[geeks] An amusing flight simluator story.

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

My middle son was playing Comabt Flight Simulator 3 last night. We have
an old Logitech Wingman joystick. It's ergonomic in design, which in
plain English means that there are grooves in the front for your fingers
when you grip it, and a fire button that can easily be pressed by your
index finger. It works just as well in your right or left hand.


I'm in the living room watching TV (the "new" Addams Family) with my
youngest son, and he screams to me from his bedroom that the game
is broken.


The joystick works fine in the original Comabat Flight Simulator, but
in this one it's backwards. When he goes up the airplane goes down,
when he goes down, it goes up. When he banks left, it goes right,
when he banks right, it goes left. He's ready to give up until I either
get him a new joystick or a new program (this one is a only a few hours
old).

I told him I'd look at it when the show was over, until them look at the
manual and help files. He continues to complain loudly until I come in
and look.

He has the joystick backwards. He was holding it in his left hand with his
hand curved around they way some left handed people (which he is) hold
a pen, so they can write "right handed" with their left hand. I told
him to turn it around. Now it works right, and it's comfortable to use.

Then he tried to take off. The airplane moved forward, the nose went up,
but it would not leave the ground and kept crashing into the buildings at
the end of the runway. I had to explain to him, it was an airplane, not
a rocket, you have to increase the throttle to go fast enough to
take off. He asked me how, and I told him to RTFM. :-)

He had the same problem landing. He could not slow down. "Where's the
brakes?". He finally "got it".


Since he was having so much fun, I let him play on the computer later than
usual. He was really upset when I made him stop.

Geoff.
-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel gsm at mendelson.com  N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838 
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/