Soon Jim was loading up my first mission, which was just a rudimentary takeoff. I was looking through the HUD (which was smaller than I had anticipated, causing me to have to further "maneuver" my seat to adjust) when the screen came alive. I must admit that my first impression of the actual graphics was that I was not impressed. The runway was just a green highlight with everything else on the screen black. No graphics to speak of at all! Of course, I had to remember that this sim was probably built som etime around 1978 or so; which caused me to concede that during it's time the simulator was probably the best around.

Taking off, I had my first chance to manipulate the throttle. It was much easier to move that I had imagined. It was much like a wheel on a power-assisted car in that the slightest touch would cause it to throttle up or down. After contemplating heavy G maneuvers the pilots perform while attempting to throw the throttle back and forth between idle and afterburner, this "easiness" made more sense to me.

I throttled up to military power first and then made the move to full afterburner soon afterwards. To reach afterburner the throttle must be manipulated in a special way. Upon reaching full military power, the throttle meets an "end" of sort s. Upon meeting this "end" the pilot must lift the throttle slightly and "kiss" it to the left where the throttle hitches onto a new thoroughfare, and can be pushed up through afterburner. When pulling the throttle out of afterburner it would make a loud "pop" as it moved back into "dry" thrust.

As I pulled back on the stick I got another thrill. The stick itself is truly amazing. Having it only move 1/16th of an inch was a WEIRD feeling. As the flight wore on, I found myself fighting with the stick constantly. There were times when I was bleeding speed like a madman and I would pull on the stick as hard as I could, but to no avail. The F-16 does not like to dogfight without energy and thanks to my heavy pulling, my right arm became VERY tired. I always find that when my arm becomes tired in the F-16, I have a tendency to want to lift out of my seat (hehehe.. this can ONLY be done in a simulator) and use my body to try and compensate for my weakness/tiredness. Through all my flights in the F-16, I have only one drawback (if there is one) that remains constant, my right arm is always sore and tired when I get out and drive home.

In terms of sound, there was a helmet with a voice actuator that I could don, but it had no sound effects to listen to unless you consider you own voice echoing in your ears "effects". However, I was barred from wearing it (after I took off) because unde r the "Sidewinder" missile mode the wearer of the helmet could hear the different and distinguished "tones" of the AIM-9 's IR seeker which are still considered classified. Thus the all flights have been without sound.

After taking off, I reached to my left (equal to my left breast in height) and flipped the gear lever up. As I climbed up I flew through a sort of blackness. Jim asked me to perform a left-hand traffic pattern and attempt to land the plane. On my first attempt I landed but not straight and rolled off the runway. I was placed back on the runway and after taking off again, successfully performed two landings. In comparison, they were about equal with EF2000. The plane tended to "flutter" more and thus was harder to line-up but after my initial failure, I knew more of what to expect.

The rotation and landing speeds were on par with EF2000 too. I rotated at about 170 knots and landed near 150 knots. The brakes were located on the toe of the rudder petals with the air brake located as a thumb switch on the throttle. Another thing I found to be interesting was that it seemed like I was always using the afterburner to keep my speed up. I kept asking Jim if my speed brakes were open but repeatedly, they were not. Now I can understand why many F-16A pilots referred to it as a bit of a "pig".

Then he loaded up some enemy MiGs and after directing me where to point the nose of the aircraft toward a lonely MiG. I vigilantly watched the little tick mark move right and left at the bottom of the radar screen as the radar antennae scanned the skies for my lonely MiG. Soon I had a square blip on the screen and using the small dish-like thumb switch on the throttle, maneuvered the " " on the radar screen over the enemy plane and simultaneously pushed a thumb switch on the stick to lock him up. I was using Range While Scan mode (RWS) and his vital information was available for me to peruse.

On this flight I was not allowed to fire any missiles (these planes were still equipped with AIM-7 Sparrows and the US standard IR missile, AIM-9 Sidewinders) but I was allowed to use guns on the enemy planes. I was very curious to see what the enemy planes would look like and was again, disappointed to see only a red triangle representing the enemy MiG. He was flying straight and level and made no attempts to engage me in combat as I pulled around on his six after our initial merge.

I had been in the Beyond Visual Range (BVR) mode while tracking him but flicked a thumb switch on the throttle and moved it from the top position to Air Combat Maneuvering (ACM) mode which was the lowest selection to gun him. Just as in most flight sims, ACM mode must be selected before the guns will fire (the other (middle) mode was for AIM-9 Sidewinder shots). The rounds went very quickly and were fired using the trigger, which is different for missiles, which are fired by the top, left-most thumb switch on the stick. I was limited to about 5 seconds worth of ammo due to the quick firing rate. The opposing red "triangle" vanished when he was hit which brought little satisfaction.

After my initial one hour "flight", I would return to this simulator on another four occasions where I would acquire 8 more hours of flight time and learn to become quite comfortable with all the functions and controls of this simulator. Many times other pilots would come in and critique my landings and engagements and offer all sorts of tips and advice on combat situations. I was always asking, where was this and what is that and often times got the dreaded "can't tell you that" answer.

Soon I had collected and remembered quite a bit (probably too much) about all the switches in the F-16 and had simulated starting the engine (even "hot started" it once where after putting the throttle all the way back and "tucking" it in a special corner similar to the way it enters afterburner but back behind idle power, you "pop" it out of it's starting position and (should) immediately pull it back to idle. However, when it "hot starts" the RPMs climb above 17,000 before the engine has completed it's warm-up and the pilot must shut it down and start the procedure all over again).

This simulator was only the first of three I would get to fly. The next one was many times more advanced with a true color display; actual displayed aircraft, and full effects. This new simulator made sims like EF2000 look like child's play. I'll explain my experience with this sim and how it compares to modern flight sims in part 3.

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Last Updated October 30th, 1997