2011

I have not posted a blog since 2011 on this particular blog. But my head has remained in the clouds and I have remained active in a variety of ways.

1. I began my persuit of a 2nd Bachelors Degree in Space Studies at American Military University and I am now nearing completion of that degree. It has been a very exciting experience and I have made friendships with other students, as well as had the opportunity to have some phenomenal instructors such as Space Shuttle astronaut Wendy Lawrence and Dr. Benjamin G. Davis.
2. I founded the African Space Science and Policy Institute in May, which originally began as a Facebook group. As of the date and time of this blog, I am waiting for the the train to Newark International airport to travel to Nairobi, Kenya, and later Kampala, Uganda to engage in several ASSPI projects.
3. While I have not done any flying this year, I have upgraded to the VIP Package at Lookout Mountain Flight Park later this year. This will solidify my ability to train solid and prepare for later goals.

2012 fast approaches. I am anticipating and working towards a productive year.

Micro Flight Version 5

I initially played around with one of the older versions of HangSim a few years ago. Last year, I downloaded Micro Flight Version 5, which was an improvement on HangSim.

Micro Flight allows you to fly various different types of aircraft. But it's specialty is ultralights. It includes Hang Gliders. It comes standard with 1 hang glider, which is a medium performance hang glider. You can download additional hang gliders from the Micro Flight website.

Pros

1. The scenery is very good. It allows you to select multiple locations. It comes with France as a country, which has many different mountains to launch from. As with the aircraft, you can download additional scenery from the web page.
2. The in-flight characteristics are very realistic. The stalls, turns, sounds, etc. are very much like a real ultralight aircraft.

Cons

1. Landings and takeoffs aren't very realistic. I am willing to cut some slack here, because It is very difficult to simulate running down a hill properly. On the training hill, hang gliding students have to learn how to walk, jog and run while holding the glider, and to continue running into the first few seconds of a launch. It's not uncommon for students to fall down on their first or second runs on the small hill.
2. The hang gliders are generic. It would be nice if they were modeled after specific gliders. This would allow people to do "virtual demos" for gliders, or allow novice pilots to get virtual experience before transitioning to medium and high performance gliders. Many of the ultralight aircraft are generic, while the general aviation aircraft are specific.

In all, I like it.

http://www.hangsim.com