Adventures on a flight simulator, with pictures to show your friends.

I thank my cousin, Frank, for introducing me to the joys of flying a flight simulator and actually taking a picture of the experience to show your friends. Basically, the Microsoft Flight Simulator puts you into the seat of your choice of over twenty airplanes from the Wright brothers' Flier to a Boeing 747.

You have a choice of thousands of airports all over the world from which to take off. And you can see all of the sights along the way in simulated form. For instance, if you go to Google and find out what city the Great Pyramids are near, you can take off from that airport, find the great Pyramids from the air, and land just in front of them. What makes it even better is that you can take a picture of your plane, sitting there in front of the Great Pyramids!

Let me show you how to do this, step by step.

First, you must purchase a flight simulator from your favorite PC store. Walmart carries them too. You will also want to get a joystick. When I got mine, the Microsoft 2004 simulator was $30.00 and the joy stick was $20.00. I think there is a newer version now, Microsoft 2009. The instructions are fairly straightforward and non technical.

Once you fly enough to get up in the air and control the airplane you will start having fun. When you feel that you are ready, begin to make a list of all the things you would like to see all over the world. Then begin to put by the side of your list how to get there.

In most cases you can put the name of the airport you take off from. Then, such as the case of Niagara Falls, you can find it visually from the air. In other cases you will need to go to Google and find the coordinates (not as hard as it sounds) and put those coordinates into a search window and click you are flying just over the object of your search.

Then, once you have found the object of your search and you are ready to take the picture, say, you are flying just in front of the Eiffle Tower, you look on your keyboard, push the print screen button, and you have snapped the picture.

Then, you might have to do a little research with your computer support 800 number, but you simply ask someone how to use the print screen process on your particular computer.

Here is the way I do it and it is simple. I have already pushed print screen and have the picture recorded. I go to Start>all programs>accessories>paint>edit>paste>save>title>My pictures>save. And then you can print it, send it to a friend, and then save it for later.

In my album I have pictures of my Piper Cub flying under the Arch in St. Louis, my Cessna amphibian,flying under the Brooklyn Bridge, flying over Niagara Falls and then landing at the base of the falls. I am flying my Tomcat Jet between the twin towers of Petronas in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.

I am sitting in my Cessna 182 looking at the Great Pyramids and then the Sphinx. I am sitting in my Cessna amphibian looking at the beautiful Taj Mahal in Agra, India. I am flying over Mt. Rushmore, looking at the heads of the Presidents.

I am flying over the Battleship Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor and then I am flying into the most beautiful sunset possible as I fly out of Pearl Harbor. All of those pictures are saved in my picture album and I never left my computer. Of course it is not as good as the real thing but very close! "Hope you enjoy the trip!"

Learn more about this author, Donald Hancock.
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