The Flight Manual

How to fly the aircraft of the Imperium: the controls, the instruments, the take-off, the circuit, the landing and what to do when it goes wrong. Phase I examines all of it; Phases II and III fly it.

1. The aircraft of the Imperium

The Air Force of the Imperium is a regiment of the Marines. Its aircraft stand in the hangars of the Toulouse airfield, north of the runway: fighters in Hangars 1 to 4 and 7, the airliners at Hangar 5, the Junkers Ju 52 transport at Hangar 6. Each hangar rolls out only the aircraft it holds.

The Yak-7V trainer is the Academy's aircraft. She is the Yak-9T airframe with every weapon taken out: no cannon, no machine guns, no rockets, no seekers, no flares. Top speed about 300 km/h, a stall near 73 km/h, light hands. Students fly her and nothing else.

The front-line aircraft are the Yakovlev Yak-9T (fighter), the Messerschmitt Me 262 and Me 262 B (jet fighters), the Falco (attack jet, the fastest), the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka (dive bomber) and the Junkers Ju 52/3m (transport and bomber, very hard to bring down). A licence is the door to them; a man's branch and rank decide which he may take out.

• Hull. Every aircraft has a hull. Shots, rockets, flak and hard landings take from it. At nothing she burns and falls.
• Every tank and every gun can bring a plane down, and every airfield has anti-aircraft rockets. Low and slow is where pilots die.
• A plane shot down is gone, and so is a plane whose pilot dies. An empty plane is taken away after two minutes.

2. The controls

Learn these before you sit in her. They are the same in every aircraft of the Imperium.

On a gamepad: the sticks fly her, R2 and L2 are the throttle, L1 and R1 the rudder, Y the engine. Weapon keys (F, Z, R, H) do nothing in the trainer.

3. The instruments

The flight panel at the foot of your screen shows speed in km/h, altitude in metres over the ground, the throttle and the hull. Read speed first, always: an aircraft falls out of the sky by speed, not by height.

• Stall speed. Below it the wing stops lifting, the nose drops and she sinks. The trainer stalls near 73 km/h. Keep at least 110 km/h in a turn and 100 on the approach.
• Lift-off. On a full-throttle run she lifts off by herself at about one and a third times her stall speed: near 98 km/h in the trainer. Do not pull her off sooner.
• Taxi. Under half throttle on the ground she rolls no faster than a walk with a hurry in it. That is your taxi speed.
• Ceiling. High up the engine loses its pull. Training is flown low, under 300 metres.

4. Before flight

1. Go to the right hangar. Students: Hangar 7, the small hangar at the east end of the apron.
2. Take the aircraft out at the hangar desk. The doors open and the crew rolls her out onto the apron. Stand clear of the doors.
3. Sit in the pilot's seat. Your test or checkride rings appear now if one is waiting for you.
4. Look around: nobody in front of her, nobody on the taxiway, nothing on the runway. An aircraft on the ground is a danger to every man near it.
5. Press Y and wait for the engine. Throttle stays shut until she is running.

5. Taxi and take-off

1. Taxi to the east end of the runway at taxi speed, steering with Q and E. Never cross the runway while another aircraft is on it or on final.
2. Line up on the centre of the runway, nose to the west.
3. Full throttle (hold Shift). Keep her straight with small touches of Q and E.
4. Let her lift off by herself. Then a gentle S: a shallow climb, not a wall.
5. Climb straight ahead to about 60 metres before the first turn. Never turn low and slow.

6. The circuit

The circuit is the box flown around a runway to take off and land in order. At Toulouse it is flown to the north, on the far side of the runway from the hangars, over the North runway and short of the mountains. Every turn is to the right.

• Upwind: climbing out along the runway to the west.
• Crosswind: a right turn, flying north, climbing.
• Downwind: a right turn, flying east, parallel to the runway, about 100 metres up.
• Base: a right turn, flying south, back toward the runway, beginning to descend.
• Final: a right turn onto the runway's line, flying west, descending to land.

Every turn is gentle: about thirty degrees of bank, the nose held up with a little S. A steep turn at low speed is the way pilots stall into the ground.

7. The approach and the landing

1. On final, throttle back to about a third. Speed about 100 to 120 km/h, descending gently on the runway's line.
2. Aim for the first third of the runway. Small corrections only.
3. Just over the runway she flares by herself into her landing attitude. Hold her there, throttle shut.
4. Touch down gently. A hard landing costs hull, a very hard one breaks her. Sinking fast at the ground is the mistake: if you are coming down steeply, add throttle and go around.
5. Throttle shut, let her roll to a stop on the runway. Steer with Q and E. Then taxi clear.

Going around is never a failure. A landing that is not right is flown again: full throttle, climb straight ahead, fly the circuit once more.

8. When it goes wrong

• The stall. Nose drops, she sinks, the controls go soft. Push the nose down (W), full throttle, wings level (L). Height is what you trade for speed: this is why you never stall low.
• Engine failure. Throttle shut and engine dead, she is a glider. Keep the nose a little down to hold about 110 km/h, pick the runway or the flattest ground ahead, and land straight ahead. Never turn back low.
• Hull failing or on fire. Land at once on the nearest flat ground. If she is lost, V for the parachute while you still have height.
• Lost. Climb a little, find the runway or the river, turn toward the airfield. The rings of a course always lead home.

9. Phase II · the test flight

Flown alone in the trainer, from Hangar 7. The rings appear for you alone, the next one bright, the later ones faint, and the card at the foot of your screen gives the heading to steer, the climb to the next ring and the distance.

1. Ring 1: climb-out over the west half of the runway.
2. Rings 2 and 3: the crosswind turn to the north, climbing.
3. Rings 4 to 6: downwind to the east, about 100 metres up, parallel to the runway.
4. Ring 7: base, descending, turning back south toward the runway.
5. Rings 8 and 9: final, on the runway's line, low over the east end.
6. Land on the runway and stop on it, throttle shut.

The marks (out of 100): every ring in order, the time (five minutes is par), the landing (a gentle touch-down keeps every mark, a hard one costs thirty), the hull kept and a full stop on the runway. Seventy passes; a missed ring, a landing off the runway, a wreck, leaving the seat or ten minutes gone is a failed flight.

10. Phase III · the checkride

Opened for you by an instructor, flown with him in the same server. It shows the instructor that you can fly away from the field, handle her low and bring her home with no engine.

1. Climb-out to the west, then the long turn to the north.
2. The navigation leg: rings far to the north of the field, over the mountains, at height. Follow the heading on the card.
3. The steep turns: two rings close together that need a firm, well-flown turn without losing height or speed.
4. The low pass: down the length of the runway at about seven metres, wings level, then climb away.
5. The high key: a ring high over the east end of the field. Through it, THE ENGINE HAS FAILED: shut the throttle and do not touch it again.
6. The glide and the landing on the runway, and a full stop. Throttle above idle after the failure fails the checkride.

Seventy of a hundred passes, with every ring, the landing on the runway and the stop. The game sends the result to the Academy; a pass issues your licence on the spot, the instructor named as your examiner.

The Imperial Flight Academy · Imperium of Octavium · https://flight.zaenderism.com