"Mxsmanic" wrote in message
...
But they are more likely to lead somewhere, aren't they? If you know
that you're above Interstate X, you could just follow it to wherever X
leads.

Actually, if you spend any time paying attention to geography, you'll find
that human civilization very often develops in such a way that waterways
lead you "somewhere" just as easily as highways will.

It's all a matter of selecting your references to match your goals. But the
fact remains, in an urban or otherwise well-developed area, there are often
too many roads that look too similar to use them as a primary reference.
Conversely, there are unlikely to be more than handful of major waterways,
and they will usually be very distinctive.

Whether a given road or waterway goes along the route you intend to take
depends on your intended route and the road or waterway. But you can't make
any assumptions beforehand about whether it will or will not be possible.
Each situation is different.

How do you look out the window? It seems that the instrument panel is
pretty imposing in most aircraft, and often the nose of the plane
extends well beyond it, so it doesn't look like you'd be able to see
the ground straight ahead. Do you just glance out the side windows,
or what?

Here is where I find myself agreeing with the people that say you make a LOT
of supposedly factual statements about flying that are based on faulty
information. That is, your believe that a computer simulation (and
Microsoft Flight Simulator in particular) is accurate enough for you to
actually know what you're talking about when it comes to flying.

Please, you do NOT know what you are talking about when it comes to
*flying*. Piloting a sim, I'm sure you know lots. But you consistently get
it wrong when you try to apply that experience to real flying. You would do
well to leave your assumptions behind, and restrict yourself to asking
questions.

As far as the specific question goes: yes, visibility directly under the
nose of the airplane can be somewhat limited, depending on the airplane.
Some airplanes have completely transparent noses, allowing for excellent
visibility, and even some with more traditional construction can be built
with a nose that slopes enough to obscure very little. When you are aloft
at cruise altitude, you don't need to be right over a landmark to identify
it, and you can easily follow rivers, highways, or whatever using the view
through the front of the airplane.

One also does take advantage of the view out the side window. Obviously
when you are directly over a landmark, you cannot see it, but by flying to
one side you can verify your position accurately by looking out the side
window and noting the exact time at which you pass a particular point of
reference (note that this is necessarily only for tracking groundspeed and
confirming your position...it's not related to the question of following
landmarks looking out the front of the airplane).

Pete