User Guide

Learning To Fly with Rod Machado

Tutorial 1: Straight-&-Level Flight

The very first thing you need to do is (yes, you’ve guessed it) homework! Watch or read all of the

selections for Tutorial 1 before you go on. These will give you a good foundation for some things we’ll

be talking about.

Homework for this tutorial is found in the Help menu under Homework. When you first start Flight

Simulator 2000, click the Fly Now! button on the opening screen. When the menus at the top

become visible, click Help and then click Homework. Read all the topics and watch the videos for

Tutorial 1.

Your first tutorial is one of the most important. You’re about to practice straight-and-level flight, one of

aviation’s most fundamental maneuvers. Does this sound like two separate maneuvers instead of

one? Well, it is. Straight flight means the airplane’s nose remains pointed in one direction and the

wings are parallel to the earth’s horizon. Level flight means the airplane doesn’t gain or lose altitude.

Let’s see what this looks like from the air.

1. On the menu bar located at the top of the screen, click the Flights menu, then click Select

Flight, then choose Tutorial 1, Situation 1 from the list of available flights. We’ll combine our

first flight with a little European vacation: this situation puts you in a Cessna 182S over Rome.

2. Click the OK icon (that’s the check mark, not the X).

3. As soon as the simulation starts, press P on your keyboard to pause the simulation.

Now you want to activate the autopilot. Why? It allows me to demonstrate a maneuver and gives

you a chance to relax so I can explain things and give you pep talks. The autopilot has several

features, but you’ll only use two: the wing leveler and altitude hold. The wing leveler keeps the

wings from banking, thus it keeps the airplane flying straight ahead. Altitude hold adjusts the

airplane’s nose-up or nose-down pitch, which helps it maintain a constant altitude.

We’ll use keyboard commands to control the autopilot, but you canWe’ll use keyboard commands to control the autopilot, but you can

We’ll use keyboard commands to control the autopilot, but you can

also select also select

also select Autopilot

from the from the

from the Aircraft

menu to see and change the menu to see and change the

menu to see and change the

autopilot settings.autopilot settings.

autopilot settings.

4. Press Z to activate the autopilot from the keyboard, then press Ctrl+V to activate the wing

leveler, and press Ctrl+Z to activate the altitude hold function. These keys program the autopilot

to fly the airplane straight (no bank) and level (constant altitude).

5. Now press P again to reactivate the simulation.