A helicopter at 3,000 ft flying west over Los Angeles at night, along the 105 toward LAX, at the speed of your westbound lanes. The airport is out of sight at first. Just before it, the 405 crosses at right angles; beyond it is the ocean. To the right the coast runs up through Playa del Rey, Marina del Rey, Venice and Santa Monica (brighter, more shops, on their own turned grid, ending at the beach; Lincoln Blvd runs through them) and curves away along Malibu under the dark Santa Monica Mountains. Looking down, the houses are CT30's suburb photos, dark except where the street lights fall. Widebodies come down the approaches to LAX from the east, overtaking you on your right; others take off to the west.
The 105 is 8 lanes each way; you control the 8 westbound lanes, WB 1–8 (inner to outer), each at its own speed (knobs 1–8); every eastbound lane has its own changing speed. Following, the helicopter flies at 2.05× your lanes' average speed (− / + change that). The planes coming in hold 3,000 ft, your height, until their glide path; a big widebody flies level with you on your right, passes you, then goes down to land. Tour (on at start) eases the camera up toward LAX when it is about 11 km ahead, and back down once you have passed it. Cars carry their own lights: white headlights and a cone of light ahead, red tail lights (brighter while braking); far away a car is one point, white coming toward you, red going away.
| Button | Key | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Reset | Backspace | timer to 0, traffic back to the start, helicopter home (lane settings stay) |
| Forward ▶ / Pause ❚❚ | Enter / P (Space toggles) | run / freeze the traffic, the planes, the helicopter and the timer (the camera still moves) |
| ● Record | R | movie of the picture with sound, at the picture's real pixel size; press again to stop — the MP4 downloads |
| Lane − / + (8 lanes) | Ctrl+1…8 / Shift+1…8 | lane speed, 5 mph steps (knobs 1–8: 1 mph a click). Click a lane's number (or press 1–8) to stop / restart it |
| Stop all | X | your 8 lanes stop (press again: they all move off) |
| Auto | Z | your lanes stop and go by themselves, within the speeds you set |
| Others − / + | , . | speed of all the other traffic |
| Higher / Lower | ↑ ↓ (wheel) | helicopter height, 50 ft to 20,000 ft |
| Tilt | T | straight down → 55° → 30° → 15° (the horizon) → straight down |
| Approach ⇡ / Back ⇣ (hold) | W / S (Q E sideways, Shift = 3× faster) | fly toward what you are looking at, easing in and out |
| Follow | G (double-click) | fly west along the 105 (then along Imperial past LAX, out to sea) at 2.05× the average speed of your westbound lanes (on at start); from anywhere it takes you back |
| Tour | O | while following: ease the camera up (and a little toward it) when LAX is about 11 km ahead, back down once past (on at start; tilting or turning the camera yourself turns it off) |
| Hover / heli − + | 0 / - = | helicopter speed in mph, 10 mph steps (the X-TOUCH fader sets it 0–200); while following, − / + make the follow speed 1.25× slower / faster |
| LAX / Downtown / Santa Monica / Hollywood | A / C / K / Y | turn toward it — slowly, banking — and fly there at your cruising speed, tilting to keep it in the picture; you fly on over it. Downtown: its towers, the 101 / 110 / 5 / 10 / 60 and their interchanges; on the way, Wilshire's buildings, Sunset, Hollywood Blvd, Vine, Western |
| Bank | B | the camera banks into turns (on at start; turns are at most 2.5° a second, ?turn= changes that) |
| Planes | F | the widebodies arriving and departing at LAX on / off |
| Streets | N | cars on the street grid on / off (off: freeways, Lincoln, Imperial, PCH only) |
| Lane colours | L | the cars in your 8 lanes painted in their lane colours (off at start) |
| Sound | M | road roar and rotor (off at start) |
| Info | I or H | show / hide the text in the corners of the picture |
| — | D | show / hide the buttons |
X-TOUCH MINI: knobs 1–8 = lane 1–8 speed (push = stop/go that lane), fader = helicopter speed, top row = Reset, Forward, Pause, Record, Higher, Lower, Tilt, LAX; bottom row = Stop all, Auto, Follow, Hover, Others −, Others +, Sound, D. LAYER A = Downtown, LAYER B = text. nanoKEY2: A#' = Tour. Launchpad Mini: rows 1–2 = the same 16 buttons; rows 3–8 = a speed ladder per lane (column = lane, top row 60 mph … bottom row stop). nanoKEY2: see the MIDI panel. Right-click any on-screen button, then press a MIDI control, to assign it.
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Right-click any button below the picture, then press the MIDI control you want for it (Esc cancels). Learned controls are kept in this browser
and shown in yellow; the defaults come from CT58.A6.LANight_midimap.js.