After Hours – PC Based Flight Simulators

A message comes in from the watching AWACS, the voice clipped by the radio transmission: “Two bogeys, 12 miles and inbound, your 11 o’clock, angels 24!” You glance down at the radar, sweeping on 20 mile range, and sure enough, there are two bogeys on a vector directly towards your vulnerable bomber. “Engage!”, you order your wingman.

Diving clear, you light the afterburner and select a Sparrow, hoping for a clear head on shot. Passing 15,000ft, you pull up at mach 1. 2, and lock on at seven miles. The missile gives good tone, so you chance a long range shot. Pressing the trigger, the big Sparrow leaps off the rail. You watch mesmerised by the flare of the rocket motor as it closes on the inbound bogey.

At four miles, you see the missile miss, and suspect that the bogeys have broken as the radar plots have separated. Switching to an AIM-9P Sidewinder, you turn towards the bogey closest to the bomber you have to protect. The HUD says the bogey is four miles and ninety degrees angle off, so you wait while the Falcon carves the corner towards a better firing position. Lifting the pipper up, you search for tone from his exhaust.

Just as the tone sounds, the ECM panel lights with a LCK warning in your six. You take a chance, and wait to get a clear tone for a launch. The IRLNCH warning light comes on, as well as a strident klaxon. “Steady now, the bogey will cream the S2 if I don’t get him,” you remind yourself. The bogey is in the centre of the acquisition ring on the HUD, so you squeeze off the AIM-9.

“Now, outahere and fast. ” According to the threat panel, the closest problem is an IR missile at five o’clock. Rolling right through 140 degrees and shutting down the after burner, you pull for the earth and pop a sequence of three flares, hoping to shake the closing Atoll. The Falcon pulls max G, and you continue to pull though towards the second bogey, using the line and cross cues on the HUD.

Looking at the radar, you can see the target identified as a MiG29. Peering through the wispy cloud, the bogey appears as a faint blur of grey, crossing from left to right. “Ah ha, a high angle off guns pass,” you think, and thumb the weapons selector to guns. Turning at five G, and changing the bank angle, you pull the MiG into the gun funnel on the HUD, start to hose. Tracer arcs are blowing pieces off the wings. Another burst finds the fuselage and BOOM, he explodes in a fireball directly in front of you. Reacting instinctively, you roll left clear of the debris and watch the wreckage plummet to the ground.

Straightening onto the last patrol heading, you find the S2 still alive and six miles infront. A few minutes of after-burner and you slide up into combat position, starboard. With the heart still beating double time, you look around and are relieved to see your wingman back on position.

Fact or fantasy? This sequence comes from the highly regarded Falcon 3. 0 running on a powerful PC 486 clone. As a long retired fighter pilot, the feeling of “being there” is as real as any training mission I ever flew on the Mirage. The physiological effects were certainly present, as my elevated heart rate attests. To my mind, the simulation is real.

Realistic simulations have long been used in training, but until recently, the cost was prohibitive except for well heeled airlines and air forces. In the last few years, the whole situation has changed as highly realistic software has become available and personal computers have become more powerful, while thepriceof theequipmenthasfallenfasterthanacrippledMiG.

There are quite a few flight simulators available for home computers. The most favoured computer platforms are the Commodore Amiga and the IBM compatible personal computer. While the Amiga has been the favoured hardware on a cost-for-performance basis, with the advent of the 80486 processor the IBM clones have now taken the lead in processing power. No doubt Commodore will respond with a new product, as flight simulators are one of the best selling software lines.

Just how realistic and capable are these simulators? Well, they ranged from arcade games to fully modelled representations of operational aircraft and situations.

Falcon 3. 0 is a good example of what is on offer. At the moment, it is perhaps the best of its class, although with new products arriving monthly, it may not stay in this position for long. This simulation has as its core a model written for the Air National Guard, so that “weekend warriors” can stay current by using their home computers.

Various simulation modes can be selected,from an easy to fly game, right through to a full computation of the flight characteristics which uses the mathematical coprocessor built into the 486 chip. One particularly real but nasty feature that is accurately modelled is the inverse drag characteristic that causes high sink rates below the minimum drag speed of about 220 knots. Several times, I have become a fireball on short finals as I have sunk into the ground because I failed to catch the speed decay! (Shades of the Mirage which had a similar characteristic and a minimum drag speed of about 300 knots. )

A full description of Falcon 3. 0 is beyond the scope of this article, but it contains a fullflight training course, an arcade game, operational missions in several parts of the world with terrainfully modelled, communications to fight ‘head to head’ with another person on their computer and the ability to configure the simulation over a range ofdifficultiesand all this for about $90! Neither are computer hardware requirements crippling in price any more.

The Amiga 600 is a good simulator platform and can be purchased with the required colour monitor for about $1500.

Comments on PC Based Flight Simulators

Please note that all the simulations summarised here are mostly of fighter type aircraft, which shows my interest and

perhaps bias! There are some excellent simulations of battlefield helicopters and of bombers. Soni. e games, such as

“Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe” feature a range of aircraft that are selected by the operator.

Microsoft Flight Simulator 4. 0. An excellent place to start. A fairly compact simulation which can run successfully in a variety of platforms, including 286, 386 and486 processors. The pilot can learn to fly the Cessna in a variety of environments, including instrument flying and with “real” problems of unreliable equipment. Several aircraft including a Learjet 25G and a Schweizer glider can be selected and there is a game mode when cross country flying becomes boring. Other software can be added to this simulation, including local landscapes and even aircraft factories where you make and fly your own aircraft! With these products, you can depart from Bankstown and practice ILSs at Sydney without it costing a cent.

Jet Fighter II. This simulation has the best flight controls of all as it is very smooth in operation and is consequently very easy to fly. Viewing out of the cockpit is excellent. However, the operations scenario is a bit far-fetched, and the simulation of air to ground weapons systems is very scant. Air to air computer settings, but with the appropriate batch files to set the system parameters, is worth the trouble. Recommended as the next step after Flight Simulator 4. 0 because of the ease of operation.

Aces of the Pacific. This simulation is set in the Pacific durirtg World War II and allows you to fly several different types of allied and axis aircraft. The graphics are quite good and there is a range of operational environments to select from. As a former jet jockey,I found this game a bit slow and the propeller driven aircraft, largely limited to horizontal manoeuvres because of the real thrust to weight ratio, a bit limiting. After five minutes of desperate turning over the tops of the trees in the jungle, I gave up and resorted to head on passes. After taking a hit in the engine,I downed the Japanese ace, but became shark bait on the way home after the engine stopped. This simulation would interest those who followed the events in the Paci. fie during World War II of who have a penchant to fly a P-51 or a P-38 in combat.

Flight of the Intruder. A specialised simulation for those with Vietnam experience. You fly on A-6 or an F-4 into downtown Hanoi and suffer the consequences. The simulati. on comes with a worn ONC map and a copy of the book “Flight of the Intruder” to add interest. Difficult to master operationally.

Strike Eagle II. The style of this game is arcade action, as some aspects such as missile kills are much abbreviated. However, the F-15 is easy to fly and encourages a “shoot ’em up” style of operation. The result is a relaxed and entertaining game, ideal for a wet Sunday afternoon and a few beers with some mates. F-117 Nighthawk. I find this the most engrossing game of all. The aim is to fly through a hostile environment without being detected, excise the target and get home without getting tagged. The simulation of the battlefield environment is excellent, and the long missions,often lasting more than an hour, lead at times to incredible tension. Carrier landings at night are testing. Set slightly in the future (obviously with some operational abilities that the F-117 doesn’t currently possess!), the modelling of the various weapons systems is excellent. A well crafted simulation, highly recommended. Falcon 3. 0. Undoubtedly the king of flight simulators, but you must use DOS 5. 0 to get the required free memory. QE1\1M386 helps meet memory needs. The game is very comprehensive, perhaps dauntingly so to a beginner. My recommendation is not to attempt to fly this simulation until you have mastered another jet fighter simulation, Jet Fighter II would be my suggestion. When set in high fidelity mode,the Falcon is sensitive and difficult to fly, even for a trained fighter pilot, but I must say the representation of a real aircraft is excellent. The range of options in the simulation is quite amazing and the follow on upgrade “Fighting Tiger” adds new dimensions when interest starts to flag.

Wing Commander. Set in space circa 2600, this is a complex simulation with an interesting story line. There is a high entry level of skill, and once you are in, it gets harder very quickly. Never relaxing, this game fascinates you as you try to stay alive long enough to progress through the campaign. You can save your game and thus replay those missions where you have previously “died”, until you get a. satisfactory result. While the flight controls are simple, the documentation is sparse, and you need a joystick such as the CH Flitestick to be competitive – using the mouse or keyboard isjust too slow in some of the battle situations. The simulation needs a lot of computing power to run smoothly. Recommended for Startrekkies. Not recommended immediately before going to bed, as the adrenaline will keep you awake for hours. Choices for IBM clones are much greater. After extensive research and trialing many combinations, I would suggest the following configuration:

• a 33MHz486DX mother with ISA bus,256Kof cache memory and 8MB of RAM (the 33MHz speed will allow the speed doubling 486DX66 chip to be inserted at a later stage, while a 486DX100 is unlikely to be produced for technical reasons);

• a large hard disk drive, preferably at least 120 Mb, as games are becoming larger with time;

• an SVGA fast graphics card, of at least a TsengLabs4000 chip set standard – cards such as the Diamond Stealth 1MB are significantly better, but much more expensive;

• a good quality SVGA colour monitor;

• a high quality joystick – the CH Flightstick and the Thrustmaster (difficult to buy in Australia,) are both excellent for flight simulators;

• Microsoft DOS 5. 0;

• Quarterdeck’s QE1\1M386 Version 6. 02 memory manager. This configuration is close to the present state of computing art, but with the recent proliferation of PC clones and intense

competition, prices have fallen sharply in the past year and are reasonably affordable. The full configuration should cost less than $3500, and about $600 can be saved by lowering the specification to exclude thefast graphics card. You can always convince yourself that the real use for the computer will be for something else, such as word processing and spreadsheets! While you can run many of the simulations on older XT and AT based machines, my experience is that often you will be frustrated and disappointed with the result. The way the software copes with slower platforms is to compute fewer frames per second. This strategy, while keeping the game moving at the correct physical rate, makes the simulations jerky and in reality difficult to fly. The lowest acceptable processor is a 20 MHz 386.

If you are going to seriously entertain yourself with flight simulations, treat the simulation as if you really were converting to aircraft. The simulations usually come with extensive manuals and control overlays for the keyboard. Only attempt to master one game at a time, and play it until you are thoroughly competent with all the controls. You can then progress to other simulations and revert to previous ones for variety while maintaining competence, just as you can safely fly several aircraft on which you have become competent. However, as in the real case, a little refresher course goes a long way. The Microsoft Flight Simulator 4. 0 is highly recommended as a starting point. Version LO was the software that started this craze, and the product has become progressively better over the years. Thesimulation ofthe CessnaRGIIflyingout ofMeigs Field near Chicago provides a familiar environment for light aircraft pilots.

After mastering this simulation, you will have a sound basis for the more complex and faster moving games. If you are interested in flight simulation, I have listed some of the ones I own or have flown. Each game has its strengths and weaknesses, just like real aircraft.

In the next article, I will review Microsoft’s Flight Simulator Version 4. 0 and some of the additional products that are available to enhance it.