The Business View

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I spent the morning flying from Salina, Kansas to Denver (tap). It was one of those days I love to fly: precipitation, low visibility at the destination airport... ATC chatter was too dense to allow me to do any reading (yep, I'm still on The End of Faith) but it was fun to observe the changing weather patterns along the route. I chose the 'snapshot' version of (Jeppeson) weather over the 'update' version because I just can't trust my web connection.

I am still amazed by how well FS2004 does weather. True, my 'frame rate' goes way down at times of complex weather, but I accept that as 'the way it goes...'

I spend most of my time in the 'virtual cockpit' attending to the business of managing the autopilot, radios, ATC, gear, flaps, etc, and most of the rest of the time in the 'virtual chase plane' observing the (in this case) Boeing 737 I am 'flying' and the surrounding scenery.

Every now and then I switch to the 'actual cockpit' view. I pan to the left, looking out the window, then to the right, back to the instrument panel. Before I leave I usually pan over to the right. There is an empty seat there, the co-pilot seat. Interestingly, the sound changes as I look in that direction as if my ears also moved with my eyes. Then I return to the business view.