you when you have your heading,
and see that pretty airport, pristine in its setting of ocean and river.
The Columbia River rises in Canada, in the Rocky Mountains of southeast British Columbia, and
flows a total of 1214 miles between Washington and Oregon. Many dams, including the concrete
Grand Coulee in central Washington, convert its vast hydroelectric potential into power. (More
than ten billion watts are generated at Grand Coulee alone; that's a lot of light bulbs.)
The highway that presently appears ahead of you is Interstate 5, which traverses south from
Elaine, Washington, to San Diego, California.
Some of the towns on the Columbia's Washington banks are Chinook, Knappton, Altoona, and
just at the turnSkamokawa. On the Oregon side, besides Astoria, are the towns of Fern Hill,
Svensen, Knappa, andopposite SkamokawaBrownsmead.
Needless to say, turn with the river, and use your right side and radar views in order to stay over
the middle of the water and to position yourself for the next turn, which is briefly eastward again.
On your left you'll be passing Cathlamet, Washington, and on your right Westport, Oregon. Also
on your right is Clatsop State Forest. Then, along the short stretch after you negotiate the point,
are the towns of Marshland and later Clatskanie, Oregon, both a few miles inland.
Invariably, when I fly a river like this, I come under some kind of spell. I relax, more and more
deeply, without necessarily intending to, and I could easily slip into reverie. Try a river sometime
when you're uptight about something.
We are blessed in this country with great and resplendent rivers. Just to hear some of their
names, even alphabetically, is to hear a kind of poetry, rich with the eloquent cadences of the
American Indian: the Altamaha-Ocmulgeethe Apalachicola-Chattahoochee.the Arkansas,
Colorado, and Delawarethe Kanawha-Newthe Kuskokwimthe Mississippi, Missouri, and
Mobile-Alabama-Coosa. And toward the other end of the alphabet, the Sacramento, the San
Joaquin, the Santee-Wateree-Catawba, and the Susquehanna. And yes, the Wabash, Washita, and
White.
The first airport you'll see, before the Columbia turns to parallel Interstate 5, is Kelso-Longview.
It's named for two neighboring towns in Washington, just this side of the highway. On the
Oregon side is the town of Rainier. Soon after you turn southeast, the metropolitan areas of
Vancouver, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, will begin to become discernible, though only
intermittently at first.
Presently you'll arrive at a point where the river divides around an island. Follow the left fork,
aiming for the open water you can see beyond it. You'll now also be able to spot two airports,
Portland Hillsboro out the right front and Portland International out the left front. Follow the
river to the point where it widens, and turn left with it. Then Portland and its big airport will be
on the right side of the river, and the city of Vancouver on the left.
Just beyond Portland International Airport you should be able to spot the single runway at
Portland Troutdale Airport, which is our destination. We'll land on Runway 7, and your best bet
is to fly right across the intersection of Portland International Airport's runways (holding your
altitude until you're clear), then transition to slowflight with carb heat and flaps, and get into
position for a long final.
Use your left side views regularly to pinpoint your position until you make your turn to final.
The elevation at Troutdale Airport is 36 feet.

Panning

Looks and feels like it could snow, doesn't it? This is what you call a gray, gray dawn. But the
overcast is way up there, and we'll fly under it. In approximately 20 minutes it will be daylight.
Great Falls, Montana, is where the famous cowboy artist Charles Marion Russell (1864-1926)
did most of his work. He had his home and studio on the corner of 4th Avenue and 12th Street,
which is now a gallery open to the public. He painted frontier life, Indians, horses, cattle, and the
plains with great skill and care.
Tune your NAV to the Helena OMNI, which is at the state capital. Frequency is 117.7. You'll see
that we're about 60 miles from there. We'll fly toward Helena briefly, before turning southeast to
Townsend.
Take off and climb to 4000 feet, then turn right to a heading of 180 degrees. You'll see the
southern end of the city of Great Falls as you go. The highway is Interstate 15, and the river is
the Missouri.
Plan on a cruise altitude of 5500 feet.
When you're heading 180 degrees, crank your OBS around to that radial and fly the needle.
Just a little northeast of your present position, on the southern shore of the Missouri, is Giant
Springs, where fresh water flows at an unbelievable rate of 389 million gallons a day, at a year-
round temperature of about 52 degrees. Now, how would you go about measuring 389 million
gallons a day?
This is Lewis and Clark country, too. Their expedition in 1804-1805, which began in St. Louis
and ended on the Pacific coast, covered more miles in Montana than in any other state. Lewis
and Clark were dispatched by President Thomas Jefferson, who charged them to explore the just-
acquired territory of the Louisiana Purchase. In their expedition they had with them an Indian
woman named Sacagawea to serve as an interpreter and guide, along with Sacagawea's husband.
At daybreak, or perhaps a little before, you'll make out the edges of a body of water somewhat to
the left of your course. It's Canyon Ferry Lake, which we'll follow shortly to Townsend Airport.
Don't forget to turn your lights off.
While you're still pointed toward Helena, know that in 1864 a quartet of grim prospectors from
Georgia stumbled into a rocky gulchthey dubbed it Last Chance Gulch because they were
ready to give upand struck gold where Helena's main street is now. They became rich, and
some $20 million worth of gold, plus large deposits of silver and lead, have been mined there
since. Helena became the state capital of Montana in 1889. In the summer, you can take a
historical Last Chance Gulch Tour, and also witness a thunderous Last Chance Stampede.
However, the city of Helena is not simulated, so there's no point in flying all the way to 0 DME.
When you're about 15 NM out, turn left to a heading of 140 degrees and you'll have Canyon
Ferry Lake out the front of your windshield. The highway you see beyond is east/west Interstate
90, though it's far south of our destination.
When you are closer to the lake, follow its contour and stay pointed straight down the middle.
It'll lead you to the threshold of Runway 16 at Townsend Airport, and you'll enjoy some nice
shoreline scenics, together with a picturesque over-the-water final approach.
The elevation at the airport is 3900 feet.

Pocketful of Stunts

It's time you brushed up on your airwork, and this is a fine place to do it. We're not going
anywhere this morning, except up. When we reach altitude, you'll put the airplane through some
of its paces.
We'll start by taking off a little differently. Make your standard takeoff preparation (10 degrees
of flaps and two quick strokes of up elevator, approximating takeoff trim). Rotate normally, but
don't take off that notch of elevator as you climb out. Instead, dump your flaps as usual when
you're climbing about 500 FPM, and then continue to apply back pressure (up elevator) one
notch at a time, with your throttle all the way to the wall. In other words, climb out at an ever
steeper angle, until you get a stall warning; then give one notch of down elevator to prevent an
actual stall (it's too nice a morning for that, and we're too close to the ground), and continue
climbing as steeply as possibleagain, just short of a stall.
Go ahead and take off, as described, but as soon as you leave the ground, take and keep a 90-
degree view to the left, and observe, along with your instruments, your increasing angle of
attack. Unless you're adding up elevator too rapidly, one downstroke should be all you need to
kill the stall warning. Try up elevator again; if you get the stall warning again, take off that
notch.
As you get toward 6000 feet (where you'll level off) you'll be at your best rate of climb for the
environment. Note what your airspeed reads, and also note the pitch indication on the artificial
horizon. When you're ready to level off (get your nose down before you start reducing power),
you can take an out-front view again.
Straight ahead of you is Flathead Lake, named after a number of North American Indian tribes
(most notably the Chinook), who used to deform the heads of their infants to produce an
elongated, flat shape, regarded by them as a thing of beauty.
Before you read any further, get straight and level, with your elevator in neutral position at 6000
feet. Use whatever power is needed to hold that altitude.
During the following maneuvers, use Flathead Lake and the geography that surrounds it as a
reference area. After each maneuver, turn so that you are flying toward or over a portion of the
water. That will help you in the maneuvers, and in judging how well you did them, as well as
give you something interesting to look at. You can get into whatever position appeals to you as
you climb back up to 6000 feet. (If you prefer a little less realism, but shorter execution time,
you can go into the Editor for a moment and save your 6000-foot straight-and-level mode just as
it is; that way you won't have to climb back up each time. But if you're a realist, forget the Editor
and climb back up each time.)
First, we'll do a power-off stall. Here (for those of you who didn't learn it with me in 40 Great
Flight Simulator Adventures) is how:
Power-Off Stall
1. Close your throttle completely. (In this and all cases, do not use the unrealistic instant
cut or full throttle keys; decrease or increase power using the normal throttle control
keys.)
2. Use up elevator to achieve a slightly nose-high attitude.
3. Steadily add more up elevator, trying to maintain the nose-high attitude.
4. Ignore the stall warning and continue adding up elevator until the nose drops abruptly
(this is the stall).
5. Apply down elevator until the indicator shows (approximately) operational neutral
position.
6. Add full power until the horizon comes into view again.
7. Reduce power to your normal cruise setting.
8. Re-establish straight-and-level flight.
9. Climb back to your original altitude for your next maneuver.
The most exciting way to witness this maneuver is to perform the whole thing until your nose
drops, while looking 90 degrees out the left or right side windows. You'll see evidence of your
original nose-high attitude in the bend of the side horizon. Try to keep the bend until the wing,
having lost all lift, stalls (and you'll know for sure when that happens). Then, as your plane goes
into a dive, take a front view so you can watch for the horizon or, if you like, keep the side view
and use your artificial horizon.

Next we'll do a power-on stall. You already know something about that maneuver, because at the
beginning of this flight we got as far as the stall warning during your takeoff and climbout.
Here's the complete procedure:
Power-On Stall
1. Add full power.
2. Use up elevator to get into a climb.
3. Continue back pressure (up elevator) to steadily steepen the climb (try to keep horizon
invisible under your nose).
4. Ignore the stall warning until the aircraft's nose drops abruptly.
5. Return your elevator to its (approximate) operational neutral position (to recover from the
stall).
6. When the horizon comes into view again, reduce power to your normal cruise setting.
7. Re-establish straight-and-level flight at your operational neutral elevator setting.
With the power-on stall, you are likely to net an overall gain in altitude of 300 to 500 feet. Again,
it's useful to execute it while looking out the side of the airplane, or taking alternate views
forward and to the side.

For your next trick, practice a few rolls, the way you learned to do them in Flight Simulator Co-
Pilot.
In one roll, stay on your back awhile before you roll out. (I'm not going to repeat the roll
procedure in this book, because if you haven't read Co-Pilot, you tried to skip a whole semester,
and you're just a real danger up here by anybody's standards.)

Now, the loop. Aye, here's a classic for you, and one of the most fun stunts you can do in the
simulator:
Loop
For this maneuver you need more altitude, so first climb to 7000 feet (and, for practice purposes,
save your mode when you get there).
1. From straight and level (minimum 4000 feet AGL), apply full down elevator.
2. Wait for the airspeed indicator to pin at maximum.
3. Smoothly apply up elevator until the indicator is at about its three-quarter position.
4. When you see only sky, apply full throttle.
5. Take a side view until you are nearly inverted.
6. Switch to a front view.
7. When you see earth or lake only (you're then on the downside of the loop), cut throttle
completely.
8. When you see horizon again, return your elevator to neutral and your throttle to its
normal cruise setting.
As you try to get the hang of this, analyze what you're doing and why. First, you need all the
speed you can muster to climb up steeply and turn over on your back. That's why you dive
firstto pick up the speed.
You want a nice round loop. Don't rush your up elevator; apply it smartly and smoothly, but not
abruptly.
As your airplane's angle of attack increases to the point where you're climbing so steeply that all
you see out front is sky, you push the throttle to the wall, because you need all the power you can
get to continue to climb.
You take a side view next, because that's the only place where you can get a clue as to your
relationship to the earth; the blue sky gives you none. When you can see you're almost upside
down, you know you're just about at the top of the loop, and you'll shortly be descending. You
look out front again, and watch for the ground to fill your windshield. Then you know you're on
the downside of the loop, so you cut your power completely, because the airplane will pick up
plenty of speed without any assistance from the engine.
Then, when you see some horizon again, you're back to a more or less normal condition, so you
normalize your controls and make whatever adjustments are needed to resume straight-and-level
flight.
(If you have an unfortunate contact with something other than air when you first attempt the
loop, don't be discouraged. Try again with some altitude to spare, say at 5000 feet AGLthat
means an altimeter reading of 8000 feet here over Flathead Lakeuntil you get the hang of it. It
takes some practice, as does anything worth doing.)
It should be mentioned that the procedure described for looping the simulated Cessna and Piper
is not very realistic. The entry speed required (from the initial dive) is higher than that in an
actual aircraft. Theoretically, an extra 30 percent of speed should normally be enough to execute
the loop (see the book Roll Around a Point by champion exhibition pilot Duane Cole), but no
way will our Cessna or Piper climb and turn over on its back starting with that entry speed (at
least in my experience). Therefore, we need a lot of altitude, because we lose a lot of it diving for
speed.

Now that we're up here, and we're into loops, here's another stunt for your repertoire. It involves
simply a half-loop and a half-roll, and is called The Immelman, after World War I German ace
Max Immelman (though there's some argument as to whether he ever executed the maneuver, at
least in a dogfight).
To do it, do a half-roll at the top of your loop, a hair before you're inverted (checking this with a
side view, as in the full loop, but quickly switching to a front view so you can control the
rollout). This is a very advanced maneuver, and when I get really expert at it I'll let you know.
Practice any or all of the foregoing stunts toas the expression goesyour heart's content. Then
follow a generally northerly direction back up the lakehugging the west shoreto Kalispell
Airport and your landing on Runway 13. If you need to, you can pick up a radial to fly toward
Kalispell OMNI, frequency 108.4. But as you can see on your chart, the airport is about eight
miles southwest of the station, and a big bend of the Missouri River points straight at it. Your
best bet is to use your eyes, and remember the airport elevation: 2933 feet.

One Small Step

Taxi ahead to Runway 31, take off, and climb straight out to 6000 feet. Then start a two-minute
turn to the right, and while you are turning, tune Pocatello VOR on 112.6 and center the OBI.
The indicated radial is the one we'll fly to Pocatello Municipal Airport, so roll out of your turn
and fly the needle.
You may wonder why a relatively narrow runway such as that at Hailey Airport is so long, but
you should be able to infer the answer from the amount of runway consumed in your takeoff run.
The airport is over a mile high.
Plan on a cruise altitude of 7500 feet.

You're flying in an interesting part of Idaho. About 18 miles north of you is famous Sun Valley,
a mountain-sheltered bowl in the Sawtooth Mountain Range where not only skiing, but year-
round sports of every description can be pursued. You can swim, ice-skate, go horseback riding,
play golf, backpack, or try white-water rafting on the nearby Salmon River.
When your DME reads in the 50s you will be over a strange landscape (unsimulated), to which
there's a monument a bit north of your course. The landscape is one of lava beds stretching for
miles, with caves and craters that look like a moonscape seen through a telescope. The
monument is called Craters of the Moon National Monument. Only recently (that's about 2000
years ago in geologic time), there were giant eruptions in the earth's crust, heaving up rivers of
molten rock which enveloped rivers and forests. When things cooled down, the whole area was
cloaked in an eerie desolation of lava and cinders, sometimes forming strange bridges or weird
caves, or petrifying trees into grotesque shapes. All of that black landscape is framed by
mountains, some of which are perpetually snowcapped.
Before long you'll spot (to your right) a little section of the Snake River, where it widens briefly
to become Lake Walcott. Then you'll see a highway, Interstate 86, which parallels the river.
But you're flying toward a much larger section of the river, the American Falls Reservoir, which
is on this side of the city of Pocatello.
Don't let the radial you're flying slip away. Because the wind is from the northwest, you will
likely have to crab to the left a bit to stay on course. For instance, my OBS is set to radial 106,
but my compass heading is 101 degrees, and my needle is glued to the center of the instrument.
Some 40 miles from the station you'll see the reservoir ahead, first as a thin line just below the
horizon, then gradually taking on some dimension.
If you study your chart for a moment, you'll see that Pocatello Municipal Airport is several miles
to the northeast of the OMNI station and just north of Interstate 86. The runways are 3/21, 7/25,
and 16/34, so it's obvious which one we'll land on, isn't it? (If it isn't, think about it.) Note, too,
how a section of the reservoir points right to the airport.
On this flight it makes sense to use the standard airport pattern, entering the downwind leg at a
45-degree angle. So before you get there, use a little math to plan your entire approach.
Pocatello, by the way, was on the Oregon Trail, and near the town of American Falls (at the
southern end of the reservoir), some of the names of the pioneers are inscribed on Register Rock.
Pocatello was also Shoshone Indian territory, and displayed in Ross Park at the southern end of
town are pictographs cut into slabs of lava by the Indians. A replica of Old Fort Hall is there, too,
which in the 1830s was a Hudson's Bay trading post.
About 13 DME miles from the Pocatello VOR you should be able to spot the airport ahead and
to the left. It won't take much maneuvering to put you on your entry heading. Then get to pattern
altitude (elevation at Pocatello is 4448 feet) and airspeed, and the rest will be just like gliding
down a ski slope. Don't forget to take some views of the American Falls Reservoir on the way.
Climb Every Mountain

If you look at Lake County Airport on your Denver Sectional (it's airport #7), you probably won't
look twice. There is absolutely nothing there to pique the curiosityno highway, no lake or
reservoir, not even a river; just a thin red line. Apparently there isn't even a town out therejust
a county named Lake.
But then when you exit the Editorlo!a couple of beautiful mountains. And who'd ever
know?
Now look out of your windows in all directions. As I certainly don't have to tell you, you're
literally surrounded by mountains.
Now engage radar, and zoom out to a high altitude. Keep on zooming, until one notch before the
wipeout.
A baker's dozen of mountains! This sectional is a dream come true for mountain pilots.
The highway up there is Interstate 70, which about cuts the state of Colorado in half.
Zoom back down until you can just see the runway, then return to your out-the-windshield
display.
This morning we're not going anywhere in particular; we're going to do some mountaineering.
And forget any idea of flying over these things. You're already at nearly 10,000 feet and haven't
left the ground. Instead of over, we'll fly in and around these peaks a bit, on a tour of discovery.
Before you take off, reflect that at these altitudes you'll need extra power and extra up elevator
trim too. In fact, forget flaps altogether for this takeoffthey'll just provide drag to a point
where you're unlikely to build up enough speed to get off the runway (try it if you like). You
will, however, need your regular takeoff trim; with neutral elevator, the airplane just won't fly.
You need considerable speed to get any lift at all in this thin air.
Take her off now. (You can probably read the front page of the New York Times before the VSI
budges.) Hold your takeoff trim (if you remove it, you're likely to touch down again) and the
notch of rotation, too, and full power, and climb as best you can toward 11,000 feet. Meanwhile,
point to fly up the valley that is to your right and ahead of you.
To level off, first back off your power a notch. This will give your overworked engine a break.
From there on, adjust trim and/or power as necessary to hold your altitude at around 11,000 feet.
All the mountains in this area (they're part of the Rocky Mountains) are famous for skiing, with
the season stretching from Thanksgiving through Easter. That includes Copper Mountain, to your
right, and Vail, on your left.
After you cross the Interstate (check out the right side window to be sure you're beyond it), turn
right (use some back pressure, or you'll lose a couple of hundred feet of altitude just turning), and
follow the highway past the northern tip of Copper Mountain and along the northwestern edge of
Tenderfoot Mountain, which is the one you see after you make your turn. Your heading will be
in the mid-forties somewhere. Use radar to follow your progress, and take right side views of the
valleys.
Don't stray too close to Tenderfoot. These mountains, as you've seen, can be deceiving.
When radar shows that you have definitely passed the northern arrowhead of Tenderfoot
Mountain, turn right again, into the valley between Tenderfoot and Grays Peak. (The latter
reaches a cool 14,270 feet into the overcast.) The city that drifts across your windshield as you
turn is Denver. Tune to Denver VOR on 117.0 to see how far west of the city you are now.
Once you execute your turn, you'll see that Tenderfoot Mountain, on your right, is pretty
monolithic. And radar will show you that your right-of-way is pretty narrow. Use your best
judgment to determine how to fly through the gap. You'll recross Interstate 70 en route.
You're pretty high up here, for sure, but just a few miles ahead of you, a bit left of your course, is
the highest road in the United States, on Mt. Evans. There are cars cruising along that road
whose passengers can see you below them.
When you've passed Tenderfoot Mountain, turn right to a heading of about 185 to 190 degrees,
or whatever points you toward the valley, this side of the last mountain you can see in the
distance.
Take a look out the left side window somewhere along here, and you'll spot Eleven Mile Canyon
Reservoir. Just the other side of it are the Florissant Fossil Bedspetrified stumps of sequoia
trees, fossil insects, seeds, and leaf structures, all about 35 million years old. If you're a
perfectionist, the beds are from the Oligocene epoch of the Tertiary period. That is old. Sequoias
are mammoth evergreen trees, which live to great ages and grow to over 300 feet tall. Today they
are found only in California and southern Oregon. But in geological antiquity obviously they
were here in Colorado, too, which maybe offers us some kind of clue as to the distortions of
continental shifting, California being well over a thousand miles away.
Don't take the broad first valley you come to; we want the farther one. Keep correcting gradually
to your right to head for it; but treat the mountains with the respect due them. The mountain
ahead, by the way, is Mt. Lincoln, and as you get closer you'll see that it develops a distinct,
quite sharp pate.
When you're in the clear (check radar regularly), round the point and get on a heading of about
300 to 310 degrees, so you're flying along the western edge of the mountain shaped (on radar)
like a diamond. You're going to make another right turn at the next edge, and fly up that narrow
slot. Keep a check both on radar and out the right front cockpit window, so you'll know when
and where to turn.
Point right up the center of the valley. Check radar frequently, but I recommend you take no side
views at the present time.
Imagine, if you like, that there's a bit of rain snapping against your windshield. (That's what it
does at this speedsnaps.) I think I just saw a few drops.
Use the lower-altitude radar settings to assess your proximity to the mountains in a case like this.
Higher altitudes may lead you to think that you're closer than you really are.
Now look what we've come to!our old acquaintance, Lake County Airport, sitting there just as
nice as pie, and the business end of Runway 34 welcoming us. All you have to do is get into
slowflight, start losing some altitude (elevation of the strip, remember, is 9,929 feet), fly a little
way into the valley, and make a gentle turn to final. Hold your initial descent rate at around 500
FPM, and make your usual full-flaps landing.
Now if anyone asks you if you've ever done any mountain flying, you can look nonchalant (even
slightly miffed) while you tell them of course you have.
Detour Ahead

Denver's Stapleton International Airport has the funniest runway complex in captivity. Go into
radar and zoom up until you can see how Runway 250, which you're on, and 260 Right, whose
path you're going to cross on takeoff, meld into one inexplicable cross-eyed jumble. Runway 260
Left is in the line of fire, too. This is the eighth-busiest airport in the world, and Lowry Air Force
Base is just south of here. I'd hate to be a traffic controller in this crazy place. The way it looks to
me, these three strips, working as a team, can handle just one takeoff in this direction, or one
landing from the opposite direction, in one unit of time.
The mountains you see way out there are two you flew around in the last chapter.
Look out all sides, and see if you can see a DC-3. If you do, salute it. This airplane celebrated its
50th anniversary in 1986. I saw a television special about it just the other night. There are many
hundreds of these great airplanes still flying, and the oldest one still in service has logged 88,000
hours. I'd take a DC-3 anywhere, anytime. There has never been a structural failure in one, in all
50 years of its operation. And it's still doing all kinds of important hauling work, back and forth
in the skies around the world. It's one of the reasons the U.S. won World War II, when its
designation was C-47, and it was affectionately dubbed The Goony Bird. Hats off to it.
Take another careful look to all sides, but this time to check for any aircraft that might be taking
off in the same direction you are. Then go ahead and get airborne, climbing to 6000 feet before
you make a turn.
As you climb, tune Colorado Springs VOR on 112.5. By the way, always think and say these
numbers as digits, rather than as integrated values. In other words, it's one one two point five,
not a hundred and twelve something.
Headings and radials get the same treatment. As your OBS should tell you when you've centered
the needle, radial one five zero will take you to Colorado Springs. So turn left to a heading of
one five zero when you've reached 6000 feet, then follow the needle. Your cruise altitude will be
7500 feet.
You will pass almost directly over the runways of Denver's Arapahoe County Airport. The
highway running west of it is Interstate 25, which goes straight to Colorado Springs; so if your
OMNI should become inoperable, you can always follow the road. Civilization created roads for
just such in-flight emergencies.
You know why (from what your altimeter read when you were sitting on the ground) Denver is
called the Mile-High City (though, of course, we know from our previous flights that there are
towns much more than a mile high).
In the 1850s, Denver was a quiet Indian village. Then gold was discovered along the banks of
Cherry Creek, which runs southeast out of the very center of what is now the city and empties
into Cherry Creek Lake. The classic Gold Rush transformation took over, the Indian tents giving
way to the first stores and buildings as thousands of Easterners, in wagons and on foot, came
over the plains seeking their fortunes. No sooner had the gold run out than silver was discovered.
But there was still enough gold around to sheathe the dome of Denver's granite-and-onyx capitol
building in gold leaf. Today, Denver is the Southwest's financial and commercial hub, and has its
very own branch of the U.S. Mint, with a capacity of 20 million coins a day.
Off to your left are the east central plains of Colorado. Out there the pronghorn antelope, among
the world's fastest mammals, go flying along about forty miles an hour. In some of the small
towns, too, straightfaced Coloradans will tell you to watch for a speedy rabbit, with horns, called
the jackelope.
You'll note from your sectional chart that the OMNI station we're flying toward is on the eastern
edge of the airport, and the airport is east of both the city and Interstate 25. You'll be able to spot
Colorado Springs to the right of your course and out the right front, about 15-odd miles from the
VOR station.
You'll also see a mountain out the right front. This is no ordinary mountain, so I suggest you
divert your flight a bit to take a closeup of it.
Turn right and fly across Interstate 25, pointing toward the spot where the foot of the mountain
and the edge of the city meet. Use radar to pinpoint the spot. (If the mountain is the same shade
as the earth, you may want to go into the Editor and set Cloud Level 1 tops/bottoms to
22,000/20,000 feet. This will give more drama to the scene.)
In case you don't know, or haven't guessed, you're flying toward famed Pikes Peak, which soars
to a majestic 14,110 feet. It was discovered in 1806 by Louisiana Purchase explorer Zebulon
Pike, for whom it's named. (Can you imagine discovering a mountain like that, or any
mountain? And how about discovering an ocean?)
As you get close, turn left to a heading of about 175 degrees. You should be able to see Colorado
Springs Airport over to your left.
Now I want you to decide for yourself how you'll maneuver from here to your landing at
Colorado Springs. All I'll say is, it's a left-hand traffic pattern, and you're expected to enter that
pattern on the downwind leg. You decide, based on the wind direction, what runway is active,
and how you'll fly the approach.
But please remember that the slogan Pikes Peak or Bust was not intended to apply to aircraft.

Opportunity Knocks

You've taxied to the end of Runway 8, ready to turn 180 degrees and take off.
But where is that we're supposed to be going? Lake Powell Opportunity?
Okay, so I know there's no Opportunity Airport, and not even a so-called Lake Powell Airport,
nor any such-named airport, in Utah.
But there is a Lake Powell in southern Utah. It's at the bottom left of your Denver sectional
chartthat strange stretch of water that looks like a witch's bony finger pointing heavenward.
We flew over its southern extremities in a flight from Bryce Canyon, Utah, to Page, Arizona, in
Flight Simulator Co-Pilot. Actually, the lake is a stretch of the Colorado River, and Glen Canyon
is the name of the canyon surrounding it.
Now, would I pass up a body of water like that, just because it's at the edge of the chart, and
there's nothing but white space for miles around? No way.
So where's Opportunity?
I'll tell you when we get up in the air, and on our course.
Before you take off, crank in Hanksville VOR on 115.9. We'll use its DME as a distance
reference.
Climb out to 5000 feet, and then turn right to a heading of 145 degrees. Continue climbing up to
a cruise altitude of 7000 feet.
About six nautical miles from Hanksville you'll see a rim of blue ahead. That's the northern end
of the water we're going to sightsee.
So where's Opportunity?
Well, my idea is this:
We'll fly down a good stretch of Lake Powell, taking in the scenery. And as we get toward the
southern end, we'll look for an Opportunity to set the airplane down, right along the water
somewhere, and have a picnic lunch. Which is why I told you to bring a picnic lunch. (I hope
you remembered the hard-boiled eggs, because without them there's no picnic.)
You see, I remember a flight we took earlier in this book, from Laredo to Brownsville, Texas,
part of it over Falcon Lake, and I said that one section of the lake bank looked so inviting, I was
going to come back and land there sometime. But I never did. So I'm going to make up for it
now. Once we've flown most of Lake Powell, we'll look for an inviting spot and set the airplane
down.
Let me assure you that I didn't prefly this. I'm heading into this experience for the first time, the
same as you. I don't know what we'll find or where we'll land. But the nice part is that in a light
plane we can land on any reasonable stretch of grassthat's one advantage we have over jets and
other big aircraft.
There are no towns between here and where we're going. Nothing but a little unsimulated road,
Utah 95. On your left, paralleling your course but also unsimulated, is Dirty Devil River.
Soon the water opens up in an eye-catching wedge shape. When you're over it, turn downstream.
And just look at those lacy islets of green and blue, as far as the eye can see. I thought this would
be outstanding, and it is.
Imagine, off to your right, mountains all along this section of the waterall higher than your
altitudebecause in reality they are there, though unsimulated.
Think what this stretch of the earth would look like if the water weren't there. You'd have a
twisting, turning series of promontories and canyons. It might be one of the wonders of the
world.
Use radar checks to maintain a generally down-the-middle course. Better yet, fly it as you feel it,
enjoying the limitless vistas.

Well, I didn't expect that to happen here, about 52 miles out of Hanksville. If it hasn't happened
to you yet, wait until it does, and then read on.
Keep flying.
According to the sectional, we were scarcely two-thirds of the way down Lake Powell when
pandemonium hit. Now where do you suppose we are?
There's still water ahead, but neither it nor the skimpy little sluiceways to the left and behind us
look anything like the magnificent water we just lost.
Now pause a minute. I have an idea.
Pull Scenery Disk 5 out of your drive and replace it with Scenery Disk 3. Then unpause and hit
CTRL-E, following the screen directions.
Now try tuning Page VOR on 117.6.
Aha! Now it comes alive, with the DME reading 30-some miles out.
So that must still be Lake Powell ahead.
Go into radar and zoom around, and eventually you'll get the whole lake on the display again,
although we've been shooed way west and somewhat north of our original position. Turn left and
get over the lake proper again. We'll do this thing yet.
As you head back toward Lake Powell, look on radar, and find the slimmest piece of land that
juts out into the water. On this side of the lake are two bodies of water that look like fishtails. If
you sight along the right shoreline of the rightmost of these fishtails you'll see the narrow strip of
land I mean. That's where we'll set down.
If you're flying to the left of this landing spot, you'll probably be able to spot it out the right side
of your windshield. In any event, fly toward it and over it, and take a good look at it. Look down
and watch it go by, too, so you'll have an idea of its width. The length will surely be no problem
for us.
Let's make the approach over the water, toward the narrow end. That way we can best gauge
where to set the plane down. From the other direction, we'd be approaching the ever-narrower
end, making it more difficult to see at what point it gets too narrow.
There's no hurry. Assess your position and the situation thoroughly.
I don't know the elevation there, but I'd assumefrom the elevation of Hanksville (4444 feet)
and Page (4310 feet) and from the fact that the land appears to be at or near water levelwe're
dealing with something in the vicinity of 4000 to 4500 feet.
Nonetheless, the situation calls for a long, flat, airliner-type final approach, at about your
slowflight airspeed, and at a gently downward-sloping angle, say with a VSI indication of about
200 FPM. So first get into slowflight, then fly to position yourself well out over the lake, or
approximately over the shoreline opposite the landing site. What I'm doing is flying more or less
a downwind leg to the right of the site, looking it over out the left side, as I would a runway.
But I want to see the whole strip and my touchdown point, behind me, before I turn base. I'm
planning on an altitude of about 5000 feet when I get the strip of land out in front of me, and
from there, it's anybody's guess.
Whatever else, I'm challenging you to land on the little peninsula, coming to a stop somewhere
this side of the main shoreline. That should be easy.

I'm flying Cessna at the moment.
I made a wide-sweeping 180 and am correcting back toward the optimum approach position. My
altitude is 5400 feet. My VSI reads about 700 FPM down (I had to lose altitude quite fast), and
I'm easing that up with back pressure. I have 10 degrees of flaps at present, and my RPM is
1505. My airspeed is at 80 knots, and my carburetor heat is turned on.
At 5000 feet my rate of descent is 400 FPM, and I'm lined up with the point. It's closer than I
thought it would be, so I've put on all my flaps to descend more steeply and at lower stalling
speed.
My altitude now is 4600 feet, and I am safely over the point, but I don't have any idea what the
ground elevation is. My airspeed is 50 knots indicatedlower than I'd like. The little strip looks
like a giant runway now, so I increase my power setting to get out of stall range and flatten my
glide angle a bit.
Now my altitude is 4500 feet, and my rate of descent is a little above 200 FPMmore like it.
Touchdown must be any second now.
There it is. Cut power. Brakes on gently.
My altimeter reads about 4250 feet (not a bad estimate back there, was it?). I take a look on
radar, and I'm at the very tip of the peninsula, which is much longer than it looked from the air.
Now I look at the lake out all sides, very self-satisfied and wondering how you did.
I grant you that it wasn't any picnic getting here, but now that we're here, I'm hungry. Get out
those hard-boiled eggs, and let's have a picnicmy style.

The Big Muddy

Pierre is the capital of South Dakota. No doubt you knew that already if you're good at trivia. But
unless you're from these parts I'll bet you don't know how the name is pronounced. It's
pronounced peer rhymes with here. And here I've been saying the name all these years as
if it were French.
Pierre Municipal isn't a very big airport, particularly for a state capital; but then Pierre isn't a
very big city as state capitals go. Rapid City, far to the west near the Wyoming border, and Sioux
Falls, at the opposite end of the state, are larger and more exciting cities. Rapid City is near
famous attractions like Mt. Rushmore and the Petrified Forest, and has Dinosaur Park, with its
concrete behemoths of antiquity. And Sioux Falls, the largest city in the state, has the Great
Plains Zoo and the Battleship South Dakota Memorial, the latter with dimensions exactly those
of the battleship itself.
But Pierre has something high, wide, and handsome that those cities haven'tthe Missouri
Riverwhich is what we're off to see this morning.
Taxi ahead into position on Runway 25, and proceed with your takeoff. When the runway
disappears under your nose, turn left to a heading of 185 degrees.
Level off at 3000 feet. By then you should be over the Missouri River, so turn east and fly
between its banks, on a course somewhere around 100 degrees.
Isn't this a beautiful sight? After a couple of miles, take a look behind you, too.
The 2565-mile-long Missouri is the longest river in the United States and the third longest in the
world. Only Africa's Nile and the Amazon in South America are longer. It rises where three
relatively tiny riversthe Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatinall come together in southern
Montana. It then winds eastward into North Dakota, turns south through the middle of South
Dakota, creates a natural border between Nebraska and Iowa, bends east across Missouri at the
two Kansas Cities, and finally joins the Mississippi just above St. Louis. It's called the Big
Muddy, not because it looks muddy, but because it constantly erodes farmland along its banks.
It's a flood threat, too, particularly in springtime.
The geography off to your right, before the first distinct bend in the river, is the Farm Island
Recreation Area, and south of that is the Fort Pierre National Grassland. The highway is
Interstate 90.
Ahead of you is the Lower Brule Indian Reservation, all along the southern bank of the river, and
on the northern bank is the Crow Creek Reservation.
Follow the zigzag course of the Missouri River, trying to judge your turns so you stay over its
center. This kind of practice will help you in all your flying, particularly in judging pattern turns,
which are far from easy in the simulator. In particular, the turn from base leg to final requires
considerable precision, and some of the turns over this river are just as demanding (though far
more forgiving). As an alternative to staying over the middle of the river, you can try following
one bank or the other, keeping the shoreline ahead of the nose. This is more of a challenge, of
course, because who knows where the middle of the river is, exactly? Because the aircraft's
nose obscures your forward view, your typical error will be to turn too early, thinking you're
farther along than you actually are, or then to overcompensate for this experience by turning too
late. Use side views, straight-down views, radar views, or whatever helps. Depending on your
degree of bank, you can allow two to six full seconds from the time your estimated turnpoint
disappears under the nose before you actually start the turn. Try clocking or counting off four
seconds and see how you come out, then adjust accordingly.
There's one absolutely wild bend which makes almost a full circle. Don't miss looking at it on
radar. In fact, just beyond it is a dam, aptly named Big Bend. Just below the dam are numerous
old forts and fort sites, including Old Fort Thompson, Fort Hale, and, considerably further
downriver, Fort Kiowa.
With all these turns, don't let your altitude get away. Use back pressure to hold it while you're in
a bank, and if you forget to do that, use power to get back up to 3000 feet. You should always fly
within 100 feet of your selected (or assigned) altitude.
Eventually you'll cross paths with Interstate 90, where the city of Chamberlain is on your left and
the town of Oacoma on your right. Tune Winner OMNI on 112.8 and get on the 216-degree
radial inbound (you're very close to that spoke). Or, if you really love rivers and have plenty of
time, consult your chart and fly on to Wagner Airportthe Missouri River will point you almost
directly to it.
As you fly toward Wiley, don't miss left-side views of the Missouri River, which continues its
long journey southeastward to Yankton and Vermillion in South Dakota, and then to Sioux City
and Omaha, on opposite sides of the Iowa-Nebraska border.
You'll see from your chart that Wiley Airport in Gorin is 10 or 12 miles beyond the Winner VOR
station, but almost exactly on your course, so you should have no trouble spotting it. Since the
wind is from the west quadrant, your landing will be on Runway 31. Once you see the field, get
over to your left and on a base heading of 220 degrees for a right-hand pattern and with the
runway in optimum position for your landing. Or, if you see traffic in the pattern, make the
standard 45-degree entry to the downwind leg.

Husking Corn

Turn on your lights and get rolling immediately, because I want you to enjoy this dawn from the
air, and we have only a half hour until daylight.
You're positioned for Runway 17L. Make your normal takeoff and climb straight out to 2000
feet on the runway heading. Enjoy some left-side views of the city of Lincoln as you climb.
The highway you'll cross just off the end of the runway is Interstate 80, which more or less
parallels the famous Oregon Trail all the way across Nebraska. We'll be seeing more of it.
Continue climbing, and as you pass through an altitude of 2000 feet, tune Omaha VOR on 116.3.
Center the OBI needle and turn left to fly the indicated radial. The likely number is 56.
Level off at 3000 feet.
It's too bad you can't see the State Capitol Building in Lincoln, because architects rate it the
fourth architectural wonder of the modern world. It's a skyscraper, with a 400-foot-high white
stone tower topped by a 32-foot-tall bronze statue called The Sower. On the capitol grounds is a
statue of Abraham Lincoln by Daniel Chester French, the same sculptor who designed the
famous statue of the seated Lincoln in Washington's Lincoln Memorial.
The city of Lincoln was founded in 1859 as Lancaster, and was renamed in 1867 when it became
the state capital. This followed a political battle between North Platters and South Platters,
who wanted a capital, respectively, north of the Platte River and south of it. The South Platters
won.
You're headed eastward now along Interstate 80. You can see the Platte River, which is about
halfway between here and Omaha, cutting across the highway ahead.
Don't let the wind, from your left, carry you off course. Correct as necessary to keep the needle
centered.
When your DME reads 30, tune your NAV to Neola VOR, frequency 117.1, center the OBI
needle, and take up the new indicated course. We could have flown all the way using the Neola
OMNI, but the route we're using will take you more or less directly over the city of Omaha.
Omaha is Nebraska's largest city and a classic example of what the Gold Rush and the
railroadsin this case the Union Pacific Railroad, which started the nation's first
transcontinental railroad in Omahacontributed to westward expansion. Today it is a great
livestock, meatpacking, and grain-market center. You can enjoy livestock shows and rodeos at
the Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum. (See if you can figure out how that unusual name came aboutall the
clues you need are in the name itself.) And we're indebted to the Omaha Playhouse for at least
two fine actors who got their starts thereDorothy McGuire and Henry Fonda.
By the way, almost directly ahead of you, to the left of Interstate 80 and before you reach
Omaha, is Boys Town, the famous nonprofit community of orphaned and abandoned boys
founded in 1917 by Father Edward J. Flanagan. It's governed by its residents, who number about
1000, and survives entirely by virtue of contributions.
We'll be landing on Runway 17 at Eppley Field, which is at the northeast corner of the city. Field
elevation is 984 feet. The airport is about 14 miles this side of the Neola VOR, so you'd best get
into slowflight before you're over the southern outskirts of the city. Lose altitude very gradually,
for a reading of about 250 FPM on your VSI, until you have the airport clearly in view. You'll fly
a right-hand pattern for Runway 17, so your present heading is ideal for an entry to the
downwind leg. Calculate what the headings for downwind and base will be before you get there.
If, as is likely, you're on the 36-degree radial to Neola, you're perfectly positioned for entry.
Pattern altitude is 1900 feet.
If you're lucky, day will break before you're on the ground, and you'll see some of the green of
the Cornhusker State, and ultimately, right in the center of your windshield, all of the white
centerline set off by the black of Runway 17.

Enigma at Dusk

Pretty evening, isn't it?
You are in a location depicted on the Omaha sectional. You are to figure out where you are and
then fly to the nearest small town that has an airport. There is just one strip at that airport, 13/31,
and you are to land on Runway 13.
That's all I'll tell you, except that you had better get moving, because night falls in 20 minutes.
Have a nice trip!

That Was Too Easy

That last riddle was just for openers. Here's one that will make you work a bit.
You're somewhere in the United States, at a very early hour. You are to depart the obvious
runway and fly to one of two airports that lie about 60 miles from your present location; there
you will land on the even more obvious runway. Cruise at a regulation altitude of 8500 feet,
where the appropriate one of two destination airports in question will be revealedgiven, of
course, that you find out where you are now.
You will be in virtual darkness, and thus will be on instruments most of the way. A lone roada
provincial highwaywill be your most useful navigational aid.
Those are all the clues (the most revealing of which may be the sixth word from the end of the
last sentence in the second paragraph of this chapter).
It's only fair to tell you that, through no fault of your own, you may never reach your destination;
but by the time you know that you've failed, you'll know that you had all the right answers
anyhow.
Good luck!

Git Along

The city of Liberal, Kansas, is a good place to have pancakes for breakfast. The housewives here
are expertsnot just at mixing the batter but at flipping the cakes. On Shrove Tuesday (the
Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) of every year, they compete with their counterparts in Olney,
England, in the International Pancake Race. They run a quarter of a mile with skillet in hand, and
pancake in skillet, flipping the pancake twice en route. If you think that's easy, just try it.
We're en route for storied Dodge City, so let's get rolling. Runway 3 here at Liberal Municipal
Airport practically points to our destination.
Take off and fly straight, leveling off at a cruise altitude of 5500 feet. Remember my lyric poem:
When fly you would a heading west,
Odds are you'll evens find are best,
Plus 500.
(40 More Great Flight Simulator Adventures)
With those words engraved on your memory, you'll never be confused as to what altitudes to fly
to satisfy FAA regulations. Since we're flying east this morning, you just turn the meaning of the
poem around and select an altitude of odd thousands plus 500 feetthat is, 3500, 5500, 7500,
and so forth. Going west, you'd select 4500, 6500, or 8500. This isn't always strictly adhered to,
but it keeps the FAA happy. Below 3000 feet you can choose any safe altitude that happens to
suit you.
Liberal's population is about 15,000big enough to make it into the simulation. You can see the
city off to your right and behind you as you climb.
As you approach your cruise altitude, tune Dodge City VOR on 108.2 and fly the 38-degree
radial inbound.
The water you see just below the horizon is the Arkansas River. Here in Kansas, it's called the
Ar-KANSAS River. And of course you can guess how it's pronounced in Arkansas. Dodge City
lies alongside the river, where U.S. 56now on your leftand U.S. 50 merge.
About a hundred years ago, Dodge City was a railhead to which herds of longhorns were driven,
and a wide-open cattle town where cowpokes went to whoop it up on payday. It took lawmen of
the likes of Luke Short, Wyatt Earp, and Bat Masterson to keep the peace in Dodge City, and to
fill Fort Dodge jail, as well as the famous Boot Hill cemetery, with the incorrigibles.
The highway on your right is U.S. 54, which goes to Meade, Kansas, where the Dalton Gang
used to hide out (there's a museum there now in their honor, complete with a tunnel they used to
escape the law), and on east to Wichita.
About 35.5 nautical miles out you'll be able to see Dodge City on radar, and after another mile or
so U.S. 50 will streak across the horizon, on the other side of the Arkansas River. That will be
followed in a matter of seconds by the appearance of the Dodge City metropolitan area, where
Highways 56 and 50 meet.
Dodge City Municipal Airport is east of the city, and your course puts you in a good position for
a straight-in approach to the active Runway 2. If you fly a heading of about 60 degrees for a
while, to the right of and paralleling U.S. 56, you can then make a left turn and get lined up a
good distance out. Start planning this as soon as you can identify the airport, which is on the
north side of the river. You might want to turn right, heading 110 degrees, which will put you on
a course paralleling the base leg. Then, when Runway 2 appears nearly straight when you take a
90-degree view out the left side, turn to your long final and start your letdown.
As you get closer in, you'll have a better idea of the lie of the runway. When your DME reads
about 9 NM, you'll be able to see Runway 2 on radar. The field elevation is 2594 feet. This long
approach over the river, while not one of the scenic wonders of the simulator, is a pleasant and
realistic one. Take a look at Dodge City out the left side as you descend.
In a Spin

Wichita Mid-Continent is a big airport, as you'll see if you take a look at it on radar. It lies in the
southwest corner of the city of Wichita. In the southeast corner of the city is the equally big
McConnell Air Force Base. Whatever plane you're flying, you'll be interested to know that just
above McConnell Air Force Base is the landing field for the Cessna factory, although it isn't in
the simulation. A little north of the Cessna field is Beech Aircraft's airport; and a few miles north
of that is the airport for the Piper factory. So, many fine airplanes make their first flight from
Wichita.
This largest of Kansas cities started its career when Jesse Chisholm made it part of the Chisholm
Trail in the 1860sa trail that ended about a hundred miles north of here, in Abilene, Kansas.
We saw the beginnings of that trail earlier in this book, in the chapter The Right Stuff.
This afternoon you'll find out how much of the right stuff you have, because I'm going to show
you how to do a popular stuntthe spin.
But for this you'll need, among other things, some altitude. So take off, and as you climb watch
for a lake over to your left. It's north of the highway that leads into Wichita, and when you see
the lake, head toward it.
Actually, it's not simply a lake, but Cheney Reservoir. Continue climbing as you approach it. The
altitude you're heading for is 7000 feet. Climb at a rate of about 500 FPM. And be sure to take a
look at Wichita and the Mid-Continent Airport behind you.
You probably won't have your altitude by the time you reach the reservoir, so fly a wide circle
around the area, using a very shallow bank, while continuing to climb. You've probably watched
from the ground as a small airplane did something like thisclimbing, climbing until it was just
a speck in the sky. It's almost a sure sign that the pilot is going to do some stunts.
And, like that pilot, you'll have to keep adding power or trimming your elevator up or both, to
keep climbing as your altitude increases.
At 7000 feet, point into the wind and get into normal cruise configuration. Then go into the
Editor, change the auto-coordination parameter to 0 (don't forget to press Return to establish this
new parameter, because simply typing it doesn't do it), save the flight exactly as it is (be sure to
do this), and exit again to the flight.
Now you'll be able to practice spins to your heart's content. You have the necessary altitude, the
reservoir below as a reference point, and the flight conditions (including rudder control
independent of aileron) saved, so all you need do is press Recall to try again.
Here's how to do a spin:
First, be sure you know which keys control left and right rudders!
Reduce your power setting to 0.
Use up elevator to raise the nose of the aircraft until the horizon disappears, or until you
get that jarring stall warning.
When you get the warning, apply full rudder (left or right, depending in which direction
you want to spin).
When you see the ground and Cheney Reservoir spinningthey're not. You are. And don't let
the continued stall warning rattle you.
After a couple of revolutions, here's how to recover:
Apply full opposite rudder (rudder opposite to the direction of spin).
Apply down elevator to reduce your present angle of attack.
When the plane stops spinning, use aileron (the artificial horizon will help you here) to
get your wings level and restore the real horizon.
Then add back your power, and use throttle plus elevator and aileron, to get straight and
level again.
It may surprise you to see that you lose relatively little altitude (how much depends on how
many revolutions you make) in a spin. The reason is that the airplane is not diving, but more or
less wallowing downward. You'll lose altitude, of course, but probably not as much as you
expected when you saw that ground and water spinning up at you.
The Recall key will put you back at 7000 feet, ready to go again, saving you that long climb
upwhich is one advantage simulation has over the real thing. Can you think of another?
When you have done all the spinning you have the stomach for, enter the Editor again and
change your auto-coordination back to 1 (unless you feel like experimenting with non-
coordinated flight for a while).
Now head back to Wichita Mid-Continent Airport and your landing on Runway 32.

Truman Country

The name Missouri is derived from an Indian word meaning those who have canoes, and this
morning we'll see one area where a canoe makes a lot of sense.
First, however, as we head north, we will be encountering a little weather. You'll have a chance
to brush up on your instrument procedure.
We'll fly to Kansas City via three VOR stationsSpringfield, Whiteman, and, finally, Kansas
City. Tune in Springfield now, on a frequency of 116.9, and use the OBS to crank in the 348-
degree radial with a TO indication (the OBI will still be onscale, but at the right edge of the
instrument). The 348-degree radial should point us toward the Whiteman station, which is out of
range at the moment.
Take off, and as soon as your altimeter reads about 1900 feet, turn right to a heading of 55
degrees to intercept the Springfield 348-degree spoke. This close to the station, the radials will
go by in a hurry, so try to anticipate a bit as your OBI moves toward the center.
At 2000 feet, of course, you'll be into the overcast and on instruments. Climb to a cruise altitude
of 4500 feet, which will put you on top of the clouds.
Your OMNI will switch from TO to FROM after a bit of gyration (you're passing the station,
which is over to your right). Let it settle down before you attempt to center the needle precisely.
By the time you break out of the overcast, chances are things will be pretty much routine.
You can probably raise the Whiteman VOR now, on 109.0, and you'll no doubt find that you're
on or within a couple of radials of 348. Fly 348.
When your DME reads 36 NM from the Whitehead VOR, reduce your power to let down
through the overcast, at a rate of about 500 FPM. There's something I want you to see, and the
terrain altitude is low enough to keep you safe at or a little below 2000 feet. Come back to the
text when you're there.

How's that for a scene? Isn't that something?
Level off at 1900 feet and take views to all sides. You're approximately over Harry S. Truman
Reservoir, and spread out below you is the giant Lake of the Ozarks. At the eastern edge of the
lake is Lake of the Ozarks State Park. If you look on radar, you'll see that this body of water
resembles a long-nosed man running with a pitchfork. Trailing behind him is the Osage River,
which joins the Missouri River to the northeast.
This lake has an irregular, wooded shoreline nearly 1400 miles long, so you see what I meant
when I said that a canoe would be useful. In fact, any type of boat would be handy. Lake of the
Ozarks has about 14,000 registered boaters, and the State Park is equipped with boat-launching
ramps as well as many fine beaches and campgrounds. The park is a major vacation area,
covering some 16,500 acres.
You'll fly almost directly over Harry S. Truman State Park, which is up near the runner's head,
on the northern banks of the reservoir.
The highway you see intermittently ahead of you is U.S. 50. Whiteman Air Force Base, where
the Whiteman VOR is located, is just this side of the highway.
Maintain your cruise altitude of 1900 feet (any higher and you'll be in the weather again). When
you're about five miles out from Whiteman, change your NAV frequency to 112.6 and get on a
radial inbound for Kansas City. I'll be on radial 308, so join me if you like. U.S. 50 will be off to
your right, and beyond that, east/west Interstate 70 is barely discernible out the window, but is
clearly defined on radar.
The Kansas City we're flying to, in case you're confused (you're not the first to wonder which
Kansas City is which), is the one in Missouri, not the one in Kansas. The Missouri River divides
the two, although together they're regarded as the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area.
Go into radar and observe the three major highways that point the way. They are, from left to
right, U.S. 71, U.S. 50, and Interstate 70. You're probably closest to U.S. 50, which is where you
want to be. In fact, you can abandon the Kansas City VOR at this point and follow the highway.
It will point you directly to Kansas City Downtown Airport, which is in the north central section
of the area. Don't parallel U.S. 50 precisely, but use radar and point toward where the highway
enters the metropolitan area; otherwise, you'll fly a meandering course and waste time.
The near section of the metropolitan area represents Independence as well as Kansas City,
Missouri. You'll pass a bit to the left of Independence and approximately over Raytown,
Missouri. Independence is justly famous as the home of Harry and Bess Truman, and the site of
the Truman Library-Museum. The former president is buried there. On the southwestern edge of
Independence is the Harry S. Truman Sports Complex, just this side of Interstate 70.
Kansas City Downtown Airport is the first airport you'll see as you approach the city. The airport
sits at a bend on the north shore of the Missouri River, at its junction with the Kansas River. The
airport field elevation is 751 feet. Our landing will be on Runway 36 (or 0, if you like). If you get
on a heading of 270 degrees, with the airport well to the right on your windshield, you'll be on a
right base leg, which is fine for this strip. Give me a nice approach and I'll buy you a drink at
Kelly's Westport Inn, the oldest building in town.

Sunday Flyer

Before this book ends, I can't resist the temptation to come back here to the San Francisco Bay
area and this first STAR Scenery Disk. This disk, together with the Japan Scenery Disk, points
the way, I'm sure, to the future for Flight Simulator. In this detailed rendition of San Francisco
we have the most realistic environment in all the simulator worldbuildings, mountains, lakes,
waterways, bridges, even fog (though I find it more useful to regard fog as snow, as you already
know). The basic Scenery Disksbrilliantly executed as they arepale by comparison, though
they're not without some splendid scenes, many of which we've seen together.
My thought this afternoon is to fly without any specific flight planto take off and fly around
just for fun, taking in the sights and heading wherever something looks interesting. We can chalk
up the experience as familiarization with the area.
So the business end of Runway 9 at Antioch Airport is out there in front of you. It's Sunday
afternoon, you're all gassed up and checked out, and the weather is perfect. Get out your
sectional chart and open it on your flight desk, and let's get up in the air.

Climb straight out and plan to level off at 1500 feet. As you reach 1000 feet, turn left and head
due north toward the water. When you're over the water turn left again and head 270 degrees,
due west.
On your left are the cities of Concord and Pleasant Hill, and south of them are Walnut Creek and
Lafayette. To your left is Grizzly Island, and you're flying over, in turn, Honker Bay, Grizzly
Bay, and Suisun Bay. The two islands ahead are Ryder and, south of that, Roe. The big body of
water in the distance is San Pablo Bay, which is at the northern end of San Francisco Bay. The
highway on your left is John Muir Parkway, and the runway over there is Runway 7/25 at
Livermore Municipal Airport.
Where the water turns left, follow it, flying toward the first of two bridges (just highways
traversing the water) you'll cross before you get to San Pablo Bay. The water is quite narrow
along here. The first bridge is named Benicia Martinez. Well over to your left, this side of John
Muir Parkway and the metropolitan area, you'll be able to spot Buchanan Field's interlocking
runways. You can also pick them up on radar.
Turn right to follow the water toward the second bridge, called Carquinez, which continues
southwest and then south as Interstate 80. Once you're beyond Carquinez Bridge you'll be headed
out over San Pablo Bay. On the last strip of land to your right is a U.S. Coast Guard station.
An airport will show up ahead of you as you get out over the bayHamilton Air Force Base.
The base is inactive now and can be used by private aircraft. We won't use it this afternoon, but
let's fly on over and take a look at it anyhow. San Pablo Bay is only about 12 miles wide here.
As you come up on the west shore of the bay, turn left to a heading of 170 degrees. There will be
a disk access as you do, and once you level off you'll see Mt. Tamalpais on the right side of your
windshield and the bare beginnings of San Francisco on the left. Where the land juts out in front
of you is the city of San Rafael, and just beyond the jut is the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
Very soon, you'll see a little burst of color almost straight ahead. Do you recognize it? If not, you
soon will. Bank and turn slightly if necessary to get the object straight ahead, just off your nose.
If you take a 45-degree view to your left at the moment, you'll see where the Richmond-San
Rafael Bridge touches down in the metropolitan area formed by Richmond, San Pablo, and El
Cerrito.
A little further on, using the same 45-degree view, you'll see a rough rectangle called Angel
Island State Park.
By now it will surely be obvious that you're flying toward the Golden Gate Bridge. As you get
nearer, you'll see a nice flat strip of land to the right of the bridge. And what does a nice flat strip
of land say to a Sunday flyer? Particularly when it's right next to a major scenic attraction? So
why not?
Look at that nice flat strip of land on radar. It sure looks like a long runway, doesn't it? And the
wind is in the right direction for a landing to the east.
Here's how I suggest we do this (you may want to save your present parameters before you start,
in case anything goes amiss):
The water the Golden Gate Bridge crosses is called, reasonably enough, Golden Gate. Fly out
over Golden Gate, until radar shows that you are about opposite the midsection of the bridge.
Then turn right to a heading of 250 degrees. You are now downwind in a right-hand pattern for
the runway, which we'll assume bears 70 degrees. As you turn, transition to slowflight and
start losing some altitude.
When you're heading 250 degrees, take a 90-degree view to your right. There sits the runway,
big as life. When you're opposite land's end, turn right and fly the base leg, heading 340 degrees.
Take and hold a 45-degree view as you would in any normal landing. Make your final approach
on a heading of 70 degrees, using full flaps.
Once you've come safely to a stop, taxi up as close to the bridge as you like; but check radar to
avoid hitting the structure or, worse yet, hitting the water. Take front and right-side views and
see it all. (Note that the ground here is very deceptive. It looks as though there's grass rather
than water under the bridge. But it's water, and it's wet.)

When you're finished viewing the bridge, here are some parameters for your takeoff. (You can
also use these to rejoin us if you couldn't accomplish a landing after a few tries. It's tougher
than it looks, and that mountain, like all of the mountains we've encountered in the simulator, can
be treacherous.)
Go into the Editor and set North to 17437, East to 5050, and heading to 70 degrees. (Note your
altitude, just for reference.) This sets you up for a nice takeoff over the north end of the Golden
Gate Bridge, and you can use the parameters for your own private Golden Gate Airport. If you
look behind you, you'll see that you have plenty of room for a takeoff on Runway 25, too,
should the wind be off the Pacific Ocean.
Make your regular takeoff (and don't miss the absolutely spectacular 45-degree, then 90-degree
views of the bridge as soon as you are climbing).
Ahead of you, slightly to your right, is Alcatraz Island. Turn as needed to fly straight over it. The
island beyond Alcatraz is Treasure Island, where the San FranciscoOakland Bay Bridge touches
down en route to the east shore of the bay. When you can't see Alcatraz Island any more, turn
right to a heading of 105 degrees. You'll be pointed across the center of the San Francisco
Oakland Bay Bridge, with Fisherman's Wharf below and to your right. Level off when you get to
1500 feet.
Now use all your right-side views to watch San Francisco's business district go by, followed by
rear views of the bay, Alcatraz Island, Fisherman's Wharf, and the Golden Gate Bridge.
Out front, Nimitz Field is in the left foreground, with Oakland International Airport straight
ahead. The spot that seems to be floating in the water to the right of the Oakland airport is
actually a runway, 11/29. In fact, it's the major strip at Oakland. The other three comprise North
Field.
So let's do a touch-and-go on Oakland's Runway 11. It's a long runway. We're practically on a
long final for it, and the wind's from 100 degrees. Seems like everything is logical.
Transition to slowflight, apply 10 degrees of flaps, and get straight and level. Again you may
want to save the current parameters so that you can catch up to the text ifheaven forbid
anything goes wrong with your touch-and-go procedure.
Your composure will probably be interrupted by a signal from the Outer Marker of Oakland's
ILS. But pay it no heed.
After the disk access, you'll see how Oakland's main strip is connected to North Field by a
peninsula. Do what you have to do to get lined up for Runway 11, and start your letdown. The
elevation of the airport is just seven feetbarely the height of a basketball player.
As you descend, think about your touch-and-go procedure, which we developed in the first
chapter of this book: As soon as you're in the landing roll, eliminate your carburetor heat
(assuming you put it on for your landing). Then trim your elevators to achieve something close
to normal takeoff trim, get your flaps up, add full power, and go ahead with a normal takeoff.
Remember three things before you add power: carb heat off, elevator to takeoff trim, and flaps to
zero. Don't rush anything. If you land reasonably close to the near end of the runway, you'll have
ample room and time for all your control manipulations.
You'll get some more marker beacon signals, both on your final approach and as you get airborne
again.
Climb straight on out to 2000 feet this time. You'll see the parallel strips at Hayward Air
Terminal to the left of your course. Then you'll be coming up on California State Highway 92,
which crosses San Francisco Bay as the San Mateo-Hayward Bridge.
You'll probably get still another Outer Marker signal from Oakland International Airport's ILS,
and while it squawks at you, turn right and follow the bridge, pointing toward where it cuts left
and makes landfall in San Mateo. (I wish I knew how to shut off those signals, short of cutting
off the sound altogether; when you're not flying an ILS approach, who needs them?)
Notice that there are what seem to be piers under the far section of bridge, while the near
sections are just a standard white line. Then, as you get nearer, the piers become independent of
the bridge; the upshot is, I don't know what they are.
As the shoreline disappears under your nose, turn left to a heading of 105 degrees.
Another Outer Marker signalthis one from San Francisco International Airportis behind us.
After the disk access, you'll have a great head-on view of Dumbarton Bridge, the southernmost
of the San Francisco Bay bridges, and of the unique Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct just below it. Off to
the right, less than two miles south of the bridge, you'll be able to spot Palo Alto Airport on the
west shore.
But let's have some fun with the bridge and aqueduct. Give a couple of notches of down elevator
and get into a dive. Don't change power setting. Just use elevator to keep your VSI reading
somewhere between 1000 and 1500 FPM down. You'll pick up some airspeed, of course, but
nothing dangerous. The airplane will try to get into climb configuration rather than pick up big
amounts of airspeed. Take a look off to one side and note that your aircraft's attitude in relation
to the horizon isn't all that dramatic.
Watch your altimeter regularly, and when it reads 300 feet apply up elevator to level off, flying
over the bridge and Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct at an altitude somewhere between 200 and 300 feet.
Then push your throttle to the wall and set up a climb at about 1500 FPM, pinning the VSI
needle at the high end. Notice you won't need giant amounts of elevator to do this. When you're
close to 1500 feet of altitude, reduce power to normal cruise and adjust elevator to operational
neutral, for straight-and-level flight.
Now turn to a heading of about 122 degrees and tune San Jose VOR on 114.1. You'll hear the
indefatigable Outer Marker signal from San Jose International Airport while you're doing this.
So, sure enough, we're headed for the home airport whose acquaintance we made earlier in this
book. Looks familiar and comfortable, doesn't it, suspended there between the mountains?
Who knows, maybe a friend is there, watching for us, knowing we'd come back eventually.

And have we traveled! Texas, Oklahoma, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Oregon, Montana,
Idaho, Colorado, Utah, South Dakota, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. From the Gulf of Mexico
to the Gulf of California, to the blue Pacific, and north, to the edges of Canada. All behind this
trusty engine and supported by these beautiful wings, by this beautiful airframe of the
imagination.
What will tomorrow bring to Flight Simulator? I anxiously await the eastern set of Scenery
Disks, and more STAR Scenery Disks, and the third-generation simulator for the third-
generation computers. My Amiga is ready and waiting, and I am holding my breath to see what
its speed and color and resolution prowess will do with and for my airplane. And, if rumor is
right, there may be a second airplane in that future packagea jet that is really a jet, that takes
patience to understand and skill to fly.
I believe the Flight Simulators will and shouldthey mustgo on and on, getting better and
better with each new release. In my opinion there has never been anything to match them,
certainly nothing within reach of the ordinary microcomputerist.
I feel privileged to have been able to enjoy with you the breadth and beauty of the western
Scenery Disks, the San Francisco STAR Scenery Disk, and, particularly, Flight Simulator
itselfjust a humble, innocent-looking disk, but for us it has a 35-foot wingspan.
As long as new versions, and new extensions of present versions, come on the scene, and I'm
here to fly them, I intend to experience and to write about them. Then, as always, I look forward
to the pleasure of your company.

Appendix A: Flight Instruction Summary
The following is a brief review, in ready reference form, of aircraft operation and navigational
procedures. For more detailed information, Microsoft Press's Flight Simulator Co-Pilot is
strongly recommended.
Preflight Check
Heading: Check agreement with parameter set in Editor.
Carburetor heat: Be sure it's off, reading CH.
Takeoff Preparation (before taxiing)
Flaps: 10 degrees.
Elevators: Trim two quick notches up (from the elevator center position, on the Editor
default parameter 32767).
Takeoff and Climbout
Power: Advance gradually to full power.
Rotate at 80 KIAS (Knots Indicated Airspeed), using one notch of up elevator.
When VSI (Vertical Speed Indicator) indicates climb, apply one notch of down elevator
(releases rotation back pressure).
Flaps: Retract when climbing 500 FPM (feet per minute).
Trim out when climbing 1000 FPM, Cessna with two quick notches of down elevator,
Piper with one notch.
Reduce power for 500-FPM climb as indicated on VSI. (Nominal RPMs from sea level to
approximately 2000 feet: Cessna 2105 RPMs, Piper 2250 RPMs. Higher altitudes will
call for higher power settings.)
Climb to 400 feet AGL (Above Ground Level) before executing any turns.
Transition to Straight and Level at Cruise Altitude
Twenty feet below desired altitude, Cessna reduce power two notches, Piper three
notches. (Nominal RPMs at approximately 2500 feet: Cessna 1905 RPMs, Piper 1950
RPMs.)
Adjust power as necessary to hold cruise altitude. Adjust elevator trim only if power
adjustments prove unsatisfactory, in which case preferred trim is one notch down for best
efficiency. At very high altitudes, try to avoid operating at full engine power; instead, use
up elevator trim and/or lower rate of climb to reach desired altitude, then try a power
reduction to maintain straight and level.
Standard Climbs and Descents
500 FPM is the standard rate for climbs and descents. Use power in preference to elevator
adjustments, as follows:
To climb at 500 FPM from straight and level, increase throttle setting two notches in
Cessna, and three notches in Piper.
Twenty feet below desired altitude, decrease throttle setting by the same number of
notches. If resulting power setting will not maintain the higher altitude, adjust it upward
as required. (Give the aircraft time to settle down.)
To descend at 500 FPM from straight and level, decrease throttle setting two notches in
Cessna, and four notches in Piper.
At desired lower altitude, increase throttle setting by the same number of notches. If
resulting power setting is too high at the lower altitude, adjust it downward as required
(give the aircraft time to settle down).
To adjust your altitude by climbing or descending only a few hundred feet, use smaller
throttle adjustments.
Standard Turns
20-, 25-, 30-, and 35-degree turns all register on your turn coordinator, or bank-and-turn
indicator. A 20-degree, or two-minute, turn is the standard-rate turn and is useful any time but
particularly when flying IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) or making an ILS (Instrument Landing
System) approach. You are executing a two-minute turn when your wing lines up with the
reference mark (dot) adjacent to the L or R on the turn coordinator.
Precede the turn with a notch of up elevator to hold altitude while you are turning.
Use your left or right aileron control key to put your wing on the reference mark, then
neutralize the control using the Center Aileron key. (See Appendix B if you don't know
which key it is.)
If the bank shallows, apply additional aileron in the direction of turn, and again
neutralize.
If the bank steepens, apply aileron opposite to the direction of turn, and again neutralize.
Hold the 20-degree bank-and-turn until you are 10 degrees from your desired heading.
Roll out of the turn by applying opposite aileron and then neutralizing the control, just as
you did when entering the turn.
Take off the notch of elevator you applied to enter the turn.
Make minor directional adjustments by slight application of aileron.
The 25-, 30-, and 35-degree turns can usually be recognized as snap positions on the turn
coordinator. As you steepen your bank beyond 20 degrees you will see the steeper turns register
at their respective positions, the 35-degree turn being the steepest the instrument will indicate.
Experiment a bit to see the snap effect. For additional clarification of turns see Standard
Turns in Flight Simulator Co-Pilot, pages 1922.
Enter the steeper turns in the same manner as you entered the 20-degree turn, but use
additional aileron. Neutralize in the same way. Maintain the degree of bank by
application of more aileron or opposite aileron, as in the 20-degree turn.
Roll out of the steeper turns by application of opposite aileron, but start the rollout earlier
to suit the steepness of your bank.
Take off the notch of elevator used to enter the turn.
Climbing Turns
Add a notch of power before entering the turn.
Maintain your original rate of climb (typically 500 FPM) as you turn, using a notch of up
elevator in Cessna, or an additional notch of power in Piper, as needed (power is
preferred to elevator in Piper).
Roll out as usual, removing the power and the elevator back pressure you applied to enter
the turn.
Descending Turns
A turn while descending will increase your rate of descent.
Maintain your rate of descent using a notch of up elevator (in Piper a reduction of power
setting may be preferred).
Roll out of the turn normally and return elevator (and/or power) to original settings.
Transition to Slowflight
Slowflight from cruise or descent configuration is achieved by a combination of power reduction
and up elevator. You should transition to slowflight when approaching any airport where you
intend to land, and be in slowflight configuration when you enter the airport pattern.
Slowly reduce power, in Cessna by four notches and in Piper by seven notches. Typical
resultant RPMs (from straight-and-level configuration) will be 1505 in Cessna, 1200 in
Piper.
In Cessna, trim your elevator up six notches (three sets of two quick ups, separated by
about a second, i.e., 2,2,2).
In Piper, apply four elevator ups (separated by about a second, i.e., 1,1,1,1).
Cessna will settle down at about 70 KIAS, Piper at 84 KIAS. (Cessna typically indicates
10 knots under its actual airspeed.)
The speeds shown above will put you in slowflight with plenty of margin above stall speeds.
(Both aircraft can be flown safely at considerably lower speeds.)
Expect oscillations on your VSI when the transition is made quickly. If you have plenty of time
to slow down, experiment with alternate applications of power and elevator to effect a smoother
transition. The target for slowflight is always straight-and-level flight at approximately the
airspeeds given above.
Airport Runways & Patterns
Takeoffs and landings are made into the wind (upwind) wherever possible.
Airport runways are on headings which take advantage of prevailing winds in their area.
Landings at an angle to the wind direction are called crosswind landings.
Runways are numbered to indicate their approximate magnetic bearing, with the zero
dropped. For example, Runway 9 bears approximately 90 degrees, and landings on it are
to the east.
Any landing strip actually comprises two runways, since landings can be made from the
opposite direction should the wind shift around. Thus the reciprocal of Runway 9 is
Runway 27 (landings on 27 are, of course, to the west), and the runway may be referred
to generically as Runway 9/27.
An airport pattern is an imaginary rectangle, consisting of the takeoff or upwind leg, the
crosswind leg, the downwind leg, the base leg, and the landing legthe latter is referred
to as final or final approach.
Flying an airport pattern thus involves a takeoff, four 90-degree turns, and a landing in
the same direction as the takeoff.
Airport patterns are flown at a specific altitude, usually 800 to 1000 feet AGL.
Simultaneously with reaching pattern altitude, you will be preparing to descend again for
your landing.
The primary purpose of airport patterns is traffic control, particularly of student pilots
(who fly repeated patterns for practice).
On approaching an airport from a cross-country flight, pilots typically are required to
enter the airport pattern at a 45-degree angle to the downwind leg. This permits them to
see and be seen by pilots of other aircraft.
In the real world, the tower will regularly approve entries to other legs, or straight-in
approaches to the active runway, traffic permitting.
Airport patterns are typically left-hand patterns, meaning all turns are to the left. But
right-hand patterns are also common, to suit multiple-runway lies, neighborhood
considerations, terrain, obstructions, or other local factors. In the simulator, either pattern
may be used.
At busy airports with multiple runways, light-plane pilots are frequently instructed to
land on the smaller strips.
Executing a Landing
The aircraft should be at or close to slowflight on the downwind leg.
From downwind leg to touchdown, keep the runway in sight, using whatever left or right
sideviews are required.
Opposite the active end of the runway, apply carburetor heat, followed by 10 degrees of
flaps.
Based on your altitude, and your position in relation to the runway where you want to land:
Extend your flaps as and when needed. Flaps provide a lower stall speed and slow the
aircraft in steep descents. They usually should be extended fully on final approach.
Use alternate power reductions (or, as needed, increases) and varying elevator pressures
to effect a slow, relatively steep final approach to the runway threshold.
If airspeed and your position permit, flatten your descent angle a bit when you're 50 to
100 feet off the ground.
A few feet above the runway, apply up elevator to flare (transition to level or slightly
nose-high flight).
Finally, feel back the elevator (gradually apply up elevator) to keep the aircraft
airborne, just above stalling, until the moment of touchdown.
(More specific instruction, as well as a practice mode, can be found in Flight Simulator Co-
Pilot.)
VOR Navigation
VOR stands for very high frequency omnidirectional range, also called simply OMNI. A
network of OMNI or VOR stations spans the country. Any of these stations can be tuned, if in
range, on one or both of your navigation radios by setting the OBS, or Omni-Bearing Selector, to
the frequency of the station desired. Because the VOR radiates signals in a 360-degree pattern, in
steps of two degrees, you can find which radial you are on or crossing by centering your OBI
(Omni-Bearing Indicator) with a TO indication. If you then turn to the magnetic heading which
corresponds to that radial and regularly adjust your heading to keep the OBI needle centered
(always turn toward the needle to bring it to center position), you will fly directly to the VOR
station to which you are tuned. Should you fly beyond the station, your OBI will switch to
FROM, since you are now flying away from the station.
The signals radiating from a VOR station can be visualized as the spokes of a motionless wheel,
numbered clockwise from 0 to 360. Thus, if you determine which radial you are on, the direction
you must fly to intercept a higher- or lower-numbered radial becomes obvious. Making this
determination is simplified if you position yourself so that you are inbound (your Omni-Bearing
Indicator reads TO) on a given radial with the OBI needle centered. Then set the NAV1 OBS
to the radial you wish to intercept, and turn to fly to it. Your NAV2 radio can be used
dynamically to check the radials you are crossing en route, by regularly adjusting the NAV2
OBS to center its needle. Once you are within 10 degrees of the desired radial, as selected on the
NAV1 OBS, the NAV1 OBI needle will come on scale.
Flying An ILS Approach
An Instrument Landing System approach can be made to any runway that is ILS-equipped. You
must consult the relevant Sectional Chart and your manual to learn which airports have ILS
capability. To pick up the ILS glide slope and glide path, position your aircraft so that you are
inbound to the destination airport on its ILS runway heading, with your NAV1 radio tuned to the
correct ILS frequency (as given in your charts and manual). To give yourself plenty of time to
pick up the ILS and execute the approach precisely, you should be at least 15 nautical miles from
the destination airport (as indicated by your DME, or Distance Measuring Equipment readout) at
the outset. Your aircraft should be in slowflight configuration. When the ILS needles (one
vertical and one horizontal) become active, fly them just as you fly the OBI needle to a VOR
station, correcting your heading and your altitude (toward the needles in both cases) to keep the
two needles centered. But you must be exact. Constantly make the required corrections, using
small amounts of aileron and slight throttle adjustments to stay precisely on the indicated glide
slope (vertical path indicated by horizontal needle) and glide path (horizontal path indicated by
vertical needle). A descent rate of 500 FPM, with flaps extended 10 degrees, will coincide well
with the descent angle of the glide slope.
Outer, Middle, and Inner marker signalsvisible and audiblewill indicate your relative
distance from touchdown. As soon as you have the runway in sight (it should be virtually straight
ahead), take over visually and complete your landing. If you miss the approach, transition to a
climb, turn left or right to depart the airport pattern, and get in position to start all over again.
(Exact missed approach procedures vary according to airport, call for specialized knowledge
and skills, and are beyond the scope of this book.)

Glossary
Active runway: (Often shortened to simply the active.) The runway in use, based primarily on
wind conditions and occasionally on traffic conditions. When more than one runway is in use,
smaller aircraft typically are required to use the shortest runway.
AGL: Above Ground Level. Used to describe an aircraft's altitude above the ground. Aircraft
instruments do not provide the pilot with this information. The altitude AGL must be deduced
from a reading of the altimeter and charts or knowledge of the terrain over which the aircraft is
operating.
Ailerons: Pilot-controllable surfaces on the rear or trailing edge of each wing, used to roll the
aircraft and thus turn it. Acting in opposite directions, they increase lift on one wing while
decreasing it on the other, causing the aircraft to roll on its longitudinal axis, then bank and turn
in the direction of the lower wing.
Airfoil: A structural shape that creates or contributes to lift, such as the shape of an aircraft's
wings and tail surfaces.
Airspeed indicator: A panel instrument notifying the pilot of the aircraft's rate of speed through
the air. It operates by measuring the pressure of the relative wind against the wings. Indicated
airspeed is not true airspeed, nor is it the same as ground speed.
Altimeter: A panel instrument that tells the pilot the aircraft's altitude above sea level, also
referred to as MSL (Mean Sea Level) altitude. The altimeter operates by measuring decreases or
increases in atmospheric pressure, respectively, as the aircraft climbs or descends.
Angle of attack: The angle between the relative wind and the chord line of a wing or other
airfoil. The chord line is an imaginary line through the center of an airfoil, drawn from the
leading to the trailing edge.
Artificial horizon: A panel instrument depicting an aircraft's attitude with respect to the earth's
horizon. It continuously updates and displays a symbol of the horizon, and of the aircraft's wings
and nose in relation to that horizon.
ATC: Air Traffic Control. A ground-based radio network at many (but not all) airports,
consisting of: Ground Control, which provides taxiing instructions; Tower, which provides
instructions and clearances (permission) for takeoffs and landings; Departure Control and
Approach Control, for the airspace immediately surrounding the airport; and Center, which
controls the airspace at higher altitudes. Flight Simulator procedures cover only the Tower
portion of the network, to a minor degree.
ATIS: Automatic Terminal Information Service. A radio aid providing weather and other
information about a given airport, including the designation of the active runway.
Atmospheric pressure: The pressure exerted on the earth by its atmosphere. Also termed
barometric pressure because it is measured by a barometric device.
Auto-coordination: A system by which the ailerons and rudder of an aircraft are interconnected,
so that control of one automatically provides coordinated control of the other, eliminating
skidding or slipping in turns.
Bank: The lateral tilting of an aircraftthe result of rolling it about its longitudinal axiswhich
causes it to turn in the direction of the lower wing. The roll is begun by application of aileron in
the desired direction of bank and turn.
Bleed off: To decrease a value, such as airspeed or altitude, in a slow and controlled manner.
Ceiling: The altitude at which the bottom boundary of the lowest cloud layer in an overcast will
be encountered.
COM: Short for Communications. In Flight Simulator, the communications radio.
Control yoke: See Yoke.
Crabbing: A condition of flight in which, due to the direction of the winds aloft, the aircraft is
moving somewhat sideways through the air, but following a straight line in relation to the
ground. Named after the manner in which crabs move.
Density altitude: Pressure altitude (as shown on an altimeter) referenced to temperature, for
computing aircraft performance.
Directional gyro: See Heading indicator.
DME: Distance Measuring Equipment, providing the pilot with a panel readout of the aircraft's
distance from a VOR station, in nautical miles.
Drag: Forces that oppose an aircraft's movement through the air, acting parallel to, and in the
same direction as, the relative wind.
Elevators: Pilot-controllable surfaces on the trailing edge of the horizontal stabilizer, used to
pitch the aircraft's nose up or down or keep it level with the horizon, thus controlling airspeed.
The elevators are controlled by the yoke. Pulling back on the yoke moves the elevators up, and
the relative wind forces the tail downward while the nose pitches up. Releasing back pressure or
applying forward pressure on the yoke produces the opposite result.
FAA: Federal Aviation Administration.
Flaps: Pilot-controllable airfoils on the trailing edge of the wings, used to assist the pilot in
takeoffs, slowflight, and landings. On takeoff, lowering or extending the flaps by 10 degrees
(nominal) provides the highest lift-to-drag ratio, shortening the distance required to get airborne.
Lowered flaps assist in slowflight by increasing drag and at the same time reducing the aircraft's
stalling speed. On landing approaches, flaps are loweredtypically all the wayto
accommodate a steeper angle of descent; for instance, for clearing obstacles or flying tight
airport patterns. Flaps also permit touchdown at a lower airspeed, because of a higher coefficient
of lift and thus a lower stalling airspeed. After touchdown, the drag of the flaps shortens the
landing roll.
Flare: The leveling-off phase of a landing approach, just prior to touchdown, bringing the
aircraft level or slightly nose-high. It is performed a foot or so above the runway in actual
aircraft, but somewhat higher than that in the simulator to compensate for the relative
insensitivity and slow reaction-time of the simulated control.
FPM: Feet Per Minute. Used to measure an aircraft's rate of climb or an aircraft's rate of descent.
Gear: See Landing gear.
Glide slope: A navigational aid used on ILS landing approaches, consisting of a horizontal
needle that displays the correct vertical position for the aircraft in its approach to the runway
threshold. The pilot works to keep the needle centered by continuously monitoring the angle of
descent, and adjusting it as required. The glide slope is used in conjunction with the localizer.
Ground speed: An aircraft's actual speed over the ground, which is not available as an
instrument readout but must be calculated.
Heading: The magnetic compass direction in which the aircraft is pointed, in relation to a 360-
degree circle. It is not necessarily the direction the aircraft is traveling (see, for instance,
Crabbing).
Heading indicator: (Also called the directional gyro.) A compass controlled by a gyroscope,
which gives the pilot heading information based on forces which act on the gyro, rather than on
magnetic readings. It obviates the lag inherent in a magnetic compass, and requires no settling
time, as does the latter, after turns and climbs.
Horizontal stabilizer: The fixed horizontal surface at the rear of the aircraft, equipped with
controllable elevators.
IAS: Indicated Air Speed. Also see KIAS.
IFR: Instrument Flight Rules. The rules by which an aircraft must be flown when in instrument
conditions, or when flight by visual reference (see VFR) is difficult or impossible.
ILS: Instrument Landing System. A system of radio instrument aids that displays, on the pilot's
instrument panel, three-dimensional references by which he or she can make an approach and
landing without outside visual references. It consists of a localizer, glide slope, marker beacons,
and approach lights (the latter not included in the Flight Simulators).
KIAS: Knots Indicated Air Speed. An aircraft's airspeed in knots, as read on the airspeed
indicator.
Knots: Nautical miles per hour, abbreviated kn. A knot is equal to 1.1507 statute miles, or
conversely, a statute mile is equal to .869 knots. The simulator airspeed indicator and the DME
read in knots.
Landing gear: The appendage of struts and wheels on which the airplane lands. Both the
simulated Cessna and Piper aircraft have tricycle gear, comprised of a nose wheel and two
main wheels, which enable the aircraft to sit level on the ground. Landings should, however, be
made on the main wheels, with the nose wheel being lowered to the runway only after the plane
has landed and slowed down.
Localizer: A radio navigational aid used in conjunction with the glide slope on ILS landing
approaches. The localizer needle is a vertical needle that displays the correct horizontal position
for the aircraft on its approach to the runway threshold. The pilot keeps the needle centered by
continuously monitoring the heading and adjusting it as required.
Magneto: A device that creates the high voltages required for aircraft engine spark plugs. It
combines the functions of an automobile engine's coil and distributor.
Marker beacons: Labeled O, M, and I on the instrument panel. Outer, Middle, and Inner marker
beacons consist of visible and audible signals that tell the pilot his or her relative distance from
the end of the runway on ILS approaches.
NAV: Short for Navigation. In Flight Simulator, the navigation radios (NAV1 and NAV2).
OBI: Omni-Bearing Indicator. A panel instrument that gives the pilot information about the
aircraft's position relative to the VOR station to which the NAV radio is tuned. It consists of an
OBS, or Omni-Bearing Selector, for selecting a course or radial; a TO-FROM indicator, advising
whether the pilot is flying toward or away from the station; a GDI, or Course Deviation Indicator
(or needle for short), which the pilot works to keep centered; and, in the case of NAV1, glide
slope and localizer (glide path) needles which indicate, respectively, the correct vertical and
horizontal courses to the runway threshold on an ILS approach.
OMNI: Short for Omni-Bearing Indicator and/or its components, and also, loosely, a VOR
station.
Phonetic alphabet: The terms used to transmit letters and numbers via aircraft radio, to prevent
misunderstandings:
A Alpha
B Bravo
C Charlie
D Delta
E Echo
F Foxtrot
G Golf
H Hotel
I India
J Juliet
K Kilo
L Lima
M Mike
N November
O Oscar
P Papa
Q Quebec
R Romeo
S Sierra
T Tango
U Uniform
V Victor
W Whiskey
X X-Ray
Y Yankee
Z Zulu
1 Wun
2 Too
3 Tree
4 Fower
5 Five
6 Six
7 Severn
8 Aight
9 Niner
0 Zeeroh
Note that numbers are spoken as individual digits. For example, 297 is spoken too niner seven.
Pitch: The angle between the longitudinal axis of the aircraft and the horizon. Pitch is described
as nose up, nose down, and level. We also say an aircraft is pitched up or pitched
down.
Power setting: The amount of throttle, or fuel flow, applied to the engine, determined in the
prototype by the position of the throttle (a push-pull control), and in the simulator by the number
of notches applied to the throttle.
Rate of climb: The rate at which the airplane is climbing, measured in feet per minute. Also
used, illogically, to define the rate at which the airplane is descending, though rate of descent
is better applied to that condition. There can, however, be a zero rate of climb without confusion.
Rate of climb indicator: See VSL.
Rate of turn: The rate at which the aircraft is turning, measured in degrees per second, as a
result of its airspeed and the sideways force, or horizontal lift component, which is causing it to
turn. The rate of turn at any given airspeed is controlled by the angle of bank.
Rotation: The act of rotating the aircraft on takeoff, or using back pressure to raise the nose just
prior to departing the ground. The aircraft is rotated as it reaches climb speed.
RPM: Revolutions Per Minute. The measure of the speed at which the aircraft's engine, and the
propeller fastened to its crankshaft, are turning, as a result of the amount of throttle applied, the
aircraft's pitch, and other flight conditions.
Rudder: Pilot-controllable surface on the trailing edge of the vertical stabilizer that controls
yaw, or rotation about the aircraft's vertical axis.
Skid: A sliding of the aircraft to the left or right, out of alignment with the desired flight path. A
skidding turn results when centrifugal force is greater than horizontal lift, pulling the aircraft
toward the outside of the turn.
Slip: A yawing of the aircraft toward the outside of the path of a turn. A slipping turn results
when horizontal lift is greater than centrifugal force.
Stack: (Also called radio stack.) The section of the instrument panel where the COM, NAV,
and transponder are installed, usually in a stack on top of one another.
Tachometer: Often abbreviated tach. The instrument that measures the speed of rotation of
the engine, in revolutions per minute (RPM).
TAS: True Air Speed. Airspeed after compensation for density altitude.
Taxi: To move an aircraft on the ground.
Throttle: The control that determines the speed of rotation of the engine's crankshaft, in
revolutions per minute, by the rate at which it permits fuel to flow.
Trim: Small control surfaces affecting the elevators, making it unnecessary to maintain
pressures on the yoke. In this book, trim is simulated by elevator settings, since no pressures can
be felt in the simulator.
Vertical stabilizer: (Also called the fin.) A fixed vertical surface at the rear of the aircraft, to
which a movable surfacethe rudderis hinged. The vertical stabilizer helps to stabilize the
aircraft in the vertical or yaw axis.
VFR: Visual Flight Rules. Rules covering flights in visual conditions, or conditions when visual
references are adequate for safe control of an aircraft. Compare IFR.
VOR: Very high frequency Omnidirectional Range. A radio transmission system provided for
pilots that enables them, with the necessary equipment, to navigate along or over magnetic-
course radials (all of which converge at specific VOR stations), and thus to navigate precisely
throughout the airspace.
VOR station: The facility housing a VOR transmission system and equipment. Each VOR
station has a name, usually that of an airport or nearby town.
VSI: Vertical Speed Indicator. A panel instrument showing the aircraft's rate of ascent or
descent, in feet per minute.
Yaw: An aircraft's rotation about its vertical axis. The vertical axis is also called the yaw axis.
Yoke: The pilot's control column, similar in appearance (but not performance) to an automobile
steering wheel. The yoke incorporates aileron and elevator control, resulting from pressures
applied by the pilot. The term pressure stresses the fact that the yoke is not pushed, pulled, or
turned abruptly or forcefully, but moved slowly and in small increments. Pressures to left or right
operate the ailerons. Backward or forward pressures operate the elevators. The yoke returns to its
neutral position when pressure on the yoke is released.

Charles Gulick is the author of the bestselling FLIGHT SIMULATOR CO-PILOT, published
in November 1986 by Microsoft Press. His other books include 40 Great Flight Simulator
Adventures and 40 More Great Flight Simulator Adventures, published by Compute! Books. He
has also written software and hardware reviews and a program, Peek Pong, for 80 Micro
magazine. Charles Gulick lives in Lake Park, Florida.

The manuscript for this book was prepared and submitted to Microsoft Press in electronic form.
Text files were processed and formatted using Microsoft Word.
Cover design by Becker Design Associates.
Interior design adapted from original design by Becker Design Associates.
Text composition by Microsoft Press in Century Old Style with display in Futura Extra Black,
using the CCI composition system and the Mergenthaler Linotron 202 digital phototypesetter.
Principal typographer: Ruth Pettis