Ive been playing FSX for about a month now and I am in love with it! Im starting to understand all the different systems VFR,IFR,ILS,DME,ADF etc. First payware i got was the Carenado Cessna C208B and the cargomaster expansion and fly it loads!, I bought the QualityWings BAE/Avro 146/RJ for Christmas and its an amazing plane but as it has an FMC and is a bit more advanced i thought id better understand a few more things first.

 

Long flights or flights that start off clear weather and VFR and end up at night or bad weather IFR, how exactly do they work? Do you change to IFR when the weather gets bad? Im a bit confused by that.

 

What's the point of a flightplan in IFR when the ATC gives you a load of headings and guides you everywhere? :S

 

Why is GPS considered VFR when it's instrument-based?

 

What are SIDS and STARS and all those weird FMCy stuff?

 

When flying VFR how do you know when you should start descending for your landing?

 

Why does the FSX ATC only handle one person at a time?

 

Are there any ATC addons that add regional and country specific accents?

 

When should you turn the seatbelt sign on?

 

The AvroRJ manual says the V(fto) speed is the speed at which you should put your flaps up, however this is normally pretty fast (170kts) is that normal?

 

Are there any speed restrictions, and are they altitude dependent or airspace restricted?

 

How do you know when to do a crosswind landing?

 

What are the procedures for a go-around or aborted landing? Full throttle and fly off?

 

 

If anyone can answer these, or some of them I would really appreciate it

I'll start with some. :wink:

 

"Why is GPS considered VFR when it's instrument-based?"

 

GPS is not a primary VFR navigational instrument, it is there to augment visual ground referencing, in VFR. So it's there as a backup in VFR, but you must also maintain ground contact and be aware of your spatial position, and also be aware of airspace constraints.

 

"What are SIDS and STARS and all those weird FMCy stuff?"

 

SIDs are Standard Instrument Departures, a standard set of procedures for departing the aerodrome zone. Eg... something like; Runway heading to 500', then turn left to track outbound NEW VOR radial 130 to 6.0 DME, then turn left to GILGI intersection. STARs (Standard Arrivals) are similar for arriving at an aerodrome's zone.... eg.... Arrive at GILGI intersection, then PONGO, then radar vectors from PONGO to final approach fix.

 

"What's the point of a flightplan in IFR when the ATC gives you a load of headings and guides you everywhere?"

 

It may not seem immediately obvious, but the FSX ATC only provides those en-route vectors when you are going off course! ........ if you stay on course (once cleared for "own navigation"), you are expected to follow your flight plane course, and you won't hear any ATC vectors until you reach Approach; unless you go off course....

 

:smile:

Long flights or flights that start off clear weather and VFR and end up at night or bad weather IFR, how exactly do they work? Do you change to IFR when the weather gets bad? Im a bit confused by that.

 

Depends. You can file an IFR flight plan even in VFR weather and just fly the entire flight IFR. Airline flights are all filed and flown IFR. If you start off VFR and the weather does get bad, in real life you can get an IFR clearance in the air. Not sure if FSX could do it...guess you would just open an IFR flight plan in the air or create one in the air.

 

Are there any ATC addons that add regional and country specific accents?

 

Radar Contact v4 I know will for sure. I think Pro Flight Emulator does too(never used it). I'm not sure about VoxATC. You can also check out Pro ATC/X. This is the newest ATC add on and is looking good but still not complete yet.

 

When should you turn the seatbelt sign on?

 

Any time you are moving on the ground, taking off, climbing, descending, landing or in turbulence. The only time it's not on really is at cruise and parked at the gate.

 

Are there any speed restrictions, and are they altitude dependent or airspace restricted?

 

There are speed restrictions. They can be dependent on airspace and/or the airway you're on. In the US there is a 250kts speed limit below 10000'. Not sure about Europe(though RC4 seems to hold to that when flying there) and the rest of the world.

 

How do you know when to do a crosswind landing?

 

Any time the wind is not directly lined up with the runway you are landing on, you will be doing a crosswind landing. So just check the winds. If your runway heading is 360 degrees and the wind is coming from anything other than 360 degrees, then you will be doing a crosswind landing. The greater the offset between the runway heading and the wind direction, the greater the effect and the greater the crab angle you will need to have to maintain the runway center line.

What's the point of a flightplan in IFR when the ATC gives you a load of headings and guides you everywhere? :S

FSX ATC tries, it really does. But if you're not on course it will start issuing headings to get you back on course. If ATC says proceed direct Green Bay, GRB, then you'd navigate to GRB VOR. I recommend reading up on navigation:

http://www.navfltsm.addr.com/

 

Why does the FSX ATC only handle one person at a time?

Not sure what you mean by this. It also works other aircraft if you've got AI enabled.

 

The AvroRJ manual says the V(fto) speed is the speed at which you should put your flaps up, however this is normally pretty fast (170kts) is that normal?

I don't have the manual it front of me but it's not THAT fast.

 

Are there any speed restrictions, and are they altitude dependent or airspace restricted?

In the USA, 250KT under 10,000 and 200kts within 4 miles of primary class C airport (less than 2500AGL altitude) and within a D surface area same

 

What are the procedures for a go-around or aborted landing? Full throttle and fly off

Depends on the plane. In a nutshell, full power, clean up plane (flaps up, gear up), fly the published missed approach or just straight out climbing if in pattern

It may not seem immediately obvious, but the FSX ATC only provides those en-route vectors when you are going off course! ........ if you stay on course (once cleared for "own navigation"), you are expected to follow your flight plane course, and you won't hear any ATC vectors until you reach Approach; unless you go off course....

 

/Facepalm I haven't even bothered following my flightplan I was just following the headings ATC were giving me haha. Ill do an IFR flight tomorrow actually following my waypoints! Thanks for that

Not sure what you mean by this. It also works other aircraft if you've got AI enabled.

 

What i mean is, it seems like theres a single ATC controller at each airport and you have to queue up to reply to him. Say he says 'cleared for landing' then some other guy butts in and says 'BollocksAir 2662 request to land' then you have to wait till they finish their conversation until you can respond. Surely it's not like that in real life

What i mean is, it seems like theres a single ATC controller at each airport and you have to queue up to reply to him. Say he says 'cleared for landing' then some other guy butts in and says 'BollocksAir 2662 request to land' then you have to wait till they finish their conversation until you can respond. Surely it's not like that in real life

 

At controlled airports, there is at least one controller. You're only ever going to hear one specific controller(voice) per frequency that you're on however no matter how many controllers there are. So, for example, you'll hear one person when talking to approach, another when talking to tower, another when talking to ground, and so on.

 

As for the queuing up that you're talking about, that could happen in real life too. So you could get a landing clearance and then have someone else jump in front of you. Most likely ATC would respond to you first before handling the guy that just jumped in front of you but you never know. I don't think this happens very often though in real life, most pilots are a little more courteous than what FSX pilots/ATC are. :rolleyes:

And the one unanswered question: for a descent when VNAV isn't doing it, say you're 4,500 above circuit height (which is 1,000' above the airfield height in this case) and your ground speed is 120kts. You plan to descend at 500'/min. You're doing two miles a minute (120/60) and need to descend for nine minutes (4500/500). If the airport has DME available (or you're using GPS) you could start going down at 18 miles out (9 mins x 2nm/min), or if you have an ETA, you descend when the clock has you with nine minutes to go.

 

Mike

And the one unanswered question: for a descent when VNAV isn't doing it, say you're 4,500 above circuit height (which is 1,000' above the airfield height in this case) and your ground speed is 120kts. You plan to descend at 500'/min. You're doing two miles a minute (120/60) and need to descend for nine minutes (4500/500). If the airport has DME available (or you're using GPS) you could start going down at 18 miles out (9 mins x 2nm/min), or if you have an ETA, you descend when the clock has you with nine minutes to go.

 

Mike

 

I will have to write that formula down! Thanks Im suprised FMC's don't work that stuff out but ohwell

I will have to write that formula down! Thanks Im suprised FMC's don't work that stuff out but ohwell

 

That's what VNAV should be doing for you.

VNAV does do that, and it takes into account the wind (if you've fed that data in). It's when you're flying around in a single or a light twin VFR and you don't have an FMC you need to do the maths yourself. Note that it's ground speed - not airspeed. So if you're flying at 120kts into a 40kt head wind, your ground speed is only 80kts. Conversely, with a tail wind it's 160kts, so you have to start descending further away (but the time is the same no matter what the wind - as long as you have an accurate(ish) ETA).

 

Big picture stuff; in high altitude IFR flying you should be descending 10,000' every thirty miles or so. So if you're 60 miles from destination and you're still at FL280, something is probably wrong unless you're looping 20 miles around to come in from the other side.