If you are like me, simming of flights from history are a good reason to enjoy flight simulation. That is why I have been writing the Fly & Deliver series of articles.

To coax a ‘Liberator’ into the virtual air is interesting in its own right; after all, these aircraft are really not that interested in being coaxed vertically. To try to reproduce Jimmy Munshi’s flight (South from Chakeri) and know he was a DC-3 pilot making his first B-24 flight unaided adds something, for me at least. Perhaps it’s my excuse for my lousy flying; I can tell myself Munshi must have struggled too.

But the ‘stake in the electronic ground’ is not about that. It is about my experience in finding really interesting flight stories. Some are legendary and you can find information on them easily. A great many are not. Some kind soul has put a flag on a website that leads then to an on-line archive or to a battered library discard bought on Abebooks.

In my latest effort, an ebook ‘In a Moon’s Course’ at www.smashwords.com/books/view/291049 or at Barnes & Noble, there are 28 ATA flight stories and simulations. Some are well-known (if you are into ATA flight history) but some came through finding a simple entry in a web page.

I think that many of us may have such information in books or old articles. The period between them being written in pen and ink or typed and our current world of emails or texts is less than lifespan. Personally I am of the opinion that in the same span of time going forward anything not flagged on the internet in some way will be lost. A lot of people have already put up some of these flags, but I encourage you to think about it too.

Allan

allanj12@gmail.com

http://moonscourse.blogspot.ca