When you click the Orbital Fly tool to begin flying, the Orbital Fly panel will appear. From the Orbital Fly panel you can control altitude, pitch, flying direction and speed. The Orbital Fly tool looks down from an orbiting object, whereas the existing Fly tool in ArcGlobe gives you the forward-looking view from a flying object.

Flying can be accomplished using the Orbital Fly panel, mouse, keyboard, or a combination of these.

Before you fly in this example, click Tools and click Options, then click the 3D Data View tab. This tab allows you to control globe display settings and level of detail settings. Check Show North Arrow and Stop navigation at globe surface.

From the Orbital Fly panel, you can start and stop flying, fly in any direction, adjust flying speed, and change altitude and pitch. The up arrow on the Orbital Fly panel will increase forward flying speed. Alternately, the down arrow will reduce speed and begin flying backward. The other arrows will shift the position of the earth as you fly over it either up left, up right, down left, or down right.

There are also three buttons on the right side of the Orbital Fly panel: Hide Panel, Fixed Line of Sight, and Keyboard Shortcuts. Clicking the Hide Panel tool will minimize the dialog box to the title bar while you are flying. Clicking the Fixed Line of Sight button will keep a particular target in the line of sight when flying. Clicking the Keyboard Shortcuts button will show all the keyboard shortcuts for flying.

The Fixed Line of Sight button can be used to control how the observer positions itself in relation to the globe while flying. If the Fixed Line of Sight is turned on, the observer will zoom in and out along the line of sight when the altitude is adjusted. If the Fixed Line of Sight is off, the observer will increase or decrease vertically in relation to the globe surface.