I am releasing another two part video tutorial on the Reverse Thrust system. However, this one is a little bit different. I'm going back to basics and this tutorial assumes no prior jet or 737NGX knowledge. So it's target audience are those completely new or fairly new to the PMDG 737NGX.

 

Those of you who have been flying the PMDG 737NGX for a while or for years, will most likely find this tutorial too basic and too boring for you. So, you may want to just skip it.

 

Background:

 

From my previous video tutorials, many flight simmers have emailed me and have sent me PMs (Private Message) here at AvSim to ask questions, make comments, etc.

 

Some of the questions were best answered over the phone rather than in an email or a PM. In talking to some of you and from your emails, it became apparent that some of you lack basic jet and instrument procedures knowledge. That is no fault of yours, you just have not had the exposure to 737NGX-level of training or someone to guide you through what is important to focus on pulling out of the manuals. Without prior experience it's difficult to know what are the Golden Nuggets of information that you need to pull out of the manuals.

 

So, I came up with the concept of a "Basics Boot Camp Series" and this is the first one.

 

All that being said, I have no idea what percentage the newbies make up the flight simmer community, so I am asking you to send me an email (or PM me here) to let me know if this type of tutorial is too basic and/or too boring for most of you.

 

I am adding a Poll to this post so if you prefer to respond that way please do. You can also email me as well as I like to hear from the flight sim community.

 

Based on the poll and email/PM feedback, I will have an idea to proceed with more Boot Camp Series videos or if this first one will be the last one of its type. If most of you tell me it is too basic I will continue to make video tutorials but will not fall back to the level of zero jet knowledge. In other words, I will give the Boot Camp Series an early grave.

 

Thank you and I hope you enjoy the Reverse Thrust tutorials.

 

Part 1

 

Part 2

 

I knew the general idea behind Reverse Thrust,  but I still found the video interesting,  informative and very well done.

Thx,

Al

Nicely done.  Part one was very interesting because I didn't really know how the jet engine worked or how the reverser did its magic.  Thank you Ralph.

Thanks Ralph, very informative. Best of luck with your other videos....I'll be watching.

Ralph, it's always heartwarming to know there are people, like you, with no interest in receiving something in exchange for their work, apart from a very deserved: thanks a lot for the extraordinary lessons !!!!

Have a good one and keep 'em coming,

Sincerely

Sergio

It looks way better than what Angle of Attack are doing. Keep it up!

I left a comment on Youtube but I might as well leave it here:

 

 

Hey Ralph, I enjoyed this video and did learn something. These kind of "basic" videos are the ones that are in fact needed the most amongst flight simmers since they tend to go straight to the more "advanced" stuff before having consolidated their "foundations", so by all means keep doing these type of tutorials!

The only thing I wanted to add is that a registered version of FSUIPC allows one to assign an analog axis to the reversers, and MODULATE the reverse thrust between reverse idle and maximum reverse thrust, something you can do in the real plane as well, this way you can have a more faithful simulation of the reverser system and overcome the FSX limitations.

Regards,
Jaime

I really liked being able to see the blocker doors being actuated. That angle from the tail was pretty cool.

 

I left a comment on Youtube but I might as well leave it here:

 

Hey Ralph, I enjoyed this video and did learn something. These kind of "basic" videos are the ones that are in fact needed the most amongst flight simmers since they tend to go straight to the more "advanced" stuff before having consolidated their "foundations", so by all means keep doing these type of tutorials!

 

The only thing I wanted to add is that a registered version of FSUIPC allows one to assign an analog axis to the reversers, and MODULATE the reverse thrust between reverse idle and maximum reverse thrust, something you can do in the real plane as well, this way you can have a more faithful simulation of the reverser system and overcome the FSX limitations.

 

Regards,

Jaime

You can modulate reverse thrust in FSX with the F2 and F3 keys though not as precisely as a control axis.

 

 

Thank you and I hope you enjoy the Reverse Thrust tutorials.

 

So I finally got a chance to sit down and watch these.  Apart from the occasional rambling (and we all know, I'm not one to judge because I'm very prone to the same), it was very well done.  I enjoyed it and learned some new stuff.

 

Nice!

 

Subscribed  :good:

Thank you Kyle. That's quite a comment coming someone who has over 8,000+ posts covering a time span of 7.5 years AND who knows this aircraft inside and out. Thank you very much,

 

I've watched many of your videos and they too are quite thorough. With similar topics being covered on YouTube, everyone has a chance to get input from a variety of sources which can help greatly in learning a new subject.

 

Yeah, the ramblings, I know...I'm certainly aware...I do try to reduce them but habits are hard to break lol.

 

 

I've watched many of your videos and they too are quite thorough. With similar topics being covered on YouTube, everyone has a chance to get input from a variety of sources which can help greatly in learning a new subject.

 

Thanks! And you're absolutely right. Different people bring different frames to the same topic, which can really help someone finally grasp a difficult topic if it wasn't completely clear through someone else's explanation.

 

As far as depth, though, I'm pretty sure you know the aircraft a little more intimately (which makes sense given your former role).  I just know a random smattering of things across the different realms of aviation with a decent amount of depth.  If you ever want to collaborate on a project, let me know!

 

 

 

Yeah, the ramblings, I know...I'm certainly aware...I do try to reduce them but habits are hard to break lol.

 

Me too. I'm pretty sure there's a running joke about the average length of my forum posts here.  There have certainly been comments on my videos as well.  I think it must be a former instructor thing.

It looks way better than what Angle of Attack are doing. Keep it up!

 

I've seen all of the AOA demo videos on YouTube. I'd like to become a member and go through all of their systems videos and their airwork series, however, being retired, I am on a budget. I can't buy everything all at once to support my PMDG 737NGX hobby and the making of my video tutorials!

 

For example, I have FSUIPC installed but it is not registered. I down loaded it and installed it to see what it is all about. I discovered it is pretty useless unless you register it, so that will have to wait for me.

 

I make my videos using Screen Cast-O-Matic as it it a relatively low cost tool and provides nice output that I can import into my Window7 Movie Maker editing tool. Jaime was telling me about Fraps, a really high quality video rcording tool, but that too costs money to register it. The unregistered version limits you to making 30 decond videos so that's not useful at all lol. I will continue to use Screen Cast-O-Matic for the time being.

 

I wondered off topic a bit (Kyle, turn your head). But back to the AOA video series. From what I've seen of their systems videos (and again, I've seen all of them), they look pretty much like I would expect to see at an airline ground school training course. In other words, their quality is up to what I've worked with at McDonnell Douglas and more recently, at Boeing (for initial pilot factory training courses).

 

I've only found one or two of their videos on air work so I can't comment too much on those but I'm sure they have the same quality as their systems videos. I have read that their training material is reviewed by 737NGX pilots for accuracy, etc. As I said before, I wouldn't mind becoming a registered user of AOA and I do plan to when I am able to.

 

Spin737 (Matt) and I are now working together on the videos I am producing. I wanted a 737NGX pilot to review my videos before I release them and he has graciously agreed to do that. I also have Eric (a relatively new flight simmer to the 737NGX) review my videos before I release them. He checks them from a new flight simmer perspective to make sure that what I am saying makes sense to someone new or relatively new. The "Reverse Thrust" video was our first collaboration effort for the three of us.

 

So, moving forward, the Boot Camp Series videos will have been reviewed by two flight simmers (one a RW pilot) and I will take their comments and suggestions and make a final version and release that. It can be a long process to put together the ground school portion and take even longer to video the simulator sessions and edit the film in Movie Maker.

 

My goal is to bring airline level training to this 737NGX community. I want to give all of you the level of training that you would not otherwise have an opportunity to receive.

 

My Boot Camp Series (going back to the basics) has grown out of realizing that many flight simmers have never had an opportunity to get the basics of a jetliner. Therefore, many of the basics are either missing or not understood very well because there is no where to get that basic training information (or it's spread out all over the internet and very hard to find).

 

Let me give you some examples of what I mean.

 

When I trained at the factories (Lockheed, McDonnell Douglas and Boeing), our training material was FAA approved (of course) for current, line flying jet pilots. What this meant was, our 5 week initial pilot training course was written to the level of an experienced line pilot. So, we did not teach anything about the Flight Director. They were expected to already know what that is and how to use it. We didn't teach them about how a jet engine works. We didn't even teach them that the engine starters were bleed air turbines (that is important when you get to the training part of abnormal procedures for engine starts, hot starts, hung starts). So, there was a lot of assumptions made about their level of understanding on jetliners in general.

 

If you don't have that basic level of knowledge, you won't get through the 5 week course. Now, many of the new 737NGX flight simmers don't have that basic knowledge either so they have a double learning curve: learn the 737NGX and learn the basics if you can find it somewhere. The difference is, here you don't have a 5 week dead line breathing down your neck. You can take longer to collect the knowledge.

 

What I'm trying to do is introduce some of the basics and background when I produce a given video tutorial topic.

 

You know, there are tons of YouTube videos out there about how to fly an ILS approach. But they all take the same approach: they just show you how to do it. And that's needed to be sure but where's the background on how to do it and why we do the things we do when we fly an ILS? Some of you have asked me to produce such a video because you are having trouble flying ILS approaches or can't make good landings consistently, etc.

 

Well, I am currently working on that for my next video. My to-do list is getting quite large but I don't mind taking requests and adding to it. I have about 8 topics on it at the moment. For those of you who are having trouble with speeds on the approach or just can't fly a good ILS or get really stressed when you try to fly an ILS (as one simmer told me) I promise you after watching this next tutorial you will make perfect ILS approaches and landings every time.

 

 

My goal is to bring airline level training to this 737NGX community. I want to give all of you the level of training that you would not otherwise have an opportunity to receive.

 

And that's very noble of you Ralph  :lol: