Google Earth Flight Simulator 187
insidedesign writes "Blogger Marco has recently discovered that the newest version of Google Earth includes a flight simulator. Though simple in comparison to full-blown simulators, Google Earth's is fun and addictive. To get started, press Ctrl+Alt+A for the initial dialog (on OS X, Command+Option+A). Then choose your plane (F16 or SR22) and initial airport. Joysticks are supported; it has even been reported that force feedback works. The game's controls are sensitive so it takes some getting used to. Here are all the available controls. For a quick overview, check out this YouTube video."
Doom in Microsoft Office (Score:2, Informative)
I love easter eggs.
Easter Egg reminds me of... (Score:1, Informative)
Weird with a beard!
-Will the Chill
*this sig intentionally left blank*
Re:Doom in Microsoft Office (Score:5, Informative)
Yep, Excel '97 had a flight sim.
- Hit 'F5'
- Jump to cell X97:L97
- Press 'TAB'
- Hold down and
- Press the "Chart Wizard" button on the toolbar.
I bet the graphics in this one are a little better, though.
Sweet (Score:5, Informative)
Re:This would be a great post for April 1 (Score:2, Informative)
Also, here are the keyboard controls off Google's website [google.com].
Saying that it was "discovered" makes it sound like it was hidden. It wasn't.
Re:This would be a great post for April 1 (Score:5, Informative)
Once you have entered flight simulator mode for the first time, you can re-enter the mode by choosing Tools > Enter Flight Simulator.
So no, it's not in the Tools menu by default, and yes, it's an easter egg.
Re:Wise Guys! (Score:4, Informative)
Paraphrasing the reason for the destruction, "the people of Chicago live in fear of terrorist attacks, and I need to do what I can to keep Chicago safe."
Secretly planning to destroy the airport in the early morning hours acheives that end?
Re:Doesn't work for me (Score:5, Informative)
It is weird, but it works.
Also, use fn-up and fn-down in place of page up and page down on a powerbook.
Re:Sweet (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Doesn't work for me (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Now maybe I should wait until tomorrow to try i (Score:5, Informative)
Quickie: IAS or Indicated Airspeed is a flight dynamic that measures the unidirectional force of air along an aircraft's angle of attack and presents this data as a speed; it is measured with a "pitot tube," a metal tube on the wing or nose of a plane that collects air and measures the amount of force being applied down the tube. At standard temp and pressure, with no wind, and with the aircraft's angle of attack parallel to the surface, this number will theoretically give you the speed at which you are traveling along the ground. As ambient pressure goes down (say with altitude), IAS for a given ground speed goes down; as wind picks up, depending on the wind's bearing to the aircraft's orientation, IAS can go up or down (A plane flying a 100 kts headwind and 100 kts IAS will, all other things being equal, in fact have a ground speed of zero). As angle of attack increases, ground speed goes down. You might be flying at Mach 2, but if you're pointed straight up, your ground speed will be zero.
Comment removed (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Now maybe I should wait until tomorrow to try i (Score:2, Informative)
Angle of Attack is defined as the angle between the direction of the airflow wind and the wing, and has by definition little to do with the ground speed or the wind direction.
Re:Look out, Flight Simulator! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:This would be a great post for April 1 (Score:5, Informative)
%PROGRAMFILES%\Google\Google Earth\res\flightsim\controller\generic.ini
These others in the same directory seem to be for specific brands of controller:
genius_maxfighter_f16u.ini
speed_link_black_hawk.ini
speed_link_cougar_flightstick.ini
From generic.ini
It looks like:
A0..3 = the four axes
P0 = hat switch
DE = elevators
DA = ailerons
DP_0 = power
DR = rudder
HAngle = head angle
I swapped A2 and A3 and everything was hunky-dory!
Check out the other *.ini files and see the there are also button press and release events that can be programmed:
B0..n = buttons
Proceed at your own peril. And don't be a dummy like me, backup your files first!
If you want to get really adventurous here are the flight characteristics of the available aircraft (these are also plain text files):
%PROGRAMFILES%\Google\Google Earth\res\flightsim\aircraft\*.acf
It's like Christmas!
Re:Look out, Flight Simulator! (Score:2, Informative)
For a better mix of realistic scenery and handling, have you tried Flight Gear [flightgear.org]? I haven't gotten it to work on my computer so I'm not speaking from experience, but I was taken in to try it by the fact that they have 10 degree by 10 degree texture packs you can get if you want to see the area you're in, instead of a white bread approximation of it. Or get the whole world on three DVD's!
Re:This would be a great post for April 1 (Score:4, Informative)
Re:This would be a great post for April 1 (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Might I be the first to say... (Score:1, Informative)
While reasonably anticipating the response to a control input is an important part of real flying, a much more important part is judging the attitude, altitude and airspeed during approach to landing. (After all landing is the __ONLY__ really important flying skill required. Well, there are other ways to screw up but landing is number 1 by a long shot.)
I have found that the Navigation Mode Flight Control (Ctrl-G) is far more 'realistic', especially when it comes to developing a feeling for attitude, altitude and airspeed from visual inputs during approach to landing. The only major improvement I would like to see here is the ability to use keyboard input to adjust speed rather than the (relatively insensitive) right mouse button.
Re:Might I be the first to say... (Score:3, Informative)
Call me a karma-whore if you will, but this may save y'all some time.
The shortcut that worked for ME was CTRL-WINDOWS_BUTTON-A, not ALT.
Re:To make it work in Linux.. (Score:3, Informative)