Does anybody know if FS2004 will let the reverse thrust back the airplane up. FS2002's only slows you down to a stop but will not back you up. I hope this is fixed!

Amen to that, I'm hoping on reverse thrust too!EricArea51Intel

Why would you do that? These are airplanes not cars :-lol Instead of "fixing" that, they should improve the pushback feature.Carlos.

i thought u could do it.. as I recal ive done it b4..i had a plane hopping once like a lowrider playing with the thrust

Reverse thrust will back an airplane up in FS2002 already.... Try out the new FFX 737... Can back her up with reverse thrust, no problem. Usually, adjusting the reverse thrust pctg. to 50pct in the .air file, combined with correct placement of the gear in relation to the COG, will allow any FS2002 aircraft so equipped to back up.And I saw the other comment about the cars by Carlos. For the umpteenth time, certain rear engined aircraft back up by reverse thrust quite often, such as the MD-8x/9x series....-John

Great, you learn something new everyday...thanks for sharing.Carlos.

I see them do the powerbacks quite often out of Sky Harbor. They do it on almost every MD-8/9x flight I take. I can't recall whether I've ever had the same thing done in a 727--I just don't see 'em any more and it's been several years since I've flown on one.... But the most unreal experience was on a DC-8, when the pilot reversed the inboards in flight, to slow us down.... It felt as if we literally "stopped" in the sky--an illusion brought on by the cloud cover below. That is one thing I really miss. In FS98, you could apply reverse in flight, and I was able to simulate this on a DC-8 very well. No luck in any version since--reverse only works on the ground now. It always takes some "pilot" to say it doesn't work that way, in spite of some aircraft bending the rules. Sadly, the loudest voice often wins, but not always the right voice....

The DC-8 is unique in being able to use reverse thrust in flight (and it does so without bending the rules). For other civil transport airplanes, operation of the reversers in flight is prohibited, and design features must be incorporated to prevent it.

How about the fabulous Dash 7? This airplane is has STOL capabilities and can land almost anywhere and yes it does reverse as well.Colin

There are also some other planes that are allowed to open reversers in flight, the Concorde for example. I would also like to see that feature in FS. :)

This leads me to a question:Do you think that the slowing down of aircraft in FS2002 is realistic?I have with most aircraft the impression that I have to apply full reverse and bracking power immediately after touchdown in order to slow them down before the end of the runway (even if these are very long).I many real flights as passenger on airliners I had the impression (at least on long runways), that after touchdown and setting the engines to idle the aircrafts slow down already considerably and sometimes not even big reverse power was applied.I might be wrong but I wonder what you think about it.Walter

I just want to add this:I have only seen one or two FS2002 aircraft that can powerback, but I've never been able to steer while doing it. If proper setup of the .air file is enough to let any airplane powerback, then all we need is for MS to enable nose wheel steering while moving backwards...Regards,Nick

If you change the steering angle in the CFG file to something like 85 degrees or more, then some (very little) nosewheel steering is possible while powering back. Trouble is, the steering in the normal direction of travel then becomes too sensitive on the T/O roll, and when taxiing, full nosewheel deflection causes the A/C to plow ahead and refuse to turn - so its not worth the trouble to make this change.I find that using differential braking (F11 and F12) will turn most A/C fairly effectively during powerback. If you tap one brake or the other rapidly while reversing the nose will swing around as if nosewheel steering were in use -not realistic- but it works.

I'll add to that-Most powerbacks are straight-back operations. You RARELY turn during a powerback procedure. This is primarily because of the concern of exhaust gas ingestion (from an MD-80 pilot). The reversers are set up in such a way so that the exhaust gases are blown out and to the side or up and to the side, away from the inlets. If you start to turn during powerback, you greatly increase the risk of ingesting those exhaust gasses. If you ingest exhaust gasses in a turbin engine, you'll cause a flameout, and on the ground that can quickly lead to an uncontrolable fire and loss of the aircraft. Also, the only 737s to powerback routinely are the -200 and -100 aircraft. This is simply because the buckets are far enough aft of the inlets to make the chances of debris ingestion low enough to be acceptable. On the newer models with the CFMs, powerbacking is rare because of the risk of debris ingestion.

Chris,Undoubtedly there are straight back power backs, however it's not "rare" at all to have a turning powerback. During my time at AirTran, every single powerback accomplished in Atlanta included a turn either "tail North" or "tail South". I'd say that roughly 90% percent of departures were powerbacks as opposed to pushbacks. Even in places like Dayton we were approved for a turning pushback. It does depend on the airport and even the gate from which you operate, though. There were several places where powerbacks were not permitted, or must be straight back. EDIT: I forgot to mention, policy varies from airline to airline as well, of course. Also, I can't think of any operator who currently will powerback any model of the 737. It was my understanding that after Palm 90 crashed (a 737-200), operators were not to powerback in the 737. Apparently they ingested ice and snow into both engines, freezing the EPR sensors, resulting in erroneous EPR indications. Hence the crew used an inadvertantly low power setting for takeoff, stalled and crashed into the Potamac. I'd be interested to know if anyone still does it in a 737.Regards,Nick