Aircraft Flight Profiles

[Sigma54 0]

I was wondering if anyone had created flight profiles for the aircraft in Flight? For example, here are the flight profiles for the Mooney Bravo as provided in the "MSFSX for Pilots: Real World Training" book.

 

 

 

I think it would be great if we could compile one of these for each aircraft. Does anyone have some of this info or are there people that are willing to help work them out?

 

Thanks!

[Oracle427 45]

I would wittingly suggest using the checklists built into the game as you fly along. It is what would be done in RL and keeps all the critical information at your fingertips.

 

the rest of the info will come from google from a POH (Pilot's Operating Handbook) or the older aircraft manuals for the Stearman.

[kcmo 2]

I'm glad you brought that question up. I've never Googled for "Pilot Operating Handbook" before. There's quite a bit of interesting free stuff out there to check out!

 

Edit: Oracle you beat me!

[Sigma54 0]

I made one for the Icon A5 in case anyone would find it useful... I seem to have a hard time landing this plane as I always forget what combination of pitch and power will get me down at a reasonable rate... Deploying the landing gear makes it drop like a rock!

 

 

 

These profiles are based on the checklists provided in game as well as some trial and error.

 

Cheers!

[Oracle427 45]

Sigma,

 

Fly the plane and adjust pitch and power as needed to maintain the proper speed and descent toward the runway.

 

The speed is very important. adjust power to control the rate of descent.

 

Aim for a point on the runway and adjust power as needed to keep it stationary in your windshield.

 

It's a visual exercise, you should be looking out the window as much as possible.

 

Don't fly the checklist or performance data. ;)

[Sigma54 0]

I don't have a problem landing the RV. The Maule and Stearman are ok too. I think the Icon is harder for me because of the retractable landing gear. Going from landing gear retracted to deployed really changes the amount of power/pitch needed and it takes me too long to figure out a reasonable combination before I plummet to the ground or end up way over the runway! At least the profiles give me an idea of approximate inputs needed and then I can always adjust from there!

[jcomm 5,919]

Thx Sigma,

 

The pitch values are broken. Can you fix it ? This is a rather valuable work! Ths again! Looking forward for other tables ;-)

 

I made one for the Icon A5 in case anyone would find it useful... I seem to have a hard time landing this plane as I always forget what combination of pitch and power will get me down at a reasonable rate... Deploying the landing gear makes it drop like a rock!

 

 

 

These profiles are based on the checklists provided in game as well as some trial and error.

 

Cheers!

[Oracle427 45]

Sigma,

 

As far as final approach is concerned, the issue I see with using such a chart is that different weather conditions and altitudes are going to require several charts. You'd need one for crosswinds, high altitude, hot/cold days along with whatever techniques you decide to use to compensate. If you haven't tried any of the landing challenges yet, you'll see what I mean when you do, they are quite realistic and require dynamic control inputs to succeed.

 

When you get those wheels out, just add power and pitch the nose down a little. That will maintain the correct airspeed and allow you to keep control of the plane. Use pitch to maintain the airspeed at the target airspeed and then trim so you don't have to hold the stick to maintain the pitch. Pitch up to slow down, pitch down to speed up.

 

You can tweak the power to get the appropriate descent rate. If you take away power, you will need to allow the nose to pitch down a tiny bit to maintain speed and vice versa.

 

Do this far away from the runway (3+ miles) until you get proficient at manipulating the controls in unison. In the beginning, you may wish to focus on one at a time a few miles out. When you can set up the aircraft for a stable final approach about 1 mile out you are in very good shape.

 

These profile charts are useful for other flight regimes such as climb, cruise, descent, etc, but I think it is overcomplicating things with too many details and making you behave too rigidly. The built in checklists in the game are very realistic. I'm staring at my real C172 checklist right now and can tell you that it doesn't have anywhere near as much information!

 

I guess what I'm saying is, that it might be more useful to transcribe the checklists to paper if you prefer to operate using a physical medium instead of pressing Q to read it onscreen.

 

*****

 

Edit: Some more observations...

 

First, I think you may be confusing the AoA indicator on the Icon with some type "Pitch" Indicator. That gauge in the center of the instruments is showing if you are about to stall. As that needle gets higher and closer to red, you are approaching the critical Angle of Attack and close to a stall. To correct that situation you need to FIRST pitch down (not too much though) and then add power.

 

Second, I am prescribing learning to Slow Fly the Icon as a remedy to your ailment. Go up to 4000 feet, throttle back and pitch up to slow down to just about 50 knots, deploy the landing gear and then keep slowing down to the edge of a stall but do not allow the plane to stall. You will need to add power (quite a bit), and keep the nose high to keep the speed low. Throughout the entire process you should not lose or gain altitude or change heading. Try to aim for +/- 100 feet and +/- 10 degrees. Then transition back to normal cruise flight (don't forget to retract the gear) while not gaining or losing altitude or changing heading. This should get you very comfortable with setting up and controlling the aircraft in landing configuration.

[RoboRay 126]

 

 

But seriously though, while those profiles give you a general idea of what to expect in the plane, they are not instructions on precisely how to fly it. Use them as a starting point, if you wish, but as you gain experience in an aircraft you will learn to feel what control inputs and settings are necessary in a given situation. Honestly, on final, I'm not even looking at the MP or RPM and could not care less what numbers they're showing... I'm just raising or dropping the nose to maintain my airspeed and adding or removing a little power to adjust my touchdown point. And steering, of course. :Peace:

 

It's exceedingly rare that you will find yourself in exactly the same situation twice, even if you make dozens of approaches into the same airport in the same plane. Constantly consulting (or memorizing) a chart and trying to stick to what it says isn't going to be very effective in the long-run.

 

It's great information to be aware of in a general way, though.

[Sigma54 0]

It's great information to be aware of in a general way, though.

 

Exactly!

 

The pitch values are broken. Can you fix it ?

 

The pitch values are in percent (I forgot to put a percent sign at the top of the column). If you hover over the elevator trim tab in the Icon, it gives you a percent nose up/nose down rather than a pitch in degrees.

 

When you get those wheels out, just add power and pitch the nose down a little. That will maintain the correct airspeed and allow you to keep control of the plane.

 

For the Icon, I find that deploying the landing gear makes the nose pitch down a lot already so that I have to increase power and pitch a lot to slow down rate of descent. Does this also happen for you in the Icon?

 

First, I think you may be confusing the AoA indicator on the Icon with some type "Pitch" Indicator. That gauge in the center of the instruments is showing if you are about to stall. As that needle gets higher and closer to red, you are approaching the critical Angle of Attack and close to a stall. To correct that situation you need to FIRST pitch down (not too much though) and then add power.

 

The pitch values in the table are from hovering over the elevator trim tab. It shows % nose up or nose down. I think it shows it in % rather than in degree of pitch because it is a light sport aircraft designed for novice pilots.

[Sigma54 0]

Here it is updated with % in the pitch column to indicate that it isn't in degrees but % elevator trim tab. Also added RPM given that RPM seems to be directly proportional to the throttle in the ICON.

 

 

[Oracle427 45]

For the Icon, I find that deploying the landing gear makes the nose pitch down a lot already so that I have to increase power and pitch a lot to slow down rate of descent. Does this also happen for you in the Icon?

 

Yes this is normal behavior.

[Air1 136]

Fun with the Icon landing into a 29 MPH headwind with the gear down and full power all the way to the runway, talk about under powered!