Filed under: iPhone, App Store, iPod touch
Sully's Flight on the iPhone
The flight simulator X-Plane is generally acknowledged to be among the best on either a Mac or a PC. Surprisingly, X-Plane [App Store link] made it to the iPhone as one of the first apps available.That was quite an accomplishment, and while the iPhone version is not as sophisticated as its big brother, it has a lot of the accurate flight physics bundled in to give you a pretty compelling flight simulator experience on your iPhone or iPod touch.
Now, Laminar Research has done it again, bringing a simulation of Chesley Sullenberger's January 15th USAirways landing in the Hudson River saving all the passengers and crews from what could have been a very deadly accident.
You can relive the experience with Sully's Flight [App Store link, U.S. $0.99] and you don't have to even have X-Plane installed to run it.
You start out on Runway 4 at LaGuardia Airport, in similar weather conditions to the real event. You take off, and to follow the original flight path, there are rectangular hoops displayed for you to fly through. To make the sim even more realistic, you get the actual air traffic communication with the stricken airliner. It gives you an appreciation for just how cool Sullenberger was that day, matter-of-factly telling air traffic control he wouldn't be trying to make a landing at another airport, but was going to land in the Hudson River instead.
I've tried the sim a few times, and pretty consistently I land too fast... I need more work on flaps and the aircraft speed when I get closer to the water.
Normally, I might say a game like this is in questionable taste, but it is more a simulation than a game, and, of course, no one was seriously hurt in real life. It would be good to know something about flying before trying this app, because with no engines the plane goes down pretty rapidly. The average person trying it won't be able to escape the physics of the simulation, so if you're looking for a full flight sim, this is not for you.
Like all X-Plane products, there will likely be some updates, but I did not see any bugs when running the sim. And remember, Sully's Flight is not a standard flying game. No matter what you do, you will hit the birds, and your engine will fail, so don't plan on just flying around Manhattan.
Gallery: Sully's Flight screen shots
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Sam said 11:16PM on 3-21-2009
My favorite part about this app are the reviewers who gave it 1 star because "all you do is fly for a bit and crash its point less" and "U hit a bird every time U fly!" and "Why do I always have an engine that fails?!?!"
Too funny.
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Aloysius Snuffleupagus said 3:55AM on 3-22-2009
Agreed. People's stupidity knows no bounds. I'm often amazed that these people who can't spell, don't have the slightest idea of grammar, can't form a cogent thought and are completely ignorant of basic world events seems to have no problem using a computer and accessing the internet. You almost wish it were more complicated, just to weed out the morons.
Fun game. I play flight sims so that when I get on an actual plane I can fantasize that if things got ugly I could take the controls and land it safely. Of course in reality I'd probably panic and invert the damn thing inside of thirty seconds, but it helps me sleep through turbulence.
chrismusaf said 6:07AM on 3-22-2009
After playing this dozens of times, I finally had my first successful landing. Your flaps should be about 25% for takeoff, and just leave them there for the whole flight. Make sure to raise the gear immediately after takeoff. The trick is to move the trim to full down (nose up) about 200 feet over the water. It also helps to be going about 130 kts at that time, as well. You should flare up just a bit, but aim to keep your flight path (the little circle) just below the horizon. The top of that circle should be touching the horizon. The plane will slow down enough to ease into the water. If you get below 110 kts before touching down, you'll fall like a rock. Honestly, I can't believe the guy pulled it off!
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bikeham said 4:49AM on 3-23-2009
I know a pilot for one of the Australian airlines and they practice the landing scenario that Sulley pulled off as a training exercise on their flight sim. No one has done it so far.
carver said 9:36AM on 3-22-2009
Unless the price of this app is going to charity I find it distasteful that they would be charging for it.
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Patrick said 6:31PM on 3-22-2009
Well, you're free to do a lot of work for free... but of course that's harder than complaining...
ardee said 10:09AM on 3-22-2009
Just a note: people WERE hurt. Nobody was killed.
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ABCNEWSER said 10:38AM on 3-22-2009
I'm assuming you're talking about Cap'n Sulley, and not Octomom, Naudia Sulleyman. I doubt Apple would aprove an XXX app with her in it.
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ziggyonice said 6:48PM on 3-22-2009
People leaving comments about "this is distasteful" and "people were hurt"... psh, give me a break. It's not like this game is called "fly a plane into the World Trade Center". You see video games about war, where tons of soldiers get killed and murdered, and you pay for those. Get over yourself.
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Noshtzy said 7:27PM on 3-22-2009
But you have to wonder where the line is drawn.
This is called a simulation, and Mel's write up includes the disclaimer "No one was seriously hurt in real life." But you can simulate lots of things.
What if the X-Plane engine was used similarly to trace the path of the two planes that hit the World Trade Center? It's only a simulation, polygons and pixels don't feel pain or suffering.
I'm not complaining about the material myself, but I don't think it's okay to just dismiss the people who have left comments against the app. To me "it's just a simulation" "no one was killed" just seem like very fragile excuses to put out an attention-getting app. More so when there's a cost involved.
Stephen Lang said 8:59PM on 3-22-2009
I'm waiting for the Exxon Valdez app. I heard it's more immersive after a 12 pack.
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kenc29 said 11:49PM on 3-22-2009
Accident recreation thru simulation is common. The point is to learn something. I'm surprised I almost landed it, the first time I tried it. Just a touch too fast.
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Joe said 12:38AM on 3-23-2009
Really?!? Why don't they make a 9/11 while they're at it.
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Philster said 4:39AM on 3-23-2009
@Joe
Your comment is stupid and offensive.
9/11 was a terrorist attack again the US that was designed to, and achieved the goal of killing thousands of people. This is a simulation of an event that was a freak accident that ended up uniting New Yorkers (one of whom I am) in celebration of a calm, cool-headed pilot who saved hundreds of people from SERIOUS harm through his savvy and experience.
Not the same.
tarazed49 said 1:52AM on 3-23-2009
You guys are complaining about a sim in which you try to save your passengers and civilians on the ground by landing safely? Do you complain about combat sims where the objective is to shoot down as many people as possible?
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Dustin said 2:16PM on 3-25-2009
Heck, There is nothing wrong with simulating any kind of accident scenario. There really isn't anything wrong with recreating a terrorist attack even. Sure there are some sensitive folk out there that would rather not see it recreated again, maybe they have a sore spot because of whatever circumstance that ties them to that event, but the app just wouldn't be in their tastes.
It is advertised as a simulation to an accident. Obviously that is a GREAT way to illustrate a heroic events to someone... it is a hands on 3-D simulation that allows you to understand better just how hard it is to land an airplane under those conditions. When the press covers these stories they often create a similar 3-D recreation of all or part of the flight path to illustrate to their viewers just how the plane went down. Nothing different here except you get to control the scenario within the same similar paremeters to get an idea of how it feels.
As for the 99cents.. I think thats fair. I feel it is okay to charge a fee if the author so chooses because he did spend the time and effort needed to program and test all these paremeters and allow for it to run as a stand-alone download off the X-Plane engine.
Not only is that a nice tool for explaining that event to someone, or teaching a student, it also carry's a "wow" factor. There is many people out there who would find that to be neat, and since it was such a big news story on TV many ppl know about the event... how neat would it be to let someone try landing it, right on your iPhone? Worth 99 cents, and the author does deserve it for the idea and creating it. He didn't have to do that, its just... neat.
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