After discovering there is a hidden flight simulator in Google Earth, part of a beta test for some future online game, it was only a matter of time ( two days) before I thought about hacking the simulator on a minor scale. After doing some NOE flying and after many attempts at landing, I decided I wanted to fly around more familiar places.
This instructable will show you how you can make a new airport anywhere and takeoff from the new location. After I wrote this instructable, I decided to select the option "Current location" from the Start location in the settings panel, it kind of makes this instructable useless to anyone other than those interested in practicing takeoffs and landings in their home town.
You can also place a plane anywhere you want by going to the location first and press
If you enter the simulator with your altitude higher than 31,500 feet or so, the plane will be in a stall, until it reaches an altitude low enough to support flight, but dropping into the atmosphere from such a high altitude is pretty cool, you can lift the nose up to see the curved horizon. The highest elevation that you can start at seems to be around 69,300.
One thing this instructable might do is to open the idea to others that we can control things we use in our lives, things that surround us, and this idea may spawn ideas in others and an understanding of the way things can be explored.
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Discovery of the flight simulator, a not so hidden feature in Google Earth, as I was reviewing past stories in Makezine; vectored my behavior for a while. I found the instructable today written by Jare-Bear back , not really hidden yet has been hidden to this someone who has not explored all the programs options.
To get to the flight simulator, launch Google Earth and after the initialization press <Ctrl-alt-a>. An options window will open, where you can choose one of two aircraft and a starting location. The motion and the great realistic landscape makes this a fun simulator worth hours of squandered time.
The two choices of aircraft, being a jet fighter the F16 much faster than the SR22, takeoff speeds are understandibly different as well; so for a beginner, I would suggest the SR22 till you get the hang of the simulator. Unless of course you are like me and want to learn using the fastest.
You can put the plane anywhere on the globe by first going to the location then selecting the option of the start position to "Current View"
I have used the simulator for a short time and have been very good at limiting the wasted time... I think what day is it? I have however squandered a bit of time writing this Instructable, a choice made willingly.
For a list of keystrokes for flying in the simulator press <Ctrl-h>.
The flight simulator has a list of airports which you can fly out of, some of these are too far away from the areas I wanted to explore, trimming the plane and watching it periodically was not the way to enjoy the experience. Of course all before I realized my error of missing the radio button that solved that problem.
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