A single trainer, one small airfield in the river country, and an instructor in the right seat. Take off, fly the pattern, and put it back on the numbers.
Flight School Rev. 7
The field from above. Gold marks your runway and the direction of takeoff; the arrow shows where the wind blows from. Circuits are flown with left turns.
Full stop.
Flight data
Newest first. Every control input and every system event from the last flight, stamped with flight time, airspeed, height above the field, heading, bank, pitch and climb. The track (a position every 5 seconds) follows at the end.
Logbook
How to fly
1. The controls
Choose on the preflight screen. On-screen: the round pad flies the plane (push forward for nose down, sideways to bank), the throttle lever sits at the left, and flaps, rudder and brakes are the buttons at the right. Keyboard: the arrow keys fly the plane, plus the keys shown. Rudder keeps the nose straight on the runway.
2. The six instruments
Top row: airspeed in knots, the attitude ball (blue sky, brown ground, tilts with you), and the altimeter (feet above sea level; the field is 1,306). Bottom row: turn coordinator with the ball, heading, and climb or sink in feet per minute. The tachometer on the right shows engine revs. The GPS screen shows a moving map with your nose always at the top; tap it to zoom out in steps (2, 5, 10 and 20 miles across), and a gold arrow on its edge points to your runway when it is off the map; below it, revs, flaps, throttle, ground speed, and the distance and bearing back to your runway.
3. The circuit
Full throttle, hold the centreline with rudder, ease the nose up at 55 knots. Climb straight ahead at 75. At 500 feet above the field turn left; at 1,000 feet level off and turn left again to fly back alongside the runway. Abeam the numbers, power back and a notch of flaps. Two more left turns line you up on final.
4. Landing
Fly final at 65 knots with full flaps, aiming at the two big bars a third of the way down the runway. If you look high, take off power; if low, add some. Over the numbers, close the throttle, raise the nose gently and let the wheels find the concrete. Then flaps up, full power, and go again.
5. The marks
Each touch-and-go in a Circuits lesson is marked out of 100 on four things: staying on the centreline, touching down near the aiming point, a gentle sink rate at touchdown, and holding 1,000 feet on the downwind leg. The best circuit of every flight goes in the logbook. Sandbox flights are not marked: fly anywhere in the mapped country and the instructor will point out what you are looking at.