Who manually flies their 747-400X? Anyone?

[iainsmith 9]

Anyone knows how this is in real world. If I look at youtube video's it looks like no real pilot ever fly using an autoland. Or are they just hold the yoke in case....Eric

I read that 98% of all landings are manual. Here in the UK, CAA rules require all pilots to do a minimum of 3 autolands in any three month period. Most do the minimum required.Iain Smith

[FACA 0]

Thanks for the responses guys. Much appreciated! It will help me immensely. I should be flying manually more often.Rob - I like your dad's take on automation with a touch of hand flying to keep the rust from setting in. Nice!Alex - I do exactly the same things Felipe - PADU? Never heard of it. Can you guess where my next flight is going to be in a Learjet 45? Oh god yes Tim. Can't wait until the NGX comes.Ashley Frew

Is the famous Dutch Harbor airport, at Unalaska-AK. FSX have an expert mission called Dutch Harbor approach if you wanna try it.

[Turbine777 13]

Is the famous Dutch Harbor airport, at Unalaska-AK. FSX have an expert mission called Dutch Harbor approach if you wanna try it.

Another great one is the "Innsbruck Approach" mission (Austria). Innsbruck Approach is one of the most challenging approaches in the world for smaller aircraft and very fun to fly.*This may be only a Deluxe or even an Acceleration added mission though. I never bothered with missions much before but some of them especially the ones in the acceleration pack are tons of fun.

[FACA 0]

Both Innsbruck Approach and Dutch Harbor Approach are missions available in the Deluxe edition, no need for Acceleration. There is an Acceleration mission called Resort Supply that is a beginner level mission with the Baron and is pretty fun too.

[WestAir 2,522]

I would like to add that as far as I've learned, pilots are prohibited from performing auto-lands in the United States. I've been told, by several of my aeronautical professors, that in the US Pilots have to turn off the auto-land and perform the flare/landing themselves here, even on runways that have the capable equipment to handle it.Let me pull out my FAR and see if it actually says that before I start spewing nonsense. :(Edit: Right then, it's just CAT III C at 0/0. Apparently the whole "Taxi in zero visibility thing" isn't part of ATP training. Nevermind!

[Turbine777 13]

The misconeption with ILS is they need to be certified and maintained. From other posts I've read here in the past is most are not tested enough to maintain such certification and most ILS approaches the pilots still disconnect the AP and manually land at or well above Decision height. I personally disconnect and have visual before MDA.

[Cras 6]

Hand flying the climb I find difficult due to workload issues. I always fly with FS2Crew, so dealing with checklists, ATC, and getting the aircraft clean can get overwhelming very quickly. I usually get the A/P on by 1500 AGSL so I can focus on flaps and after takeoff checks.Landing is a different story. I will most of the time use autopilot to get the aircraft on the localizer course, but will almost always (except for very bad weather or flying a CATII/III just to keep "current"), take control of the aircraft well above the decision height. Also do enjoy time and again on flying an RNAV approach by hand as opposed to ILS. I have found myself opting for RNAV a lot recently.

[Turbine777 13]

Same here Scott, Rnav is a lot of fun. I often also fly via MCP the last few legs and to my IAP. I go by the real world charts for glideslope, set my VS to 700 or 800 and fly by arc as much as possible. I never did until I got the AOA media DVD's, those tought me a lot of different techniques and up until that point I was always only letting the queen do all the flying and never would have ever known some of the cool things modeled in the queen or how easy some other types of approaches/landings were. I haven't had much time in the queen if any for a long time, thinking of this I may do some short hops tonight.

[Cuddly1956 1]

Just try landing ILS in the fsx default SKCL airport.... hand flown landing is the only way to land there. I modified SKCL after installing fspilot mesh as it was then in 500ft hole lol.John Ellison

[vololiberista 205]

Whether you are in a 747 or any other aeroplane use the installed systems to help you fly the a/c single handed. Remember that no pax jet transport in reality has only one pilot. Having said that the sim is the perfect place to practice cockpit procedures and emergencies. All of which should be hand flown until the a/c becomes stable and then you can re engage the AP. The flight manuel for the VC10 for example is well over 600 pages. Probably about 25% is modelled in the sim. Here's a list of procedures and emergencies that I practise. Having flown the real a/c it's not quite the same though!!1. 2 engine out procedure. The VC10 manuel says to fly V2+60 and dump fuel above 6,000ft2. Emergency depressurisation. Don't let the a/c get to VNE especially as you reach lower altitudes. For example if you are diving from fl330 at vne as you approach fl240 your airspeed will dramatically increase causeing possible satructural damage.3. Gross upsets e.g. inverted spiral dive. Stalls etc.vololiberista

[Avroboeing 3]

Wow. Thanks guys for the tips, suggestions and of course, your responses. To be quite honest, i don't like fsx default aircraft (you can blame PMDG for that ) and so i'm a bit hesitant to fly fsx aircraft because they simply don't cut it for me. I like to push as many buttons as I can. I haven't tried my hand at an RNAV approach yet. I tr to avoid those. However, I might spend some time practicing RNAV approaches on the weekend. I currently fly with fs2crew as well, which reduces the workload a little. AoA video. I've been wanting to get that video. I'll keep hounding my dad to buy it for me, which he's likely to do as I spend "too much time on my computer playing games (fsx) instead of being outside mowing the lawn or something" to quote him. Yeah, I understand the workload is massive for the largely inexperienced Flight Sim pilot (me) to manage. Though this isn't an excuse really. I should be flying manually more often, which, I shall start doing/learning to. Gosh, thats what I call training vololiberista! 2 engines out, haha, I don't think my FS Passengers and crew would survive such an ordeal at my mercy. Ashley Frew.

[JC75 22]

An interesting set of themes in the responses to this post....I havent used the 747 for months now, generally spending all of my time on the levelD 767 or the JS41. I use Air hauler(Been making lots of money so I can buy the NGX when it comes out lol) I decided to take the 747 out again the other day, and realise still why although I wish i could fly it more because the Flight model etc is so well done by PMDG, it lacks what the levelD especially and also to an extent the JS41 have, and thats compatability with hardware and the likes of FS2Crew. Although the cockpit graphics look somewhat dated also in the 747 compared to even the now old 767 and the very sleek looking JS41, Its the fact that flying the aircraft manually or in autopilot is very intensive due to its lack of hardware support.The hardware support as improved a bit with developments with FSPuic being able to do macros and use of LUA, but it still is very difficult to map it to my MCP, and to be able to map as many things to the yoke/throttles etc. But its what lets what otherwise is an excellent aircraft down. Hand flying, but still trying to dial in a speed using the mouse arming the app, or something else is just too much like hardwork, compared to being able to do this far easier with the 767 on my MCP, or using FSCREW in the js41 or 767.Whatever I fly i always unles operationally needed fly the SID and manualy land. But its all so much easier and better to do in the 767 and JS41.Its why I am hopefully looking forward to the NGX having far better hardware support to take PMDG away from the simtoy effect that the proper lack of hardware support their aircraft leave you with. Its obvious from the posts here that also even users or do or dont have hardware suffer the same difficulties due to the limitations with th 747, so with mention from PMDG that the work they have done on the NGX and tools they using could mean they can make aircraft quicker, that they will consider after the 777 a remake of the 747, especially as they have created the addon models. Using these new advances and give the 747 the ability to be brought up to date and interface with harware, because if they did, although I would still love my JS41 and DH8 the 747 would then become my prefered aircraft. For now although its been fun flying it again, I love manual landings in it, the 767 and its hardware support still beats it hands down.Regards

[Krister 51]

Its the fact that flying the aircraft manually or in autopilot is very intensive due to its lack of hardware support.

First, although it's a matter of taste of course, I don't agree that the cockpit looks better in the LevelD than in the PMDG744 - quite the opposite, at least if we speak about VC which is where I always fly. Secondly, I use CPFlight MCP Hardware and EFIS control to interact with the MCP and it works aboslutely flawlessly!Anyway, as someone also stated, I usually use LOC to intercept the ILS and then switch off AT and AP. It keeps you on your toes, especially when you are talking with atc on Vatsim and is just about to finish that 7-12 hour journey over the Atlantic! Departures I normally also fly manually with LNAV & VNAV armed.

[Andreas Stangenes 1,628]

I love handflying the 747-400 / -8. In my very early steps of learning how to fly I kinda had to use to autopilot cause I couldnt land on the runway for the life of me... :) Now, after over 4 years of flight simming, I usually engage the AP when on crz level - simply because it would give me a real sore neck and shoulders trying to handfly the entire trip. I know many that disconnects the AP before TD, and handfly the entire star. I do that sometimes too, but since I almost always fly on vatsim, I find it stressfull trying to fly the aircraft and at the same time talking with ATC, following instructions, dealing with unexpected situations, and configuring the aircraft for approach and landing. Reading checklists while handflying often sends me off course or the vertical profile. :)Usually I disconnect AP when established on the ILS, and my airpseed is slowing down. Usually I turn the AP off when on flap 20 and gear down. By that point in time I will have gotten the clr ils, and only need to get landing clearence from tower. The speed just needs a small downward adjustment, and the last two steps of flaps. I am usually about 4000 ft agl when I disconnect.Also, I find that I need to adjust the sensitivity of the yoke from the basic settings. The standard settings makes a pretty slow yoke, and very insensitive. I like the yoke to be very sensitive especially on the 747, because it has alot of inertia when steering to the left or right. That way I can make very minute adjustments with little imput on the controll stick.

[JC75 22]

First, although it's a matter of taste of course, I don't agree that the cockpit looks better in the LevelD than in the PMDG744 - quite the opposite, at least if we speak about VC which is where I always fly. Secondly, I use CPFlight MCP Hardware and EFIS control to interact with the MCP and it works aboslutely flawlessly!

I always fly VC also spead across 3 22inch monitors and although the Leveld is dated now also compared to the likes of the JS41 in sense of graphics, as youu say its a matter of taste but I just find the 747 to be a even more clunky looking now, not great issue when you compare its age now. But if you look up to the panels etc in VC the buttons just look far too big and like a computer game for an old computer. I think the ability to change values using the mouse scroll with the Leveld(not that I do for much as I can map every control with the leveld to hardware easier than the 747) is far better than having to find click spots with the 747.I accept that cpflight MCP can be used with 747(once you paid again for drivers) but mapping other items isnt easy or fully suported with 747 where leveld can read all gauge values and be manipulated, I have the opencockpits MCP which allows it to be configured far more easily to virtually any aircraft and to any function you want, but with the 747 its not so easy as you have no access to the variables due to lack of SDKI just think it would be good to see a new 747, so that developers like FS2CREW could develop better for it, Topcat could have same functionality as it does with leveld, and hardware could be mapped to what ever hardware people choose to buy.It really is a dream to handfly something like the 747, but as people have stated above, in a busy VATSIM enviroment etc, due to having to manually and slowly sometimes having to click etc things to get them done makes it all abit more like hardwork than it does with other addons.Regards