Into the wild blue virtual yonder

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"When I first got involved, back in 2000," said Kolin, "you were pretty satisfied if you had an aircraft that looked (somewhat) like the real thing...and wasn't too blocky or pixilated. Now you have payware packages...where it takes 10 to 15 minutes to start the engines because the system management software is so good."

Kolin also said the payware packages are so realistic that if someone using one were to go into the cockpit of a real Boeing 737, for example, their "procedures would be pretty similar and (they) would be familiar with what's going on."

Faudree said he helped test the payware version of a Piper Cheyenne, a plane built from the 1960s until the 1980s, and got a free copy for his time. That's his favorite plane, he said, although he also flies a twin engine Bonanza and a single-engine Baron, both from Beechcraft.

Flight sims in a post-September 11 world
The accessories market is also witnessing constant innovation. Some pilots choose to buy simple add-on flight yokes and rudder pedals to make it seem like they're flying a real plane. Others choose to spend thousands on such products.

For example, one California company, Precision Flight Controls, sells a replica 737 yoke for $1,295.

"There are units that you can buy that allow a (virtual pilot) to control his radios and autopilot systems by turning knobs with their actual hands instead of clicking the buttons on the screen," Faudree said. "Some people have even built full-blown flight decks from scratch (by) going out into the aircraft boneyards in the desert and purchasing actual parts of a cockpit, such as the overhead switch panel, or the throttle quadrant, or the main instrument panel."

And while VatSim and its brethren are mainly the enterprise of individual pilots or air traffic controllers connected to each other through single flights, there are others who have chosen to form groups.

One way they're doing that is to form virtual airlines based on real-life brands.

Thus, there are more than a dozen such "airlines": a virtual Delta, ATA, Southwest, Continental, American and many others.

Kolin is part of the virtual Delta. He said he and others in the "airline" join because they want to fly the kinds of commercial jets that are pretty much the province of the major commercial carriers.

Plus, he said, many sim participants group up by geographical region and the airlines that are dominant in those areas. That's why, since he's from the southeast, he's part of the Delta group.

He also said that because the virtual airlines are largely below-radar, as it were, and do their best not to misuse the real airlines' intellectual property and copyrights, the lawyers have stayed away.

Meanwhile, in the post-September 11 era, one might think that anyone learning flying proficiency through a simulation system might attract government attention.

McTighe said that hasn't happened yet.

"We did get quite concerned after 9/11 about whether there would be fallout for us," McTighe said. "But we've not had a problem. I suspect (that's) probably because not many people in authority are really aware of this little niche of the flight-sim market."

[yingyangyodel]

OMG!

Wow, they have flight simulators now? What will they think of next!

[quirK]

Pros and cons

It's saddening how politicians will probably pounce on this hobby as a source of plane-crashing terrorists.

Instead, I can visualise a sim hobbyist taking over controls from a pilot (or pilots) who cannot control the plane for some reason, and saving the lives of 300 other passengers.