Revisiting GA flying

[Bobsk8 12,492]

I have been beta testing Pro ATC for many months and have confined my flying to the 737 NGX and Q 400, leaving the A2a 172 and Cherokee 180 in the hangar. About 10 days ago I decided to try some flights with GA aircraft and Pro ATC, so I dusted off the 172 and 180 and started flying with them. First thing I did was replaced the 430/530 GPS with the GTN 650, because the 430/530 was giving me problems with getting waypoints programmed into the GPS. I discovered that the GTN is the GPS I should have bought in the first place, because it is leaps and bounds better than the 430/530. Since I have many hours real life flying a C 172 and Cherokee Warrior, after I got my licence in 1978, I found myself recalling all my earlier flights and duplicating them in the A2A aircraft. I also noticed that while my flights were shorter in the light aircraft, I was much busier and the time really flew by quickly. The autopilot in the Cherokee, requires paying attention to the settings and the stab trim, no set and forget with this aircraft. While flying an Rnav approach or ILS, the vertical descent path also has to be flown by hand, which is a blast. 

 

Last night I decided to take a flight in Alaska, where I have flown for a brief period in real life, and flew from Ketchikan to Prince Rupert Island, a flight of 79 miles. The scenery in that part of the world is great ( I have UTX) but the weather was horrible with is standard for Alaska. First thing that happened during the runup before takeoff is that I had a severe RPM drop during the runup, just as I had happen in real life, due to LL fuel fouling the plugs. Used the same technique I used in real life, and cleared the fouled plugs on mag 1, and was ready for takeoff.  At one point about halfway in the flight , and 7,000 feet I noticed the engine sound in the Cherokee had changed, and my airspeed and RPM was slowly dropping. I checked my throttle, thinking I had bumped it somehow, and finally applied full throttle and all I could get was 2100 rpm. Hmmm, sounds like carb icing. Pulled out the carb heat knob, and within about 30 seconds the RPM started increasing to normal levels. The temp and the high humidity with the clouds I was flying through, was a perfect setup for carb icing. This is just like real life....

 

So anyway, I am having a blast with these two aircraft, and I think that I will stay with these two for quite awhile. Having too much fun. Oh, BTW, GA flying and Pro ATC work very well together. 

[Guest]

Nice story. I am also back to GA (Cherokee here) after flying the Airbus with ProATC for quite some time. I do wonder though how you use ProATC with the GA planes because flying a full blown flightplan with SIDS and STARs feels a bit odd to me and ProATC can't do something like flight following or anything else that fits GA more. Besides, my GA flights usually are shorter than a regular STAR... How do you deal with that? Up to now I use default ATC whenever I fly GA.

[Bobsk8 12,492]

Just fly into smaller airports, which rarely have sids or stars.

[Guest]

Just fly into smaller airports, which rarely have sids or stars.

 

Hm, just tried to give it a try but 1. I can't even create an aircraft that is suited and 2. the first 7 airports I tried to enter into ProATC couldn't be found. That's a bit too limiting.

[klamal 282]

Just fly into smaller airports, which rarely have sids or stars.

Yeah, I don't think ProATC-X does a good job with small airports. Does it?

[barrel_owl 304]

Oh, BTW, GA flying and Pro ATC work very well together. 

 

Indeed they do. I am using exclusively GA aircraft, turboprops and small jets at the moment and they all work fine with Pro-ATC/X.

Only problem is when an airport has no clearly defined parking lots. Pro-ATC/X seems to be unable to manage flights to/from those airports, as confirmed by Jarkko on their forum.

 

I hope this is something that will be corrected in their next, promised and long awaited patch.

[Bobsk8 12,492]

Hm, just tried to give it a try but 1. I can't even create an aircraft that is suited and 2. the first 7 airports I tried to enter into ProATC couldn't be found. That's a bit too limiting.

 

You can create any aircraft you want,I did a C 172 and Cherokee 180, and a Q400. All you need to do is look up the specs if you don't know them, cruise speed, climb and descent rate , runway length ,etc. You won't find a section for piston prop aircraft, just select turboprop, which  will work fine.  I haven't found a small airport yet that wasn't in Pro ATC. Have you ever run Make  runways and aligned scenery when importing Airac data or changing scenery?

[johnbla 31]

You can create any aircraft you want,I did a C 172 and Cherokee 180, and a Q400. All you need to do is look up the specs if you don't know them, cruise speed, climb and descent rate , runway length ,etc. You won't find a section for piston prop aircraft, just select turboprop, which  will work fine.  I haven't found a small airport yet that wasn't in Pro ATC. Have you ever run Make  runways and aligned scenery when importing Airac data or changing scenery?

 

Hi

 

I put in 2 small airports and it keeps coming up with "unable to find a SID transition."

 

Any idea how to overcome this?

 

Thanks.

[Bobsk8 12,492]

Hi

 

I put in 2 small airports and it keeps coming up with "unable to find a SID transition."

 

Any idea how to overcome this?

 

Thanks.

 

 

That just means there is no Sid transition for that airport. Just fly anyway. The next update involves Sid-Star behavior.   

[johnbla 31]

That just means there is no Sid transition for that airport. Just fly anyway. The next update involves Sid-Star behavior.   

 

Tks

[mikea76 184]

Nice! Love the A2A products, their GA planes with AS2016 is the closest I have been able to get to the real thing in simming. I wish A2A would make one higer performance LSA.

[jabloomf1230 2,445]

The RealAir Turbine Duke is every bit an equal to the smaller A2A offerings.

[ryanbatc 12,774]

Have you tried Pilot Edge? It's a paid service but excellent for realistic GA flying.

[Bobsk8 12,492]

Have you tried Pilot Edge? It's a paid service but excellent for realistic GA flying.

 

I tried it twice, once about a year ago and once recently. It's just not for me. The ATC is very realistic, but you can't let it bother you when you submit a flight plan, get your GPS set up, and call for clearance, and they change your routing and  you have to start all over again. Even to fly VFR, you better study the sectionals and know where all the restricted airspace it , and there is a ton of it in California. You are also confined to a very small area of the world, and after awhile flying to the same airports over and over gets pretty monotonous. I think for the aspiring pilot, it is good to get over mike fright and get used to talking to ATC, but I learned that many years ago, so not really something I am interested in. . 

[basementflyguy 156]

Bob, your OP brought a smile to my face. I'm in flight training right now, and started in a 172 and have switched to low wing (28-161 Warrior II), so I'm flying these A2A GA planes all the time to practice procedures and to reinact the maneuver curriculum of my RW lessons after the fact. They are amazingly accurate (although I find the 172 flies more true to the RW than the Cherokee, although admittedly I'm in the slightly different Warrior). When first flying the A2A 172 I didn't do the run-up properly and had the engine quit about five minutes after takeoff because I'd fouled the plugs. Another time I was in the 172 when my airspeed dropped to zero. Turned on the pitot heat and everything was right as rain. And you're right on the RPM behavior and sounds - amazingly like the real thing. We're really lucky to have devs like A2A (and others) so focused on getting the texture of the experience right.