A Flight Simulator Odyssey

by Charles Gulick

The Isle of Nowhere

Chart: Miami
Title: ISLE OF NOWHERE
En Route Coordinates:
   Aircraft: N10985, E20370
   Tower: --
Altitude:
   Aircraft: 1443
   Tower: --
Heading: 181
Time: Daylight

Maybe this island has a name, and maybe it hasn't. But as far as I'm concerned it has never been discovered, 'way out here where--as a notoriously unhumorous senator once de-scribed a forsaken place--"the hand of man has never set foot."

I came upon this little arrowhead of green island in the lonely Atlantic purely by accident (if, indeed, there are such things as accidents) and fell in love with it immediately from the air. Chances are one could fly for many years in the area of the Bahamas and never spot it. Luck was flying with me.

I vote we simulator pilots claim this gem as our own "island paradise," if you will. I call it The Isle of Nowhere, but you can give it some other name if you like.

If you start a descent and continue straight ahead, you'll discover what can be described as a perfect natural landing strip, right along the ocean. (Up to this very moment, I give you my word, I have not landed on The Isle of Nowhere; I'm going to experience it the first time, just like you. When I tell you the field elevation, below, you'll know I've set the air-plane down.)

We'll regard the strip of earth ahead as Runway 18 on the Isle of Nowhere Airport, where field elevation is--in my version--precisely 13.6240 feet.

Now that we're both on the ground, I've worked out a takeoff position, usable in all versions because it involves no fractions: N10940, E20375, Heading 179. But actually, since we can assume The Isle of Nowhere is everywhere flat, we can take off and land absolutely anywhere on it. So perhaps you'll want to set up a tiedown that suits you. And, if you have Tower capability, put an observer wherever you like. It is, after all, your island, and nobody can say you nay.

By the way, you can raise both the Freeport and the Treasure Cay VORs from here, the former on a frequency of 113.20, the latter on 112.9. So civilization is well within reach.

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