     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.