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Treetops45

Autothrottle Equipped GA for P3D?

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Looking for a GA aircraft capable of ILS Cat III  that has an active autothrottle in its AP system & can run in P3D v3.4, & ideally, v4?

Anything out there?

T45

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Treetops,

Off hand, I can't think of one. ILS CAT III requires multiple autopilots, multiple ILS receivers, autothrottles, aircrew certification, and individual aircraft certification...all of which would be cost-prohibitive for most GA owners. There's special ground equipment, as well, so most municipal airports wouldn't be able to afford it, either.

Without shared cockpit or an AI crew program (such as FS2Crew or MCE), you really can't realistically simulate flying a CAT II approach, even if the airplane you're flying is capable of it because you need to certified pilots.

If you're interested in flying CAT III approaches, why not make the jump to something like that PMDG 737NGX with FS2Crew?


Best Regards,

Kurt "Yoda" Kalbfleisch

Pinner, Middx, UK

Beta tester for PMDG J41, NGX, and GFO, Flight1 Super King Air B200, Flight1 Cessna Citation Mustang, Flight1 Cessna 182, Flight1 Cessna 177B, Aeroworx B200

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About the smallest aircraft I know of which have that kind of approach and landing capability are variants of the Dassault Falcon. These are hardly what I would call a GA aeroplane since they are little tri-jets which cost a vast amount of money, so yes there are a few privately operated ones, but most are with either air forces or government organisations.

You can get a Dassault Falcon 7X for FSX and P3D V3, it is made by Wilco, it costs about 39,999,980 quid less than a real one, i.e. it's about 20 quid for that sim version. It's quite nice, not a study-sim, but it has things like a HUD, glass PFDs, FMC and the necesary autopilot, which means it has all you'd need to make such approaches (apart from a second pilot and the real training certification of course).

The Falcon is of course a very pretty aeroplane too and if you are flying 'the Falcon' you can pretend to be Han Solo lol, although you'll need Chewy with you to do a Cat III approach properly if Harrison Ford's recent landings are anything to go by. :laugh:


Alan Bradbury

Check out my youtube flight sim videos: Here

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GA, even in its broadest sense, doesn't really cross path with CAT III.  I fly and train other pilots in several different models of a certain bizjet brand and CAT II is the most we do, with HUD.  And very few operators do it.  When it comes to such rarities as CAT III or RNP AR approaches in today's GA world it is not really about hardware / software capabilities but rather legal requirements (meeting and keeping up with all certification requirements and the cost to do so) weighed against ops needs (handful of CAT III around the world, mostly at busy metropolitan airliner hubs, where bizjets don't swarm typically). 

In fact I'd go as far as saying speculatively that no GA operator finds it economically justifiable to fly CAT IIIs, so much so that no GA manufacturer (except for those of  BBJ & ACJ) has deemed it necessary to certify any of their products for CAT III ops anywhere in the world. 

A/T on the other hand is a much more common (and NICE) feature to be found in GA aircraft but still limited to larger cabin / later generation bizjets.


Jason

FAA CPL SEL MEL IR CFI-I MEI AGI

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Well, BBJs and ACJs can be GA as well. Some are Part 91 which is GA in paper, others are Part 135 which to the common Joe is also GA (although it's not).

You can do GA flights with a BBJ, and it has AT, and it is CAT III C compliant as long as your crew is :cool:


Santiago de Larminat

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Thanks for your inputs.

Cat III was an overstatement.

AT for Autoland is probably a closer fit.

When I autoland the PMDG 747-400 I find it very handy to be able to dial in the approach speed I want & then let the AT's take care of it while I deal with other stuff.

I wasn't sure if AT was available in GA.

 

T45

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But no GA plane can autoland.

Not even a top tier Gulfstream ( not available in sim ) 

 

If you're knowledgeable about cat 3 ILS autoland's i would of thought you would of had a basic knowledge about the GA market but i guess most sim pilots just know FMC and A/P engaged which isn't a problem unless you're a real world or aspiring pilot.

 

Disclaimer : ( don't take my comment to seriously it's just the viewpoint of an real world pilot.)

 

 

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I can't even think of many tubes that do autoland in any version of FS.  Some claim to but don't do it well.

pmdg 737 is your best bet for now.  Eaglesoft sure has some sexy bizjets coming through the pipeline along with the Milviz Lear 60XR.


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4 hours ago, Treetops45 said:

Thanks for your inputs.

Cat III was an overstatement.

AT for Autoland is probably a closer fit.

When I autoland the PMDG 747-400 I find it very handy to be able to dial in the approach speed I want & then let the AT's take care of it while I deal with other stuff.

I wasn't sure if AT was available in GA.

 

T45

I understand no Williams Powered  plane has an autothrottle.

Approach lock and glideslope but manual throttle needed.


Harry Woodrow

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4 hours ago, Treetops45 said:

Thanks for your inputs.

Cat III was an overstatement.

AT for Autoland is probably a closer fit.

When I autoland the PMDG 747-400 I find it very handy to be able to dial in the approach speed I want & then let the AT's take care of it while I deal with other stuff.

I wasn't sure if AT was available in GA.

 

T45

Closest you're going to get to an AT is a FADEC which can manage power during takeoff, climb and cruise well. 

The good news is, with GA, there's not that much to do once you start the approach.  You configure the airplane for approach, click the APP button as the needles move and use the throttle to manage your airspeed...kind of boring...kind of.  (Much more interesting flying manual.)  Closer in, you might put down another notch (keep managing speed...maybe click on a light.  At DH you click off the autopilot, continue managing your airspeed, cut power and flare and put it on the runway.  It's more complicated than this and different for each airplane but once you 'get' the airplane it's pretty decent.

The next question is "which sim GA airplane autopilot holds an ILS the best" and that's a harder question.


Gregg Seipp

"A good landing is when you can walk away from the airplane.  A great landing is when you can reuse it."
i7-8700 32GB Ram, GTX-1070 8 Gig RAM

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All my GA aircraft have autothrottle

I automatically adjust power during approach and landing.
Free feature :biggrin:


Location: Vleuten, The Netherlands, 15.7dme EHAM
System: AMD 7800X3D - X670 Mobo - RTX 4090 - 32GB 6000MHz DDR5 - Corsair RM1000x PSU - 2 x 2TB SSD - 32" 1440p Display - Windows 11

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