06.09.02   MARSH XBOX /DEADLY SKIES  1 HOUR

Flying the xbox seemed much easier than I'd remembered because I'd been flying a real plane, the instincts for keeping the nose up whilst turning, for anticipating where you end up and pulling out early, and for orienting myself in the sky/against the horizon are much better than they would have been otherwise. Felt like I was achieving much more than I ever had before in a flying game.

30.09.02  MARSH XBOX /DEADLY SKIES  2 HOURS

Took a little while to get used to flying it again, but soon accomplished the first mission this was mainly due to thinking of the task as flying in a space rather than following the on screen instructions about where the next target was. Thinking in terms of banking and turning a 360 turn then flying along a range of targets rather than weaving from one to another.  Also thinking instead of trying to follow the on screen arrow, thinking about how I'd do it in a real aircraft by banking around keeping the horizon in view & again the use of lessons from flying like doing an ascending turn etc was good, but not massively useful as the controls are so simple on the XBOX its more a matter of reaction time and targeting rather than problems with the actual flying. The flying has been reduced to a minimum in this game so that the fighting & bombing whilst on the move is the real game play. The flying was relatively easy to come to terms with. Some terminology similarities like "stall" were useful as I knew instantly that I just needed to speed up, stalling happened when I found myself flying straight upwards so the plane was slowing down as it climbed as it would in a real plane. The controls however on the game always right themselves its as if there is automatic trim, whereas in a real plane if you bank to the left the plane would not right itself automatically.

It was much more difficult to keep track of spatial orientation in terms of up and down my ears not feeling it as well, and the colour differences between sea and sky being very similar and the textures not being terribly sophisticated, however other planes were equally small but had a target around them to aid in identification. Whilst banking there is no view out of the side window, and no rear window so it was difficult to tell if something was behind me, I had to use the radar (something the small Cesna 150 doesn't have).

Beginning to think it would be better if I could play a game which was trying to model a real plane a bit more.

01.10.02  MARSH   XBOX /DEADLY SKIES  1 HOUR

I need to spend some time reading the manual as I do when I'm going to go flying a real plane. To know what I'm meant to be doing rather than learning by trial and error. Learning to fly would be much slower without the instructor, and include as many crashes and false starts as the game does.

I also need to really concentrate and try to do it right with as much concentration as I would in real flying, the game allows me to not concentrate so I don't learn as fast. But I'm progressing feels like I'm going over the same ground again and again.

08.10.02  MARSH   XBOX /DEADLY SKIES  1 HOUR

Progressed much further through the game this time, partly because i'd read the instructions and finally worked out what the radar was telling me and found out that not all targets need to be shot down in order to complete the mission. Still havent got to a stage where i can save a level, but got much nearer. Tried flyng down through the cloud level and down to earth to look at the landscape, one level had cloud a lot like the cloud i saw today whilst flying.

turning and banking went really well, and my understanding of what height things are going to be at - other aircraft are never below 1000ft for instance.

The simulation is like the real thing in principle only - and of course is much simpler to do, need to move on to a better flight sim.

18.10.02  MARSH   XBOX /DEADLY SKIES  1.5 HOURS

Had some similar 'flying through cloud' moments where screen went misty and i felt disorientated. Progressing through some of the levels, main problems are with working out how the interface works for going from mission to mission. Once i'd worked that out i realised that i could just go and do one mission then progress onto the next, this is more satisfying and i seem to be able to shoot down the right targets etc, but the problems seem to occur mostly with shooting rather than with flying, i can control the plane quite well. on the 3rd mission there's a canyon you are flying through which you're not allowed to fly out of, to tell you this you get a warning similar to a stall warning, that you are flying too highand should lower your nose, however whilst ina plane you eventually loose control and the plane goes into a glide, in the game you just get 'mission failed'.

18.10.02  GENERAL COMMENTS

The process has become too closed, i need to open it up by looking at other kinds of simulation rather than just one game. So i'm going to try microsoft flight sim, and different games, before looking elsewhere for flight simulators.

28.01.03  MEDIA CENTRE  MICROSOFT FLIGHTSIM   1 HOUR

Installed Microsoft flight sim at the media centre, but it runs in safe mode because unable to use hardware acceleration?

Flight Sim lessons, difficult with key controls, slow to react but very sensitive, but i'm slowly getting the hang of it i think. Flight Sim has buit in lessons so next time i'll go through a few of them. It is very similar to flying but it is so un-tactile, you only read on a dial how high you are because the graphics are too clunky, and you don't feel the wind, or runway, but the sound helps. I guess its a bit like i felt at first with real flying - very disconnected and disembodied.

07.02.03  MEDIA CENTRE  MICROSOFT FLIGHTSIM   1 HOUR

The simulator is too slow to respond so its really difficult to control. Its too disembodied, and not like flying. and just maeks me want to be in a real plane, properly flying. Makes me realise i really do have the bug forflying.

Voioce over of trainer is interesting and when you're training its really hard to make it crash. However it is easy to get flight data like GPS, so when the hardware is sorted I'll be able to get comparative data. Feeling more and more disatisfied with on screen experience, more and more inclined towards sculptural objects.