NAME

flight − simulate the flight of any of several aircraft

SYNOPSIS

/usr/people/demos/flight

DESCRIPTION

One large viewport shows an instance of a world; several smaller ones simulate instruments.  The world is viewed from the cockpit of an aircraft or from a control tower.  The mouse and keyboard control the aircraft and its environment. 

Starting Up

Flight provides two pages of help information.  To freeze the action at any time and display the first page, h. Press any key to continue.

The first help page briefly describes the program.  Read it and press any key to continue.  The second page offers descriptions of five aircraft: one two-place trainer (Cessna 150), one heavy transport (Boeing 747), and three fighters.  Type 1 to select the Cessna 150. 

The view you see is from the cockpit of the Cessna.  Type d to see the Cessna from the control tower.  Type x a few times for a closer view.  Type d to return to the cockpit and strike s three or four times to advance the throttle.  The aircraft will start to taxi toward the runway.  Type f twice to raise the flaps — Cessnas normally take off that way.  When the plane is almost on the runway, tap the right mouse button five or six times to apply right rudder.  The plane will start to turn right.  The left mouse button move the rudder one increment to the left; the center one sets the rudder to zero.  Move the mouse until the cursor is centered on the middle of the screen and tap s until the thrust indicator shows all blue.  When the airspeed indicator passes 60 knots, move the mouse smoothly toward you.  The cursor should be in the upper center of the attitude indicator.  When the rate-of-climb indicator shows blue, you are flying!  Congratulations! 

Now turn around and land. 

Flight Controls

Flight is controlled by the mouse, the mouse buttons, and the keyboard.  The mouse holds the primary flight controls. 

Rightmouse and leftmouse move the rudder one increment to the right and left respectively.  Middlemouse centers it.  The rudder position is shown by a small red triangle at the lower edge of the attitude indicator.  The rudder is used primarily to maneuver the aircraft on the ground.  Airborne turns are made, as in real aircraft, by coordinated application of aileron and elevator. 

The mouse X and Y valuators control the ailerons and elevator, emulating a control stick.  Left-right motion controls roll; forward-back motion controls pitch.  The stick position is indicated by a square white cursor.  Both controls are at their neutral position when the cursor is centered at the bottom of the windshield.  Stick position for level flight is slightly below center. 

The s key increases the throttle setting; the a key decreases it.  The left bar indicator shows the throttle setting as a percentage of full power.  Reverse thrust is available and shown in red.  Thrust goes to zero when the plane climbs through 50,000 feet and the engine flames out.  It can be restored by descending and applying throttle.  Thrust goes to zero when fuel goes to zero.  It can be restored only by making a safe landing (good luck) to pick up fresh fuel. 

Secondary flight controls include the landing gear, flaps, and spoilers.  To raise or lower the landing gear, type l. To increase or decrease the flaps, type f or F. To increase or decrease the spoilers, type c or C. Flap and spoiler ranges are determined by the aircraft. The Cessna has no spoilers and its gear is down and welded.

The landing gear has two functions: to protect the fuselage from the ground and to add drag.  You may lower the gear to slow the plane down and make handling easier. 

Flaps and gear are structurally unsound at high speeds.  They fall off if you exceed 400 knots while they are deployed or if either is deployed at speeds over 400 knots.  Missing flaps make good landings difficult.  Missing gear makes a good landing impossible. 

Flaps increase lift, increase drag, and decrease stall speed.  Takeoffs are normally made with partial flaps; landings with full flaps. 

Spoilers decrease lift and increase drag dramatically.  They are most useful in dissipating excess altitude without increasing speed.  It is difficult to recover from a stall while spoilers are deployed. 

Display Controls

Several controls allow the viewer to alter his view of the world. 

The left−arrow and right−arrow keys rotate the pilot’s point of view 90 degrees to the left or right respectively.  (Be careful not to use the up−arrow or down−arrow as a portion of the viewport will be destroyed.)  The viewing angle (front, left, rear, or right) is displayed on the windshield.  The keys are useful for looking around, but remember to set the view back to the front for any but the simplest flying. 

The d key switches the viewpoint from the cockpit to the control tower or back.  The control tower always looks toward the plane.  x decreases the tower’s field of view, effectively magnifying the aircraft.  z increases the field of view.  If there is doubt as to whether the view observed is from the cockpit or the tower, observe the center of the window.  A yellow tracking cross marks the cockpit view. 

n changes the time of day from daylight to night or back.  There is an interesting city NNW of the airport. 

Instruments

This section lists the instruments on the panel from left to right. 

The thrust indicator shows thrust as a percentage of full throttle.  As with all the bar-graph displays, a blue bar is positive and a red one negative.  Reverse thrust is possible only on the ground. 

The airspeed indicator is calibrated from 0-1000 knots.  (100 knots is about 118 miles per hour.)  Negative airspeeds can happen during such acrobatic maneuvers as hammerhead stalls.  Since wind is not simulated, airspeed ≡ groundspeed. 

The vertical−speed indicator shows rate of climb in feet per minute.  Note that the fighter (in normal operation) and the civil planes (usually while crashing) can exceed the 10,000 fpm maximum absolute rate displayed.  Use the numeric display at the bottom of the band. 

The G−meter indicates vertical acceleration.  Each aircraft has maximum stress limits.  I they are exceeded, the attitude indicator shows the message "G-LIMIT."

The attitude indicator or artificial horizon helps orient the plane when the real horizon is not visible.  The triangular indicator at the bottom edge shows the rudder position. 

The fuel gauge shows remaining fuel as a percentage of a full tank.  To reduce fuel consumption to zero (for tests only) type ~.  This is considered cheating in normal flight. 
 

Landings, Crashes, and Restarts

A good landing is a landing on the runway, with gear down, a descent rate of less than 600 fpm, and in line with the runway.  Good landings are rewarded with scores from 0 - 100 points.  For every point scored, fuel on board is increased by 1% of total capacity.  (Total capacity is never exceeded.) 

Landings that are almost good (rate of descent, drift, and roll too high but not disastrous) count as crash landings.  You can keep flying, but get no more fuel. 

Landings with the gear up, off the runway, or with excessive descent rate, drift, or roll count as "crashed into the swamps." All you can do is look at the wreckage from the tower or type r to restart the game. 

r will not work while your plane is intact.  Your plane must be destroyed.  Your plane is destroyed if it crashes into the swamps, taxis too far off the runway, raises the gear while on the ground, or is shot down.  If you wish to restart (to get a different kind of plane or refuel without landing), auger in or type qr to shoot yourself down.  The latter will fail with unarmed civilian planes. 

AUTHOR

Gary Tarolli

BUGS

Flight and its offspring are continually being improved.  There is a significant creative spurt before each major trade show.  Improvements may be documented in the program’s help display before this page is affected. 

Full reverse thrust is possible.  This allows some truly exciting landings, but is unrealistic.  Real pilots don’t use reverse thrust in the air. 

From the tower, all the planes look like a stylized fighter. 

The Cessna is much too difficult to bring out of a stall. 

HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

12 bitplanes and 1.5 Megabytes of memory are required to run flight. 
 

Version 2.3  —  July 04, 1985