Below are some helpful teaching and playing tips.
For a complete guide, print my Galilee-Flyer-Guide
-Nialls “RIP” McErkel, Galilee Ace
CRASHING into Mountains, Buildings, Airfield, etc, etc:
- If it has some vertical dimension, it can catch the plane.
- Learn to fly before using the game to learn.
- If you can’t get the hang of it, ask a 5th grader to help you.
- In many churches, they let the kids play ONE of the Galilee Flyer games any time they want, so that when they go to TEACH with the other three games, the kids are expert flyers, and haven’t exhausted the content.
Galilee Flyer’s controls (sort of) work like a real plane. 
Think of the arrow keys as a joystick, or the plane’s “stick”.
- Pressing the Back/Down arrow is equivalent to “PULLING BACK on the stick” = Climbing.
- Press the Forward/UP Arrow is the equivalent of PUSHING FORWARD on the stick = Diving.
- If you fly too slow, you’ll sink.
- If you fly too slow you’ll have a hard time climbing the hills.
- Your rate of climb sometimes isn’t enough if you’re too close to an object. Turn and come back around.
- You need to reduce your airspeed and GLIDE IN to LAND, otherwise, you’ll smack into the ground.
Steep mountains are difficult to climb over.
Look for more gentle slopes to fly up. You can GAIN ALTITUDE up a steep hill by ZIG ZAGGING UP THE HILL as you press the CLIMB (Back/Down) arrow. Better yet, find a gentle slope.
The ground will not cause you to crash, but trees, sides of mountains, tops of rocks, bridges, buildings can be crashed into, –which is to say, ANYTHING WITH SOME VERTICALITY.
Flying THROUGH some of the ruins and under bridges will give you a power boost. But it’s also really easy to mis-judge flying under a bridge. Practice!
Beware the Outer Boundary!
You really can’t fly beyond the mountains, and if you do, your plane may crash. Sometimes when you reach the outer-boundary of the terrain your plane slows down and you can turn back. Sometimes you crash into this boundary. The circular outer boundary is where the mountains stop and you can’t see them in the distance. Look at the map during start-up for more clues. Look at the map at the top of this guide for the landscape structure.
Crashing After a Verse
This one takes some planning. Your plane will stop to answer the verse, but start up again immediately after the verse is answered, and this could send you straight into a mountain if you are pointed right at the mountain. Some verse icons are tucked up against mountains. Approach them the right way, or go look for the verse somewhere else. Each verse appears in two spots in the landscape.
Turned Around? Use Your Compass! And assign a student to navigate.
It’s easy for a first-time player to get turned around. The Galilee Flyer is outfitted with a compass. It will help you remember which direction you need to head. If two or more flyers are at the computer, I recommend one of them be responsible for watching what sector of Galilee the plane is in, what it has already covered, and where it might need to go next. A systematic approach to scouring the landscape for verses is best. It also helps to
correctly match them when found!
After flying for a while you’ll start to notice landmarks. Print the MAP below to give them an idea of the layout of the game.
“CONTENT ENCOURAGEMENTS”:
Kids love to play, and kids will be kids. Left on their own, they will tend to want to bypass content. Here are three things you can do to add structure and accountability to your lessons with Galilee Flyer.
1. Make a Verses Checklist.
Copy the FIRST half of each of the verses in the game you are playing and put them on a CHECKLIST for each student to fill out as they are flying. This is easy to do. Just copy the verse text from my Verses PDF, paste it into your own document, and delete the 2nd half of the verses so the kids can fill them in.
2. Make a “High Score” wall chart.
Have the kids record the “Pilot Ranking” they receive when they match all the verses and land. This bit of score-bragging is an incentive.
3. Play WITH them and next to them.
If they think you aren’t watching, some kids will wander.
Save/Load:
Press F2 during the game or via ESC-Main Menu to access the Save/Load features.
NOTE: Once you crash and lose all your turns, your saved games are gone too!! The save/load feature is only for those games you must exit before completing –and you can later pick up where you left off by loading them. (Note: on some laptop keyboards, you may have to press the “Fn” key while you press F2 as many laptop keys pull double duty for other functions.)
