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| Come Along as We Fly the Microsoft - King Schools Sweepstakes Cessna 172 SP to Oshkosh | |
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Microsoft and King Schools are giving away a new Cessna 172 SP Millennium Edition next year. You can use Flight Simulator 2000 or Flight Simulator 2000 Professional Edition to duplicate the trip of Flight Simulator product planner Bruce Williams and product manager Darryl Saunders when they ferried the sweepstakes airplane from San Diego to Oshkosh for EAA AirVenture 2000.
To duplicate the KMYF to KOSH Flight
Every year, several members of the flight simulations group at Microsoft travel to the world's biggest aviation event, EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh, Wisconsin. This summer, however, the trip is a bit more exciting - we're taking the Microsoft-King Schools sweepstakes airplane to the big show, and you can follow our progress by using flight plans for each leg of the journey. The routes from San Diego's Montgomery Field (KMYF) to Oshkosh (KOSH) take a pilot through some of the most spectacular geography in the world, and in the summer, flying a light plane across the mountains and deserts that dominate the western legs can be extremely challenging. So, as you follow the flight's progress, don't be surprised if weather or other factors have our pilots making last-minute changes to their route and fuel stops. Flying a Leg To fly along, you should know how to select an aircraft, load and use flight plans, and use the GPS in Flight Simulator 2000. If you need more information about these features, see the topics “Choosing an Aircraft,”“Using the Flight Planner, ” and “Using the GPS” in the online Help. All of the flights assume you're flying the Cessna 182S Skylane, the FS2000 airplane closest in performance to the C172 SP. Before you start a flight, make sure you've selected the Cessna Skylane 182S. You may also want to adjust the time of day and the weather to match current conditions. To change the time of day, on the World menu, click Time & Season. To use the current weather, you must be connected to the Internet and use the Real World Weather feature. For more information, see the topic “Setting the Weather” in the online Help. To Fly a Leg 1. After each leg there is a link to a .PLN file. Save the .PLN file into the Pilots directory of the folder where you installed Microsoft Flight Simulator (usually C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT GAMES\FS2000\PILOTS). To save the file, click the link. Select the flight plan text, right-click, and choose Copy. Open Notebook by clicking Start/Programs/Accessories/Notepad. Paste the text into the Notepad document. Click File/Save As. In the Save As dialog box, navigate to the Pilots directory, name the file AirVenture Leg X (where X is the leg number), and then click Save. Locate the file you saved (usually in C:\PROGRAM FILES\MICROSOFT GAMES\FS2000\PILOTS) and change it from AirVenture Leg X.txt to AirVenture Leg X.pln by right-clicking the filename and selecting Rename. 2. Start Flight Simulator 2000. 3. On the Flights menu, click Flight Planner. 4. In the Flight Planner dialog box, click Load. 5. In the Load Flight Plan dialog box, select the leg you want to fly. The flight plans are named “AirVenture Leg 1,”“AirVenture Leg 2,” and so forth. Flight Simulator places your airplane at the end of the runway at the departure airport, ready for takeoff. The flight planner also loads your route into the GPS. If you want to navigate using VORs, check the Navigation Log that the Flight Planner produces. It lists the VOR identifiers and frequencies for the route. Leg 1: Saturday morning, July 21, San Diego to Phoenix The trip will begin with an early-morning departure from San Diego's Montgomery Field (KMYF) to Williams Gateway airport at Phoenix (KIWA), usually about a two-hour flight in an aircraft like a C172 or C182. This first short leg gets the airplane out of the congested airspace in Southern California and over the first line of mountains early in the day. It follows a route through an east-west valley between California and central Arizona. Even in mid-summer, you should expect a low marine stratus layer to create instrument flying conditions at Montgomery Field, especially early in the day. AirVenture Leg 1.PLN Leg 2: Saturday, July 21, Phoenix to Amarillo The trip continues Saturday afternoon with a longer leg from Williams Gateway to Amarillo (KAMA). The flight should take about four hours. The plan assumes an initial cruising altitude of 9000 feet, but getting through the high mountain passes of eastern Arizona and New Mexico may require a few segments at higher altitudes. If you use the Real World Weather feature, watch out for strong, gusty winds at Amarillo. The airport has one wind sock made out of steel chains, and it's been known to “fly” horizontally. AirVenture Leg 2.PLN Leg 3: Sunday, July 22, Amarillo to Columbia, MO Sunday begins with an early-morning takeoff from Amarillo (KAMA) toward Columbia Regional Airport at Columbia, MO (KCOU). The route is a bit over 500 nm and should require about four hours to fly. Expect to take a few doglegs around summertime thunderstorms as you fly over the wide-open spaces of the Midwest. AirVenture Leg 3.PLN Leg 4: Sunday, July 22, Columbia, MO to Dubuque, IA Sunday ends with a short leg of about 240 nm from KCOU to Dubuque, IA (KDBQ). Expect this leg to take about two hours. The Cessna could fly all the way to Oshkosh from Columbia, but given the high volume of traffic (more than 10,000 airplanes converge on Oshkosh for AirVenture), it's best to arrive in the Oshkosh area rested and with plenty of fuel for holding. AirVenture Leg 4.PLN Leg 5: Monday, July 23, Dubuque, IA to Oshkosh, WI An overnight stop in Dubuque leaves just a short, final hop from KDBQ to Wittman Regional Airport (KOSH). Both pilots and the airplane are now ready for the exciting arrival at AirVenture. Planning for this last short leg also allows extra time for dealing with bad weather en route. To read about the special air traffic control procedures in effect at Oshkosh during AirVenture, check out the official NOTAM. AirVenture Leg 5.PLN |
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