Guess what... I just finished a flight to Heathrow, one that failed completely yesterday, and this time I made it EASILY, and all that without having to use high speeds or even too low speeds... You know why? I've learned an important lesson:

 

It's not about knowing which buttons to push when, it's about knowing WHY you push the buttons and what they do.

 

Simply knowing what for instance the speedbrake exacly does (instead of only thinking 'it slows you down' which is a way too limited definition) finally gave me real CONTROL over the plane during my last flight. Instead of following a list with commands and buttons to push, hoping everything would go as planned (not...) I now KNEW when to do what and WHY I had to do it. Really, during this flight I felt like having complete control over the plane for the very first time. Awesome.

 

I did use LVL CHG because it gives me more direct control over everything. I understand, as Matt said, that '300 knot at idle is the same whether you're in LVL CHG or VNAV' but I find everything more direct and easier to control using LVL CHG. I even simply followed the speeds that were on the FMC most of the time during initial descent so I could have done a lot on VNAV too, but making logical use of the speedbrake and sometimes changing the speed a little, up or down, and thinking ahead in a logical way (and making good use of the green arc on the ND), brought me to my final restriction of 2500 with still quite a few miles to go. I was there way too early, really ^_^ , while yesterday I could not even make it to 5000 feet before the runway treshold...

 

O, btw I also entered the winds on the PERF INIT and FORECAST pages: didn't really need to do that, I think, because I followed ProATC/X and this time without any problems (nice how OpusFSX shows them ingame!). But still it was nice to do: makes things even more real. (Only don't know yet what to do with the ISA DEV on the Forecast page: on the INIT REF I simply entered the crz alt temp at C and that changed the ISA DEV automatically but on FORECAST...?).

 

Well, anyway, thanks for all the input! It's really great having actual control over the plane now! ^_^

(Only don't know yet what to do with the ISA DEV on the Forecast page: on the INIT REF I simply entered the crz alt temp at C and that changed the ISA DEV automatically).

 

ISA DEV is the International Standard Atmosphere Deviation, or difference between what the temp should be at that altitude and what it is. As such, you can enter one or the other and it will adjust.

 

As an example:

Standard temperature at sea level is 15*. If the actual temperature is 15*, then the ISA DEV is 0. If ISA DEV were 1, that would result in a temperature of 16. You cannot simply subtract 15 from all temperatures to find ISA DEV, though, because the temperature lapses as altitude increases. For this reason, it's a lot easier to just enter the data you have and let the FMC run the calcs.

 

You only have actual temp data for that altitude? Cool. I'll calc the ISA DEV for you.

You only have the ISA DEV for that altitude? Cool. I'll calc the actual for you.

 

It's similar to how the FMC will auto calc the gross weight if you give it ZFW and Payload; on the other hand, it'll calc ZFW if you give it gross weight and payload.

Okay, so I have to enter the temp at that ISA DEV spot and it will calculate the right ISA DEV! Easy!

 

One more question though: which temp of which altitude should I enter...? TOD? On the INIT REF page I entered the cruise alt temp, should I enter the same on the FORECAST page?

 

And while I am at it: when should I enter the wind and temp on the FORECAST page? As close as possible before TOD (which may change depending on what I enter) or already on the ground before take off?

 

My apologies for all those question marks I have been using lately... ^_^

One more question though: which temp of which altitude should I enter...? TOD? On the INIT REF page I entered the cruise alt temp, should I enter the same on the FORECAST page?

 

On the INIT page, you should use the ISA DEV for the top of climb. Active Sky 2012 will provide that if you check the box that asks if you'd like it to calc the TC/TD points. Just use the closest wind station to your origin, really, as there aren't too many across the States: http://aviationweather.gov/products/nws/winds/

 

On the forecast page, you should enter the ISA DEV for the destination area. I use the destination airport's altimeter with the ISA DEV for transition level (FL180 here in the States).

 

And while I am at it: when should I enter the wind and temp on the FORECAST page? As close as possible before TOD (which may change depending on what I enter) or already on the ground before take off?

 

You want it to be as close as possible to TOD (for accuracy of the forecast - too early means that the weather may change between now and then), but far enough back that the TOD can slide back (descend earlier) if necessary.

If the NGX teachers you something it's to think ahead and don't take for granted the FMC flight plan is perfect, even if it gets it right most of the time.

 

The NGX is one amazing aircraft to learn.

Nice! I lived there for a little bit...well, right near there anyway: Hommersåk.

...

Wait, you lived in Norway? For how long did you live there, and what brought you there?

Wait, you lived in Norway? For how long did you live there, and what brought you there?

 

Yepp - dette er hvor brukernavn kommer fra. Jeg bodde sammen med venner i Hommersåk og Sandnes, for to eller tre måneder hvert gang, for to år. Familien min er fra en lille by nær Bodø (glemt hvor), og et sted i Jylland.

 

If that looks like trash, I really haven't been there since 2006, and there aren't many people to speak with around here. When I find one, they're normally from Oslo, and think my accent is absolutely trash (Rogaland dialekt was voted the ugliest in Norge, apparently).

That doesn't look like trash at all, infact, if it wasn't for a couple of words here and there it would be really good. It's perfectly understandable tho

Yepp - dette er hvor brukernavn kommer fra. Jeg bodde sammen med venner i Hommersåk og Sandnes, for to eller tre måneder hvert gang, for to år. Familien min er fra en lille by nær Bodø (glemt hvor), og et sted i Jylland.

 

So that's where your username comes from. You lived together with friends in Hommersåk og Sandnes, for two or three months everytime, for two years. Your family is from a little village near Bodø and er... glemt hvor... hm... what does that mean again... ^_^

 

No, I didn't use Google to translate that: in my youth I've been on holiday to Norway 13 times and around 1980 I learned the language all by myself from books. I never could speak it very well but I could read Norwegian books. However, apart from one more time in 1996 I haven't been there since 1982... Still, it is the one country I would like to have done well in FSX!!! ^_^ And this is why I've been flying to ENZV and ENBR and other places with HARD STARs LOL.

BTW It's fun to notice I can STILL read Norwegian a little. Er... og et sted i Jylland: did you mean also a city in Jylland? Then og should be også, right...? ^_^

 

On the INIT page, you should use the ISA DEV for the top of climb.

 

On the forecast page, you should enter the ISA DEV for the destination area. I use the destination airport's altimeter with the ISA DEV for transition level (FL180 here in the States).

 

 

Back OT ^_^ Thanks for the answers! I mainly fly in Europe lately where trans alt varies a lot: usually it's somewhere between 3000 and 7000 (where I fly), so I might use those alts for ISA DEV.

That doesn't look like trash at all, infact, if it wasn't for a couple of words here and there it would be really good. It's perfectly understandable tho

 

Thanks Wim! Good to know! My speaking on the other hand...haha...

 

So that's where your username comes from. You lived together with friends in Hommersåk og Sandnes, for two or three months everytime, for two years. Your family is from a little village near Bodø and er... glemt hvor... hm... what does that mean again... ^_^

 

Yep. Good job. 'Glemt hvor' - forgot where.

 

Still, it is the one country I would like to have done well in FSX!!! ^_^ And this is why I've been flying to ENZV and ENBR and other places with HARD STARs LOL.

 

Yeah, me too. FS9 had a Norske Flyplasser project that had some good scenery, but I don't think there's an equivalent for FSX, unfortunately.

 

BTW It's fun to notice I can STILL read Norwegian a little. Er... og et sted i Jylland: did you mean also a city in Jylland? Then og should be også, right...? ^_^

 

"and somewhere in Jylland (the mainland of Danmark)." I use 'og' for 'and' and 'også' for also, most of the time.

 

 

 

Back OT ^_^ Thanks for the answers! I mainly fly in Europe lately where trans alt varies a lot: usually it's somewhere between 3000 and 7000 (where I fly), so I might use those alts for ISA DEV.

 

That would make sense to me.

...

Yeah, me too. FS9 had a Norske Flyplasser project that had some good scenery, but I don't think there's an equivalent for FSX, unfortunately.

...

There is, there's a package called Airports of Norway which contains freeware afcads for most Norwegian airports. It's highly recommended to use this package along with Norway Scenic X II which is a landclass package. You might also want to get ENBR Beta, which is afaik not included in the package 'Airports of Norway'

Guess what... I just finished a flight to Heathrow, one that failed completely yesterday, and this time I made it EASILY, and all that without having to use high speeds or even too low speeds... You know why? I've learned an important lesson:

 

It's not about knowing which buttons to push when, it's about knowing WHY you push the buttons and what they do.

 

Simply knowing what for instance the speedbrake exacly does (instead of only thinking 'it slows you down' which is a way too limited definition) finally gave me real CONTROL over the plane during my last flight. Instead of following a list with commands and buttons to push, hoping everything would go as planned (not...) I now KNEW when to do what and WHY I had to do it. Really, during this flight I felt like having complete control over the plane for the very first time. Awesome.

 

Yeah, this is why I asked are you using the speedbrake. In LVL CHG the aircraft holds speed by varying pitch so with the drag of the speedbrake you will get a steeper descent. You can leave it in VNAV and if the aircraft can't stay on path you can use speedbrake and the pitch will increase to get you back on path without losing speed, it's quite easy really. Usually the FMS will spit out a message like "Drag required" the same time.

The UNREACHABLE message refers to your current descent path vs the programmed path in the FMC. As pointed out earlier, it is probably because you are in VS and 1000 fpm. Look at your descent path indicator, you are very high on the profile.

 

The manual provides a corrective action of "Modify the restriction". This is strange advice because the restriction is usually your clearance! The best corrective action is to modify your flight path within limits or tell ATC. In your case you need to use LVL CHG, as this gives you the maximum RoD for bugged speed. If that is insufficient, you need to either speed up beyond 250kts or use the speed brake or both to increase drag over ground speed. As you are at descending through 11000 then speeding up may not be a sensible option.

 

Given how high you are, it will be difficult to recapture the profile at 240kts with speedbrake alone, consider dropping the gear. For example, if you are 3000' high, you need an extra 9 nms. Dropping the gear would reduce that to about 6 nms.

I suspect you are already passed this, but for the benefit of anyone else reading this thread...

I only like to know what the maximum normal fpm is during a steep descend? I can descend with a speed of >4000 but that seems to much. What's more a more regular maximum? 3500? 3000?

There is no maximum 'normal' rate. The passenger can't tell the rate descent at all (except those weird few who track the angle of the horizon), and the pilot can only tell by looking at a guage on the display. When flying, it is not about how quickly something happens, it is only about how quickly something changes. If you change from level flight to -2000fpm in 2 seconds by pointing the nose down like a fighter pilot, you subject your passengers to some serious negative G and will fill some sick bags. However, if you gently nudge your nose down a notch and change from -4000fpm to -5000fpm over 20 seconds, most of your passengers will be unaware that anything has changed.

I didn't pass this yet so thanks! ^_^ I did notice that I once went faster then -5000 fpm and then the co-pilot told me to watch the pitch. So as long as he is silent, things are good, I suppose. B) (Must have been the FS2Crew guy, I think.)