A review of "Flight-Sim Maneuvers by Bill Stack"
The book is aimed at the Flight Simulator enthusiast who wants to
"fly like a real pilot". It is an A5 sized, ringbound
book, and is about 160 pages with 7 main chapters, a bibliography
and index. Being ring bound, it is very easy to use on the
desktop. It can be folded out to view 2 pages or even easily
folded back around to view only one page, without any damage to
binding or pages (unless you place it down on spilled coffee
:-)). The print type used makes reading easy. From the title it
can be seen that this book is not to be used for real world
flight training and Bill has the relevant disclaimer on page 8.
The book is an update on earlier versions and now includes a
chapter on multi-engined aircraft. Chapter 1 looks at
"Moving around airports" and just reading it reminds me
how it is more relevant for flight simmers with the likes of FS
TRAFFIC and SQUAWKBOX available for FS98 & FS2000. Hints on
watching out for other aircraft, requesting permission to taxi,
holding, taking-off smartly when permission granted…all
relevant stuff!
The next five chapters deal with airborne manoeuvres, i.e.
take-off, in the air, turning, stalling/spinning and landing. I
like the diagrams and quick reference tables. The chapters are
divided into relevant issues; the major ones are bulleted point
by point. Many start off with "Be aware!". This is good
advice! The graphics help understanding of the issues discussed.
The explanations are quite in-depth. e.g. the chapter on turning.
All one does is push the yoke slightly over to one side, right?
Yeah, right!!! But what makes the aircraft change direction when
it rolls? What are the forces acting on the aircraft during this
manoeuvre? What does the pilot need to do, if anything? What can
the pilot do to make the manoeuvre smoother (for the
"passengers")? How much bank can the pilot apply? What
are the limits and why? How do you monitor a turn? Are there any
standards? Are there different types of turns? What do you watch
out for in those? How do you come out of a turn? What do you
watch out for when rolling out? All these questions, and more,
are covered in the chapter.
The chapter on spinning & stalling is very interesting. There
is a text box differentiating between real-world stalls and
Flight-sim stalls. As well as an explanation of the mechanics of
these issues, Bill also gives recovery techniques. Then he goes
on to exhort you to try the various types of stalls and spins and
recover from them. While not labelled as "exercises",
that's exactly what they are. There's a quick reference table
included in the chapter and I would suggest you try the
exercises! Great stuff!
The chapter on multi-engine aircraft is new. It certainly opens
my eyes in what to watch for when flying light twins. Some of the
info is obvious (certainly so if you have read up on single
engine aircraft) some not so obvious. The chapter ends with five
exercises, three of which are to do with engine failure. Have a
go with the Kingair in FS2K. Brilliant!
This is the type of book that the sim-pilot needs to point the
way towards correct handling of aircraft on the ground and in the
air. It's also a worthy replacement to its predecessor. For more
details see Bill Stacks' home page at http://www.topskills.com/fsm.htm
and buy a copy.
Philip M. Wafer
Jan 2000