April 2006 VOLUME 10 - ISSUE 4 - This is the full magazine in digital form!
Flying the Memories – April Fool’s Day “It was April 1, 2001, “April Fool’s Day”, but for Lt. Shane Osborne, Senior chief Petty Officer Nicholas Mellos, and the other 22 members of Squadron One (VQ-1) the “World Watchers” it was a serious business day. Earlier in the day they had departed the USAF Base Kadena, Okinawa on an aerial surveillance mission. They were flying an U.S. Navy EP-3E Aries II Electronic Surveillance Plane on a routine mission over international waters of the South China Sea off the coast of China.” What comes next? Find out next month!
“Modding” the Cougar Matthew Edwards continues our cockpit building series of articles. This time out he takes a look at how you can make modifications to the Thrustmaster Cougar to achieve better functionality and easier control of your virtual fighter jets. Some of the theory can be applied to applying “mods” to other branded controllers as well.
Flight Simulation and Your Health Yep, believe it or not, flight simulation as a hobby has the potential to impact on your health. But never fear. Computer Pilot has all the antibodies and advice you will need next issue to help you pass your flight sim medical exam!
Flying in the Ground Effect
We have covered this to some degree before, but Chuck Bodeen re-explores the theory and ground effect in more detail and shows some very interesting examples of the effect in process, even for helo pilots!
Air-to-Air Combat in the Viper: Part II You have a grip on your radar modes as explained in last month’s issue... You know the parameters of your missiles and you can fire the cannon with deadly effect… You have bought the big watch; you talk with your hands and walk with a swagger. It’s time to start the kill-fest!
How Much is Too Much?
Flight simming by nature is somewhat of a lonely hobby. It’s often a case of you and your computer vs the flight simulator software. But in the age of the Internet, it is easier to meet fellow hobbyists both online, and in the real world. The best way to meet people with similar interests is to join a club. Peter Stark tells us about his favourite sim club.
Round Robin Adventures We are flying for Southwest Airlines on the Boeing 737-700. This Airline was one of the first “no-frills” airlines and operates only Boeing 737s. Today’s flight is a regular schedule run from Dallas Love Field to St. Louis/Lambert, Kansas City and back to Dallas.
Exploring the Flight Envelope So, you download a new type and find that the documentation isn't so hot. How do you find out what the numbers are? The V speeds, the cruise speed, power settings and fuel consumption? You test fly it to a schedule and create performance charts and graphs. You end up with a set of performance figures just as real world test pilots do…
From the EDITOR.. Howdy folks. Welcome to the April 2006 issue of Computer Pilot magazine. Many will be aware of the recent record-breaking flight made by Steve Fossett in the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer aircraft, traversing the globe non-stop with over 26,000 miles covered in a little over 76 hours of continuous flight time. It certainly is an amazing accomplishment no doubt, and I’m sure there will be several flight simmers who might even attempt to replicate this effort at home on their PC flight sims, and yes, stay up for 76 hours to try and achieve it. Well, you won’t catch me doing that! Besides, if I did attempt it, you might not get next month’s issue at all!
The question of such an achievement must be asked though. What was the purpose of flying no-stop around the world in under 80 hours? Sure, it has now been done in a unique aircraft, but it only carried one pilot, no passengers, and certainly not a cargo-load of passenger baggage. There seems little achievement to this accomplishment apart from the fact that they were able to do something that previously was thought not possible. I mean, when you think about it, what is the point of flying around the world, experiencing 76 hours of potential DVT-producing sitting positions only to end up back where you started (roughly)? And I can only guess as to what this whole adventure cost in dollars from start to finish… Many millions for sure, perhaps tens of millions, perhaps more? Of course, there is more to it then that. I am sure a lot has been learnt about aircraft design and aircraft endurance that will probably find its way into future aircraft design that will benefit us all, however, has it been a really ground breaking exercise in aviation from a practical sense? You could probably debate it either way, but I’ll leave you to ponder on that one. If you want to try the flight for yourself (perhaps in stages at least) you can download a Global Flyer model from the popular download libraries online to use in your simulator. It would make an interesting flight if nothing else. You can find more information on the Global Flyer record at http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com
Ok, back to the issue. We have several good flight lessons this month to enjoy which should take you away from your regular comfort zone in your simulator. Seaplanes, gliders, and handling emergencies – all a good challenge, and great fun. Of course we also have some reviews, regular columns and some great feature stories and articles all worthy of your attention. Enjoy this issue and see you next month!
