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1994-09-25
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T H E L O W L A N D S
=========================
A BIT OF SCOTLAND GROWN FROM AN ACORN!!
=======================================
This is a conventional flight simulator designed using the Flight Simulator
Toolkit from Simis. In it, you will find a 'world' 100km by 100km which
represents central Scotland. As much as possible, objects within this world
map some real feature of the lowlands landscape. You will find Loch Lomond and
its dominant mountain, Ben Lomond. The Campsie hills to the north of Glasgow
are there with many other large scale features like Carron Reservoir, the
Forth Rail and Road Bridges and the Erskine Bridge.
Many, though by no means all, roads are included. Motorways like the M74,
M8, M80 and M9 along with more minor roads can be followed as aids to
navigation. Some tower blocks and house type buildings are in as well as the
occasional gasometer and football ground. In the construction of a mapped
landscape like this, one has to make huge compromises in the amount of
detail included. Some roads have their paths carefully copied while others
are not even represented. The spread of the simulator's detail is not in any
way consistent but rather has evolved based on my own interest in flying and
what I wanted to see from the cockpit. There is, however, a hefty amount of
detail to fly around. Since I live in Glasgow and fly from Cumbernauld, much
detail is focussed around these areas. Try flying an approach to Glasgow for
runway 23 and you will see some of the prominent features you would expect.
Tower blocks in Drumchapel, The River Clyde, cranes in Clydebank.
Within the area covered by the 'world', there are 6 facilities for landing a
fixed wing aircraft (that I know of). These are Cumbernauld Airport,
Edinburgh Airport, Fife Airport (Glenrothes), Glasgow Airport, Prestwick
Airport and Strathallan Airfield. The Cumbernauld runway, both runways at
Glasgow and the two major strips of Edinburgh are shown accurately in size
and position, other runways in position only (in order to save space in the
'shapes' directory; 77 file limit you see). Each airfield has a beacon to
aid navigation to it, and the aircraft you are flying is equipped
appropriatly. Cumbernauld runway 26 is the starting runway so take off will
be roughly due west. This airport is designated with beacon 0. The beacons
are:-
0 Cumbernauld Airport
1 Glasgow Airport
2 Edinburgh Airport
3 Strathallan Airfield
4 Prestwick Airport
5 Fife Airport (Glenrothes)
6 Denotes the position of a DME beacon in the Borders
The original purpose of the simulator was to mimic civilian airspace, and
there were no enemy aircraft to fight. Despite this, most of the building
type structures (not roads, rivers but hangers and tower blocks) were easily
destroyed with cannon fire. Now the three big airports have a hanger
supplying ten enemy aircraft in quick succession each. For fun, you get
attacked by Boeing 737s if you go near Glasgow Airport, Boeing 747s if you
go near Edinburgh and Concorde awaits a visit to Prestwick! The
characteristics of these aircraft however only match your own. The shape and
size of your aircraft is also set to that of a 747 as I thought it would be
fun to see this enormous aircraft taking off from a tiny airport like
Cumbernauld. (Press O before take off to see what I mean.) You may land on
all the roads if you wish though many are quite narrow and require some
skill to get down.
When flying around areas with a lot of detail, i.e. around Glasgow, it is
possible to notice the screen update rates decrease, even on an ARM3 machine.
In certain cases, the sheer workload on the machine makes the 3x 'fast time
simulation' go unstable with sometimes spectacular results.
Flying the Simulator
====================
Head Up Display. (HUD)
----------------------
The indications on the HUD are as follows:-
Top left Airspeed (Knots)
Top right Altitude (feet)
Bottom right upper G-force
Bottom right lower Angle of attack.
Small central cross Nose direction
(Where plane is pointing)
Large central cross Velocity vector
(Where plane is going!)
Across top Heading display
Running through display Pitch bars
(always stay parallel to horizon)
Bar on right Vertical Speed Indicator
Getting Up
----------
At the start, when on the runway. Use Z to zero the mouse control before you
begin to move. The engine is set running when you first begin but to start and
stop it:-
W takes the Wheel brakes off
Z zeroes the mouse
E Engine on/off
= revs up
Shift= full power
- revs down
Shift- Idle power
Once you are rolling down the runway, pull back on the mouse when the speed
reaches about 140 Knots. The nose of the plane should rise and you will hear
the wheels skate over the tarmac as the plane lifts.
L Landing Gear up/down
You should now be flying successfully. The landing gear can be used to slow
the plane as can the airbrakes:-
B Airbrakes on/off
Ctrl E Emergency Eject, in case you get into trouble
< Rudder/nosewheel left
> Rudder/nosewheel right
Weapons
-------
Weapon stocks are shown on left of instrument panel.
Adjust Fire 30mm cannon (500 rounds)
Menu Fire rocket systems
Backspace Select current rocket weapon system.
This is indicated on window bottom left of the HUD. The available rocket
weapon systems are:-
Unguided rockets (25 pairs)
Air to Air heat seeking missile (50)
Air to Ground radar guided missile (50)
The last two must have targets designated and a ÉTrack boxæ in the HUD
indicates successful designation:-
Return Designate target.
The range to target is on the radar display. The target should be roughly
where the plane is pointing for best chance of a hit. If missiles are being
fired at you, flares and chaff can be used to decoy them away from you.
F Drop flares
C Drop chaff
Other Controls
--------------
A Autostabilizers. Useful for long flight.
/ Change radar range.
Navigation
----------
The VOR is lower centre left of instrument panel. A green/red line running
through it shows the direction to the selected waypoint. There are four
waypoints programmed into the nav computer and they are selected using the
semi-colon.
; Select waypoint 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5
A waypoint is flown towards by turning the aircraft until the green portion of
the compass indicator points upwards. A red bar on the heading strip at the
top of the HUD shows the current bearing to the waypoint.
Simulation Controls
N Engine noise on/off
Q All noise on/off
Pad 8 View forward with instrument panel
Pad 5 View forward without instrument panel
Pad 1,2,3,4,6,7,9 Other views
The simulation can be viewed from other vantage points.
V This gives a vantage point from outside the aircraft looking at
it. The view direction can be altered from the numeric keypad.
M If a guided missile is in flight, this will give a view from the
missileæs IR camera. (irrelevant in this Sim)
O Views the plane from the control tower and up to 10km away.
Allows you to Éradio controlæ from the tower.
Finally
P Pause simulation
X Fast time simulation on/off. Runs the simulation at 3 times normal
speed.
This simulator was made using the Flight Simulator Toolkit from Simis Ltd.
Copyright for an earlier version of this simulator was with Acorn Computing
magazine. Copyright has reverted to David Woods by arrangement with Acorn
Computing. This form of the simulator is copyright ⌐David Woods 1994
Comments, suggestions, simulator news to
David Woods
157 Rannoch Drive,
Bearsden,
Glasgow,
G61 2BQ
This version dated - 2 June 1994