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With great patience and adjusting of volume, I eventually managed to load the program; one of the vast range of flight simulators currently available, which I found, to my horror, was written entirely in BASIC! The screen presentation is very poor, although there is the option to use a joystick.

You have to decide the quantity of fuel and passengers for your flight and whether to land or take off. The cockpit is then drawn slowly, containing the usual dials - altimeter, compass, etc. including various failure reports such as engine fires and brake failures, which all add to the excitement. Sadly, it's only drawn in two colours, but you can change these to your taste. The plane is then in your hands to crash, or possibly, to fly!

In all there are about thirty keys to be pressed, controlling brakes, landing gear, flaps, direction, etc.

The pilot's view is very disappointing - the horizon never moves and the only scenery is the runway.

All bad things aside, the program is simple yet effective and the programmer really seems to know what he's talking about.

The accompanying instruction booklet has in-depth information about the basic concepts of flying, as well as the instructions, which is quite unusual. It explains how each instrument helps to manoeuvre the aircraft and when it should be used. In fact, it makes up for the bad use of colour, sound and graphics.

Jonathan Gill