ASA: On Top 9.5

Real-world fidelity is the key in On Top™, an IFR simulator with stunningly accurate flight dynamics, every airport and navaid, photo-realistic graphics, Real-World Weather and the first true-to-life instrument failures ever designed for a PC. On Top gives every pilot the "virtual arena" he or she needs to practice their hard-won skills of scan, procedure and spatial awareness.

It's About Realism

At the heart of On Top you'll find five of the most popular aircraft ever built. There's a Cessna C172, C182 and C182RG, and Piper's Warrior and Arrow. Also included are the Lancair Columbia 300, the Mooney MSE, and Beechcraft's Bonanza V-35, Beechcraft Baron 58, and Beech's 1900D twin-turboprop. Each model utilizes precise flight dynamic algorithms, right down to the deadly assymetrical thrust you'll experience should you lose an engine in the Baron.

Now, you can test your skills against the reality of single-engine IMC in a light twin, or a twin-engine turboprop. This and other aircraft setup parameters are available for all aircraft.

Each aircraft panel is rendered with a next-generation graphics technology that makes every gauge, pointer, tick-mark and knob on your panel as true-to-life as a computer can create. Couple the "Photo-realistic" graphics effect with On Top's precise mimicry of real aircraft instrumentation and you're as immersed in your simulated flights as you are in your actual flights.

There are realistic sound effects, like radio idents, marker beacons, gear and flap extension, and tire sounds. You'll find panoramic out-the-window views, accurate runway lighting and haze layering. You'll even see the rivets across your wings as you look right or left on a circling approach, all with enough realism to make you sweat.

It's About Flexibility

Full instrumentation, like programmable GPS, HSI, RMI, Moving Map and auto pilot is just half of it. In On Top, you decide what instruments you fly with, and you decide where they'll go. Some IFR simulators decide years before you ever get your copy what kind of equipment you'll fly with and where it will go in your panel, but in On Top you can change it every time.

On Top's Real-World Weather is as variable as tomorrow's weather. Define winds aloft and then surface winds, then dial in degree of swing and speed of gusts. Create turbulence, cloud bases and visibility with as much variability as you can handle, so you'll never know if you'll have to fly the missed approach until you get to the bottom of the funnel. And best of all, make your virtual conditions stable, deteriorating, improving or randomly changing, over any given time frame to simulate that all-important decision-making skill at decision height.

It's About Learning From Every Flight

In the real world, getting your procedures down pat with a methodical and practiced scan is just the beginning, and there's always more to learn. Are you ready for a vacuum failure on a bumpy IMC night? IFR simulators of the past have always had some sort of instrument failure capability, but those failed instruments just rolled over and died. The designers of On Top wanted you to recognize an imminent failure, cope with it and survive, so they created Realistic Instrument Failures. As chillingly real as failures in actual flight, each of these is modeled after the way instruments actually behave. A failed vacuum system will slowly tumble your gyro instruments, daring you to follow them into the ground. Program the system or instruments you want to practice failures on, over any time period, or let the computer generate failures at random. Either way, you'll heighten your awareness every time you fly.

When it's time to review and learn from your experiences, On Top's map screen will give you all the information you need to be your own best judge. Whether it was an IFR cross country, an ILS into O'Hare or an NDB approach into a local one-hangar field, every detail of your flight track and profile is there. Replay your flight, save your flight, or back up to any point along the track and execute it again. If you make a mistake, or simply want to lower the weather parameters, you can re-fly any flight or approach right from the map.

It's About Training

ASA is dedicated to flight training, and knows that flight simulators are no longer about "boring holes through the sky." They're about immersing yourself in the most challenging environment anywhere…IMC.