NAME

flight − simulate the flight of any of several aircraft

SYNOPSIS

/usr/people/demos/flight

DESCRIPTION

One large viewport shows the world; several smaller ones simulate instruments.  The world is shown 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.  The first help page briefly describes the program.  To freeze the action at any time and display the first page, type h. Read the first page 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 towards 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 moves the rudder one increment to the left; the center one sets the rudder to zero.  Move the mouse till the cursor is centered on the bottom edge of the windshield and tap s until the thrust indicator shows all blue.  When the airspeed indicator passes 50 knots, move the mouse smoothly toward you. The cursor should be in the upper center of the horizon 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 artificial horizon.  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 also goes to zero when fuel goes to zero.  Fuel can be restored only by making a safe landing. 

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 approximately 400 knots while they are deployed.  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 are made with full flaps. 

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

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.  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.  The x key decreases the tower’s field of view, effectively magnifying the aircraft.  The z key 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: an orange cross marks the cockpit view. 

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

Instruments

This section describes the instruments on the panel from left to right.  In the bar indicators, blue denotes a positive value and red a negative value. 

The thrust indicator shows thrust as a percentage of full throttle.  Reverse thrust is possible only on the ground and is used for braking. 

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 numeric display at the bottom of the band displays the exact speed. 

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

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

The artificial horizon helps orient the plane when the real horizon is not visible.  The triangular indicator at the bottom edge shows the rudder position.  If the maximum angle of attack is exceeded, a “WING-STALL” message is displayed and a warning bell sounds.  The more severe the wing stall, the less control you have over your plane.  Very severe stalls may throw your plane into a violent spin. 

The heading meter displays a combination compass and radar screen.  The compass rotates and indicates your heading.  Your plane’s location is always at the center of the radar screen. The radar screen shows the positions of the runway and planes that are within a few miles of your aircraft.  The blue line indicates the position of the runway.  In dog(1D) other planes are shown on the heading meter as red blobs if they are above you or green blobs if they are below you. 

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 and Crashes

A good landing is a landing on the runway, with gear down, a descent rate of less than 600 fpm, and wings level.  Good landings are rewarded with scores from 0 - 100 points.  Points are subtracted from a perfect score of 100 based on touchdown location, descent rate, roll, heading, and drift.  For every point scored, fuel on board is increased by 1% of total capacity until your tank is full.  For every ten points scored you receive a missile up to the plane’s limit. 

Landings with the gear up, descent rate, roll, or drift too high, but not disastrous, count as crash landings.  You can keep flying, but get no more fuel nor ordnance. 

Landings off the runway are “crashed into the swamps” landings.  Landings with excessive descent rate, roll, or drift are “EXPLODED ON IMPACT” landings.  In either case, all you can do is look at the wreckage from the tower or restart the game. 

Restarts

Your plane is destroyed if it crashes, taxis too far off the runway, raises the gear while on the ground, or is shot down.  After your plane is destroyed, r, R, or u reincarnates your plane and restarts the game at the second help page.  You then choose which type of plane you want to fly. 

The r key restarts you at the original starting location.  The R key restarts you at the south end of the runway.  The u key reincarnates your aircraft at a random location in the sky with randomly low airspeed.  Hit the throttle and dive to build up flying speed.  These different restart options are included to make it easier to restart in intense dog combat.  Without them, some pilots simply hang around the runway and blast new planes as they appear. 

Weapons

See dog(1D) for a complete description of weaponry.

Weight

flight models aircraft weight accurately.  Ordnance and fuel have substantial weight. As you fire weapons and burn fuel, your plane becomes lighter and more maneuverable. 

SEE ALSO

dog(1D), radar(1D), shadow(1D)

AUTHOR

Gary Tarolli

NOTES

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 document is updated. 

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

HARDWARE CONFIGURATION

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

Version 2.4  —  May 08, 1986