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A quick look at: Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 – A Century of Flight
W
hile we were preparing the
Instrument Landing Systems
article for publication, we
were reminded that Microsoft Flight
Simulator also caters for Instrument
Landings – and is probably the closest
thing that many readers would ever
come to taking control of an aeroplane.
We’d heard that you could “almost”
learn to fly a real plane by first learning
how to “fly” MFS. There were many
news reports not too long after September 11 which stated the terrorists first
learnt to fly using MFS. And we’ve seen
other reports claiming MFS is not only
used in flying schools but is also used
by pilots to maintain their skill levels
or to learn new skills without spending
the sometimes huge amounts of money
required to hire a real aircraft.
Is that true? And what about the Instrument Landing System? How does
that compare?
With the quick co-operation of Microsoft, a copy of the latest version of MFS
was soon installed in my computer and
I went flying. Well, sorta flying. Taking
off and crashing would be a more honest
description (honest, boss, it was all for
research . . .)
Microsoft Flight Simulator has been
around for twenty years. Somewhere in
my software library there’s a copy of the
first MFS. I remember thinking at the
time that it was a very good simulation,
particularly given the standard of computer graphics at the time. I also remember getting pretty frustrated at the time,
taking off and crashing (yeah, nothing’s
changed). I confess I haven’t looked at
MFS in the ensuing two decades.
So just how good is the latest incarnation of Microsoft Flight Simulator?
(While it’s called MFS 2004, it was
released in 2003 to mark the centenary
of the Wright Brother’s first flight).
In so many ways, it’s very, very good.
The graphics, for example, are amazing.
Being the parochial type, the first
thing I did was load Sydney International Airport instead of one of the
Seattle airports (OK, Microsoft designers
are allowed to be parochial too!). For a
couple of minutes, I thought that Sydney
airport wasn’t included – but of course
it’s there under its fair-dinkum name,
Kingsford Smith International.
Incidentally, you can choose 368
airports from Australia or 23,760 fields
around the world. Want to fly out of
Oshkosh? No problem, b’gosh!
18 Silicon Chip
But back to Sydney. I took off
(any idiot can take off – all you
have to do is apply power and pull
the nose up) and banked right. Sure
enough, there was the Sydney CBD
and Centrepoint tower. I buzzed the
city at an impossible illegal height
and even flew under the coat-hanger
(Harbour Bridge for the geographically challenged). The scenery is
amazingly realistic, especially from
a reasonable height.
“OK”, I thought, “I’m gonna find
my house.” Completely ignoring air
traffic control rules, I climbed to a
thousand feet, followed the harbour
down to the heads (well, something
like the heads) and turned left up the
Northern Beaches.
Long Reef is a pretty prominent
headland and just happens to mark
the edge of controlled air space (I
know that because Dick Smith told
me that as we flew into Sydney one
time). There, on its left, was the
“lump” of Collaroy Plateau and immediately beyond Narrabeen Lakes.
My place should be pretty easy to
spot, between the two. But it’s not
there – a high-rise building is. And
it was a similar story all the way up
to Pittwater and Palm Beach.
So while the overall scenery is
very good, it’s best viewed from a
reasonable height and not taken too
literally!
Time to get back on terra firma.
And here is where the terra started!
I decided to head for Bankstown
airport because I’d flown in and out
of there recently. Let’s say my attempts
to land were not quite as successful
as take-off (remember I said any idiot
can take off). But eventually, I did
manage to put it down at Bankstown.
Not necessarily on the runway – on
any runway – but hey, a landing’s a
landing!
Flying lessons
With a couple of weeks to spare, I
would be able to perfect this because
one of the most powerful features of
MFS is its renowned inbuilt flying lessons. The introductory lessons, by King
Schools, are a bit folksy American for
me (sorry, John and Martha). The “real”
lessons, by very experienced instructor
Rod Machado are very good (but the
jokes are corny!). You can advance from
student, private, instrument, commercial and airline pilot, flying everything
from a Cessna Skyhawk SP 172 right up
to a Boeing 737-400.
But that’s not all you can fly in
MFS 2004. It’s not called “A Century of Flight” for nothing. You can
fly everything from the 1903 Wright
Flyer, through the Curtis “Jenny” (the
barnstormer’s favourite), the Vickers
Vimy, Lindbergh’s Spirit of St Louis,
then through many of the world’s famous aircraft – DC3, various Cessnas,
Beechcraft, Lear Jet, right up to Boeing
747 and 777. There’s also a couple of
helicopters and even a sailplane – 24
aircraft in all.
As you may have deduced, I am no
aviator (it was always on my wish list
but never got off it!). But I really do
siliconchip.com.au
believe that given enough time and
practice, you could actually learn to
fly using these lessons. Well, you’d
certainly be a lot more capable of
handling the real thing than a novice
without any MFS experience.
ILS
Now for the reason we wanted to
look at MFS in the first place: Instrument Landing Systems.
Exactly as Daniel Field explained in
the ILS article, you can use the glideslope and localiser needles to put
your-self on the runway at the right
place. It really is that easy. One of the
MFS lessons covers this specific item.
But there’s much more. MFS includes
every electronic aid to flying that is currently available to a “real” pilot. You can
even program in weather (including real
siliconchip.com.au
weather conditions applicable to your
local area in real time). The cloud effects
included with this edition of MFS have
earned it “rave reviews”.
For the more adventurous, you can
program in gear failure. Want to lose
an engine on take-off? How about a
lightning strike knocking out all avionics on a 747-400 at 500 feet on final in
zero visibility? No pressure!
What you need
The computer needs to have a bit
of grunt. Minimum spec is a 450MHz
processor with an 8MB video card
and 1.8GB of hard disk space but we’d
suggest this is an absolute minimum.
Even on a 2.4GHz/32MB machine we
noticed a few glitches.
Most important, though, you need
a joystick. They say you can use
Review by Ross Tester
MFS with the keyboard but it’s very
frustrating. We actually bought a new
joystick specifically for MFS. For less
than fifty dollars you should be able
to get a quality joystick with plenty of
controls and, importantly, a throttle.
These days, with USB on pretty well
every computer, it’s sensible to get a
USB joystick.
Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004 – A
Century of Flight comes on four CDs.
One of the frustrating things is that,
even with the program (all 2GB of
it) loaded on your hard disk you still
need to leave No 4 CD in the drive. It’s
probably an anti-piracy device but it’s
a pain in the proverbial.
With a “G” rating, Microsoft Flight
Simulator 2004 is available practically
anywhere. Recommended retail price
is $109.95.
SC
June 2004 19
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