Cessna Citationjet panel
Flight Light is a simple yet
full-featured flight simulator designed for the beginner. It
features as its main aircraft the Cessna Citationjet.
Compare this panel with the real Citationjet cockpit
(40k).
Flight Light has a practice flight mode which makes it impossible
to crash, on-screen visual cues for the right settings during
various phases of the flight (takeoff, climb, cruise...), visual
track-to-destination arrows and more... all features which make
it much easier for the beginner.
All beginner features can, of course, be turned off for the more
experienced pilot.
Flight Light is compatible with sublogic's USA EAST/WEST and Great Britain sceneries.
The "plus" version also includes:
2 Single-pitched props
Piper Archer
and 2 Variable pitched props
plus a second navigation instrument and ADF receiver.
"... Cessna's new entry-level business jet is the perfect aircraft for an introductory flight simulation. The original Cessna Citation 500 was so easy to fly that Cessna produced a single-pilot version of the aircraft known as the 501SP. The new Cessna CitationJet is also single-pilot certified.
"The CitationJet's big flight envelope makes it especially well suited for flight sim modelling. You can fly it as fast as 340 knots and approach as slow as 90 knots. To put it another way, you can fly long distances quickly, then put her into that little 3,000-foot strip behind grandma's house. What a dream machine!
"The current base price of the Cessna CitadonJet is approximately $2.9 million. Aircraft weight ranges from 6,200 pounds empty to a maximum takeoff weight of 10,400 pounds (including up to 3,200 pounds of fuel). Flight Light pilots typically will fly the aircraft at around 8,500 pounds, which significantly improves climb rates and lowers approach speeds.
"Flight Light provides a high-fidelity flight model of the Cessna CitationJet. In addition to multiple flights in the real aircraft, we rented enough time on the Cessna simulator to obtain very accurate performance data. At 10,000 pounds, the CitationJet gives an initial rate of climb in excess of 3,000 feet per minute, dropping off to approximately 600 fpm at 35,000 feet. Burn off some fuel and take the CitationJet up to its maximum ceiling of 41,000 feet. Fuel burns of just over 600 pounds per hour (less than 100 gallons per hour!) give you a true airspeed of 340 knots at FL410 at an aircraft weight of 9,000 pounds. Extend speedbrakes, nose over to 250 knots indicated airspeed, and peg the vertical velocity indicator at 6,000 fpm. As you near your home airport, setting flaps to approach position and extending gear at 185 knots will slow you for final approach. Set flaps to landing position below 150 knots. At 100 knots final approach speed you'll have a slight pitch-up attitude and will flare only slightly as you settle onto the runway, where the trailing-link landing gear helps ensure a greased-on landing every time.
"Cessna was devoted to making the CitationJet a great aircraft. Our devotion was to make Flight Light an easy-to-fly introduction to aviation. Simplicity is the key; the simulation includes only one aircraft and a single NAV radio (Flight Light Plus has the works). You can fly along flight corridors from New York to Boston, Chicago/Champaign, Los Angeles/ San Diego, and Dallas/Austin. Onscreen visual cues show you what settings to use to climb, cruise, descend and land. Visual track-to-destination arrows, radio nav-aid markers, and traffic pattern indicators help you navigate to your destination airport. All sim features are organized under a new menu system that offers context-sensitive help. And Flight Light includes the same colorful, comprehensive maps.
"Flight Light's 241 structured flight assignments require you to fly from a departure airport to a destination airport under preset time and weather conditions. At the completion of each assignment, you're given a debriefing and a set of performance scores for the flight. Here's a look "behind the scenes" at how Flight Light's grading system works.
"For each assignment, you're rated in the categories of navigation, aumanship/safety, and efficiency. Your score in each category can range from 0% (very poor) to 100% (no de-ratings). These three scores are then averaged to give you a final composite score.
"You must maintain a climb rate of at least 500 feet per minute and a descent rate between 2,000-3,000 fpm to avoid being de-rated in these vertical navigation factors. You also have to start your descent at the right point in the flight so that you'll be able to level off at an altitude of approximately 2,000 feet AGL three to four miles before reaching the destination airport. (A table in the Quick Reference Handbook helps you determine distance covered during a descent based on your starting cruise altitude.) If the airport has a terminal VORJDME, you can use the distance information it provides to determine when to start your descent. Otherwise you'll probably have to use visual checkpoints to confirm the optimal start location.
(When visibility is unlimited, experienced pilots also use another technique to start their descents. You can visualize your descent path simply by looking at the destination airpon In Flight Light, when the airport lies 5ø below the natural horizon you can pitch down, center the 'level' visual flight cue on the airport and fly a perfect descent at a -5ø pitch attitude.)
"While you probably won't be de-rated for failing to hold enroute altitude (Flight Light's improved autopilot does a good job of holding altitude), poor airmanship on level-off can get you de-rated in this area. Your assigned cruise altitude is listed on a weather briefing screen that you can call up anytime during the flight.
"Your navigation score also is lowered if you fail to intercept course or don't do a reasonable job of staying on course. You can't just turn to the proper heading after takeoff and fly towards the destination airport. Instead, you have to intercept and follow the direct course from departure tO destination (as indicated by the direct-to-destination guideline and/or a straight line drawn on the map connecting the two airports).
"Flight Light's direct-route guideline can be activated without penalty in the fust ten flight assignments to help you determine the direct course. After that, your navigation score will be lowered 30 percentage points if you use the guideline during a flight assignment.
"Other navigation deductions are equalized based on the percentage of total flight time during which the infraction occurs. For example, whether you take a long 250-mile flight or a short 40-mile hop, your score will be lowered by the same amount if you fly half the cruise portion of the flight at the wrong altitude.
"Exceeding flaps, gear, or max operating speed limits lowers your airmanship/safety score by 10% each. Banking the aircraft more than 10 degrees at an altitude of less than 400 feet AGL is considered to be a reckless maneuver, and reduces your airmanshiplsafety score by 10%. If you forget to lower the gear before landing, your airmanship/safety rating drops by 50%!
"Proper fuel loading is an especially important component of a successful flight assignment. Your airmanship/safety score is docked if you land with too little reserve fuel left, yet your efficiency score is lowered if you have too much fuel left over at the end of the flight. You'll get the best scores in both categories when you land with between 700-1,000 pounds of fuel onboard. Your safety rating drops significantly if you land with less than 700 Ibs, and drops drastically with a fuel reserve of less than 500 lbs. If you land with more than 1,000 Ibs of fuel left onboard, your efficiency rating is lowered for ferrying excess fuel in flight. The drop in efficiency can be from 6% to 20% depending on how much extra fuel is left.
"Your efficiency score is also lowered if you use a power setting higher than the recommended economy cruise settings (listed in the Quick Reference Handbook) during the cruise portion of your flight. Flying at higher power settings increases your cruise airspeed but also bums excess fuel. This can drop your efficiency rating by as much as 30%. . . . ", subLOGIC says in their Computer Flight Newsbrief #35.
FLight Light runs on 286s or higher with 512Kb available connventional memory. Sound Blaster is supported. For full functionality expanded memory is required.
We recommend running Flight Light in EGA resolution. Flight
Light's VGA setting has 256 collors but a lower resolution than
EGA. (Screenshots are in EGA).
You can find Flight Light for less than $20 and Flight Light Plus
for less than $30 in many computer stores.
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