A Flight Simulator Odyssey

by Charles Gulick

Olympic Event

Chart: Southern West Germany
Title: OLYMPIC EVENT
En Route Coordinates:
   Aircraft: N17053, E16895
   Tower: --
Altitude:
   Aircraft: 2500
   Tower: --
Heading: 255
Time: Daylight

Northeast of Munich and aimed toward the Olympic Grounds, you're over a relatively wide body of water named Lake Dono. I confess that I named it Lake Dono because I don't know what its name is, if it has one (in my one atlas where it shows up, it is nameless). In any event, it's a wide section of the Isar River, and provides a picturesque approach to the Olympic Grounds and the great shish kebab of the Olympiaturm Tower--which is, at the outset of your flight, just a vertical line that's almost straight ahead on your wind-shield. Like many features of the simulator, the tower takes itself apart and puts itself together again as you approach. You'll see why I compare it to a shish kebab when you're up close.

When you've passed over the park, turn left to a heading of 160 degrees and you'll be paralleling a long base leg for either of Munich's airports--Munich (far to your left) or Neubiberg (visible ahead). Each has a single strip, 07/25, so take your choice.

The Olympic Games, by the way, began in 776 B.C. in Greece, in honor of the Olympian god Zeus. The Games were held every four years then, and are still held every four years today. In early times, women were not allowed to compete, nor were they in modern times--until 1912. In fact, they weren't permitted even to watch the events. So they formed their own games, called the Heraea.

The modern Summer Games began in Athens in 1896, and the Winter Games began in France in 1924. The Games were suspended during the two World Wars.

The modern Olympics were originally intended to recognize individual excellence, as well as promote a spirit of inter-national goodwill. But they have become increasingly political. In 1936, Adolf Hitler refused to congratulate the great American athlete and winner of four gold medals, Jesse Owens, be-cause he was black. In 1972 the Games were held here in Munich, but were turned into a horror when 11 Israeli athletes and coaches were murdered by Arab terrorists. The African nations boycotted the 1976 Games, and Taiwan withdrew from them. The U.S. and various other western countries boycotted the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow to protest the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. And, the 1988 Summer Games were under such threat that host South Korea, pre-pared special strategic SWAT-like teams to discourage and, if necessary, deflect terrorism.

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