Hi,I feel I must apologize on behalf of my country`s (now almost defunct) aerospace industry, us Brits must build the worlds most complicated aeroplanes ever.There`s an easy way, a hard way, and then the British way of designing aircraft sysytems! I used to fly the J41`s bigger and older brother the BAe/HS 748 and that was much the same. You had to hold the right engine at a certain RPM for so many seconds and press something else just to bring the aircon online,which never worked anyway. Spill vales,dump valves,choke valves, water methanol standby injection systems, lights flashing all over the place! I think it must have something to do with a nation of pilots and engineers growing up on Thunderbirds :( I`ve been buzzing around the sky a little bit in the J41 tonight, having started engines running just to cheat to get airborne and very nice it is too, infact the best flight model for this size aircraft Ive ever flown I`d say. But for the most part I`ve just spent the last hour or so just sat in the cockpit on the ramp at EMA(egnx) with a glass of port, just looking at things, where switches are, what they do, pressing things and turning things on and off to see how they work, just generally getting a feel for the flight deck. Thats exactly what I do when learning a new aircraft in real life,without the glass of port though usually :( its important to feel comfortable in the flight deck before starting anything as complicated as starting an engine, and in this aircraft it seems thats very complicated in itself. Tomorrow I`ll do the same again with the manuals and do some engine runs at east midlands.Bear in mind that on a real type rating course for an aircraft of this size you`d have at LEAST a week in the class room learning systems followed by an exam before you were let anywhere near a simulator to start training, nevermind the real aircraft! The beauty of our sims is or course is that we can jump straight in and blast off into the sky, and I`m as guilty of this as anyone. But these high end sims are so realastic now they deserve and require the learning and training process to mirror a lot more closley that of a real life type rating course. Its a lot more enjoyable that way too, as you gain a sense of pride and satisfaction as all the pieces slowly fall into place and you become a competent pilot on type. I say competent,but what I mean is OK to be released onto the line, they reccon it takes at least a year of flying a type in regular service before you get anywhere near acctually being competent, and thats for short haul where you get the sectors and landings in,for long haul you can at least double that time to 2 years,at least! I`ve been flying my present real world jet for almost 13 years now on long haul ops and still have lots to learn and keep refreshed on and still dont feel 100% happy with all there is to know . You soon learn what you need to know and what you need to be able to find in the manuals if you need to,its a very steep learning curve and can seem overwhelming at first but if you stick with it it`ll all soon fall into place.All that`s better than jumping in at the deep end and trying to fly the thing well,or even start the engines well on day one without any or much study, you`ll only end up getting extremely angry and frustrated.Years ago a pilot once told me a man(or woman :( ) has only about 5 type ratings in him so choose them carefully! And I think thats true altough with todays modern Boeings and Airbus types all aiming for common cross cockpit procudures things have become somewhat easier than fron the days of learning say DC9 and Viscount systems.Thats why, as good as they look I`ve resisted so far buying any other high end sims, as there`s only so much systems knowledge I can retain in my head, and I need some of that reserved for my day job!I fly the PMDG 747 of course and have just puchased an A330/340 sim as I`m trying to teach myself airbus at the moment as you never know when it might come in handy, the way things are at the moment in the industryAfter years of sat flying a heavy I really fancy a bit of turbo prop regional sim flying so I`ve got myself a new J41.We`re really lucky nowadays we have the chance to really get absorbed into our sims and our aircraft and learn to fly them with proffesionalism and skill,when I first started simming on solo flight on the C64 all you had was 1-9 keys for throttle position and G for gear that was it!I hope everyone enjoys their new Jetstream as much as I am, but above all enjoys LEARNING to fly it rather than bitting off too much too early on and getting frustated with it all.I`ve always found this forum a great help and I`m sure,as has always happened we can help each other through the learning curve.All the bestJon B

Great post.Thank you for sharing with us. I agree with what you said.

Great post! Funny, as I was reading through the intro and tutorial manuals the day before release, I kept thinking to myself, why would anyone make engines so complicated and so easy to burn up, particularly in flight. You answered that question and also gave great advice on learning an aircraft of this complexity and realism.Mark.

There`s an easy way, a hard way, and then the British way of designing aircraft sysytems!

Hi Jon!The first paragraph of your post immediately brought back fond memories of our photoshoot with the BAe JS4100. One of the many things we photographed (and one of the few things we did not model on the aircraft) was the interior of the avionics bay, which is housed inside the nose of the aircraft.Opening the door, you are immediately greeted with a placard that could only have been printed by a true Brit :( All in good fun... :(Really glad you are enjoying the airplane!

Vin, any other pics like that you could share with us? That's an interesting one!

What a great warning Vin, succinct and without techno babble.Needless to say I am a Brit :( Dave

Hi Vin, :( To be honest I`m amazed by the simple clarity, things must have changed a little at BAe, in the 748s day the would have read something " handle like a single cell hard shelled(but still fragile in un-cooked form) breakfast food item"For example just reading through some 748 notes ive still got, what would normally just be called an RCCB indicator by most is refered to as a "reverse current circuit breaker magnetic dolls eye indicator"- fantastic stuffCheers Jon

Hi Jon!The first paragraph of your post immediately brought back fond memories of our photoshoot with the BAe JS4100. One of the many things we photographed (and one of the few things we did not model on the aircraft) was the interior of the avionics bay, which is housed inside the nose of the aircraft.Opening the door, you are immediately greeted with a placard that could only have been printed by a true Brit :( All in good fun... :(Really glad you are enjoying the airplane!

handle like eggs eh? so I'm supposed to smash it against the counter and dump the remains in the frying pan? :(