Flight Simulator Notes and Comments

I have four pages of notes and comments related to Flight Simulator, where I describe some oddities, cool things, tips and tricks, etc. Note that for many of these tricks to work, you must have crash mode turned off (Alt->Aircraft->Realism Settings->Ignore crashes and damage).

• Do a touch-and-go on a rooftop - Flight Simulator renders most flat roofs as solid surfaces, so you can't fly through them (although you can easily fly through the sides of buildings or through peaked roofs or complex built-up roofs, since these surfaces are not solid). You can take advantage of the solid nature of a roof by doing a touch-and-go on any flat roof. Cut power, descend carefully, and drop the wheels onto the roof; Flight Simulator makes the usual tire squeak and smoke puff. It helps to use a Piper Cub which can fly very slowly.
• Land on a rooftop - Find a big long building and land on the roof. Use a Cub since it lands very slowly (that way, you won't roll off the end of the roof). This maneuver is tricky, and must be like landing on an aircraft carrier. Any roof you can land on, you have enough space to take off, provided you have room to turn around (otherwise use Slew Mode to turn around). When taking off, keep the brakes on while revving the engine to full power, then release the brakes. There are some really big flat buildings at the water end of Renton Municipal Airport (KRNT), just northeast of the default Sea-Tac airport.
• Land on a tall narrow building - Most tall buildings (skyscrapers) have roofs that are too small to make an ordinary landing, even if the roof is a solid surface. The following technique is difficult, but possible. Approach the roof at a very slow speed and in level flight, but 10 to 20 feet below the roofline (that is, aiming at the building side). Just before you reach the building side, chop the throttle and pull back on the stick. The idea is to zoom up to roof level and lose all flying speed at the same time. If done properly, the airplane stalls and plops down on the roof with minimal rollout (stand on the brakes anyway). Of course, stalling and dropping on to the roof would break the airplane, yet another reason to keep crash mode off. Taking off is pretty easy. Stand on the brakes, go to full power, then release the brakes. You roll off the edge of the roof before you have flying speed, but fast enough to keep the tail from whacking the edge of the roof as you drop off. Dive to gain speed.

Flying off the top of a skyscraper in Chicago.