K, now hear me out. I want you to think of two things. One, broccoli. Two, a quickie. Two completely disparate things, no? Couldn’t possibly go together (unless you are seriously weird…). I know, where on earth is he going with this?

It’s actually fairly simple. I like broccoli. Never used to. Hated it. Made me barf. But, as one ages, tastes change. And as for the quickie, sometimes that’s all the time you’ve got. Now, don’t start calling the “In Poor Taste” Police. I’m talking about flight simming. What did you think I was talking about, hmm?

Back to the broccoli. Sherman, set the Way Back machine for FS2002. For various reasons which now escape me, I swore never to even consider purchasing a product from Perfect Flight. Childish, I know. Guilty as charged. But, times change. Getting it? Now I like broccoli. And, despite my very best efforts, I like this Perfect Flight product.

Now, the quickie. Let’s face it. It’s a busy world. We’ve all got somewhere to go, someone to see, and stuff to get done. And, sometimes, the things we want to do must take a back seat to those things we need to do. Doesn’t matter if we’re fifteen or fifty, there’s always something picking at our time. The trick is to get the biggest bang for our “free time” buck. That’s where FS Approaches Vol. 1 – Europe comes in.

While I do enjoy zipping around the sky aimlessly, I always anticipate the approach and landing. As you know, I like the heavy iron. Something about lining up and throttling back and hearing the engines spool down. It’s neat. So, while the takeoff is cool, and the cruise is interesting setting up for the landing, for me the approach, touchdown and rollout is where the juice is. And, I’ve gotta leave for work in less than a half hour.

I know, I know. There’s all these freeware approach things just begging for space on your hard drive. But, FS Approaches gives you quite a bit more. Let’s start from the beginning.

Installation is...wait for it...one button install! Piece of pie. Easy as cake. Opening FS2004, you are presented with a new option under Select A Flight. Clicking on FS Approaches Vol. 1 – Europe under “Choose a category” brings up somewhere in the neighborhood of one hundred sixty flights from which to choose (could be a little more or less – I messed up counting around number 154 or so). Click on any one of them and then Fly Now. Here is what you’ll see:

This is so cool… Not only does it give you a map of the destination airport, but all pertinent data including local navaids, runway frequencies, an airport chart and approach plates (not available on all flights). The whole enchilada (and a Molson, don’t forget the Molson). And, the part that I like the best, it gives you the time required to complete the flight! Manna from Heaven! It takes me about fifteen minutes to drive to work, so that twenty minute flight gives me just enough time to brush my teeth (a must after that enchilada) and get in my morning quickie!

And, for those of us who are pressed for time and need to stick with the default aircraft, there is an approach checklist, altitude callout, and your co-pilot retracts the flaps and resets the auto brake.

And if one hundred sixty or so flights aren’t enough, you can always change the weather (it is suggested to use real weather, as it is on this basis that the runway is chosen), time of day, season and aircraft. Feel free to do the math and figure out how many flights you could ultimately achieve. While you’re doing that, I’ll be flying…

Now, you have to understand, I am a lazy flyer. It took me a ridiculously long time to learn even the basics of navigation, and I’m still a little fuzzy on that. The GPS is right up my alley, giving me a nice magenta line to follow to my destination. I know this little revelation will likely cost me my simpilot license, but as they say in the bakery business, tough tarts. I like the way I fly.

But, darned if Perfect Flight didn’t include in their manual (which is an un-intimidating 13 pages, by the way) more than you’d ever care to know about how to use the default GPS unit correctly. Every type of approach you’d care to fly, they cover. These include the section entitled “How to use the GPS to execute an Approach”, “Basic Approach Operations”, “Approaches with Procedure Turns”, “Approaches with a Hold”, “DME Arc Approaches” and “Vectors to Final Approaches”. A virtual smorgasbord of approach “How-To’s”.

There is also a little light Summer reading in the form of the Perfect Flight Pilot Handbook, which runs 312 pages! I mean, the table of contents is 7 pages! This includes things like “Drag and the Power Curve --- Introduction” and “How Much Lift? The Kutta-Zhukovsky Theorem” (didn’t those guys do a freeware De Havilland DH 89a?). The amount of material is staggering. I’m not quite convinced that before my next flight I’ll have to review the section on “Consistent (Not Cumulative) Laws of Physics”, but it’s there should I ever be moved towards that desire.

 There is an awful lot more that can be done with this program. Fly the approach plates, do the procedure turns, work on those missed approaches. A TON of stuff to play with, when you’ve got the time. For me, I’m sold on this Perfect Flight program that not only gives me my favorite part of the flight, but gives me the opportunity to fly a part of the world I rarely see, and tells me how long it will take me to finish. Oh yes, at the end, it will also grade your performance on a scale from one to ten. Being graded on a quickie? No pressure!

Three Green!

Chip Barber
rfbarber@optonline.net

 © 2005  Perfect Flight. All rights reserved.