Flight Basics 101

At this point in the documentation we are going to assume you have already created your account, setup and configured your joystick, voice (if any), and mapped commands to the various input devices (i.e. joystick buttons, keyboard...).
If you have not done all the above, then you may want to review those areas of the documentation before proceeding.

Start the game so we can get you into the cockpit!

For this exercise, select Offline Practice from the clipboard.

After the pre-loading of everything the game needs is done, you are taken to the tower.

Select Hangar from the clipboard in the tower

Once you have moved from the tower to the hangar, the clipboard will show a panel with a list of all the planes, vehicles, and boats available as shown above.

For this exercise, choose the P51D if it is not already selected, then press the <Esc> key to move the clipboard out of the way.

Here you can select a load-out for your plane. Not all planes will have all items available for loading on the plane. Simply move the mouse cursor over the objects and click on them to add them to your plane.

Once you have completed the selection, bring the clipboard back up by pressing the <Esc> key again.

You can now prepare to move to the runway to flying your plane. Notice in the lower left corner of the clipboard a box containing buttons.

The box is labeled START FLIGHT. The buttons in the box represent the runway and direction you will take-off from. Not all fields have runways in all directions, so only the available runways are shown.

The H in the center of the box lets you roll the plane from the hangar onto the runway, while the buttons around the H allow you to go directly to a runway.

Select one of the buttons around the H and press it.

Congratulations! You are now ready to roll!

Press E to start your engine, if it has not already started.

In the planes, advance the throttle by using the throttle keys - and = or your joystick throttle wheel.
In vehicles and boats, shift into gear with the Q and W keys, then use your joystick to move forward.
Steer the plane with the rudder controls or rudder pedals. Key A is left, key D is right and key S is center.
After take off, press key G to raise the airplane landing gear.
Key X is autopilot, key Shift-X is autopilot angle, and key Alt-X is autopilot climb.
To exit the plane, vehicle or boat, click on the Tower button on the clipboard, or type in the ".ef" dot command to end flight from the radio control bar.

Once you get the basics of taking off and landing, you might wish to schedule some one-on-one flight training time with one of the trainers. You may also wish to visit the trainers WEB page for additional information. The trainers are here to assist you in learning the basics of air combat, which will lead to more fun for you.

We encourage you to take some time to get the feel for the aircraft and the commands used in the game. For more details about all these features, you can go to our help section of the documentation and thank you for flying Aces High II!