"You see him?" asks a voice inside my helmet. Nope. All I see is a rotating pastiche of land, sea, sky, and clouds, and it's making my brain squirm. Then I see him: to my left, and moving fast. My killer instincts take over. I nudge the control stick toward my prey and ignore everything else the spinning scenery, the prolonged lack of horizon, the G-forces that rearrange my guts. Magically, I end up in a shallow dive, right on his ass. He's mine. Pulling the trigger on the stick, I hear the rumble of my machine guns and watch a gratifying trail of smoke pour from my adversary's underbelly.
The next generation of flight sim, complete with virtual G-forces, right? Wrong. I'm actually in a fighter aircraft, actually flying it (even though I'm not a pilot), and having the time of my life.
Forget Tomcat Alley, Air Warrior, and Fightertown. If you want to be a fighter jock for a day, try Air Combat USA.
For an admittedly altitudinous US$700, Air Combat USA will sit you in the cockpit of a single-prop, fully aerobatic Marchetti SF260 (the same plane used to train jet pilots) and get this let you fly the sucker for an hour with a genuine fighter pilot sitting by your side.
Your day at Air Combat USA begins when you don a flight suit and sit through a short classroom briefing. Next, you strap on a parachute and climb into the plane. On the way out to the combat zone, your pilot hands over the controls so you can practice formation flying and basic combat maneuvers.
Then the fight's on. During four to six rounds of high-speed dogfighting, you try to blow your opponents out of the sky using an electronic tracking system that triggers a burst of smoke when you hit your target. Best of all, three in-cockpit cameras capture the experience on video so you can relive the glory over and over again from the safety and comfort of your living room.
The Marchetti is a breeze to fly. And because your copilot takes care of worries like airspeed, altitude, and navigation, air combat in the wild blue yonder sometimes feels like a very, very good 3-D videogame. But it's a fleeting irony. After pulling a three-G vertical loop, you suddenly remember: this is for real.
Air Combat USA: US$700. Flights available in the US. Call for locations: (800) 522 7590, fax +1 (714) 522 7592.
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