There's a good chance that you have already shared a cockpit with Stu Moment. It might have been aboard a Cessna Citation or a Learjet, or a humble Cessna 172. Perhaps it was while running the ridges in a Schweizer sailplane or touring low-level in a Sopwith Camel. Doesn't sound like your logbook? Think again.
Moment was one of two partners who originally dreamed up Microsoft Flight Simulator, the world's best-selling PC-based flight simulation program. More recently SubLogic, the software company he now heads, produced Flight Light, another popular flight sim product. Both have drawn an ever-growing number of pilots and non- pilots alike to the Class V (for virtual) airspace lurking inside computers everywhere.
As one might expect, it was Moment's real-life fascination with aviation that led to his flying forays into cyberspace. He started work on his private certificate in 1967 at age 15, soloed at 16, and began logging time toward his advanced ratings. He entered the University of Illinois a few years later, planning on a degree in engineering. Reality came knocking when he failed to keep up his grades and unceremoniously flunked out. Rethinking his plans, he reapplied for admission to the university, only this time to its aeronautics program. He soon made the dean's list; and by the time he graduated, he had earned his flight instructor certificate and airframe and powerplant ticket, too.
It was in 1975, while accruing 1,500 hours as a University of Illinois flight instructor, that Moment met Bruce Artwick, one of his students. Artwick was involved in early flight simulation programming work, and the two spent many hours talking about its possibilities. Computers, of course, were roughly in the Paleozoic Era of development at this point, and the PC had yet to make an appearance on the landscape.
Nonetheless, the brainstorming sessions progressed towards a possible product idea; by 1977 the two had started SubLogic, the company they hoped would develop it. Version 1.0 of Flight Simulator appeared not long afterward but was more a curiosity than a commercial success. By 1980 things were looking up, however, as the idea of a personal computer on every desk suddenly was no longer a complete impossibility. Moment's financial status, compared with his situation during his struggling flight instructor days, began to improve. Soon he was able to improve his standing in the aviation world by purchasing his first airplane, a Cessna 152.
Although Moment has developed a sophisticated understanding of computers and programming over the years, it was his flying experience that contributed the most to his company's flight simulation efforts. Specifically, he needed to be able to describe what was different about each aircraft's performance in terms that a programmer could use. To quantify the flight characteristics of the Beech V35 Bonanza, for example, he performed extensive airborne tests, recording hundreds of engine and flight instrument parameters during various phases of flight. His charted data, along with the manufacturer's data, were transformed into the bits and bytes that create the on-screen aircraft. For airplanes that he can't fly himself, such as military or airline types, he gathers data directly from the manufacturers when possible, and from pilots and engineers in a network that he has nurtured over the years.
Of course, even computer-generated airplanes need somewhere to fly. To develop accurate scenery for his simulations, Moment has criss-crossed the country. He has logged more than 6,000 hours of scenic cross-country time, flights devoted purely to making sure that his simulated worlds match the real thing. He is usually accompanied by one or more assistants who videotape and photograph the ground. Next, program designers analyze the footage, deciding which landmarks and checkpoints need to be included and which details can be left out for the sake of maintaining program operating speed.
Things really changed for Moment in 1987 when Version 3.0 of Flight Simulator was released. With the PC infrastructure having reached a critical mass, the program took off. Software giant Microsoft purchased the rights to it and hired away partner Artwick, who has continued to work on further releases there. Free to pursue his own ventures, Moment produced Flight Light, an all-new, scaled- down flight simulation which features a Citation business jet operated from Meigs Field in Chicago. Moment is most proud of the fact that, so far, more than 30,000 non-pilots have learned to master the Citation in Flight Light.
A visit to Moment's home, located in a fly-in community outside Champaign, Illinois, reveals his own aviation interests. An attached hangar houses a Waco, a Cessna 120 (his teenage daughter's), and a Pitts S-2B. He began seriously pursuing a longtime interest in aerobatics when he bought the Pitts in 1987. Three years ago he made his professional airshow debut, and in 1995 received his surface aerobatics waiver from the FAA, which allows him to execute maneuvers right down to runway level. At 10 airshows around the country this year he will perform his "Symphony of Flight," a routine choreographed to the music of Tschaikovsky.
The next time you execute a knife-edge pass between the twin towers of the World Trade Center, remember to thank Moment for his out-of-this-world copiloting.
