Ok I know this is an old subject but.......with a no wind condition on final approach everthing is just dandy...oh no other aircraft landing or taking off. Everything is great until i turn off the A/T and cmd A ...well its still pretty good. I like a decent of about 300fpm or so, but as I near the threshhold Im having to make big corrections from side to side I can never get an approach that says on the center line so i end up on one gear slapping it down on the other. I would be fired with all my bad landings.....any secrets out ther to make a good approach? oh and is there a simple way to practice approachs with out going through the fmc everytime. I know I can fly manual bringing it in to the rnwy just thought someone out there had a good system they use to practice or a certain airport that makes t and goes or full stops easy.....thanks for your help..Dan Thompson

Fly patterns visually, using stick and rudder. If youre not "perfectly" aligned with the runway then go around. This is also true for precisions approaches. If youre not aligned then go around and try again

Hi

 

First, make sure your aircraft is in trim and stable. You shouldn't require much power adjustment once you find the sweet spot. Most runways require a sink rate between about 750-900fpm. You're way to shallow at -300fpm unless you were referring to your touchdown rate. That's within parameters but you're going to feel it.

 

With respect to staying on centerline, try to make real small corrections. The lower you are the smaller your corrections should be get. Especially in a light to no wind situation. It also helps to stay on center line during the approach by keeping the approach lights between your legs. Practice Practice Practice

 

Cheers

Don't use rudder until about 50ft+ of the runway to make crosswind adjustments.

 

Alex

How are your landings in smaller aircraft like a biz jet or king air? I would go out and practice a bunch approaches in something smaller. As an example I had been away from FS for sometime and while getting ready for the cross the pond event I wanted to make sure I could fly an approach in bad wx just in case. So I took the Carendao Baron out in some bad weather and make a bunch of ILS approaches till I was comfortable then went out in the 737 and did the same.

 

Just a thought hope it helps!

I think people tend to forget that landing is generally more difficult in FSX than in real life, because of a variety of factors such as lack of depth perception, lack of artificial feel and trim effects in current PC hardware controllers and limitations in FSX such as unrealistic crosswind effects near the ground.

"takl23" beat me to it, but I think a lot of people tend to buy FSX, then the first airplane they get after that is something big. It's rather natural as many envision flying that type of equipment and believe it's the most fun. But in truth, that really is doing it the hard way. I'd be getting in the 172 and when you can nail every one of those landings without fail, despite crosswinds and bad weather, then move to a larger machine like the Baron then the King Air. Again, when you can nail those, then start looking at the 737's. Hint - this will take longer than a week -_- . Good luck!

You can use fsinstantapproach to setup on any approach.

 

Or you can use slew mode and do it manually.

 

Are you using keyboard or joystick/yoke?

 

To be lined up just look at the centerline, it should be vertical only. Don't try and position it anywhere left or right on the dash because it doesn't matter where you sit, just make it vertical.

You can use fsinstantapproach to setup on any approach.

 

Or you can use slew mode and do it manually.

 

Are you using keyboard or joystick/yoke?

 

To be lined up just look at the centerline, it should be vertical only. Don't try and position it anywhere left or right on the dash because it doesn't matter where you sit, just make it vertical.

FSinstantapproach? thats new to me...sounds interesting. Anyway as stated above by "avantime" hes right Ive been flying since 1969 and its a lot harder on a sim than in real life you just dont have the feel of the real thing. Maybe my settings are bad. I use a saitech yoke. But the response time to my imput time seems slow can you recomend a null setting? Thanks to all for your imput ill keep trying. Thomas (Dan) Thompson

Yeah fsinstantapproach is great for flying many approaches in a short time.

 

The response time is a function of the frame rate, lie frame rate or choppy performance hurts.

 

I don't use any Deadzone or curves, and have full sensitivity setting. I find the sim easier than real life in a crosswind but I'm not very experienced in real life.

 

Is your sim running smooth?

A good tip is to fly a few short flights without any autopilot whatsoever. A good one is Paris Charles De Gaulle to London Heathrow. You get a much better feel for the aircraft that way, as you spend over an hour in full control, rather than a few minutes at either end of the flight. I improved my flying no end by doing that a few times.

 

You could also try using the HUD as that way you can see precisely where your aircraft is headed on the approach. Then after a few landings try flipping the HUD up once you are close to landing and trying to stay on target. After you are happy with doing that from, say, 200 ft up, then try it from further and further away until you don't need to use it at all. :biggrin:

 

Vis a Vis not having to set the FMC up, why not just save a flight on the approach? (you can activate slew mode during the 18 second ngx loading countdown to stop yourself losing any altitude, just remember to switch off slew at 2 seconds to go, otherwise you may get a few problems (like a double engine failure ))