Good FSX Teachings?

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by Skybird

That is entertaining not!

It really depends on what floats your boat though! I know a lot of people who do like that - although they typically spend that 8 cruising hours doing something else (doing work on another computer, watching a movie, cleaning their backyard, or even sleeping).

You can always join a virtual airline (as I did), which definitely gives a bit more context and purpose to even long flights.

That said, I prefer flying shorter regional flights myself. They are a lot more fun and have a much more intense workload, hour for hour. I do know quite a few people at my VA that practically live for those long-range flights though.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by CCIP

It really depends on what floats your boat though! I know a lot of people who do like that - although they typically spend that 8 cruising hours doing something else (doing work on another computer, watching a movie, cleaning their backyard, or even sleeping).

Let them do that with activated chance for randomised system failure, even if set to only small chances.

[CCIP]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Let them do that with activated chance for randomised system failure, even if set to only small chances.

Haha, yeah. I do that with fspassengers actually, set to 1% failure chance per flight. It actually makes things a lot more interesting, but as in real life, something happening during cruise... miniscule chance. Most failures happen during departure or landing. The worst I've had out of the 500 or so hours of flying this year was a fuel leak, and it didn't even affect my flight plan since I had enough reserves.

Besides, the far bigger threat on long flights is your FS crashing to desktop

[Takeda Shingen]

Originally Posted by CCIP

You can always join a virtual airline (as I did), which definitely gives a bit more context and purpose to even long flights.

I was entertaining the notion of doing the same thing. What has your experience been? How often do you have to fly? What are the perameters? How is the community? (Obviously you like the community, as you are still a member, but you know what I mean)

[CCIP]

It's been really good! It varies from airline to airline obviously, and I've only been a member of one, but it's been a great experience all around. The only mandatory requirement is flying at least once per month, and the booking system for flights is very flexible (at least once you have enough of a rank to have access to all the equipment and routes). The community is good - I wish it were a little more active sometimes, but there's enough to keep me occupied. There's quite an age spread and even simming style spread between people, but there's always people who are similar enough in interests to interact with.

In my VA the main parameters are that you file your flights (with one of a couple of methods) to prove you followed realistic procedure, including routes and performance. All reports filed are reviewed by actual human staff and approved/rejected. There's some pretty clear-cut rules for rejections, but they're not too harsh. The main tracking method is the VA's own ACARS app, which is basically a chat + flight tracker. It actually gives some really nice feedback.

I know some VAs are more strict and demanding, but most are not. There's a lot of fairly casual flyers in mine, but all in all there's a really nice professional sort of atmosphere to it. There's also a lot of flexibility for difficulty - and even I sometimes fly really complex payware planes, and sometimes just slightly spruced-up freeware with basic systems. Some people only fly on VATSIM (and bug others to join them constantly), others don't even use the default FS ATC and just fly silent (I mostly fly offline with RadarContact). The only goal is that your final flight log proves that your flight went mostly like the real thing.

It's definitely done two things to my virtual flying - first it made me fly a lot more than I used to, and secondly it significantly improved a bunch of my flying skills and knowledge thanks to advice that I got there. It's not a good place to get basic tutorials on IFR flying by any means, but once you're at a certain level, I think being in a VA is probably the best way to improve your flying.

Okay, I believe I really made that too broad of a question. What I meant for was the basics. Like using trim, flaps etc, communicating with ATC and GTC, proper procedure for flights, using the flight planner, and the use of the nav system in the glass cockpit and so on.

I want to learn the basics as indepth as I can for now, I will learn about the plane characteristics at a later date. For now, baby steps. I can do little puddle jumps, and Ive MADE a flight plan before, but I dont know how to use it (I was flying a Mooney Bravo of course)

But before all of that, any general tips are well appreciated

[Skybird]

Casey, you have all that stuff in the tutorials and lessons of the FSX "Ausbildungszentrum", don'T know how they call it in the English version. All the theory you ask for: all instruments explained. Flaps, Flight phases and how to run them and and what to do then. Navigation. GPS. IFR instruments, glass cockpits. I just have checked it, it is all there, with pictures and explanations.

That is much better than walls of text written by me and others, without graphics and pictures.

Check that "training centre", as it may be called in the english version. It's all there.

My point earlier was just this:; if you want to go indepth with a plane, don'T waste time with the FSX toys, their system depth is - almost non-existent. Pick one addon plane and then use that for a solid time to come, and get into it, in detail, that is more rewarding. Go with something of small or medium size first, and in half a year or so, when you got the experience, still have the interest and may have the money, get an airliner.

The Cheyenne can be ordered with 20% lower price currently. I have yesterday placed my order for the FSX version of it myself, I miss it from my FS9 times. Until 25th or 26th.

http://en.shop.aerosoft.com/eshop.ph...design=DEFAULT

But see if Aeroshop runs an American shop as well, I think they do, at least did.

Really, if you want to dive into things with FSX, then do it right : get one first addon plane small to medium size and start with that. And much later, when it is opportune for you, get one heavy bird. There are good reasons why people are willing to pay money on such addons and ignore the default planes. They just don't compare. When it comes to autopilots and airliner FMS (flight management systems) at the latest - there is where a wide, wide abyss opens between the default planes and a quality addon. You'd be surprised how far a quality addon can move beyond what you believed you knew after having done the default equivalent only.

Hope I do not sound too missionizing. I'd prefer the term "enthusiasm".

Alright, I figured instead of adding another thread Id just post this here.

So, Skybird, Ive read and read and read then flown and crashed then read some more and did all of the tutorials and I have to say with confidence I got it. I am now able to pilot prop and or Jets with a slight ease. I finally figured out how to use the flight nav and GPS and have flown some small commercial flights from my home town to IND (20 mins away)

Questions arise now, first problem Ive had is that I was doing a flight from Cleveland to Chicago in a 737 and when I was almost to Chicago my game crashed saying not enough virtual memory? I have the same settings as you and even tested them in LAX to make sure they wouldnt slow me too much and nothing. And then when Im almost to Ohare Int'l (Litterally on my runway approach) it crashes. I shouldnt be having this problem with 16GB of ram should I??

Next, when youre coming in for a landing and talking to ATC and they direct you to land on the Active Runway (Say runway 6R Right) how do you know which runway is the active one? Same thing when youre taxing to the runway, how do can you tell which runway to go to? (I want to try to not use progressive taxi to keep the imerssion factor there)

The other problem I have is my problem with overspeeds. Ive looked through the indexes and cant see a thing about what to do to correct it (I slow down and pull the nose up and extend flaps and sometimes it works) but for say Jetliners, what are some key things to keep in mind so Im not overspeeding??

Also where can I get some other skins so I can actually fly real airlines? (Southwest, American, Delta) annnnd does anyone play online want to fly sometime?

Oh and last but not least, when doing an Insturment Landing in bad weather (Say heavy fog and bad visibility) is there a way to know the altitude the runway is at ? (You can see the feathers for the runway on the nav glass and the lights can be visible but I have not figured out how to know what altitude the runway is at so I dont slam into it... although this is all on the understanding that it actualyl IS possible to land in 0 visibility? But I assumed it is possible with the glass cockpit ILS.

Seriously though, thank you for all of your patience in answering my previous questions. I finally got time to sit down and just focus on it and am so happy I got to learn how to finally fly with Instrument navigation. I think sometime this weekend, Im going to try a flight from Chicago to LAX if I can

Oh and anyother tips would be awesome, I figured out Autopilot can bite me in the ass. I set it to ascend to my cruise altitude and it stalled me in a 747 with such a spin that I slammed into the ground before I could correct it -_-

Cheers,

Casey

[Skybird]

OOM - out of memory: should happen NOT on an x64 operation system and the FS config tailored via venetubo website, where the according entry to allow more than just short of 4 GB RAM is added into the config file (oh - I hope I do npot mix it up with an x32 issue here...) . Sure you did that procedure correctly? The config you get linked to by them needs to be moved to the appropriate location on your HD manually, it does not get put there by them. I further assume you do not use any addons, especially traffic addons (big resource hog). - I need to google this a bit, I have no answer on this right now. Edit: any excessive settings in your graphics driver, maybe? 64x super antialias or something like that? AA and AF should be set to be controlled by the software application. Switch off most of the other gimmicks. And in FSX, make sure you do not run the DX10 mode.

Edit: now that I think of it, I initially had comparable problems with this error, too, when migrating to FSX. I finally solved it "en passant", when doing a total system reinstall (for opther purpose than just FSX). The difference most prominent was that before I had a comprehensive ground texture replacement set in use, also an additional ground map addon, especially the latter being known to be able to cause massive fingerprints in the system'S use of resources. Also, back then I did not had the config correctly tweaked. So I urge you again to reassure yourself that you indeed have correctly handled the venetubo config replacement file, and that your system is correctly set up regarding memory assignment. - I have not had a single FSX crash since then, and I run it in a much more complex setup. Only during shutdown of FSX after having used the 737 on a mission, I occasionally have a shutdown error and FSX crashes - when I want to end anyway.

Active runway: if you have a flightplan filed, meaning you fly IFR, ATC will direct you around, telling you to descend and give you vectors, and also will tell you which runway to expect. If you fly VFR - no flightplan filed - you can switch to weather informations where they also mention active runways. You can also refuse the runway given to yoiu, and request another one. If you do, check wind direction before. You do not want to land with wind in your back, or crosswind. Hm. They really don't tell you when approaching via VFR what runway to expect? Ooops, was not aware of that. - Keep in mind, radio comms are terribly simlified and the procedures Control, demands oyu to fly are often a bit messy, not to mention that descend paths often are difficult to meet (spilers needed anyway). - On FS9 I used a traffic addon and had plenty of traffic indeed, a crowded place the airports were. With FSX I have to keep an eye on my ressources when using hte 737NGX, so no traffic addonb. I also ignore radio comms most of the time, and follow SIDs and STARs from the books instead, choosing runways according to weath reports and wind directions that I have examined via ASE before takeoff. - ASE: Active Sky, a weather online data collection tool, downloading METARs every couple of minutes and transforming them into mnore relasatic wetaher conditions than the default option in FSX. REX 2.0: replacement textures for sky, clouds, water surfaces, wave animations.

Immersion when taxiing: keep in mind that if you do not have airport charts, it is difficult to imagine in advance on which route to taxi the labyrinth of taxiways, so be a bit forgiving to yourself and use the inbuilt arrow-helpers. Keep in mind, in the real airliners, there are TWO pilots, one of which rolls the plane during taxiing, the other reassuring him or correcting him on choice of taxiways. The pilot not having controls (taxiing the planes) also would do all the comms with tower who assign the airplane the active taxiways. Reality probably is a bit easier than the simulation here! - Quality airport sceneries help tremendously, due to their detailed and complete taxiways sign set. A tool like AES (Airport Enhancement Services) also helps, not only does it add fueling, moving taxiways, service vehicles and boarding procedures, but after landing it gives you the option of a follow-me car to final docking position plus parking position adviser, so you can follow the car over the whole airport, like in reality. A massive boost in immersion!

On the GPS system, there is a long chapter on that and how to handle it in the learning centre, under "Navigation" - that part holds many sub-chapters, one of which is exclusively on the GPS' operation. It is very extensive and complete, I would say.

Overspeeding jetliners, well, key is proper FMC programming. And here keep in mind that I do not use the default planes. You need a correct weight and fuel calculation and a wetaher report giving you proper wind direction, strength and outside temperature. Next you set a socalled cost index that is rergulated by both carrier policies for speedy or economic flights and wanted conditions for the scheduled single flight. The faster the more expensive , that is what the cost index is about. In the Boeing FMC this cost index ranges from I think 40 to 400, 40 being the slowest and most economic, 400 being the fastest and most fuel burning. The difference in end speed can be in the range of 20-40 knots. - Next, proper use of the autopilot modes and FMC modes, I assume the default 737 does not copy the complexity by which this is simulated in the PMDG. Certain autopilot modes for changing flight levels have different effects results on the flight speed, using V/S or LVL CHG for climbing or descending are two very different things. - Many airliners are surprisingly good soaring planes, meaning: they lose speed not easily, but easily accelerate rapidly when descending. Using the spoilers/speed brakes is pretty much the norm when descending. My 737's CDU also issues warnings on when to use them for sure, when targets could not be met without. The efficiency of speed brakes vary with different airliner models. - A well done FM module in an airliner should calculate all by itself climb and descend paths that keep the airplane well within limits in all phases of flight. Can't say if that is the case with FSX' default one, too. - Keep in mind that airliners, modern ones, are flown from gear-up to short before touch-down in full automatic modes, the pilots only handle flaps, gear and spoilers manually, else just push buttons and turn knobs to enter new frequencies and numbers.

Skins: I do not know the situation with skins for the default planes, I cannot imagine they get too much attention anymore, with so many addons being around. But for addon planes, skins are available in huge numbers, usually. Avsim download section is the place to starrt your search, else: Google.

Elevation of runway: you can go to the menu and open the map. There find your airport in question and click on it, a window should open giving you all frequencies, runways, length, elevations and ILS courses. Or you use terminal approach charts and Jeppesens (a company name) that come with an airport scenery. You could also try to find pdfs of your favourite airport via google: "Airport name, Jeppesen" or "Airport name, ICAO" would be good searches maybe add "pdf". I know that these are available, since I am using some of such printable original maps myself. Others I have, came with addons, in form of small booklets. I think there are complete sites who offer nothing else but such maps (for freed download). - Finally, you could get a flight planner software like Flight Sim Commander 9.2.

Flight Length: I recommend my method: I make sure that my flights are such that between reaching travel altitude and begin of descend there is not more than 10-25 minutes time. Because it is not interesting to sit in a simulated airplane and just staring out of your monitor. - A great immersion boost is weather. If you want to give it a tremendous raise, consider investing in ASE and a texture replacement, like for example REX. The clouds do not compare to the default MS stuff, they are photorealistic. There is nothing better than to land in bad weather or fog at an airport with night lights, and you run all by instruments and the weather in rags and layers fly by outside the window, and just a minute before touchdown you see the runway lights. Diving into and getting out of clouds at altitude also does magic.

The 747 crashing, I assume that you engaged the altitude mode and the thing tried to launch into orbit like a rocket from Nasa. Of course, climb speed must stay within limits so that the engines can provide enough forward speed to keep the air flowing over the wings and provide you with lifting force. The closer to the minimum speed because climb speed is too high, the more the nose raises and the angle of attack goes up. Finally, the airflow over the wings breaks off, and you have the classic stall. Remedy: not only define a target altitude, but also a climb speed. This could be in the range of 1800-2400 feet, for example. The heavier the plane, and the higher you already are, the slower you must adjust it, else: stall. At an altitude of for example 28000 plus, expect to be able to climb at speeds in the lower hundreds of feet only, not the thousands.

Be advised that if this is what your autopilot does, this has nothing, really nothing to do with how the autopilot in the real Boeings works and/or is operated. FSX is a terrible simplification this regard, in principle using a sports plane'S autopilot for commanding the flightplan of a Boeing airliner. That is absurd. - I recall that there was somewhere a good introduction into the basic design and features of a typical Honeywell FMC for Boeings, I try if I find it again so that you can get an impression of how big the differences are and what the thing is really about. If you think it just controls course, speed and altitude, than think again- these things can do so incredibly many things more that FSX by default doe snot even touch upon! - I am a button pusher simulationist. I love FMCs (or FMS - FCS? -, as Airbus calls them, I think).