On 2/12/2010 2:48 PM, terry wrote:
On Feb 13, 7:33 am, wrote:
terry writes:
Can you tell that an area in front of you is truly flat smooth and
safe from 500 feet altitude?

You can get a pretty good idea,

How good an idea? How well does MS Flight simulator simulate what
ground detail a pilot would see from 500 feet looking over the nose of
the aircraft? We know you have never flown an aircraft, but have you
ever even been a passenger in the front seat of an aircraft and
experienced the view from 500 feet? And how long do you think you
would have from 500 feet with no power to make a judgement of whether
that peice of seemingly flat smooth safe land is really that? and what
would you do when you get to 400 feet and suddenly discover there is a
power line slap bang across the approach path or a bunch of kids
playing chase? you have no idea.

I've been using MS Flight sim since version 4, and I can honestly
say that every time I have had to make an emergency landing during the
takeoff phase of flight the ground in front of me has been simulated to
be perfectly flat and smooth, and i am now able to discern this from
altitudes well over 500 feet, even close to 1600 meters, go figure.

By the way, i have flown a real ac, and from 500 ft, do you really think
you could turn around and land on the rw? Not likely.