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1993-05-30
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Walter Mitty's Excellent Plane Rides
by Stephen Talmadge
Flight Assignment: ATP Version 3 (SubLOGIC, 501 Kenyon Road,
Champaign, Illinois)
Recent Street Price: $49.99 @ Egghead Software
Flight Assignment: ATP is not a game; it is simulation software. For
those of you who know Microsoft's Flight Simulator (which was itself
originally developed by subLogic), Flight Assignment: ATP provides
visual and instrument commercial airliner operations training in a
simulated environment which conforms to FAA approved procedures,
adaptive software simulator interaction; and flight assignments
which can be flown in a structured, semi-structured or free-style
mode, depending upon the desires of the simulator pilot.
The initials ATP stand for Airline Transport Pilot, the FAA
designation for licensed drivers of heavy, multi-engine aircraft. In
Flight Assignment: ATP there is a structured training program
consisting of 96 preplanned flights or 'trips' which become
gradually more challenging as the simulator pilot moves more deeply
into the program.
And, as if all that wasn't enough, Flight Assignment: ATP runs just
fine on a 'fairly zippy' AT-class system. I reviewed the product on
a 286 clone that benchmarks at about 17 MHz running DOS 5.0 in 4 Mb
of 80 ns memory and a moderate speed IDE hard drive. Sometimes the
frame rate appeared a touch slow -- particularly on short final
approach with low ceilings and some stinky crosswinds; but
nonetheless that class of system will handle Flight Assignment:
ATP adequately.
SubLogic says the software will run on an XT-class machine; and I
have no doubt that it will. But running Flight Assignment: ATP on
any processor rated below 15 Mhz may frustrate and perhaps annoy
the user; and I also recommend a [preferably VGA] color monitor --
which is not "necessary" but nice to have when trying to keep track
of all of the stuff that comes at you on the screen.
Move up to at least a 386/33 with 2+ Mb of fairly fast memory and
things will always appear smooth on the monitor. If you want to hear
interactive voice communications with the FAA folks, add a
SoundBlaster or AdLib board. Otherwise, the audio support is
limited to surprisingly realistic flight sounds played through your
PC's speaker and the FAA communications are displayed in text for
you at the top of the monitor.
You can run Flight Assignment: ATP using just the computer's
keyboard; but the software also supports [and I highly recommend]
use of a pointing device [a trackball will probably work better than
a mouse] and joystick. If you really want to get into this simulator,
you can add a device called Flight Controls I which plugs into a
game adapter and includes an actual control yoke, flap switch,
throttle and gear switch. Add a set of optional rudder pedals and,
except for the physical sensations that you can only experience in
flight, it truly is just like being there.
Flight trips made 'on the record' are rated for safety, airmanship
and overall skill; and individual trip ratings are accumulated in a
logbook which is maintained for each ATP rating candidate by the
simulation program. The preplanned trips may also be made in Single
Flight Mode ('off the record') so that one may practice the flight
before the electronic 'FAA inspector' sits along side. In addition,
the simulator pilot can design and fly a trip between any two
airports included in the Flight Assignment: ATP world; and the
software will interact properly from start to finish -- just as
though the trip was one of those in the structured training program.
Aircraft provided by Flight Assignment: ATP are the Boeing 737-250,
Airbus A320-150, the Boeing 767-250, the Boeing 747-350 and [for
all you barnstormers] the Shorts 360. In what I construed as an
oddly jingoist move, only the Boeing aircraft are included in the
structured training program; and flight characteristics of the A320
and the Shorts 360 are left to the student to discover outside the
formal training program. I found the A320 a dream to fly and the
Shorts 360 can deliver some truly spectacular [albeit noisy] short
field takeoff and landing performance. Cockpit design and sound
effects are varied with each aircraft; and closely resemble their
true-life counterparts.
Instrument support includes the standard commercial airliner panel
-- Airspeed Indicator, Attitude Direction Indicator, Automatic
Direction Finder, Artificial Horizon, Pressure Altimeter, Radio
Altimeter, Heading Indicator, Vertical Speed Indicator, Horizontal
Situation Indicator, Radio Magnetic Indicator, Transponder, two
Communications and two VOR/ILS Navigation Radios [with Distance
Measuring Equipment]; as well an X-Band color radar screen and
assorted indicators, gauges, dials and lights. Automatic Terminal
Information Service, enroute Flight Service Station briefings and
two-way radio communications are also provided.
There is an autopilot which can be engaged to hold altitude and
heading; and also coupled to track radio navigation aids such as
Visual Omnirange Receivers and [very helpful during a final
instrument approach] the localizer beam of an Instrument Landing
System. [You're on your own riding the glide slope...] All aircraft
other than the 737 provide an Inertial Reference System which you
can use to define up to four geographic waypoints that can be flown
to in the sequence of your choice.
The software includes a demo ride; and a broad range of Boeing 737
lessons -- each of which focuses on development of one flight skill
set. The demo ride has imbedded, intentional mistakes -- allowing
the novice simulator pilot to sit back and watch what happens when
the errors made during the demonstration are and are not corrected.
Deploy the flaps at too great a speed and your flight score gets
'derated'; let the nose get too high or don't maintain your climb
during departure, same story. Get going too low and too slow on
final and you will not only get derated; but you will spend what may
seem like the-rest-of-your-natural-life pouring on lots and lots of
power to get proper control of the airplane back. Continue an
approach after you are instructed to go around -- even when
everything looks absolutely super to you -- and you will pay the
price in rating point deductions.
Included with the well-written and very complete manual are
instrument approach plates and airport diagrams [by
Jeppeson-Sanderson, Inc.] for 26 primary airports within the
continental United States; and two high altitude enroute charts
providing detailed information regarding the FAA's Victor airway
system. The structured instruction program is based upon flights
between the primary airports using the Victor airways and these
published instrument approaches.
There is also a listing of over 330 additional airports -- each
complete with geographic coordinates -- everyone of which has at
least one runway long enough to accommodate the Shorts 360. If you
like, you can plan and execute your own flight plans between any of
these airports using the Inertial Reference System -- entering the
various airport coordinates as waypoints.
Now, every once in a while, things get strange. Sometimes [but
rarely] during a structured flight assignment, when everything seems
normal and all appears to be going according to plan, you will start
to get messages from the FAA telling you to hold a heading that will
take you off the airway which your flight plan calls for you to
follow.
After that kind of occurrence, two things generally happen: either
the simulation starts nagging at you about being off the airway and
simultaneously tells you to hold the heading which will keep you off
the airway; or it just kind of lets you fly off into never-never-land
and burn up all of your remaining fuel while ignoring any of your
requests for guidance or assistance.
In both situations, asking for radar vectors or a new clearance
doesn't seem to help -- even though the simulator does have full
capability to issue a new clearance and/or provide vectors to get
you back on track. [As Paul Newman once said in Cool Hand Luke, what
we have here is a failure to communicate.] In my experience if you
fly the same flight assignment again this 'strange' situation will
normally not repeat itself.
For instance, during one apparently normal trip from St. Pete to
Atlanta, the simulator turned me around at the Tallahassee VOR and
headed me back toward St. Pete with no explanation whatsoever. After
flying 150 miles back in the 'wrong direction' with no response from
the FAA to my continued requests for a updated clearance and/or
radar vectors, I terminated the flight. When I reran the trip again,
everything went normally from start to finish. All things considered
it is probably best to remember that this is a highly complex,
interactive software package; and an occurrence like this should be
viewed as a minor software bug and not the manner in which the FAA
normally operates. [At least we can all hope that is an accurate
assessment.....]
If you like flying or want to fly like Walter Mitty, Flight
Assignment: ATP is a real kick in the pants. If you want to get an
accurate appreciation for the demanding world of the person who is
driving your next commercial airline flight, get yourself a copy of
Flight Assignment: ATP. This is a very exciting simulator package
that will challenge and entertain you for a long, long time.
I really like it! Can you tell?
Special thanks to Norm Olsen, Vice President of Marketing at
subLogic. Norm was kind enough to replace our non-functioning Beta
evaluation copy of Flight Assignment: ATP with a brand new set of
program disks and full set of documentation. Thanks, Norm, you've
made one old hanger dog real happy.
References:
IFR Communications Manual, Bryan Harston,
Macmillan, NYC, 1990
Instrument Flying, Richard L. Taylor, Macmillan,
NYC, 1989
Instrument Rating Manual, Jeppeson-Sanderson,
Englewood, Co., 1990
Mastering Instrument Flying, Henry Sollman and
Sherwood Harris, Tab Practical Flying Series,
Tab Books Inc., Blue Ridge Summit, Pa., 1989
Author Information: Stephen Talmadge is a licensed pilot with over
200 hours of flight time in single engine aircraft. He has had
extensive commercial flight training, has shot more than a few
instrument approaches, and done lots of cross country flying in
'real' airplanes. Steve has also used and loved Microsoft's Flight
Simulator for many years and, more recently, the add-on product
called Aircraft and Scenery Designer; having used them as placebos
to salve his aerial soul when actual pilot time became too expensive
for him to continue.