About Desert

Wide open desert with long sight lines and very few landmarks. Mesa Field, Dune Field and Salt Strip are easy to land on and surprisingly hard to find again once you have flown away from them — the two field strips are 600 m and Salt Strip is 1,500 m, and from the air they look much the same as the sand.

Flights in Desert

• Takeoff and free flight — Build speed on the ground or hand launch, fly where you like, and come back when you are ready.
• Guided circuit and landing — Fly the pattern leg by leg — crosswind, downwind, base, final — then land and come to a stop.
• Landing approach practice — Start on final, follow the glide slope and the PAPI lights, and touch down on the numbers.

Airfield hop is flown on Islands and Mindanao Farm, where there is a second strip worth flying to.

The airfields

• Mesa Field · 36 — 600 m
• Dune Field · 27 — 600 m
• Salt Strip · 27 — 1,500 m

How to fly Desert

Note your heading when you leave and use the flight map to come back. Flat sand hides how high you are, so watch the altitude on final rather than the ground.

Fly it from the ground view (press 3) to practise the way you would at the field, with the model coming back toward you, or from the chase camera (C cycles the views).

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