VIRGIN GAMES SHUTTLE SPACE FLIGHT SIMULATOR
Landing and de-orbit tutorial.

I've included a tutorial here using the corrected version of the 
game where the Spec 50 CRT screen now works better.

There are four segments to interpret on the Spec 50 display.

1) Triangle.  This is the shuttle's position in relation to the 
runway and always remains at the bottom center.

2) Large circle (Glide Down circle).  Ideal position for 
beginning landing approach.  The goal is for the shuttle triangle 
to stay inside this circle while turning and descending until 
final approach parameters are obtained.  Also useful to identify 
which end of the runway to start your approach.

3) Small circle.  Touch down point (roughly 1/3 in from start of 
runway.)  Your approach should start near the large circle and 
touch down before or on the small circle.  Mainly useful for 
early high altitude stage just after re-entry, to confirm your 
approach direction and orientation of the runway.  Touch down 
beyond this point may not provide enough time to stop.

4) Thin line.  TAEM alignment cylinder.  This stretches between 
large and small circle.  Final approach should start with point of 
shuttle triangle touching near end, close to 10,000 feet 
altitude, 340 knots speed.  Touchdown should occur at or before 
far end of line.

Objects 2,3,and 4 rotate around the screen.

LANDING DIRECTIONS

The directions provided to PC users of Shuttle from Virgin Games 
US is the simplest and will land you in a few minutes quick and 
easy.

As soon as you get the message confirming re-entry complete, make 
a right turn to 70 degrees and zero pitch.  The Spec 50 and the 
HSI can assist you to obtain this.  Your decent rate will be very 
high and events will happen fairly quickly.  Maintain level 
wings.  A quick look at the external view will confirm you are 
heading in the general direction of the landing area to pass 
slightly south of it.  If you are landing at Canaveral, approach 
may begin North of it when simulation start is set to landing 
practice.

When you get near the landing area, the figures 2,3,and 4 
mentioned above will slide down the left side ( or right ) of the 
Spec 50 from top to bottom.  As soon as the complete display is 
on the screen and nearly even with the shuttle symbol, turn the 
shuttle left to aim for the Glide Down Circle (figure 2).  If 
your approach is from the north, you may just enter a circle here 
if you are now near the alignment cylinder.  Make note the glide 
circle's position in relation to the cylinder line.  The circle 
may disappear as you get close.  If this happens, just enter the 
area where it was and circle several times in a tight turn until 
your altitude is between 25 and 35 thousand feet.  Pull out of 
the turn pointing straight at the runway with the center of the 
HUD aimed at the near end of the runway.

The idea behind the glide-down circle being offset is that with 
proper timing, you are able to exit aligned to the runway from 
the opposite side you entered, and have to make very little 
course adjustment.  With that in mind, I enter it from the south 
beginning my turn on the outside opposite the alignment cylinder 
and turn left 40 degrees, maintaining until altitude is correct. 

Speed is not important at high altitude.  You can deploy data 
probes any time you like if you want to use them.  I don't start 
breaking until I get below 70,000 feet.  EAS knots indicator 
doesn't show true speed until altitude is below 65,000 feet.  
Adjust speedbreak ( + and - keys ) so you will not be over 340 
knots when you reach the start of the cylinder line.  Use HSI and 
yaw keys ( , . ) to correct your alignment.  Keep in mind that 
the HSI will direct you slightly left of the runway when you are 
very close.  Within 10,000 feet, it's best to do final adjustments 
visually.

When arriving out of re-entry where the altitude will be over 
200,000 rather than 140,000 you get during landing practice, fly 
toward runway with slight up pitch to provide lots of flight time 
(I use 10 degrees to start.)  When the glide circle is even with 
the shuttle symbol on the spec 50 to the left, fly toward right 
or outside of the large circle.  Now the idea is to loose lots of 
altitude and stay in a favorable position for final.  I make a 
tight symmetrical turn inside the circle and adjust pitch to lose 
altitude at the rate I wish.

Between 25 and 35,000 feet, leave the circle and head straight 
south with the runway ahead.  A 10 degree down pitch is typical 
here.  Keep speed close to 340 knots.

The goal now is to position for a straight on approach.  The HSI 
has more resolution and accuracy for this and it's easy to move 
between the HUD and Commander's panel by pressing F1 and F2.  
The shuttle is in the best position for final approach when there 
is a long yellow line directly through the aircraft symbol in the 
HSI, and intersects with a small yellow line drawn directly 
underneath the "S" (south) compass marker.  If the long lellow 
line is to the right of the aircraft symbol, you are right of the 
runway.  This works the same if you are flying in any other 
direction.  The HSI will not tell you if you are North or South 
of the runway, only your present heading, whether you are East or 
West of the runway, have proper horizontal angle, and what 
direction you need to fly to intercept once you are North of it 
with margin to maneuver.  

Think of the small yellow underline as the direction to the 
runway under proper approach conditions, the long yellow line as 
the desired glidepath during approach, the rotating compass 
letters as your current heading (at the top,) and center aircraft 
symbol as your current position in relation to the glidepath.  
Like the Spec 50 shuttle symbol, the HSI Shuttle symbol will 
remain frozen in the center.

Again, when everything is correct, the compass "S" will be 
at the top and slightly to the left, with a small green underline 
beneath it, and a long green line drawn through the center 
aircraft symbol directly between the S and N.

The HSI does not indicate descent rate.

I've often wished there was a descent rate indicator somewhere in 
the simulator.  The lack of one makes for very seat-of-the-pants 
flying.  Proper altitude at any point has to be judged visually 
and will take some practice.  There ARE two in the simulation.  
One on the HSI which isn't functional, and one on the HUD that 
moves with no meaning.  Too bad.

Another glance at the "Spec 50" CRT will confirm your heading is 
something near 171 degrees.  As the point of the shuttle triangle 
touches the near end of the cylinder line, speed should be near 
340 knots and 10 to 12,000 feet altitude.  Ideal position for 
first pre-flair is at 2,000 feet, and point of shuttle triangle 
is near end of cylinder line on the CRT.  If over 340 knots in 
speed, use this flair with speedbreak to reduce to 330 knots.  
Looking out the HUD, center of the display should line up 
perfectly with the end of the runway.  This close, the HSI will 
show you slightly to one side.

Pitch up until the small arrows at the bottom of the HUD are even 
with the horizon, continue to correct alignment with the field, 
and hold until the speed drops close to 330 knots.

Arm landing gear.  Proper keypress (not explained correctly in 
the manual) is hold Control and hold "G".  When menu prompt 
appears, continue holding Control and press "A".  If you let go 
and press "A", the gear WILL arm, but you'll have to press the 
"F" key to inform the program you are still using FORWARD flight 
controls (ALT-A is interpreted by the keyboard parser as Arm 
Landing Gear and Aft Controls although the Forward controls 
remain in effect.)  Should you start another mission without 
dumping the program, the shuttle WILL BE IN AFT CONTROL MODE 
although you don't remember doing that.  Point the nose down at 
the runway and adjust break to keep speed over 300 knots and 
under 350.  Typically, I remove break at this point.

At 1,000 feet, perform final flare same as above and lower 
landing gear  Stall is around 190 knots.  Use yaw buttons for 
fine alignment adjustments.  The AVVI "Alt Rate" should show 10 
ft/second or less during last 200 feet.  Too much pitch at any 
speed here will produce a stall crash.
 
Adjust break and pitch if necessary.  On touchdown, apply full 
break.  Yaw can still be used to keep centered on the runway.  
The "W" key for applying wheelbreaks is mentioned in the Mission 
Guide page 10 and nowhere else.  I get the impression breaking 
happens faster while held down, but have not been able to confirm 
that.

RE-ENTRY DIRECTIONS

Re-entry begins when you get the message that the de-orbit burn 
is complete and the shuttle has automatically turned 180 degrees 
to place the nose in the direction of travel.  I pause the 
program here and adjust the external view behind and above the 
shuttle looking in the direction of travel and rotate so the 
curvature of the earth and the shuttle is as close to parallel 
with the bottom of the screen as possible.  I use this as a 
reference if I get confused or I need reassurance during 
erroneous instrument displays.   I also press the ATT REF on the 
commander's console to log my present orientation for future 
reference.

The re-entry error margin has been increased so that proper pitch 
will not result in burn-up.  Correct the pitch using the ADI in 
LVLH mode (ADI Attitude switch.)  Use pitch controls to obtain a 
display where the bottom of the small dip in the white center 
line fixed across the center of the display, is above the black 
horizon ( earth ) half way between the first and second row of 
horizontal dots in the white area.  Each row of dots represents 
22.5 degrees pitch.  This will provide a pitch around 30 - 32 
degrees.  Required range is between 28 and 38.  Proper pitch is 
checked at two places during this sequence.  At 425,000 feet (70 
on the AVVI altitude indicator) where you will get the message 
that you have entered re-entry interface, and at 207,000 feet 
(207 on the AVVI) where you will get the message that re-entry is 
complete and you start the landing approach to the runway.  You 
can have a lot of error at most times as long as you are able to 
correct close to the crucial times.  Do not use the Spec 50 
display during this phase as it will temporarily disable 
rotational controls.

Severe roll error will make the display hard to interpret.  I 
find it very useful to set all the Orbital DAP *ROTATION* 
controls to *PULSE* and RCS JETS to VERN.  This will provide fine 
control where it would take 4 to 8 key presses to start motion 
from a still orientation rather than 1 or 2 as would happen in 
NORM mode.  I can counter a number of key presses with equal 
numbers of opposite presses to maintain accurate control.  Math 
errors will cause the ADI to jump suddenly at times although the 
shuttle hasn't changed much.  Don't react to these, just give the 
ADI time to settle into the proper indication (about 10 to 30 
seconds.)  Use the time before heat interface (occurs at 425,000 
feet, 70 on the AVVI) to perfect attitude.  You have lots of 
time, but avoid time skips of more than a minute because large 
errors can occur and leave you with too little time to make the 
delicate corrections.      

At 207,000 feet, interface will end and landing begin.  The sky 
will have brightened and the AVVI Altitude indicator having 
slowly decreased toward a reading of 40 will suddenly jump to 243 
(now reading accurately) and quickly down to 207 and below.  If 
you have been struggling to get level wings and proper pitch, you 
have less than a minute left.

Further fine tuning can be achieved for pilots demanding 
perfection by placing the commander's ADI Attitude switch to REF.  
The error needles on the top, side, and bottom of the ADI will 
now move to display directional motion since the ATT REF button 
was pressed.  Press this button as many times as needed to keep 
the indicators within the error rate you have selected with the 
ADI RATE switches.  You can now see motion that would not show up 
on the ADI until there was cumulative error.  Zero motion is 
impossible, but you can reach a point where very little 
correction is necessary.  Switch ADI Attitude back to LVLH and 
make a couple key presses when large error shows up.

Avoid over-compensation.  Press a rotational fire control a few 
times and wait until you see a motion update on the display to 
judge the effect of your control.  This may take 10 seconds to a 
minute.  Keep track of the number of times you have pressed the 
control so you can compensate with the proper number to correct.  
     
Never correct more than one rotation axis at a time.  When the 
axis you are working on has stabilized so substantial errors stop 
occuring for up to 30 seconds or more, switch to another axis and 
perfect that before moving on.  You will find that corrections of 
yaw are rarely needed or will need only one small correction the 
whole flight just to stop an initial drift.  Never activate the 
TRANSLATION controls during this time.  Use the CURSOR keys for 
pitch and roll NOT the joystick.  Thrust or speedbreak controls 
are not needed.

This should help budding pilots with re-entry and landings.  Make 
sure you save your position to disk just after closing the doors 
in preparation for de-orbit.

A few more general tips:

During game set-up, set the time advance to 10 minutes and 1 minute 
display rate.  Most events are nearly 10 minutes or less apart.  1 
minute updates on the screen will let you see relatively 
frequent scene changes without slowing the program too much.  
Just press "T" to activate.  If you are paused, press pause to 
begin advance.  At any time, you can interrupt advance by holding 
down "T" again.  This "feature" is not documented.

Time Skip may be hard to understand because it changes based on 
the mission timer.  Set the "Advance to" number to where you want 
the simulation to stop based on the mission clock.  On the launch 
pad at T -5 hours, you might want to set it to 4 minutes with the 
minus circle selected.  All mission events will be performed 
automatically, and if you selected "P" for pause at end of skip, 
mission time will be paused there ready for you to resume and 
complete manually.  I go eat lunch, watch a TV show or something 
come back at any time and it's ready to go.

The mission timer restarts at several times during a mission.

1)  Launch - Resets to zero and counts up as plus time instead of 
minus.

2) Mission comms - Reset to zero and counts up or down as plus 
time depending on mission.

3) Landing comms - Reset to zero and counts up as plus time until 
re-entry is complete.

4) Landing phase - Interface has ended and shuttle is near runway 
at high altitude preparing for final approach.  Counts up as plus 
time.

All orbit preparations end by + 56 minutes.

These are important to remember as you try to set the timer.
Use Mission guide to help you find times near where you want to 
be actively involved.

You can also interrupt Skip by holding down the "T" key.  Again, 
not documented.

Problem checklist:
No Radar Altimeter - You will find the switches to turn them on 
to the right of the TACAN 1,2,3 switches on the overhead [08].
Will not work above 10,000 feet.

Takes too long for de-orbit burn.
To get an idea when it's coming up, select the external view and 
rotate so you are looking straight down at the Earth.  Use the 
zoom out "-" key and hold it down until you can see nearly the 
whole earth and the zoom stops.  If you can recognize the land 
forms, watch for the shuttle to pass across the Suez canal, tip 
of India, and across Indian ocean.  You will pass across the 
bottom of Australia.  Close to the middle, de-orbit burn will 
begin.  From there, you will swing north across Solomons and 
Hawaii, to pass over the US west coast as the sky brightens.  
This is a fun way to time skip and sight see.  Because the 
shuttle is always slowly rotating during orbit, you'll have to 
hold down the keypad "0" or "." keys to rotate the view to a 
useful setting.

Although the manual states that help levels cannot be decreased 
to a lower level once play has begun, I've found this not true.  
You can set them up and down at will.  I like to use the Veteran 
or Full Manual settings when I don't want the screens to to jump 
around.

There is a feature in the Control-P menu to change the distance 
the screen jumps when scrolling through connected screens.  
Change this only once.  Changing back again will crash the 
program.

To scroll through all the CRT screens on the rear CRT #4, use the 
keypad + and - keys.

If you need an update, contact Virgin Games at the address on the 
manual, or call the number below:

Virgin Games Ltd. London England
1-011-44-081-960-2255

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