Just checking out this plane, wanting to do a short hop from Frankfurt to Paris.

 

Cruising at 11,000ft and decided I wanted to see what this bird can do, I undo AP and hit F4, not too far past 480IAS or so, CRASH!! OVERSTRESS!

 

I can't seem to find any max speed chart per altitude, not sure there is one? I figured this plane would be super strong and go way faster without overstressing, no?

 

 

Also, did a Mach2 test flight and I was shocked how long it took to get up to that speed. Took like 30 min inching its way finally past 2x speed of sound. This normal?

Mind the VMO/MMO markers on that bird. You can't speed up that much when flying low. I did have a chart somewhere showing the max you can get in steps of 2000ft or so. Mmm, I may look for it again.

 

The FSX trigger for the overspeed condition is a hard one. I have that 'realism' turned off as it reacts kinda weird (resets my flight) and doesn't seem to be more than a fun-breaker. Since Concorde and the AP are pretty much riding on the edge of the VMO/MMO limit all the time, small changes on the weather can lead to a jump of the needle. And a triggered FSX feature. :angry:

 

Side note. Even the real plane triggered some warnings on the way up. As said, they keep the needle close to the limit, so one can hear the overspeed tone a few times while climbing.

 

By this, really leave it off and also make sure that any weather addon of yours smooths out the temp and pressure changes. Sometimes, those can be harsh. Too harsh in FSX.

 

As for the time it takes to M2.0. Keep in mind that you are doing two things at the same time, accelerate and climb. To reach M2.0, you will be seeing an altitude of around 50.000ft. Sometimes a bit lower. Mainly a temp issue. Your reheats will then have worked some minutes to initially clear the high drag transsonic regime and you are working your way up to allow for that high speed to be flown. After M1.7, without the reheats.

 

By this, the time sounds reasonable and she doesn't really jump up to 50.000ft although she's putting out a lot of power. With lighter loads, you are a bit faster of course.

 

I've just looked up the docs. For a TO weight of 170t, you would need 10 minutes for the optimal subsonic part up to FL290 on a standard ISA day. Then you would run some 10 minutes more with the reheats on up to M1.7 (~FL430) and spend the rest of the time waiting for M2.0 to come up with the reheats off. Should happen around FL500.

During the subsonic leg toward you acceleration point you'll be around 320-400 kts from 26,000-37,000. I usually started my accel @ 28,000 with afterburners on until reaching mach1.7 then a full powered climb to mach 2.0. all while balancing fuel and updating the INS.

This is not a fighter jet. You cannot just firewall the throttles, add reheat and pull back on the yoke. You really need to be flying her by the book. 30 minutes from takeoff to mach 2 seems pretty short to me.

It's really very important that you follow the tutorial through at least a few times.

I shall be receiving this magnificent bird next week (I hope), I won an screenshot contest in my VA and the FSlabs Concorde was the prize!

 

Glad to hear there's a tutorial!

30 minutes from takeoff to mach 2 seems pretty short to me.

 

For real-world ops from LHR, 35 minutes from the 27s to Mach2 would be about right.

Have a wtach of this:

480KIAS is really fast at 11000 especially for such plane as Concorde. Another great aircraft to teach you a lot about these supersonic cruisers is Alphasim/Virtavia/Glowingheat SR-71. It has really narrow speed envelope and you can break it easily especially with too steep AOA, which in supersonic flight is just a couple of degrees. Like Concorde, it is not a fighter plane and needs to be taken to supersonic cruise altitude by the book and there is flown mainly with the aid of autopilot.

Below 32,000 feet VMO is between 380-400 KIAS depending on weight. You must have had a lot of warnings going off at 480 !

For those who hate reading manuals, there are a couple of outstanding real world Concorde videos featuring a real British Airways flight.

 

And what’s special about them, 2 hours+ footage almost all of it recorded in the cockpit

 

watch them while you can.

 

The first leg, Heathrow to Kennedy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=2D9aYZI5nOI&feature=endscreen

 

The return leg:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x99M430NKRo

 

If you find any better tutorials, please let me know.

For those who would like the ITVV Concorde DVD it's still obtainable on their website. http://www.itvv.com/product/Concorde

 

It remains the definitive guide to how Concorde was flown.

 

Given the commercial DVD is still available I'm not sure a link should be provided to a bittorrent link.

Mind the VMO/MMO markers on that bird. You can't speed up that much when flying low. I did have a chart somewhere showing the max you can get in steps of 2000ft or so. Mmm, I may look for it again.

 

 

If you get a chance, I'd be curious to see this chart.

 

So my noobness continues, I guess I figured that since this was a slick, super fast designed bird I also assumed it would have some capabilities of fighter planes. Guess its more fragile than I expected and is much more like a normal tubeliner than fighter.

 

Thanks for the youtube vids, FS++. Never saw those yet, also downloading them, heh.

I'll look for the chart. In the meantime, the VMO pointer really is the same thing. It's variable, so if you exceed it, you can be sure to trigger FSX' rough damage model.

 

I sense you want to cruise at 11.000ft with Concorde.

Depends on the weight in that case. Approx 450KTAS at 11.000ft. ISA day and light plane. As said, the instruments will model that curve, no need to read the poor copy. Just mind the barber pole.

 

See that M1.0 curve? That's the altitude you need for getting supersonic. Aim for 28.000+ (heavy plane). But you may not like to keep her that low, hence the need to climb to get fast.