I was just wondering whether I could learn some tips & tricks from you. I mean I am fairly new simmer and often have problems with manual landing, especially staying centerlined with the runway on the short final.Here is my flow: when aligned with the runway and on the glideslope I usually disengage autopilot somewhere between 1000 and 500 feet AGL (which is usualy just a couple of miles from the touchdown).Then I fly manually trying to stay centerlined. Somewhere between 100 - 50 feet AGL I disable A/T and move it to idle. Unfortunately very often, especially with crosswinds my touchdown is some meters to the left or right form runway center line. It's not the disaster, I still can land, but I just don't like it.I'm curious, is it just a question of practise or am I missing something here?Your thoughts are more than welcomed. :smile:Cheers

I not sure if other people have certain ways of doing but for me all it was is PRACTICE try to fly the whole approach manually use the glideslop and localizer as a reference. I having been simming for about 5 years now and I still remember when I was new asking the same thing, but againPRACTICE, PRACTICE, AND DO MORE PRACTICINGHope that helps!!

Yes it really is just practice. Part of the problem with doing it on a simulator is you cant really, "feel", the winds like you can in real life. Practice a lot with zero winds to take that factor out of the picture and set up a saved flight on about a 10 mile final. Then just keep resetting that flight and hand flying the whole thing. Also what plane are you using? You shouldn't have to turn the A/T off prior to landing.

Also dont land on rwy 22L if the winds are 310 @ 20. Land on 31L instead :( Pretty obvious point tho

I recommend purchasing Mike Ray's sim manuals. He writes them in a "non-technical" fashion and while the "Boeing 700 series" and Airbus series manuals are written for simmers, the A320, 737, 757/767 and 747 manuals are written for actual pilots. I have the 320, 737, 757/767 and 747 manuals. You'll learn both systems and procedures and in this respect, I think you find it a little humerous as well as extremely informative. They aren't cheap...about $50 a pop...start with the 737, since PMDG will be coming out with that aircraft next for FSX.As for the actual procedures themselves, for me (and I only am speaking for myself), I started a long time ago hand flying my landings and to this date, I still hand fly my landings except in Cat III conditions (which tend to be hard to duplicate in FSX...depends on your weather engine and the quality of your rig). If we are talking about approach and landing and use the 737 for example, I will fly the approach on autopilot and autothrottle (selected speed) down to the final approach fix. I then fly a CDAP (constant descent angle approach), using Mike Ray's 3 degree (-800fpm) rate of descent. I'll set the altitude to TZDE plus 50 feet, set the vertical speed to -800 and come off the a/p and a/t before the FAF. By then, I am using the ILS and flight director for guidance, keeping my rate of descent constant at -800 fpm all the way to the threshold, VREF + 5kts (plus wind adjustment to max +20kts) from FAF to threshold, then at 50ft pull off the throttle. If I am high on the approach at 1000 ft AGL, I do an automatic go around (which for me is easier handflying because I just firewall the throttles, pull up the gear, flaps 20 and get to a positive rate, reset my altitude, speed bugs and kick the autopilot/autothrottle back in. If I'm more than 1 mile out and lower than 1000ft AGL, same thing, firewall the throttles and go around.For touchdown, at 50ft pull back just slightly to achieve about a 200fpm rate just before touchdown and hold it there until the mains touch. I fly the nose wheel to the runway and then engage reverse thrust...not before the nosewheel is on. If you pull the reversers and are slow you might stall the nose wheel and bang in on the runway resulting in an FSX crash (which will ruin your entire day if you don't have FSX save). Stay off the brakes (autobrake only) or if you have a long enough runway, don't use autobrake, let the reversers slow you down to 80kts, stow the reversers by 60kts and progressively apply manual braking. Be gentle when doing this, brakes are pretty effective on the 737. Don't exit the runway faster than 25kts on a high speed or slower than 10kts period. Once you are slow, you want to get off the runway as quickly as you can.Important notes and disclaimers: What I've just described is for an airport that has a straight in approach and a 3 degree glide slope. There are variations on this theme for other types of approaches and would make this post far longer than it already is now.The one comment that I've seen on here and is absolutely correct. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. I've been doing this a very long time and I still get it wrong sometimes (especially in very high wind conditions or high angles of descent (I tend to be high and fast). The other thing is don't take what I tell you as gospel. Listen to the other virtual (and real) pilots on this forum. Each will have a slightly different take on the same procedure, make use of all of their collective knowledge...and finally, get knowledgeable about the systems. Having it all set up before you start your approach will make your life much easier (and your landings much more proficient) if you have your procedures locked down in the box and in your head before you start down.Best of luck and welcome to this crazy hobby of ours. Actually, it's not a hobby, it's a passion.Cheers,Dave LambCaptain, British Airways Virtual

Load up sim on active.. slew out a bit.. and land..slew up and back.. land.. slew back up and come in on an angle so that you have to turn to line up manually land.. do it all again.In a sim it all comes down to practice.. sure choose a reference point, drop below it.. advance throttles, go above drop the power a bit.. keep the plane aiming at the threshold..but just practice.. i spend hours a month just doing the same thing.. even the best (not me) have to practice lots and lots.. you will get there bud :)just keep trying and trying :)

How do I do manual landings?Well. Each time I get a new addon airplane, I spend a lot of time getting a handle on the systems, then do many many touch and go's, my usual airport of preference for practice is either KLAX or PHNL runway 8R. Over and over and over again. getting used to how the plane handles, the line of sight, all that stuff. Then I move on to fly ILS hands on, getting used to what it takes to correct deviations and what not. Then add some winds, extreme winds even, then when I feel confident that I could land it by hand at any given time, I will pat myself on the back and say to myself "Job Well Done."I have been flying FSX now for about five years, ever since I got FSX for Christmas, never owned FS9, and I would say it is only about last winter that I feel like I got the hang of manual landings to where I am confident I can fly into any airport and land by hand. Then, if you want a real test, fly into Toncontin by hand, if you can do that approach, you can fly into anywhere. I used to rely heavily on the autopilot to get me lined up and to take me down close to the ground, but now I find myself only using the autopilot as a tool to ease the workload rather than a crutch. Once I got all the preflight stuff handled, and ATC undercontrol, I will take control of the plane from Otto and fly her down myself.

Thanks for your feedback!Yeah I forgot to add that I started with default airplanes, probably like everyone, but quickly revealed that they were rather unrealistic. The addons I own and fly now are Wilco 737 PIC, Captain Sim 757 and Leveld 767. I do not own any PMDG yet, but have serious plans to change it. As I have FSX, I just thought (probably wrong) that 747 and MD-11 were too big for me for beginning and thought also (totally wrong! ) about JS41 that I wanted to fly "real" aircraft (meaning some jetliner), not a small turboprop of some kind... As I said I am going to change that now and plan to buy JS41. I also wait anxiously for NGX...I don't know, maybe I am doing something wrong here, but the reason I disble A/T is that sometimes it happens that autothrotle does not go to idle before touchdown and I fly over the whole runway at 50 feet, because I just have to much power . So I feel more comfortable to disable it and do it manually.I should also mention that I use joystick for control: Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. It's decent, it has 3 axis, throttle, hat switch and a lot of buttons, so enough for me now. Just coudn't effort the yoke and pedals so far.And I of course know how to pick up the right runway for landing and configure the plane, meannig flap settings or Vref speed, I am not that ignorant :(.So the conclusion is this simple cliche "Practise makes perfect".Thank you all again.

I typically disconnect the A/P and A/T before base or on downwind. If the visibility calls for it I will ride the autopilot down to minimums or even autoland, but it brings great satisfaction flying an intercept well by hand, or can prove to be very embarrassing on vatsim... Practice does indeed make perfect. I've landed the LDS 767 at toncotin, it was hairy at best... Still alot of fun though.Regards, Luke Stevens YSSY

I typically disconnect the A/P and A/T before base or on downwind. If the visibility calls for it I will ride the autopilot down to minimums or even autoland, but it brings great satisfaction flying an intercept well by hand, or can prove to be very embarrassing on vatsim... Practice does indeed make perfect. I've landed the LDS 767 at toncotin, it was hairy at best... Still alot of fun though.Regards, Luke Stevens YSSY

First, don't try cross wind landings until you can nail straight forward landings nine times out of ten. Second, google heading and track. They are different and you need to understand both. Third, if you have a decent add-on with auto-land (such as PMDG MD11 or 74x). Set up a scenario you can reproduce, watch how the autoland does it and then try it your self. The first thing you should notice is that in a cross wind, they do NOT stay pointed down the centerline. Nor should you. They track the center line by using an upwind heading to counter drift and will typically use rudder and possibly dropping the upwind wing to align on the center line at about 50ft AGL, just in time for the flare. For a really good introduction to the theory of flight, check out http://www.flybetter.com.au/index.htmlP.S. The default planes land just as well as the add-on's, they look crap and lack systems depth but their air files are usually reasonable.

I would suggest that you go to your local airfield and pay for a half hour flight in which the instructor (if he thinks you're safe!) will give you control so that you can feel how different it is from flying in the sim. I have to say as a British trained pilot I think it is shocking the FS is used as a part qualifier for US Navy pilots up to 27 hours. If it were a real simulator of a real a/c then the argument has more validity. But training on a toy, no! the UK CAA absulutely forbids any time spent playing with FS to count towards your flight training.vololiberista

I find it that the more concentrated you are on a landing, the worst it will come out.Landing in a chilled mood gives sweet romantic kissing with the runway on my my side.

Everyone has their own sort of ideas of the best way to land. Even airlines have minor differences in their preffered SOP for them. (And, when flying someone else's bird in exchange for a paycheck, its best to do it their way.) So, I won't give you any specific techniques to try, since part of the fun is trying them yourself.But I will give you a basic theory. To me, a landing is all about speed control. If you fail to keep speed near the appropriate approach speed you will either float forever, bounce, or the alternative, fail to continue flying if your speed drops (aka "crash"). To work on that, I would recommend establishing yourself on the approach with A/T set speed, then first kill A/P and then kill A/T with 500-1000 feet to go. Watch the speed. Use minute changes in power and pitch to keep speed and V/S where you want it. One nice thing about advanced add-ons is they have the GPWS/radar altimeter to give you call outs so you know where you are. To me gauging where you are above the ground is way harder on a computer screen than in real life. One thing I will note is that without rudder control you will find keeping the bird on the centerline somewhat difficult. Sure, you can do an ok job with the auto-rudder feature in the Sim, but there are times when you want rudder to go one way and the wings the other ("cross-control") further, there are times when yaw alone is what you want. So, my advice would be invest in some rudders. (Full disclosure, I use a system that has rudder thumb controls, mostly since I like being able to take the controls off my desk easily when I want to do something else, but it serves the basic purpose I need.)

Just practice as said before.And, when in visual contact with the runway, focus on the touchdown zone and on the end of the runway. That can help to keep a steady glidepath along the centerline. It also works if you're a bit high, just make your approach a bit steeper.Then, when just above the runway, you select idle-thrust and gently pull back on the stick. In a heavy (MD-11 or 747 for example) you idle and flare a bit higher as in a 737. In the MD-11 and 747 I mostly go to idle at about 50 feet and flare at about 30 feet. In the 737 classic I mostly select Idle at the 30 feet call out and flare at 20 feet. In the Tu-154M idle thrust between 10 and 6 meters and after the 6 meters callout very gently pull back on the stick, but only a little or you float, stall and fall down.In some places you have a 5 degree glidepath (Sion LSGS, London-City EGLC). There you want to be slow and maybe a bit dirty before glideslope capture, because it can be difficult to slow down. Another thing what can help in a situation like that is to slowly start descending just before you hit the glideslope, but only with 300 or 400ft/min, and to continue with the glideslope once intercepted. Especially when you're a bit fast, you overshoot the glide a bit, and it's hard to get back on since it's steep...With crosswind or a wet runway, flare a bit less. With good weather it's nice to do very smooth landings, but with bad weather you should just put it on the tarmac.Another thing, replay your landings in "instant replay" and look at it from different angles. Then you see what you did wrong.And the last thing I like to say, don't be to tough on yourself. That doesn't help.But remember, most important is PRACTICE.Dion Mollert