ATC: Bonanza 9-6-2-1 Sierra, descend and maintain 2-500.
You: Descend and maintain 2-500, Bonanza 9-6-2-1 Sierra
ATC: Bonanza 9-6-2-1 Sierra, turn right heading 2-4-0.
You: Turn right heading 2-4-0, Bonanza 9-6-2-1 Sierra.
Aviate, navigate and communicate - the familiar rhyme is
running through your mind as you juggle with each of the
tasks. Sound familiar? It should to those of you who fly.
ProPilot is Sierra's attempt at trying to re-create the
world of civilian flight for those who wish to combine the
comfort - not to mention safety - of home with the love of
flying. How does Sierra ProPilot (SPP) stack up? Let's find
out . . .
Flight Model
One realises relatively quickly that SPP does not appear to
have a full 6-degrees of freedom (DOF) flight model. Huh?
So what the heck is 6-DOF anyway? When an object can
translate and rotate freely in 3D space relative to an
inertial frame, the object is said to have three degrees of
translational freedom and three degrees of rotational
freedom, giving a total of 6-DOF.
If a flight model has less than 6-DOF, it means that will
be unable to fully simulate real-world behaviour. This need
not be a great disadvantage because much depends on what
realism has been traded off in return for a simpler and
faster sim. So what real-world behaviour has suffered in
SPP?
Click for larger image.
The above are some real-world limitations discovered -
there may be more. How critical are these shortcomings? A
short answer is that it depends on what you expect to be
able to do with this sim. Aerobatic manoeuvers are not
modelled very well. But one may well ask, when was the last
time someone attempted a loop or hammerhead (vertical yaw
or "stall") turn in a real Cessna 172, Baron or Citation?
On the other hand, sideslips, wingovers and even spins are
manoeuvers which pilots encounter intentionally or
otherwise. As another example, the secondary effect of
yawing is rolling and is something familiar in ordinary
flying. It is an effect which is in fact, demonstrated in a
student pilot's first lesson. Yet this simple behaviour is
not modelled too accurately!
Skidding turns at low airspeed in the circuit or pattern
are common with student pilots shy of rolling an aircraft.
These turns typically result from the secondary effect of
yaw (rudder input) causing the aircraft to roll in the
direction of the yaw, and the pilot corrects this with
opposite aileron. If speed control is poor, then the wing
inside of the turn stalls, possibly flicking the aircraft
on its back.
What flight dynamics seem to be modelled reasonably?
Interestingly, aileron rolls seem reasonably realistic!
Within normal non-aerobatic limits, pitch, roll and yaw
inertia seem normal for all aircraft types (I am guessing
for the Super King Air and Citation because I have not
flown both in real life). The yaw experienced by single
engine prop aircraft when approaching stall is done nicely,
as are the related wing drops.
Overall, SPP's flight modelling is a mixed bag. Do not
expect realistic behaviour beyond normal humdrum
operations. One needs to turn to other sims for more
realistic flight modelling.
Score: 2.5 out of 5
Graphics
When first starting up SPP, a promising splash screen with
a hazy mountain type scene comes up. Alas, it turned out to
be just a tease. The sim's graphics can best be described
as being on par with MS Flight Simulator 95 - and that's
not saying much either!
With maximum detail and complexity settings, high altitude
views of the terrain are best described as "passable." When
one gets closer to the ground, the poor quality of the
graphics becomes very apparent despite the maximum
settings. Pixel blocks and poor texture smoothing dominate
low altitude scenery. In contrast, the instrument panel is
reasonable and readable but not the best in overall terms.
Another particularly interesting aspect of the graphics
engine are the 2-3 second pauses at regular intervals.
Presumably, new bits of terrain/texture are being loaded
during these pauses. Under normal circumstances, the pauses
would be an acceptable trade off in return for stunning
graphics. However, as mentioned above, SPP does not win any
accolades in that department. So on balance, the pauses and
poor quality visuals suggest an unwieldy and unimpressive
graphics engine.
View options in SPP are rudimentary. The absence of a
virtual cockpit, snap views, panning etc. all contribute to
sinking SPP in this area. Mind you, its nearest competitor,
MS Flight Sim 95 does not have all the answers either. For
example, you can set up four different external camera
views but cannot look any other direction except forward
when in the cockpit! So how does one fly a nice tight
circuit or pattern around an airfield?
Aircraft graphic models are not much better, sad to say.
One is left somewhat amused when taxiing past what looks
like a B747. It should be easy to identify such a
distinctive aircraft. But the depiction of it in SPP leaves
the venerable Boeing looking like a cartoon caricature!
It is fair to say that flight simulators should be judged
to a reasonable extent, on their visual (and physical)
fidelity. After all, flying relies heavily on the visual
sense! In the graphics department, SPP leaves too much to
be desired by being way below standard.
Ed. Note: Sierra reports that over 27 million points of the
US Geological Survey were used to insure the utmost realism
of mountain ranges, peaks and valleys. Over 60 square miles
of pinpoint detailed accuracy encompasses each of the 29
metropolitan areas. This method often gives a pixelated
appearance even while it reproduces accurate terrain data.
Watch for major improvements in Pro Pilot '99.
Score: 2.0 out of 5
Navigation & ATC Communications
In contrast to graphics, SPP does a little better in
modeling the navigation experience. A flight planning
"wizard" is used to prepare flight plans. One can select
pre-programmed "Victor" routes (ie VFR routes) or elect to
fly using nav aids and airfields as waypoints or "fixes."
This means that you cannot draw any line on the map without
using nav aids or airfields as waypoints. So if you are
looking for a sim which allows you to fly freely in a
virtual world, look elsewhere!
Once you have worked out your route and nominated a cruise
altitude (yes - just one!) and power setting, the wizard
generates a flight plan for you. While the plan ("flight
log" in the menu list) includes wind-corrected headings for
each leg, magnetic tracks for each leg are not given. This
omission makes it somewhat more difficult to perform DR nav
from say, airfield to airfield, assuming the weather model
has randomness built into it. One can work backwards from
the given wind information to determine a track, but this
is actually reversing what one does in real life flight
planning!
I must confess that the GPS mode underwhelmed me at first.
Over time, I became less underwhelmed - but only just.
Having used a number of real fixed and handheld GPS units,
I found SPP's "GPS" somewhat wanting. Without going into a
lengthy detail over the "GPS," suffice to say that the user
interface needs more work!
VOR, DME and ADF aids seemed to work well. The adjustment
knobs had a neat way of turning clockwise or anti-clockwise
- mouse pointer on left half of knob turns it
anti-clockwise and vice-versa. A trip from Portland to
Seattle via VORs and airfields took place uneventfully.
With the co-pilot option selected, communications outbound
from Portland were accurate. However, for some unknown
reason, communications inbound to Seattle did not occur.
Rather than use the cumbersome menu system to conduct
communications myself, I simply broke all rules and flew
into Seattle without clearances! So I'm waiting for the
knock on the door from the FAA inspector . . . heh, heh!
As a result of my "inadvertent" but illegal penetration of
controlled airspace, I decided to see if Seattle ATC was
really at home. I set up the aircraft at 20 nm inbound and
placed myself at the mercy of them. Seattle did a mostly
reasonable job of vectoring me to the assigned runway.
However, this was done with many heading changes close to
the airport (and it wasn't because I failed to fly
accurately!). It is hard to see how this would occur in
real life, so the AI needs a bit more work. The same 20 nm
inbound arrival was flown under IFR conditions and included
one ILS approach. Final touch down was uneventful.
A weak point of SPP is the lack of ability to conduct
authentic manual (as opposed to co-pilot managed)
communications with ATC. While it is certainly not easy
building a simulation to cope with the many possible
variations in ATC communications, it would have been nice
to have greater "realism" built into this simulator.
Overall, navigation and communications offset one another
in positive and negative manners respectively. While not
perfect, the implementation does go some distance in
reproducing the real world.
Score: 3.0 out of 5
Documentation
The supplied Flight Companion manual is quite good. While
skimpy on some detail here and there (eg incomplete
performance data for aircraft and sketchy information on
GPS use), a balance has to be struck somewhere. After all,
pilot operating handbooks themselves can be lengthy
documents.
What struck me about the Flight Companion manual is that it
is clearly the work of a professional flight training
organisation or individual. It is thorough and in some
cases, better than some material found in real flight
training books.
I have mixed views about Online Help manuals. While the
idea is sound in theory, in practice, many people would
find value in a hard copy manual. The reason being that
sometimes, online and hard copy indices do not capture all
keywords of topics that one wishes to look up. When this
occurs, the human brain conducts a "fuzzy" logic contextual
search by flipping through related areas in a hard copy
manual. It is difficult to do this with an online document.
Score: 4.0 out of 5
Summary
Product Feature Score (out of 5)
Flight Model 2.5
Graphics 2.0
Navigation & ATC Communications 3.0
Documentation 4.0
Overall Rating (out of 20) 11.5
Overall Rating (out of 100%) 58%
Having spent some time with SPP, it is clear that there are
good elements in this simulator. But in my opinion, these
good elements are insufficient to distinguish an
outstanding product from just another mediocre offering.
Perhaps SPP 99 will address the shortcomings of this
present offering.
David Lian has a commercial pilot licence with aerobatic,
constant speed, retractable gear and instrument
endorsements. He also holds bachelor and Master degrees in
aeronautics and astronautics.
