Wed, Sep 01, 2010
One Reader "Flies" Along With What He Reads
By Dave Juwel
(Editors note. We always enjoy hearing about the different
ways you folks enjoy ANN, and hearing you tell us that you visit
the site every day never gets old. But one of our readers has found
an interactive way to enjoy the stories we post here. We'll let
Dave tell you in his own words.)
"When I fire up ANN for the day, I also fire up my FSX (on a
separate monitor) and use it to visit or fly along with some of the
articles.
"For instance today (Saturday), I flew to Lee Bottom Flying
Field and cruised their airspace before landing. Then I scrolled
down through the articles and read the Jeppesen article about
flight 1549. So I recreated flight 1549 using a Boeing 737-800
(although I could have downloaded an Airbus A320 to make it more
realistic). When I finished with that I scrolled down and read the
article about the Navy celebrating one million flight hours in the
Boeing T-45 Goshawk. So I loaded up my T-45 Goshawk, took off from
Cecil field, came back around and did a complete air show in
celebration with them.
Lee Bottom Aerial View
"When I read the various UAV articles, I load up my Northrop
Global Hawk and recreate some of those flights. I can even recreate
unusual and unique flights using the same aircraft, following the
same flight path. I can fly places I'd never fly in real life, or
visit places I didn't know about (like Haller Airpark). Since I
have the ability to load almost any airplane and visit almost any
airport in the world, it doesn't matter what ANN reports on, I can
fantasize the event on my FSX. It also doesn't matter what type of
flying is being done because I have aircraft that represent every
type of aviation. (Wow, do I have too much time on my hand, or
what.)
"Does this activity have any practical value? Recently I flew in
a 172 with a commercial pilot. Though I am a rated pilot, I hadn't
flown a fixed wing in several years. He cautiously let me fly,
knowing that I hadn't done so in a long time. We flew around for a
couple of hours. When we finished, he said he was surprised because
I flew with the skill level approaching a commercial pilot. So yes,
simulator time does help you keep your skills up, particularly
instruments, navigation and that ever so gentle control touch. And
mirror flying the events in ANN makes my simulator time a whole lot
more exciting. Give it a try."
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