Walter Mitty's Excellent Plane Rides by Stephen Talmadge Flight Assignment: ATP Version 3 (SubLOGIC, 501 Kenyon Road, Champaign, Illinois) Recent Street Price: $49.99 @ Egghead Software Flight Assignment: ATP is not a game; it is simulation software. For those of you who know Microsoft's Flight Simulator (which was itself originally developed by subLogic), Flight Assignment: ATP provides visual and instrument commercial airliner operations training in a simulated environment which conforms to FAA approved procedures, adaptive software simulator interaction; and flight assignments which can be flown in a structured, semi-structured or free-style mode, depending upon the desires of the simulator pilot. The initials ATP stand for Airline Transport Pilot, the FAA designation for licensed drivers of heavy, multi-engine aircraft. In Flight Assignment: ATP there is a structured training program consisting of 96 preplanned flights or 'trips' which become gradually more challenging as the simulator pilot moves more deeply into the program. And, as if all that wasn't enough, Flight Assignment: ATP runs just fine on a 'fairly zippy' AT-class system. I reviewed the product on a 286 clone that benchmarks at about 17 MHz running DOS 5.0 in 4 Mb of 80 ns memory and a moderate speed IDE hard drive. Sometimes the frame rate appeared a touch slow -- particularly on short final approach with low ceilings and some stinky crosswinds; but nonetheless that class of system will handle Flight Assignment: ATP adequately. SubLogic says the software will run on an XT-class machine; and I have no doubt that it will. But running Flight Assignment: ATP on any processor rated below 15 Mhz may frustrate and perhaps annoy the user; and I also recommend a [preferably VGA] color monitor -- which is not "necessary" but nice to have when trying to keep track of all of the stuff that comes at you on the screen. Move up to at least a 386/33 with 2+ Mb of fairly fast memory and things will always appear smooth on the monitor. If you want to hear interactive voice communications with the FAA folks, add a SoundBlaster or AdLib board. Otherwise, the audio support is limited to surprisingly realistic flight sounds played through your PC's speaker and the FAA communications are displayed in text for you at the top of the monitor. You can run Flight Assignment: ATP using just the computer's keyboard; but the software also supports [and I highly recommend] use of a pointing device [a trackball will probably work better than a mouse] and joystick. If you really want to get into this simulator, you can add a device called Flight Controls I which plugs into a game adapter and includes an actual control yoke, flap switch, throttle and gear switch. Add a set of optional rudder pedals and, except for the physical sensations that you can only experience in flight, it truly is just like being there. Flight trips made 'on the record' are rated for safety, airmanship and overall skill; and individual trip ratings are accumulated in a logbook which is maintained for each ATP rating candidate by the simulation program. The preplanned trips may also be made in Single Flight Mode ('off the record') so that one may practice the flight before the electronic 'FAA inspector' sits along side. In addition, the simulator pilot can design and fly a trip between any two airports included in the Flight Assignment: ATP world; and the software will interact properly from start to finish -- just as though the trip was one of those in the structured training program. Aircraft provided by Flight Assignment: ATP are the Boeing 737-250, Airbus A320-150, the Boeing 767-250, the Boeing 747-350 and [for all you barnstormers] the Shorts 360. In what I construed as an oddly jingoist move, only the Boeing aircraft are included in the structured training program; and flight characteristics of the A320 and the Shorts 360 are left to the student to discover outside the formal training program. I found the A320 a dream to fly and the Shorts 360 can deliver some truly spectacular [albeit noisy] short field takeoff and landing performance. Cockpit design and sound effects are varied with each aircraft; and closely resemble their true-life counterparts. Instrument support includes the standard commercial airliner panel -- Airspeed Indicator, Attitude Direction Indicator, Automatic Direction Finder, Artificial Horizon, Pressure Altimeter, Radio Altimeter, Heading Indicator, Vertical Speed Indicator, Horizontal Situation Indicator, Radio Magnetic Indicator, Transponder, two Communications and two VOR/ILS Navigation Radios [with Distance Measuring Equipment]; as well an X-Band color radar screen and assorted indicators, gauges, dials and lights. Automatic Terminal Information Service, enroute Flight Service Station briefings and two-way radio communications are also provided. There is an autopilot which can be engaged to hold altitude and heading; and also coupled to track radio navigation aids such as Visual Omnirange Receivers and [very helpful during a final instrument approach] the localizer beam of an Instrument Landing System. [You're on your own riding the glide slope...] All aircraft other than the 737 provide an Inertial Reference System which you can use to define up to four geographic waypoints that can be flown to in the sequence of your choice. The software includes a demo ride; and a broad range of Boeing 737 lessons -- each of which focuses on development of one flight skill set. The demo ride has imbedded, intentional mistakes -- allowing the novice simulator pilot to sit back and watch what happens when the errors made during the demonstration are and are not corrected. Deploy the flaps at too great a speed and your flight score gets 'derated'; let the nose get too high or don't maintain your climb during departure, same story. Get going too low and too slow on final and you will not only get derated; but you will spend what may seem like the-rest-of-your-natural-life pouring on lots and lots of power to get proper control of the airplane back. Continue an approach after you are instructed to go around -- even when everything looks absolutely super to you -- and you will pay the price in rating point deductions. Included with the well-written and very complete manual are instrument approach plates and airport diagrams [by Jeppeson-Sanderson, Inc.] for 26 primary airports within the continental United States; and two high altitude enroute charts providing detailed information regarding the FAA's Victor airway system. The structured instruction program is based upon flights between the primary airports using the Victor airways and these published instrument approaches. There is also a listing of over 330 additional airports -- each complete with geographic coordinates -- everyone of which has at least one runway long enough to accommodate the Shorts 360. If you like, you can plan and execute your own flight plans between any of these airports using the Inertial Reference System -- entering the various airport coordinates as waypoints. Now, every once in a while, things get strange. Sometimes [but rarely] during a structured flight assignment, when everything seems normal and all appears to be going according to plan, you will start to get messages from the FAA telling you to hold a heading that will take you off the airway which your flight plan calls for you to follow. After that kind of occurrence, two things generally happen: either the simulation starts nagging at you about being off the airway and simultaneously tells you to hold the heading which will keep you off the airway; or it just kind of lets you fly off into never-never-land and burn up all of your remaining fuel while ignoring any of your requests for guidance or assistance. In both situations, asking for radar vectors or a new clearance doesn't seem to help -- even though the simulator does have full capability to issue a new clearance and/or provide vectors to get you back on track. [As Paul Newman once said in Cool Hand Luke, what we have here is a failure to communicate.] In my experience if you fly the same flight assignment again this 'strange' situation will normally not repeat itself. For instance, during one apparently normal trip from St. Pete to Atlanta, the simulator turned me around at the Tallahassee VOR and headed me back toward St. Pete with no explanation whatsoever. After flying 150 miles back in the 'wrong direction' with no response from the FAA to my continued requests for a updated clearance and/or radar vectors, I terminated the flight. When I reran the trip again, everything went normally from start to finish. All things considered it is probably best to remember that this is a highly complex, interactive software package; and an occurrence like this should be viewed as a minor software bug and not the manner in which the FAA normally operates. [At least we can all hope that is an accurate assessment.....] If you like flying or want to fly like Walter Mitty, Flight Assignment: ATP is a real kick in the pants. If you want to get an accurate appreciation for the demanding world of the person who is driving your next commercial airline flight, get yourself a copy of Flight Assignment: ATP. This is a very exciting simulator package that will challenge and entertain you for a long, long time. I really like it! Can you tell? Special thanks to Norm Olsen, Vice President of Marketing at subLogic. Norm was kind enough to replace our non-functioning Beta evaluation copy of Flight Assignment: ATP with a brand new set of program disks and full set of documentation. Thanks, Norm, you've made one old hanger dog real happy. References: IFR Communications Manual, Bryan Harston, Macmillan, NYC, 1990 Instrument Flying, Richard L. Taylor, Macmillan, NYC, 1989 Instrument Rating Manual, Jeppeson-Sanderson, Englewood, Co., 1990 Mastering Instrument Flying, Henry Sollman and Sherwood Harris, Tab Practical Flying Series, Tab Books Inc., Blue Ridge Summit, Pa., 1989 Author Information: Stephen Talmadge is a licensed pilot with over 200 hours of flight time in single engine aircraft. He has had extensive commercial flight training, has shot more than a few instrument approaches, and done lots of cross country flying in 'real' airplanes. Steve has also used and loved Microsoft's Flight Simulator for many years and, more recently, the add-on product called Aircraft and Scenery Designer; having used them as placebos to salve his aerial soul when actual pilot time became too expensive for him to continue.