26 July 2008

[tech] Google Earth, With Flight Simulator ... at No Extra Charge!

1677.


This has got to be one of the coolest Easter eggs ever.


As a free app, Google Earth hits it out of the park. But little did I know that it had a flight simulator built in. But commenter "My Left G'nad" advised (via yet another blog):



First of all you'll have to install the latest version of GE. Once you've started it all up, then all you have to do is hit Ctrl+Alt+A (if you're running OS X it's Command+Option+A; some people have reported that Ctrl+A or Ctrl+Windows+A work when the standard Ctrl+Alt+A does not). You must be in Earth mode (i.e. not Sky mode) for this to work



Hitting the key combination indicated gives you a dialog where you can choose either an F-14 jet or an SR-22 prop plane and allows you to pick a place to start (Kathmandu is the default ... sadly, no PDX). Study the key controls (it'll use a joystick if it detects one) and then start crashin' that plane!


Adding to the Easter Egg cred is the fact that after being used once, the Tools dropdown has grown a new item ... Enter Flight Simulator.


Judging by my few flights, those flight lessons would have been a waste ... had I ever actually had any.


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2 comments:

Iron Fist said...

You're kidding!

Holy crap, that's cool. I've got to try that out.

Samuel John Klein said...

Yeh. That's some good clean fun there.

And it's much harder than you'd think! Challenging!