Dear Omar
‘Get in the Chair’: How My Dad Taught Me to Soar With ‘Flight Simulator’
He served in the Air Force. I write about video games.
Welcome to Dear Omar, a weekly Debugger column from tech expert Omar L. Gallaga.
“You’re too low. Pull up.”
“Okay.”
My dad replies, “Up. Pull up.”
“I’m trying. It’s not pulling up,” I answer. I really am trying.
“Pull the yoke and increase the throttle. You don’t have enough power.”
“I’m trying to turn, but it’s going down.”
“You’re stalling. Pull up!”
“I CAN’T!”
“PULL UP!”
And that’s how I crashed my virtual Cessna 152 in Microsoft Flight Simulator. It’s probably a costly vehicle to crash in real life, but in the world of the 2020 version of Flight Simulator, all it costs is about 30–60 seconds of load time to start over and a frustrated dad shaking his head at you because you didn’t pull up in time.
This is new for me, virtual flying lessons with my dad. Last year, my brother donated his old gaming computer, and I contributed a spare hard drive. We managed to cobble together a decent-enough gaming rig that my dad…
