                            MID KEY FLYER SCENERY
            COPYRIGHT TERRY ARMSTRONG C/O PIXLBNDR SOFTWARE, 1992
                                   POB 250
                             KEY WEST, FL  33040
                                (305) 745-2609
 
                       FOR USE WITH DEFAULT FS4 SCENERY
 
        This scenery for ASD is designed for use on a 386 platform, or better.
 It is Optically Corrected to fulfill certain boundary constraints.  This
 scenery, like its companions, LOWKEY, and CAYSAL, is high density. By High
 Density, I mean that most of the files in this package are 4 mile radian
 boundary files.  Lots of file swapping going on; lots of framing going on.
        This scenery was designed with purposes in mind other than arrival and
 departure.  It is digitized and scaled from USCGS charts, aerial photos,
 aerial video @ 500 feet, and County Plat books.  X:Y coordinates are taken
 from MapInfo boundary files for the United States which have been corrected by
 use of TIGRE file data.  Scanned input was converted to DXF format and
 imported to AutoSketch where it was overlaid with a half-mile grid and output
 to plotter file format.  This gridded printout was used to model the scenery
 in ASD with its grid locked and set at half-mile sides.
 
        MIDKEY.ZIP contains the following files:
 
                CUDJOE.SC1 ............Cudjoe Key and Summerland Key
                MIDMAP.ASC ............ASCII Map details for your printer
                PIXLBNDR.EXE ..........Executable SVGA GIF
                MIDKEY.TXT ............This file
                TORCH.SC1 .............Torch and Ramrod Keys
                BPSOUTH.SC1 ...........Big Pine approached from the south
                BP.SC1 ................Big Pine details
                CONTENT.SC1 ...........Big Pine approach from the north
                MARATHON.SC1 ..........Marathon details/airport
                7MILEOUT.SC1 ..........MIDKEY area from the south
                7MILE.SC1 .............7 mile bridge details
 
 
        First; I recommend that you print MIDMAP.ASC before you read the rest
 of this, and, second: delete SUMMERLA.SC1 & SUMMERLA.DY1 from storage if you
 have them.  There is replacement scenery in this package.  The original
 Summerland Key scenery is out of location by some eleven miles. There is a new
 version of CUDJOE.SC1 in this zip which should replace CUDJOE.SC1 in the
 LOWKEY.ZIP package.  Also, if you are using the Cuba scenery by John A.
 Kelley, set the boundary for CUBAWEST.SC1 down to 75 miles.
        Some of these files are SEE04 affected, but each island has a detail
 file which is not.  The only exception to this is the detail file of the 7
 mile bridge.  The files of the landmass are not treated with SEE04 simply
 because there were other details I added that filled the scenery first.  If
 not for the 60 K limitation, I would have added more yet.  So, before flying
 the Mid Key scenery, set your limits to the max within ASD for static scenery.
        There are no navigation aids in this scenery, outside of dead reckoning
 detail. There is a universal NRB set at 233 on your ADF dial.  This source is
 about one half mile north of Key West International and you must have that
 scenery in your path, of course, to take advantage of it.  I am not a polished
 VOR user, so I leave nav aids to you.  I like flying by the seat of my pants.
 If you examine MIDMAP.ASC, you will see a listing of lit towers that may be of
 some help to you.  Navigation lights at sea include beacons in the lighthouse
 at Sombrero Light (the infamous Coffins Patch) and at the Looe Key marker.
 After flying into the Cudjoe scenery, you can also see American Shoals.  See
 the details in LOWKEY.TXT.
        Two airport/strips are featured in this scenery.  Marathon Airport is
 predominant on Marathon itself, and there is a small strip on Summerland Key.
 I live on Summerland (the house with all of the palm trees south of the
 airstrip) and I have more respect for the pilots who land here now that I have
 tried to make it with my desktop Cessna.
        I should point out that, due to the minimal scenery radians, you may
 have to fly over an airport first before landing, in order to trigger the
 scenery display; or you might want to fly out of the facility first before
 landing.  MIDMAP.ASC contains locations for the boundary centers so you may
 diddle with them if you like....good luck!  Since first building LOWKEY.ZIP I
 have elected to change my design method.  Where before, there were many
 details in small radians, I have now tried to put more distant scenery into
 the bounds of individual files.  Therefore, when you are flying over Marathon,
 you will be able to see Big Pine, some distance away.  The distant scenery is
 SEE04 affected, while the details of Marathon are not.  Unfortunately, this
 means that details are held to a minimum on the islands individually.  Too
 many users of the Low Key scenery complained about the frame rates, or
 disappearance of airports unexpectedly: Boca Chica NAS is a good example. 
        There are several ways to fly this scenery successfully so that it
 displays as designed.  Fly along the lighthouses; fly along US 1 (power poles
 in view the whole way), or fly in directly from the North or South.  When
 flying along the northern side of these Keys, the scenery changes fairly
 regularly.
 
 
 POINTS OF INTEREST
 
        The only buildings on Cudjoe Key are the Sheriff's sub-station on the
 west end and the Balloon Farm on the northernmost point.  These balloons,
 manufactured by Trojan Rubber (seriously) are used to hoist radar, cameras and
 broadcast antennas.  They may be raised to 14,000 feet, but are usually at the
 2,000-3,000 foot mark.  In my scenery, Fat Albert, as the balloons are known
 to the local residents, is only riding at around 500 feet. Projecting the
 tether from the ground station to the balloon's nose was a feat of rocket
 science that wore me out!  I could never hit it at 14,000 feet!  There is a
 blinking light under the balloon at night, and the balloon is
 stationary...don't let it fool you into believing the wind always blows from
 the East.
        Summerland Key is smaller than Cudjoe, but has a detailed layout. I
 live here, and could casually construct it with accuracy.  On the west end is
 the Shrimp Farm where shrimp are grown.  On the east end is the Niles Channel
 bridge, one of two high-rise bridges in the Keys.  The airstrip is bordered by
 houses which have their own hangars on the ground floor. Its nothing for a
 plane to drive down my street to park at a local residence.
        Looe Key is a national park, and is about three miles south of
 Summerland Key.  It has some of the finest diving in the Caribbean, is
 convenient, and protected.  Marine life is unmolested.  The shoal is named for
 a British Man-O-War which sunk here centuries ago.
        Big Pine Key is bordered on the north by the Content Keys (Lobster
 galore!); on the west by the Torch/Ramrod Keys, and, on the east by Bahia
 Honda State Park.  There is also a single key adjoined to Big Pine by a bridge
 called Noname Key.  There is no wire service of any kind to Noname Key, but
 there are a number of hearty individuals living comfortably on the island.
 Big Pine and Noname Key are home to the Key Deer National Wildlife Refuge and
 the remaining population of the tiny deer graze throughout both of the
 islands.
        Details of Bahia Honda park are visible in the 7MILE.SC1 file and they
 include the remains of the older bridges that were replaced in the 70's.  The
 roadway in the 7 mile bridge scenery is elevated and casts a shadow.  The high
 rise span toward the east end looks a little screwy, but, I did not want to
 build a separate bridge structure in SEE04, so I elevated an ASD high-rise
 span to complete the causeway.  Pidgeon Key, long home to a marine research
 center for the Univ. of Miami is also visible in this file.  It is now on the
 national registry of historic places.
        MARATHON.SC1 includes Duck Key ,and, also contains the Sombrero Light.
 The light is almost dead south of the western end of Marathon.  Marathon
 Airport has a flashing beacon on its E.  end and the tarmac measures 5000 feet
 by 100 feet wide.  As previously mentioned, there are not many details on the
 island other than the unusually high power poles, but, from the air, the
 profiles of the island are fairly accurate 
 
 
 THE REST OF THE KEYS
 
        There are many more islands in the Florida Keys group from Long Key to
 Ocean Reef on the north end of Key Largo.  There are also a number of talented
 scenery builders in the Miami area who have started building the Keys from the
 north end.  Some contacted me by phone and wanted to take me up on an offer of
 selling the MIDKEY scenery, as offered in my original issue of LOWKEY.ZIP.  I
 did not have my scenery ready and had to turn them, and others, down.
 Therefore, to alleviate my guilty conscience, this package is placed in the
 public domain freely, and you are all free to do with it as you see fit.  It
 is all of the FS4 scenery I have of the area to date.  Don't BUY it...just FLY
 it.  Naturally, the whole place would not be complete unless the other islands
 were added to FS4, but I will wait to see how much is built from the other
 end.  When flying the Marathon Area, you can plainly see the Florida
 peninsula in default FS4... it is actually closer, visually, than it should
 be.  This is because much of what you see of the mainland is actually Florida
 Bay in reality.  Florida Bay, with its thousands of islands will be an awesome
 job for a scenery file, and will have to be fairly large (by my standards)
 when built.  So at some point, you will have to leave the detailed files of
 PixLBndR's Keys and fly into the wide-area vista of the mainland.
        I am not a pilot, but enjoy flying in my computer immensely.  However,
 I am a boater, and have decided that my next major project in the scenery
 arena will be a concise reproduction of the Keys as seen from sealevel.  I
 have begun digitizing the NOAA marine elevation charts of the Keys and plan to
 rebuild the scenery in relevant marine detail according to what could be seen
 from a boat, rather than an airplane.  This detail will include lights, water
 depths by color, marine nav aids, high profile buildings/towers, ect.  I will
 check out this virtual marine model using GPS and known loran data.  The idea
 is to build a boating simulator where a dead reckoning navigator can dump
 images from the scenery to assist in actual navigation.  Sounds impossible,
 but I think it can be done.  If any of you out there have done this already,
 using FS4 and ASD, I would appreciate any tips you can give me.
 
        That's about it.  Good wind in your face!
 
                               Terry Armstrong
                                   POB 250
                             Key West, Fl. 33040
 
 
 FS4, ASD AND  SEE03 ARE NOT MY TRADEMARKS, BUT I SURE DO LOVE WHAT THEY STAND
 FOR.  THANKS TO MICROSOFT, BAO AND LAEMMING WHEELER.  ALSO THANKS GO TO JIM
 ROSS FOR HIS "LEVITILT".  GREAT STUFF!  AutoSketch IS OWNED BY AUTODESK.
 








































