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Flight School: Flat Hatting

The basic premise for this sort of training is in maintaining low-level flight control - obviously if you plan on running dope form old Mexico to Arizona this sort of training is really valuable - just saying!

For this set, which is a bit longer and more complicated, the timers are longer to match. To get a gold medal for this training you will need to complete it in under 2 minutes and 15 seconds; for a silver medal you need to complete it in under 2 minutes and 35 seconds; to get a bronze medal you need to complete it in under 3 minutes.

Getting gold on this is something of a challenge, because in order to hit the timer on the dot you need to be accelerating the entire time.

Slow down and you will not make it through the course in time. Fail to hit a marker and chances are you blow your gold because it will cost you 5 seconds for each marker you miss.

The following tips will help you get gold the first time out (or should):

(1) Use your rudder! Because you are flying low banking can (probably will) cause you to dip a wing into the water and crash your plane. For almost all of the markers you can easily hit them by adjusting your path using just the rudders (with the exception of the third-before-last).

(2) Keep the throttle (Right Trigger) pressed for the entire flight. You really need to do that if you are going for the gold medal because failing to do so will always result in a longer time than the gold minimum.

(3) After you cross over the industrial area and turn into the channel you will need to bank hard AND use the rudder. In order to hit the marker a very hard turn is required.

If you are going to miss a marker this is the one you will miss -- and if you miss that marker, you are not going to get a gold medal.

(4) Once you make the left turn into the channel and hit the marker you will get a little altitude so use it.

The markers for this phase are higher than most of the previous ones, which means you CAN bank when you need to. When the path turns to the right back towards the airport you will need to bank so do not be afraid to do so.

(5) Once you clear the second-to-last marker and are heading to the finish line try to keep the plane as level as possible.

Since maneuvers will slow your forward speed, you want to avoid making them.

Your clearance time for the gold medal is going to be less than 5 second on most runs (which is why if you miss a marker you blow the gold medal).

Following the tips above should get you the gold medal easy-peasy!