I have come back to Flight Sim. after a number of failed attempts in the past. I have been focussing on the beginners tutorials, but I am finding it really hard to keep the planes steady in the air. For example, in the Transition to Jets mission, the tutor calls out the airspeeds etc. but I often seem to be going way too fast despite the throttle being set to idle. I know there are a number of factors that influence the plane in the air, but the tutorial missions doesn't seem to discuss these much. Or could it be an issue with my joystick as it doesn't really let me make very small adjustments, there is not a lot of resistance on the stick. It's a Trust GM-2550.I have did jump ahead a bit last time I got into FSX and managed to take off and do some ILS flights, using the various autopilots and radios but never managed to correctly intercept the localizer/glidescope so always messed up my approaches.I really want to fly the smaller regional jets eventually but just need some words of wisdom !!Many Thanks !!

I have come back to Flight Sim. after a number of failed attempts in the past. I have been focussing on the beginners tutorials, but I am finding it really hard to keep the planes steady in the air. For example, in the Transition to Jets mission, the tutor calls out the airspeeds etc. but I often seem to be going way too fast despite the throttle being set to idle. I know there are a number of factors that influence the plane in the air, but the tutorial missions doesn't seem to discuss these much. Or could it be an issue with my joystick as it doesn't really let me make very small adjustments, there is not a lot of resistance on the stick. It's a Trust GM-2550.I have did jump ahead a bit last time I got into FSX and managed to take off and do some ILS flights, using the various autopilots and radios but never managed to correctly intercept the localizer/glidescope so always messed up my approaches.I really want to fly the smaller regional jets eventually but just need some words of wisdom !!Many Thanks !!

I've just read throuh the post again and if I've missed anything that might help or indeed if I've posted in the wrong area then please let me know.CheersMatt

Like most things, it is better to walk before you can run, and to that end, you might ultimately do better by taking the Cessna 172 for a few circuits and landings yourself, without worrying about trying to impress a virtual instructor, and that is not too hard to do. Flying circuits is how pretty much everyone learns to fly for real, as it builds confidence and get you used to handling the aeroplane. Here is a basic way to go about that (note that you might find that calibrating you stick will help if it is a bit twitchy, and you can do that via the controls preference on the FSX menus.): Start an FSX flight with the Cessna 172 on a runway at a a fairly small airport. Press Control+the period key to engage the parking brake, then hit Control+E to start the engine, flip all the switches on the panel just behind the yoke to the on position, so your avionics and such are all working. Now press shift+Z so that the basic information about what your aeroplane is doing appears as a red line of text at the top of your monitor, which will make things easier for the moment. Make a note of the magnetic heading your aeroplane is on, and then release the parking brake and open the throttle up so you commence rolling down the runway. Look at the airspeed indicator and when you have sufficient speed (i.e. the needle is well into the green arc, which basically means your flying speed is good) ease the stick back gently to put yourself in a gentle climb, and keep the aircraft straight until you are at 600 feet above the ground.When you get to 600 feet, make a gentle left turn so that you subtract 90 degrees off your magnetic heading (which is on that red line of text) and then straighten up. You should be getting to about 800 feet now, so level off by reducing the throttle a little until the aircraft settles at a reasonably stable altitude (it doesn't have to be perfect so don't worry, that will come with practice).When it is level, make another gentle 90 degree turn to the left (you might need to add more throttle to maintain your height in the turn, so do that if you need to). Now you should be able to see the runway you took off from passing by your left window and we are halfway around the circuit. Keep the aircraft going straight as you fly past the runway and when the runway looks as though it is quite a way over your left shoulder, reduce the throttle so that you start descending and make another left turn of 90 degrees, lower the flaps a little and control the speed of the aircraft with the pitch of your stick and the rate of descent with the throttle. When it looks like you are in a good spot, make one last left turn of 90 degrees to line yourself up with the runway. You should be at around 500 feet when that happens if things are going okay. Make small adjustments of throttle and pitch to keep yourself gently descending toward the runway. You can put some more flap down if you like, but you might have to add a bit of throttle to compensate for the drag that will cause. As you pass over the end of the runway, reduce the throttle to ease yourself down to the ground and just before your wheels touch, chop the throttle completely and ease the stick back ever so slightly so that the main wheels will touch first.If you like, you can then raise the flaps, open the throttle up and do it again. Doing that for about an hour will make you much more familiar with flying and you will find that you start to figure out how things work when doing so.If you survive that LOL, you might then want to look at these options:There are a number of tutorials in the Avsim forums for this kind of thing (there is a specific tutorial section on these forums), and you might find you prefer some of those to the ones in FS, so I'd take a look there too. People throw tutorials on the main site too on occasion, I did that the other day on this thread, with a quick lesson on how to take off and land the FSX Boeing 737, so you might want to try that on page 2 of this thread: http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtop...87396&st=25Or, you might prefer a book that has that kind of thing in it, in which case I highly recommend this one: http://www.amazon.com/Flying-Boeing-700-Fl...s/dp/0936283106 There is a PDF version of that book you can buy too from one or two places, in case you'd prefer it more quickly, but to be honest, the printed version would probably be more suited to learning as you can prop it open next to you monitor.Flying an aeroplane is not hard, it is flying it well that is the tricky part, and like most things, that it is just a matter of practice.Hope that helps a bit - Al

Hi Alanwell, what can I say. That is fantastic, it is absolutely what I have been looking for, I just want to be able to fly some circuits for now, so I have a sense of achievement. I do want to delve into the details and theory a bit more as I learn but just wanted to be able to have a bit of fun at the same time.I do just have a couple of questions: 1. When I started with the FSX lessons they kept going on about trimming the aircraft, I can understand the theory behind this, but should I be worrying about this when I follow your superb tutorial2. I did calibrate my joystick in XP, so does the FSX calibration improve on that ?Once again, just wanted to say thanks for your reply. I am really keen to get into this again as I do have some more freetime in the evenings. I will let you know how I get on.ThanksMatt

Well written,Al.....Lou N1472Q

You might like this site:http://www.flyaoamedia.com/blog/aviator-90/45 very professional video lessons with ALL the basics (and more) you need. Great stuff and totally free!

You might like this site:http://www.flyaoamedia.com/blog/aviator-90/45 very professional video lessons with ALL the basics (and more) you need. Great stuff and totally free!

Very cool, I'll have a look at some of these tonight, whilst I find a nice, interesting, small airfield near to my home in Lancashire, England.Thanks for everyone's help with this.

Regarding trimming your aircraft, here is essentially what that is...When you fly your aircraft and set the throttle to a certain setting, the aircraft will not necessarily fly level for that given throttle setting, if you are flying fast, your wing will create more lift and your nose will go up, if you are flying slowly, the wing will create less lift and then the nose will drop. But an aeroplane's wing on its own is not stable, what it wants to do as it creates lift, is pitch forwards more as it creates more lift, so to counteract that, the aeroplane has a horizontal tailplane, which is a bit like an upside down wing, and that tailplane forces the aeroplane's tail down so that the plane flies properly.When you pull the stick back or push it forward, you tilt the elevators at the back of the tailplane, and that effectively makes the tailplane (which as we know is like an upside down wing) either generate less, or more force, depending on which way you push the stick. As we also know, for any given speed, the tailplane might not necessarily be generating the right amount of force to keep the aeroplane flying level.Now, you could solve that problem by pulling the stick back slightly, or pushing it forward slightly and holding it there, but if you want to fly along for an hour, that will hurt your wrist to hold the stick there, so instead what you do is use trim, which can crank the elevator up or down just a little bit and keep it there without you having to hold the elevator in that position with the stick, which means you can make the aircraft fly level for any given speed by setting the right amount of trim.In a real aeroplane it is actually a bit easier to set the trim than it is in FSX, because what you can do in many real aeroplanes, is hold the stick in the right place to keep the aircraft level, and then feed in trim till it holds the stick where you have it when you let go of it, and it won't move back to its central position because of the trim setting, so it will be a bit like an invisible hand holding the stick a little bit back or forwards. The controls in a lot of cockpits also tend to give you an idea of where to adjust your trim fairly easily, for example, you might learn that cranking the trim wheel back three times in a certain aeroplane will make it fly level at 125 knots or whatever, and sometimes the paint wears off controls and makes it obvious where to adjust them to.In FSX, your joystick won't do that, so what you have to do is feed a bit of trim in and wait a second to see what it is doing to your flight path, then add or subtract a bit as necessary, but you do get used to that. What can make it easier to do though, is if you set up the FSX control assignments for elevator trim to a couple of buttons on your joystick, and that way you can easily adjust trim with your thumb. By default, the keyboard controls for trim are tricky to use (they are the 1 and 7 keys on your numeric keypad), so assigning trim to your joystick buttons will make things a lot easier to handle.When you understand trimming an aircraft, you will find that there are certain situations where it is useful to trim your aircraft, such as level flight when you are at your cruise altitude, or level flight when at landing approach speed with your flaps down, etc. Trimming will make flying easier, but for practicing circuits, you don't have to obsess about it, it will help if you use it, but if you like you can hold the correct pitch with the stick and not worry about trimming until you are comfortable with all the other things you are practicing, but it is a good habit to use trim.Worth knowing too, is that most aircraft also have rudder trim and aileron trim as well, but we can live without touching those for the moment.If you are in Lancashire by the way, you might want to try flying from Barton Aerodrome, which is EGCB if you want the ICAO code, although you may want to turn down the autogen scenery a bit in FSX, because it is a bit weird around Barton in FSX. Don't crash into Barton Bridge, or nobody will be able to get to the Trafford Centre LOLWith regard to calibrating your joystick in FSX, what can help, is to make the null zones a bit wider (especially for the elevator and ailerons), so that very small movements of your stick do not upset the aircraft if you have it flying nicely, because the leverage of a very short PC joystick is way more twitchy than a real aircraft's controls are, and that tends to magnify small movements and make flying in FSX hard.Al

Regarding trimming your aircraft, here is essentially what that is...When you fly your aircraft and set the throttle to a certain setting, the aircraft will not necessarily fly level for that given throttle setting, if you are flying fast, your wing will create more lift and your nose will go up, if you are flying slowly, the wing will create less lift and then the nose will drop. But an aeroplane's wing on its own is not stable, what it wants to do as it creates lift, is pitch forwards more as it creates more lift, so to counteract that, the aeroplane has a horizontal tailplane, which is a bit like an upside down wing, and that tailplane forces the aeroplane's tail down so that the plane flies properly.When you pull the stick back or push it forward, you tilt the elevators at the back of the tailplane, and that effectively makes the tailplane (which as we know is like an upside down wing) either generate less, or more force, depending on which way you push the stick. As we also know, for any given speed, the tailplane might not necessarily be generating the right amount of force to keep the aeroplane flying level.Now, you could solve that problem by pulling the stick back slightly, or pushing it forward slightly and holding it there, but if you want to fly along for an hour, that will hurt your wrist to hold the stick there, so instead what you do is use trim, which can crank the elevator up or down just a little bit and keep it there without you having to hold the elevator in that position with the stick, which means you can make the aircraft fly level for any given speed by setting the right amount of trim.In a real aeroplane it is actually a bit easier to set the trim than it is in FSX, because what you can do in many real aeroplanes, is hold the stick in the right place to keep the aircraft level, and then feed in trim till it holds the stick where you have it when you let go of it, and it won't move back to its central position because of the trim setting, so it will be a bit like an invisible hand holding the stick a little bit back or forwards. The controls in a lot of cockpits also tend to give you an idea of where to adjust your trim fairly easily, for example, you might learn that cranking the trim wheel back three times in a certain aeroplane will make it fly level at 125 knots or whatever, and sometimes the paint wears off controls and makes it obvious where to adjust them to.In FSX, your joystick won't do that, so what you have to do is feed a bit of trim in and wait a second to see what it is doing to your flight path, then add or subtract a bit as necessary, but you do get used to that. What can make it easier to do though, is if you set up the FSX control assignments for elevator trim to a couple of buttons on your joystick, and that way you can easily adjust trim with your thumb. By default, the keyboard controls for trim are tricky to use (they are the 1 and 7 keys on your numeric keypad), so assigning trim to your joystick buttons will make things a lot easier to handle.When you understand trimming an aircraft, you will find that there are certain situations where it is useful to trim your aircraft, such as level flight when you are at your cruise altitude, or level flight when at landing approach speed with your flaps down, etc. Trimming will make flying easier, but for practicing circuits, you don't have to obsess about it, it will help if you use it, but if you like you can hold the correct pitch with the stick and not worry about trimming until you are comfortable with all the other things you are practicing, but it is a good habit to use trim.Worth knowing too, is that most aircraft also have rudder trim and aileron trim as well, but we can live without touching those for the moment.If you are in Lancashire by the way, you might want to try flying from Barton Aerodrome, which is EGCB if you want the ICAO code, although you may want to turn down the autogen scenery a bit in FSX, because it is a bit weird around Barton in FSX. Don't crash into Barton Bridge, or nobody will be able to get to the Trafford Centre LOLWith regard to calibrating your joystick in FSX, what can help, is to make the null zones a bit wider (especially for the elevator and ailerons), so that very small movements of your stick do not upset the aircraft if you have it flying nicely, because the leverage of a very short PC joystick is way more twitchy than a real aircraft's controls are, and that tends to magnify small movements and make flying in FSX hard.Al

Well thanks once again Al, you have a really good way of explaining things. I have recently moved house so I spent last night getting the computer set up again, so didn't get airbourne. I didn''t think I would have to worry too much about the trim at this stage, but I'll certainly bear it in mind as I am going round and round the circuit at Barton !! I did think about Barton as I have watched the arrivals and departures many times whilst stuck on the motorway in the dreaded Trafford Centre traffic !! I was just a little wary of the grass runway instead of something a bit more obvious to spot from the air. But I will definately give it a go !!Thanks again for all your help, it is really appreciated.ThanksMatt

Yup, the grass runway might not make it ideal for circuits if you want to spot the runway early, so if you want to stay in the NW, you could try Woodford (EGCB). Which is just up the road from me actually. It has a more or less east-west facing single runway, so it is easy to remember compass headings, quite a long one too, which is good for those shaky approaches where you come in a bit too high!Or for some short runway fun, you could try Birkdale Sands (EGCO), which is very short indeed, but dead easy to spot in the circuit, because the runway is actually the beach just up the road from Southport.Al

Great Tutorial Alan !!i wish u were there at my time of learning the basics..

Yup, the grass runway might not make it ideal for circuits if you want to spot the runway early, so if you want to stay in the NW, you could try Woodford (EGCB). Which is just up the road from me actually. It has a more or less east-west facing single runway, so it is easy to remember compass headings, quite a long one too, which is good for those shaky approaches where you come in a bit too high!Or for some short runway fun, you could try Birkdale Sands (EGCO), which is very short indeed, but dead easy to spot in the circuit, because the runway is actually the beach just up the road from Southport.Al

I had actually put Woodford in my notebook as my "home" airfield for my circuit training. I live in Rossendale just north of Bury and I remember going to Woodford once as a kid for the airshow, do they still have them ? Once I've got some hours under my belt and have got a bit more comfortable I might end up taking a trip over to Birkdale with my bucket and spade in the back !!Thanks again for all the help.Matt

This might help too:http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/pr...d-DOWNLOAD.htmlI did my basic training at Heathrow airport, which is my local airfield! Nice long runways there, as well as a bit of grass. Just cleared everyone else out of the way..! :( Ian

Unfortunately, Woodford Airshows stopped quite a few years ago, which is a bummer because I used to like that one, and I could actually walk to Woodford from where I now live. Amusingly, I once went to that airshow in a Daimler limo with a police escort too - my dad was the Mayor of Stockport and he had to attend it in an official capacity, since the airfield is in that metropolitan borough, along with my mum who was of course the Mayoress, so I cadged a lift in the limo when it came to pick them up. Great fun to zip past the queues of traffic on the wrong side of the road with police motorcycle outriders clearing the way, and get straight in without paying LOL!Shame that airshow stopped, I remember seeing some fantastic things there, most memorably, a brand-new Boeing 757 take off from Manchester's R24 and fly over to Woodford and then do one of the wildest display routines ever. Really weird to see an airliner pulling those kind of moves, but it did demonstrate what a fantastic stunt aeroplane the 757 is!Al

That is a shame, but I didn't think they still had them. And it sounds like being a VIP is the way to go !!Well, thanks to your tutorial I managed to get round the circuit at Woodford a couple of times and made it back onto the ground. I dont think I'll be winning any smooth flying awards any time soon as I was pitching up and down quite a bit and my airspeed was pretty erratic, but I made it round and was able to line up with the runway (almost !!) so definately something to build on. Speaking of Manchester I did make an emergency detour to the nre runway there when I lost the runway at Woodford, in the dark !! So all in all pretty chuffed. Still not 100% about the joystick though.Thanks again for all the help !CheersMatt