One Reader "Flies" Along With What He Reads

By Dave Juwel

(Editors note. We always enjoy hearing about the different ways you folks enjoy ANN, and hearing you tell us that you visit the site every day never gets old. But one of our readers has found an interactive way to enjoy the stories we post here. We'll let Dave tell you in his own words.)

"When I fire up ANN for the day, I also fire up my FSX (on a separate monitor) and use it to visit or fly along with some of the articles.

"For instance today (Saturday), I flew to Lee Bottom Flying Field and cruised their airspace before landing. Then I scrolled down through the articles and read the Jeppesen article about flight 1549. So I recreated flight 1549 using a Boeing 737-800 (although I could have downloaded an Airbus A320 to make it more realistic). When I finished with that I scrolled down and read the article about the Navy celebrating one million flight hours in the Boeing T-45 Goshawk. So I loaded up my T-45 Goshawk, took off from Cecil field, came back around and did a complete air show in celebration with them.

Lee Bottom Aerial View

"When I read the various UAV articles, I load up my Northrop Global Hawk and recreate some of those flights. I can even recreate unusual and unique flights using the same aircraft, following the same flight path. I can fly places I'd never fly in real life, or visit places I didn't know about (like Haller Airpark). Since I have the ability to load almost any airplane and visit almost any airport in the world, it doesn't matter what ANN reports on, I can fantasize the event on my FSX. It also doesn't matter what type of flying is being done because I have aircraft that represent every type of aviation. (Wow, do I have too much time on my hand, or what.)

"Does this activity have any practical value? Recently I flew in a 172 with a commercial pilot. Though I am a rated pilot, I hadn't flown a fixed wing in several years. He cautiously let me fly, knowing that I hadn't done so in a long time. We flew around for a couple of hours. When we finished, he said he was surprised because I flew with the skill level approaching a commercial pilot. So yes, simulator time does help you keep your skills up, particularly instruments, navigation and that ever so gentle control touch. And mirror flying the events in ANN makes my simulator time a whole lot more exciting. Give it a try."

FMI: www.aero-news.net